A Game Boy port of Falcom‘s maze-based fantasy action game, Dragon Slayer, was developed by Epoch Co., Ltd. and published by Falcom – in Japan only – in 1990. While Dragon Slayer is an ideal match for Nintendo‘s monochrome handheld marvel, this conversion does leave a bit to be desired.
Tag Archives: maze
Dragon Slayer, MSX
Although it may look extremely basic, Dragon Slayer is an important game in the development of Japanese Role-Playing Games. It is a real-time action/exploration game where you control a fighter who must collect gold, orbs, potions, and various other useful items, inside a scrolling maze that is crawling with deadly monsters.
Dragon Slayer was initially released in 1984 for the PC-8801, PC-9801, X1 and FM-7, and the MSX version followed in 1985, being ported and published by Square. It was, in fact, one of the earliest releases from Square.
Dazzler, Arcade
Dazzler is an obscure early arcade game – first released in 1982 – from UK-based Century Electronics. In it you play as “OH” (Our Hero) and must deliver bananas to a “monkey” (really an ape) inside a maze, and avoid chasing vultures.
The Eidolon, Amstrad CPC
Adapted by P.A.W. Software, the Amstrad CPC version of The Eidolon is another excellent port of Lucasfilm Games‘ classic cave exploration game. It was first released by Activision in 1986 and could be argued is one of the best games on the Amstrad (although some would disagree).
The Eidolon, MSX
The MSX version of Lucasfilm Games‘ The Eidolon was published in Japan only – on cartridge – by Pony Canyon in 1986, and it is on-par with the original Atari 8-bit and Commodore C64 originals of this classic cave exploration game.
Gogo the Ghost, Commodore 64
Written by Marcus Charleville and Richard Dagsköld and published by Firebird in 1984, Gogo the Ghost is a simple maze game in which you must guide a friendly spectre through many screens of enemies and traps in order to rescue his “dream princess”.
Trog, Arcade
Trog is an arcade maze game developed by Midway Manufacturing and distributed on their Bally Midway label in 1990. It caters for up to four simultaneous players and features “Claymation” characters and cut scenes (although they call it “PLAYmation” on the title screen, probably because the word “Claymation” is trademarked). Claymation is when all the characters are made of, and animated with, plasticine or coloured clay (think Wallace & Gromit and you’ll get it).
Re-Bounder, Commodore 64
Re-Bounder is the 1987 sequel to the brilliant ball-bouncing game, Bounder. It was once again developed and published by Gremlin Graphics and this time features both horizontally and vertically-scrolling gameplay, whereas the previous game scrolled only vertically.
Clown-O-Mania, Amiga
This obscure isometric action/maze game was published by German company Starbyte in 1989 and is basically a clone of the 1983 Atari 8-bit game Flip and Flop. And it’s not a bad game, even though the title of it doesn’t make sense (it really should be “Clown-O-Rama” or “Clown-Mania” – the use of the “O” in this context doesn’t work in English).
Flip and Flop, Atari 8-bit
Flip and Flop is an isometric action/maze/platform game designed by Jim Nangano and first published for Atari 8-bit computers by First Star Software in 1983.