Exidy‘s Star Fire is one of the earliest colour video games ever made. It was first released into arcades in 1979, when most arcade games of the time used black and white displays.
Tag Archives: Obscure
Mr. Gimmick, NES/Famicom
Known as Gimmick! in Japan and Mr. Gimmick everywhere else, this 1992 release was an attempt by Sunsoft to push the graphical powers of the Nintendo Entertainment System further than they’d ever been pushed before (in order to compete with the Super Nintendo, which was relatively new on the market).
In order to do this, Sunsoft used all kinds of clever programming techniques using graphical tilesets and colours, and the end result is very striking. But it wasn’t enough to compete with the newer consoles of the time and Mr. Gimmick sank without a trace, into relative obscurity.
Chuckie Egg 2, ZX Spectrum
Chuckie Egg 2 is to Chuckie Egg what Jet Set Willy is to Manic Miner – it’s a platform game adventure with screens that can be re-visited, and routes that can be planned and executed, with some deft mapping and jumping.
Nebulus 2: Pogo-A-Go-Go, Amiga
I won’t beat around the bush: I absolutely HATE Nebulus 2: Pogo-A-Go-Go… I wanted to love it – because I love the original Nebulus – but this game is NOT by the original author (John M. Phillips), and – after playing it for a few hours for the first time this week – I can only conclude that it is absolute rubbish.
Blackthorne, Super Nintendo
Blackthorne is an early Blizzard game, first released on the Super Nintendo in 1994.
Kururin Squash!, GameCube
I only discovered this marvellous game recently, on the back of posting screenshots of its predecessor on here. But I’m extremely glad I did, because Kururin Squash! is a fantastic update of the same game mechanics that made Kuru Kuru Kururin so compelling to play: guiding a spinning stick around a series of mad, twisting mazes.
Kururin Paradise, Game Boy Advance
Fantastic 2002, Japan-only sequel to Kuru Kuru Kururin, developed by Eighting and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance.
Pastfinder, Commodore 64
David Lubar‘s relatively obscure 1984 classic, Pastfinder, is a weird vertically-scrolling shooter in which you control a spider-like craft that can crawl, shoot and jump, and you must explore a radioactive landscape picking up artefacts from a mysterious planet.
Spore, Commodore 64
Although it doesn’t look like much, Spore is in fact a high-tension, high-speed, single screen Gauntlet variant, with lots of shooting, shooting, shooting!
Scarabaeus, Commodore 64
This obscure Commodore 64 classic is one of THE scariest – and most confusing – games of all time. Both in one!
In Scarabaeus you have to explore an ancient Egyptian tomb, chasing ghosts, avoiding zombies and spiders, and eventually making your way to the Pharaoh’s tomb in the centre of the third level.
The King of Grabs 