Written for the PICO-8 development platform and first released in 2018, Minima is a miniature version of the early Ultima games and runs on Windows, Mac, Linux and Raspberry Pi. It’s a tiny RPG with exploration, a scrolling overworld, first-person dungeon crawling, turn-based combat and movement, and NPCs to talk to.
Tag Archives: overhead
Melkhior’s Mansion, PC
Another superb tribute to Ultimate‘s isometric adventures, this one called Melkhior’s Mansion. It was created by BitGlint Games and could be described as an “isometric Atic Atac“, although there is definitely more to it than that.
Ultima: Runes of Virtue II, Game Boy
Developed by Origin Systems and published by FCI (North America) and Pony Canyon (Japan), in 1993, Ultima: Runes of Virtue II is the sequel to Ultima: Runes of Virtue, although in reality it is more of a remake than a sequel.
Ultima: Runes of Virtue, Game Boy
Ultima: Runes of Virtue is a cut-down version of Richard Garriott‘s famous Ultima games, in particular the Age of Enlightenment trilogy, because Runes of Virtue features some of the main characters from those games. It was developed by Origin Systems and published by FCI in North America, and Pony Canyon in Japan, in 1991.
Image Fight, Arcade
Image Fight is a vertically-scrolling shooter, released into arcades in 1988 by Irem.
Azure Dreams, Game Boy Color
The PlayStation version of Konami‘s Azure Dreams is an excellent level-grinder, and this Game Boy Color version is also very good, but differs somewhat from the original.
It still takes place in the provincial city of Monsbaiya, and you are still a Monster Hunter. Whereas the PlayStation version uses a 3D isometric viewpoint, this one instead goes for an overhead, 2D view. With titchy characters and intricately-detailed locations rendered as flat pixel art.
Conqueror, Atari ST
Converted to the Atari ST by the author of the original Archimedes version, Jonathan Griffiths, Conqueror is a 3D tank combat game that uses a similar view to David Braben‘s Zarch. In fact, it uses the same graphics routines as Zarch, because Braben gave them to Griffiths.
Conqueror was published by Superior Software Ltd. (in the UK) and Rainbow Arts Software GmbH (in Europe), in 1989.
Raid On Bungeling Bay, NES/Famicom
The NES/Famicom version of Will Wright‘s famous overhead-scrolling helicopter game, Raid On Bungeling Bay, was developed by Hudson Soft in Japan and first published by Brøderbund on 22nd Feb 1985 (despite what it says on the game’s title screen).
Mad Max, NES/Famicom
Developed by Gray Matter and published by Mindscape in 1990, Mad Max on the NES is basically a loose re-telling of the story of Mad Max 2 (the film, aka The Road Warrior in North America). The opening crawl in the game is basically the same opening words as the narrator of the film.
Gun Smoke, Arcade
Gun Smoke (aka “Gun.Smoke“) is an arcade shooter by Capcom, first released in 1985. It is basically a ‘wild west’ version of their previous hit Commando, only this time you’re playing as a cowboy, shooting at outlaws.
