Datasoft‘s 1984 release, Conan, is a curious game. It doesn’t seem to be directly related to either of the two Conan films released in the early ’80s (although it does use artwork from the sequel, Conan the Destroyer), so my guess is that it was a quick cash-in on the popularity of Arnold Schwarzenegger by the developers.
The game was originally written for the Apple II by Eric Robinson and Eric Parker, and the Commodore 64 version was created by Ron J. Fortier and John Butrovich.
Xanadu Next was developed by Falcom and published for Windows PCs in Japan in 2005. It is a continuation of the Dragon Slayer series and a spin-off from Xanadu: Dragon Slayer II. The game remained untranslated into English until a worldwide release by XSEED Games in 2016. And I have to say: it’s a wonderful game, and is arguably the pinnacle of the long-running franchise.
First released for the Sony PlayStation in 1999, and is the sequel to the smash hit Croc: Legend of the Gobbos, Croc 2 is a 3D platform game developed by Argonaut Software and published by Fox Interactive.
Based on TSR‘s Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition ruleset, Slayer is a first-person Role-Playing Game that was developed by Lion Entertainment and released exclusively for the 3DO in 1994. The game was published by SSI in North America; by Mindscape in Europe, and by T&E Soft in Japan (under the title “Lost Dungeon“).
Super Adventure Island II is the sequel to Super Adventure Island and was developed by Make Software, Inc. and first published by Hudson Soft in 1994. It is somewhat different to the first game, though, and has RPG elements, as well as also being more open-ended in how you play it.
Joust 2: Survival of the Fittest is the sequel to the arcade classic, Joust, and was developed and manufactured by Williams Electronics in 1986. John Newcomer was again the lead designer of the game.
Ultima IX: Ascension is the ninth and final instalment of the core Ultima series and was developed by Origin Systems and published for Windows-based PCs by Electronic Arts in 1999. It was the first Ultima game to use polygonal rendering in a full 3D environment.
Ultima VIII: Pagan is the eighth entry in the Ultima series and was developed and published by Origin Systems for PC MS-DOS in 1994. Like its predecessor (The Black Gate), Pagan goes for a darker, more mature tone than most of the previous Ultima games, and it is also more puzzle and action-oriented.
SonSon II is the 1989 sequel to Capcom‘s 1984 arcade game, SonSon, and was developed by NEC Avenue and released exclusively for the PC Engine. Once again it is loosely based on the adventures of the “Monkey King” as popularised by the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West.
Crusader of Centy is a Zelda-like action/adventure game developed by Nextech and published by Atlus in North America and Sega in Japan and Europe. The game was released in Japan first – in 1994 – and everywhere else in 1995. In Europe the game was re-named as “Soliel“.
