Released in 1983 by Sierra On-Line, Ultima on the Atari 8-bit is more archaic and frustrating than the original Apple II version. And it looks pretty awful too, with a real lack of colour – especially in towns where the game is in monochrome unless you play on a machine (and monitor) that supports “artifacting“. In artifacting mode the dungeon and town graphics look similar to Apple II graphics, but they don’t really take advantage of the Atari‘s superior graphics capabilities.
Tag Archives: overhead
Ultima, Apple II
The original 1981 Apple II version of Richard Garriott‘s Ultima was the first version of Ultima ever released. It was published by California Pacific Computer and is a stripped-down version of the more widespread re-release version put out by Origin Systems in 1986 (which can be seen here).
Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon, Game Boy Advance
Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon is a 2004 handheld remake of the Megadrive/Genesis game Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention. It features an expanded plot, three new playable characters, three new battles and various other tweaks to the gameplay.
Continue reading Shining Force: Resurrection of the Dark Dragon, Game Boy Advance
The Chaos Engine, PC
The MS-DOS version of The Bitmap Brothers‘ classic ‘steampunk’ shooter, The Chaos Engine, was first published in 1994 by Renegade Software in Europe and WarnerActive in North America. It features overhead, scrolling gameplay for one or two players.
Alex Rider: Stormbreaker, Game Boy Advance
Alex Rider: Stormbreaker is an isometric action/stealth/fighting game, based on the 2006 film Stormbreaker, where you play as teenage spy Alex Rider who is recruited by MI6 to investigate a shady individual called Herod Sayle. The game was created by Razorback Developments and published by THQ in the same year as the release of the film.
Postal, PC
Postal is an infamous, tongue-in-cheek, highly controversial shooter that satirises the process of “going postal” – a phenomenon whereby an individual ‘breaks’ and goes on a killing spree (called thus because “going postal” was once, in America, often associated with postal workers). It was developed by Running With Scissors and first published by Ripcord Games in 1997. The game – like every entry in the Postal series – is mindless, in poor taste, and designed to cause outrage, because outrageous things draw attention to themselves. In Postal‘s case it drew the attention of politicians who tried to ban it.
Mindroll, Amiga
Mindroll is a 16-bit conversion of Stavros Fasoulas‘ classic Commodore 64 ball-rolling maze game, Quedex. It was converted by Silent Software and published in North America for the Amiga and PC by Epyx in 1990. As far as I know it wasn’t released in the UK or Europe, which is strange considering that the game originated there.
Neutopia II, PC Engine
Developed by Hudson Soft and released for the PC Engine in Japan in 1991, and for the TurboGrafx-16 in North America in 1992, Neutopia II is the sequel to the first Neutopia and is another reasonably high quality, but easy-to-play, Zelda clone.
Neutopia, PC Engine
Neutopia is a Zelda-like action adventure game developed by Hudson Soft and published for the PC Engine in Japan in 1989, and for the TurboGrafx-16 in North America in 1990. The game takes places in the land of Neutopia, where the evil demon Dirth has captured Princess Aurora and stolen eight medallions that are needed to maintain peace throughout the land. Your job – as the protagonist Jazeta – is to rescue the princess, retrieve the medallions, and defeat Dirth; saving Neutopia and its people.
Carmageddon, Game Boy Color
Believe it or not: the Game Boy Color has a version of the infamous Carmageddon available for it, with overhead scrolling streets and tiny pedestrian zombies that you can run down in a variety of different cars. It was developed by Aqua Pacific and first published by Sales Curve Interactive in Europe and Titus in North America in 2000.
The King of Grabs 