This 2009 homebrew remake of Ultimate Play the Game‘s classic Alien 8 was created for the MSX2 by Manuel Pazos and Daniel Celemin. The graphics have obviously had a serious make-over and look beautiful, but the gameplay seems to be the same as the original, with noticeable (some might say “game-crippling”) slowdown.
Tag Archives: pioneering
Alien 8, Atari 8-bit
This Atari 8-bit homebrew conversion of Ultimate Play the Game‘s Alien 8 was created by Fandal, Miker, and Emkay in 2013. It wasn’t written from scratch, though; it was ported from the BBC Micro version (according to various sources online), but unfortunately it doesn’t play as well as the Beeb version. It has a fundamental flaw that completely ruins the game…
Alien 8, Commodore 64
This homebrew conversion of Ultimate‘s classic Alien 8 was released for the Commodore 64 in 2020. The original game was only ever officially released for the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, MSX, and Amstrad CPC, but never for the C64. And the ironic thing is that this conversion is arguably the best version of Alien 8 out there.
Alien 8, BBC Micro
Alien 8 is a classic isometric platform puzzle game that was released by Ultimate Play the Game on four formats – ZX Spectrum (the original), BBC Micro, Amstrad CPC, and MSX.
The BBC Micro conversion of Alien 8 has responsive controls and runs slightly faster than the original Spectrum version. It still suffers from slowdown when there are a number of moving objects on screen at once.
Underwurlde, Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 version of Ultimate‘s classic Underwurlde was developed by Softstone and published by Firebird in 1985. It is a faithful recreation of the Spectrum original.
Pokémon Gold Version, Game Boy Color
Pokémon Gold and Silver Versions were developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo in 1999 in Japan and 2000 everywhere else. They are ‘second generation’ Pokémon games and were released simultaneously as twin titles, as has become the norm with Pokémon games.
These were the first proper, full-colour Pokémon games, with graphics that have been created to take advantage of the Game Boy Color‘s extended palette (Pokémon Yellow, which preceded this game, didn’t really do that; the graphics were simply colourised from the black and white originals). And you can tell from the very beginning that the visuals in Gold/Silver are a step-up from what we saw previously.
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap, Sega Master System
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap is a platform adventure with RPG elements and it is considered to be one of the best games on the Master System. It was developed by Westone and published by Sega in 1989.
Continue reading Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap, Sega Master System
Project Firestart, Commodore 64
Developed by Dynamix and published by Electronic Arts in 1988, Project Firestart is a science fiction survival horror game set on a research station orbiting Saturn’s moon, Titan, in 2061. It is considered to be one of the first survival horror games ever made, and is often cited as pioneering many conventions of the genre.
Populous, Archimedes
The Archimedes has a flawless version of Populous – Bullfrog‘s seminal God sim – that was programmed by Richard Walker and published by Krisalis Software in 1992.
10 Best Bubble Bobble Conversions
LISTS: as decided by The King of Grabs, in order of greatness:
Taito‘s classic 1986 arcade hit, Bubble Bobble, has been converted to pretty much every format on the planet. We played through them all recently and have compiled a list of the best. Click a link to view each conversion individually. Do you agree with our choices? Let us know in the comments.
1. Sega Saturn (1996)
2. Nintendo DS (2005)
3. Game Boy Advance (2003)
4. X68000 (1990)
5. FM Towns (1990)
6. Sega Master System (1988)
7. NES/Famicom Disk System (1987)
8. PC MS-DOS (1989)
9. Atari ST (1989)
10. Amiga (1989)
See also:
MSX (1987)
Commodore 64 (1988)
ZX Spectrum (1987)
Amstrad CPC (1987)
Game Gear (1994)
Game Boy Color (1999)
Game Boy (1991)
BBC Micro (1989)
Apple II (1988)
See also: BB4CPC (2014) on the Amstrad CPC and Super Bubble Bobble MD (1995) on the Megadrive/Genesis.
Did we miss any official conversions of Bubble Bobble? Please let us know in the comments.
In memory of Fukio Mitsuji (1960-2008), the designer of the great Bubble Bobble.
More: Bubble Bobble on Wikipedia
The King of Grabs 