Released in 1989 for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis, Phantasy Star II is a pioneering RPG for its time. It’s a sequel, obviously; to the classic Sega Master System release of 1987, Phantasy Star.
Tag Archives: planets
Earthlight, ZX Spectrum
Pete Cooke‘s Earthlight is an unusual side-scrolling shoot ’em up with extremely nice graphics. It was originally published for the ZX Spectrum by Firebird in 1988.
Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri, PC
Looking Glass Technologies are probably best known for their Ultima Underworld series of games, but this 1996 tactical shooter from them is also a retro-gaming classic.
Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri is a first-person, futuristic ‘combat suit’ type action game with an interesting mix of styles.
Elite, BBC Micro
The classic Elite originated on the BBC Micro. David Braben and Ian Bell‘s classic space combat/trading game was first released by Acornsoft in 1984.
Albion, PC
Blue Byte‘s 1996 PC release, Albion, is a classic science fiction role-playing game.
Star Raiders II, Atari 8-bit
Released by Atari in 1986, Star Raiders II was initially designed as a video game based on the film The Last Starfighter. When that idea was eventually dropped the game was re-modelled into Star Raiders II.
Rescue On Fractalus, Atari 8-bit
The Atari 800 version of Rescue On Fractalus was released in 1984 and was the first version available. It was a critical success and drew quite a lot of attention to Atari 8-bit home computers (jealous Commodore 64 owners had to wait almost a year before they got a conversion).
Codename MAT, ZX Spectrum
Derek Brewster‘s Codename MAT (Mission: Alien Termination) is what I would call a ‘Star Trek’ game, with a liberal ‘borrowing’ of elements from Star Raiders. It was published in 1984 by Micromega.
Braxx Bluff, ZX Spectrum
Braxx Bluff was released by Micromega for the ZX Spectrum in 1984. It was written by Tony Poulter.
It’s a weird game – of space exploration – well, the exploration of a planet and its surface.
Battlecruiser 3000AD, PC
A controversial release from Gametek in 1996, this complex space sim is notorious for having a long and troubled development history.