Namco‘s classic arcade sequel was initially released in 1987 in Japan – 1988 everywhere else – and proved a big hit with shoot ’em up fans with its fast graphics and colourful, firework-like explosions.
Tag Archives: planets
Top Gear 3000, Super Nintendo
An old-school 2D racer, developed and published for the Super Nintendo by a British company (Gremlin Graphics), way back in 1995.
Top Gear 3000 is a futuristic race game with tracks set on various different planets, with you driving fairly standard-looking sports cars.
Phantasy Star II, Megadrive/Genesis
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.
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.
