Often shortened to just “Galivan“, this arcade platform game from Nichibutsu first came out in arcades in 1985. Outside of Japan, the game was little-known, but it did get ported to the C64, Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC in the West, and to the Famicom in Japan, to little or no success.
Tag Archives: Obscure
Moon Crystal, NES/Famicom
Released in Japan only for the Nintendo Famicom in 1992, Moon Crystal is a scrolling platform game in the style of Zelda II. The game was developed by Hector (aka “Hect“), and fan translations into English, Spanish, Polish and Indonesian exist, making the game understandable to players who don’t speak or read Japanese.
3D Bomberman, MSX
3D Bomberman (aka 3-D Bomber Man aka Sanjigen Bomberman) is an early, first-person interpretation of the Hudson Soft Bomberman concept. It was released in – Japan only – for MSX, Sharp X1, FM-7, PC-6001 and PC-8000 home computers in 1984.
In spite of the game’s title, this is not a true 3D game as it doesn’t contain any polygonal graphics, it’s just an old school way of describing a game that takes place along the ‘Z’ axis of an X,Y,Z three-dimensional grid.
Poogaboo: La Pulga 2, ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum version of Poogaboo: La Pulga 2 – the sequel to the classic Bugaboo (The Flea) – was coded by the same guy who created the original (Paco Suárez), so plays similarly, and is also what I’d call an authentic sequel.
Poogaboo was only ever released in Spain – by Opera Soft, in 1991 – so is relatively obscure as Spectrum games go. I’m a big fan of the original Bugaboo, but hadn’t heard of this sequel until recently, so was pleasantly surprised by its existence.
Captain Tomaday, Neo Geo
Released by Visco Corporation as a Neo Geo-based arcade game in 1999, Captain Tomaday is a one or simultaneous two-player shoot ’em up, featuring a cartoon tomato with bionic fists.
Poogaboo: La Pulga 2, PC
Poogaboo: La Pulga 2 is the rather obscure sequel to the ZX Spectrum classic, Bugaboo (The Flea), aka La Pulga. It was written by the original author of La Pulga (Paco Suárez), and was published by Opera Soft, for PC MS-DOS, the ZX Spectrum, MSX and Amstrad CPC, in 1991.
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, ZX Spectrum
Based loosely on the satirical (and frankly terrible) 1978 film of the same name, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is an isometric platform/action game – in the style of Knight Lore – that was first published by Global Software in 1986.
Dark Arena, Game Boy Advance
Developed by Graphic State and published by Majesco/THQ in 2002, Dark Arena is a first-person shooter set in a futuristic environment where you are the only survivor of a team sent in to neutralise a bunch of Genetically-Engineered Organisms (GEOs) inside a top secret training facility.
Back Track, Game Boy Advance
When I first played Back Track, my instincts screamed at me that this was a terrible game. The graphics are messy; the enemies look awful; the explosions have a really bad horizontal raster-style visual effect; health packs are called “Band-Aids“; the weapons are unimpressive; the draw distance is masked with a solid black shadow, which is disconcerting; the environments appear flat, empty and uninteresting, and the premise of the game – to rescue kidnapped humans from inside tubes – doesn’t seem very exciting. BUT… I persisted with it and found Back Track to actually be quite absorbing and challenging, when I eventually got into it.
The Willow Pattern Adventure, Commodore 64
Published by Firebird in 1987, The Willow Pattern Adventure is an Asian-themed maze game that is actually an unashamed, almost carbon copy remake of the 1984 game, Treasure Island. Both games were created by Greg Duddle.
The King of Grabs 