Designed by the same guy who created Tetris (Alexey Pajitnov), Knight Move is a weird kind of puzzle game, with a bouncing chess piece knight who can only move in that funny ‘L’ shape that a knight moves in a real game of chess.
The knight must collect hearts by landing on top of them on the same square on the board.
HAL Laboratory‘s Eggerland is a brilliant overhead puzzle game that is also known as The Adventures of Lolo on the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Imogen is an endearing and memorable BBC Micro action/adventure, published by Micro Power in 1986.
Once again the BBC Micro version goes for a chunkier screen mode than try to emulate the ZX Spectrum original with less colours.
Zany Golf was released by Electronic Arts in 1988. It originated on the Apple IIgs but was quickly ported to 16-bit computers, including this fine Atari ST version.
It says “copyright 1989” on the title screen, but Klax actually made it into arcades in June 1990. Klax is a real-time puzzle game – for one or two players – with falling tiles that you must catch, then drop, into a small trough at the bottom of the screen.
Epyx‘s classic multi-event sports sim, Summer Games, first came out on the Commodore 64, and this Atari 8-bit conversion came later.
Another Lucasfilm Games‘ classic that originated on the 8-bit Atari, Ballblazer is a one-on-one, futuristic ball game played out on a giant checkerboard, with players inside floating hovercraft.
Steve Coleman‘s Rainbow Walker was first published by Synapse Software in 1983.
It is an unusual, pseudo 3D platform game with a curved track of grey tiles, each of which you (a small, blobby character called Cedrick) have to step on in order to turn into coloured tiles. The aim being: to turn the entire track into a rainbow, by standing on every tile.
Peter Liepa and Chris Gray‘s classic Boulder Dash was first released for the Atari 8-bit in 1984 (the Commodore 64 version came later).
Boulder Dash is one of those games that is very simple, but also very clever. Not to mention: extremely devious. In some levels, if you put a foot wrong, you’re toast and must re-start.
