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!
Tag Archives: Obscure
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.
Wizkid, PC
Wizkid is also subtitled “The Story of Wizball II”, which is interesting, although it doesn’t really look or feel like a sequel to Wizball at all to me.
SD Snatcher, MSX
SD Snatcher is a great, futuristic, level-grinding RPG that was first released on the MSX2 (in Japan only) in 1990 by Konami.
The game was co-written by Hideo Kojima (of Metal Gear fame) and features overhead exploration sections, and first-person combat sections.
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Atari Jaguar
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is a fighting game, based on the 1993 film by Rob Cohen and starring Jason Scott Lee, and released for the Atari Jaguar in 1994. Like the film, the game is a fictionalised dramatisation of the life of actor and martial artist, Bruce Lee, taking place in various time periods with Bruce fighting against different adversaries.
Space Rogue, Commodore 64
A few well-known gamedev names worked on Space Rogue.
Paul Neurath, the main programmer here, later went on to write code for the Ultima Underworld series of games, the Flight Unlimited series, the Thief series, and System Shock 2, as well as others.
Dungeon Master II: The Legend of Skullkeep, PC
The sequel to the mighty Dungeon Master is a great game in its own right. First released by Interplay in 1995.
Continue reading Dungeon Master II: The Legend of Skullkeep, PC
Nightmare in the Dark, Neo Geo
This obscure Neo Geo platform game was released only in arcades (on the Neo Geo Multi Video System) in Japan in 2000.
Harmful Park, PlayStation
Released exclusively in Japan by Sky Think Systems in February 1997, Harmful Park is an amazing side-scrolling shooter with a bizarre Japanese flavour.
Black Crypt, Amiga
Black Crypt is the first game developed by Raven Software. It’s an Amiga exclusive, initially published by Electronic Arts in 1992. It could be argued that it’s also an unashamed clone of FTL’s Dungeon Master, but it is at least an exceptional one.