SonSon is a scrolling platform shooter created by Capcom and distributed into arcades in 1984. It is loosely based on the Chinese “Monkey King” story from the novel Journey to the West. SonSon can be played single-player, or two player simultaneous co-op.
Tag Archives: Obscure
Laser Zone, ZX Spectrum
The Spectrum version of Llamasoft‘s Lazer Zone was programmed by Chris Clark for Salamander Software and first published by Quicksilva in 1983. It’s a fairly decent shoot ’em up, with a tricky dual gun mechanic to get your head around.
Laser Zone, VIC-20
The 1983 VIC-20 version of Laser Zone is a bare-bones conversion of the Commodore 64 original, but with one important extra: in this version you can fire diagonally too.
Laser Zone, Dragon 32
The Dragon 32 port of Jeff Minter‘s Laser Zone was coded by Lee Barnes for Salamander Software and first published in 1983.
Laser Zone, Commodore 64
Laser Zone is an interesting early Jeff Minter game. He first released it in 1983 for the VIC-20, with Commodore 64, Dragon 32, and ZX Spectrum versions following soon after.
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.
Abductor, VIC-20
Abductor is an early shoot ’em up from Jeff Minter and Llamasoft; releasing exclusively for the VIC-20 in 1983. The game is a sort of a cross between Galaxian and Defender, except that the aliens swoop down to try to take six arbitrary ‘men’ that you’re protecting. The unfortunate thing is that this idea doesn’t work that well in practise…
Turboflex, Atari 8-bit
Jeff Minter‘s 1982 Atari 8-bit game, Turboflex, is an interesting but frustrating bouncing ball game where the aim is for you to deliberately bounce a ball into a target inside a box by dropping flippers onto it – diagonal posts that spin the ball in different directions, depending on its position when hit by the ball. The target, depending on your game settings, moves, reverses or does other tricks, so as not to get hit/caught by you.
Rat Man, VIC-20
Described on the title screen as a “freaked-out game from Llamasoft“, Rat Man is a simple hammer-bashing game from the early days of the Commodore VIC-20 and Jeff Minter. Frankly, though, it hasn’t stood the test of time very well…
