Rob Bowkett‘s 8-bit platform game became an instant hit on the ZX Spectrum when it first came out in 1985.
Dynamite Dan had groundbreaking graphics (for the time) and was seen as a “Jet Set Willy-beater” by some. One thing is for sure: it had (still has) a lot of character. Especially in the main sprite of Dan.
Developed by Chunsoft and released for the Famicom by Enix in 1986, Dragon Quest was a landmark moment in video game history.
Dragon Warrior is the American NES release of Dragon Quest, translated into English and tweaked here and there (I say “tweaked here and there” but the US version had battery back-up saves and the Japanese version used password saves, so there was a big difference there), and released by Nintendo in 1989. These grabs are from the later North American English language release.
The Amiga version of Cinemaware‘s classic Defender of the Crown is both beautiful to look at, and great fun to play. Actually, pretty much every version of Defender of the Crown I’ve played has been great, but the Amiga version is probably the most well-remembered. It was also the very first version of Defender of the Crown too – all the other versions followed later.
The Commodore 64 version of John Van Ryzin‘s 1984 classic H.E.R.O. plays just as good as the Atari 2600 original, although the graphics are a little messier.
John Van Ryzin‘s popular H.E.R.O. (Helicopter Emergency Rescue Operation) first made its appearance on the Atari 2600 (aka Atari VCS), via Activision, way back in 1984.
Hudson Soft‘s classic Super Bomberman was originally released for the Super Nintendo in 1993.
As an example of a frantic maze/puzzle game: there is absolutely nothing better in its class – other than its four sequels! 🙂
F-Zero is an extremely fast and memorable futuristic racing game from the early days of the Super Nintendo. 1990 to be precise.
F-Zero – and Super Mario World – were the only two games available for the SNES on the day of its launch in Japan.
I would argue that the original 1992 Super Mario Kart on the SNES is still the greatest Mario Kart game of all time.
Alone In The Dark 2 is a suitably frantic, scary and chilling sequel to 1992’s Alone In The Dark.
Part two came out just over a year after the first game, in 1993, and French developer Infogrames made it bigger and more challenging than the first game.
Developed by Quintet for Enix in 1990, ActRaiser is a hybrid side-scrolling hack and slash platform game, with an overhead ‘God game’ type section.
The King of Grabs 