Exidy‘s Star Fire is one of the earliest colour video games ever made. It was first released into arcades in 1979, when most arcade games of the time used black and white displays.
Tag Archives: lasers
Super Metroid, Super Nintendo
The third game in the Metroid series is a top class Super Nintendo classic.
Super Metroid (1994) is more detailed than both previous Metroid games put together, although the basic structure is the same – explore various levels to find your latent abilities, all of which have been lost (“Why does this keep happening in Metroid games?” you may ask. “It’s in the script,” is my answer).
Nemesis/Gradius, Arcade
Known as Gradius in Japan – but Nemesis everywhere else – Konami‘s classic 1985 shoot ’em up is one of the earliest progressive weapons blasters, with distinct levels and boss battles.
The game is somewhat reminiscent of the classic side-scrolling Scramble (also by Konami), but in Nemesis you fly a ship called the “Vic Viper”, and which has a variety of different weapons which can be powered-up by collecting capsules left by destroyed enemies.
Jet Pac, ZX Spectrum
Ultimate Play The Game‘s amazing Jet Pac is an early ZX Spectrum classic, first released onto an unsuspecting world in 1983.
Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike, GameCube
Throughout history, man has always striven to recreate the original Star Wars battles on video-gaming hardware, to enable grown men to act like children…
And 2003‘s Rebel Strike is a veritable ORGY of Star Wars-related combat, from run-and-gun style, third-person shooter sections, to piloting virtually every craft in the Star Wars universe (including an enemy scout walker).
Continue reading Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike, GameCube
Defender, Arcade
Williams Electronics‘ iconic Defender is one of the highest-grossing arcade games of all time.
Half-Life 2, PC
Half-Life 2 was first released by Valve Corporation in 2004. It was such a giant leap forward for games in general – not just first-person shooters – that its reverberations are still being felt today.
Half-Life (one) is a brilliant game, but Half-Life 2 completely blows it out of the water.
Paradroid Metal Edition, Commodore 64
Arguably the best version of Andrew Braybrook‘s timeless Commodore 64 classic, Paradroid.
Paradroid Metal Edition (aka Heavy Metal Paradroid) is a suped-up version of Paradroid with faster scrolling and more responsive controls.
Elite Plus, PC
There were many versions of the classic space combat/trading game, Elite. The best, though, is arguably Elite Plus on the PC in VGA. Made by Chris Sawyer of Realtime Software in 1991.
Frontier: Elite II, PC
David Braben‘s long-awaited 1993 follow-up to the classic space trading game Elite unfortunately doesn’t involve Ian Bell.