Repton for the BBC Micro is a classic digging/puzzle/maze game written by Tim Tyler and published by Superior Software in 1985. The game is usually described as a Boulder Dash derivative, and while it’s true that its author was influenced by Chris Gray and Peter Liepa‘s classic game, he hadn’t played it before he wrote Repton – he’d reportedly only read a review about the game in a magazine. Repton is sufficiently different to Boulder Dash to stand on its proverbial own two feet, but the similarities are obvious and drawing comparisons is unavoidable.
Tag Archives: maze
Blaster Master, NES/Famicom
Released in Japan and North America in 1988, and Europe in 1991, Sunsoft‘s Blaster Master is a mixture of platforming and shooting that was a minor hit on the Nintendo Famicom/NES.
Alien, Atari 2600
This adaptation of Ridley Scott‘s classic film Alien was published for the Atari 2600 in 1982 by Fox Video Games. It has two significant distinctions: 1. it was the first ever officially-licensed video game to be based on the Alien series, and 2. it is probably the worst film-to-game adaption I’ve ever seen or played in my life…
Traxx, ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum version of Jeff Minter‘s Traxx was published through Quicksilva in 1983. It was written by Salamander Software for Llamasoft and, to be honest, it’s not a very good game at all.
Traxx, VIC-20
First released for the VIC-20 in 1983, Traxx is a simple maze game where you have to connect boxes together using red lines. It’s another early Jeff Minter game that is only partially successful.
Hover Bovver, Atari 8-bit
Jeff Minter‘s early grass-cutting maze game, Hover Bovver, was first released by Llamasoft in 1983 for both Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit systems. Both versions are fairly pointless points-scoring exercises with gameplay and maze layouts that don’t really make much sense.
Hover Bovver, Commodore 64
The original Commodore 64 version of Jeff Minter‘s Hover Bovver is just as niggly and annoying as the Atari 8-bit version, which was released as the game’s “evil twin” in 1983.
3D Labyrinth, VIC-20
3D Labyrinth is a first-person maze game by Jeff Minter of Llamasoft. It was published for the VIC-20 in 1982 and features very basic graphics, showing your view as a series of perspective-based drawings that change with every step you take.
Snapper, BBC Micro
Snapper is Acornsoft‘s 1982 tribute to Pac-Man on the BBC Micro. It was written by Jonathan Griffiths and is considered to be one of the best unofficial Pac-Man clones ever made. On any 8-bit system.
Saturn Bomberman, Sega Saturn
The Saturn‘s version of Bomberman is one of the best Bomberman games available, with perfect-bomb-dropping gameplay and beautiful, colourful 2D graphics that retain the look and feel of the Super Nintendo and PC Engine classics, but with a slightly modern twist. Well, modern for 1997, when Saturn Bomberman was first released.
