Archipelagos came out on the Atari ST, Amiga, and for PC MS-DOS, and was developed by Astral Software in the UK and published by Logotron in 1989.
It is a strange first-person puzzle game where you must cleanse a series of islands of the ‘Blood of the Ancients’ by clicking on some obelisks.
The Commodore 64 version of Geoff Crammond‘s The Sentinel (aka The Sentry) is just as good as the original BBC Micro version of the game, if not better – ie. it’s absolutely bloody brilliant.
Like a game of chess – but far scarier – The Sentinel is a game of strategy and cunning that is played-out on a mountainous chequerboard landscape that is overseen by the titular Sentinel.
I have to say: I really love Chip’s Challenge, and have done ever since I first played it on its original platform: the Atari Lynx.
Converted by UK-based Images Software and published by US Gold in 1990, Chip’s Challenge is an old school maze/puzzle game, set inside a computer, and it features well-defined, cute graphics, and challenging puzzles. It has all the ingredients of a classic game.
The Atari Lynx version was the original version of Chip’s Challenge. It was developed by Chuck Sommerville at Epyx and first released in 1989.
Paul Shirley‘s superb isometric puzzle/action game, Spindizzy Worlds, translates well to the Super Nintendo, even though this conversion did not have his blessing.
I’m not sure if it’s the game or the emulator – or something else – but controlling the spinning top-like device, GERALD, in the Apple II version of Spindizzy is like trying to navigate Cape Horn in a rowing boat in the depths of winter. It’s suicidal…
In my mind: one of the best 8-bit games ever made. Spindizzy is part Marble Madness tribute; part completely original game, with you controlling a spinning top-like device, called GERALD, exploring a large, isometric game world that is suspended in space.
Another great “hidden gem” on the Atari ST – Wrangler, developed by Magnetic Fields and published by Alternative Software in 1988.
Wrangler a strange isometric puzzle game, with you playing the role of a robotic cowboy called “Glint Eastwood” (groan), and who must patrol various levels, collecting a required number of coloured tiles in order to shut down some alien gates. It’s a difficult game to explain, but is quite easy to play when you get the hang of it, and also quite compelling.
The ColecoVision conversion of Peter Liepa and Chris Gray‘s classic Atari 8-bit game, Boulder Dash, is really quite wonderful. It was converted by Micro Lab and published on the Micro Fun label in 1984.
Originally released in 1982 for the PC-8801, Sokoban is an ingenious overhead puzzle game about a guy pushing boxes around a warehouse.
That might sound as dull as dishwater to some people, but the fact is: Sokoban is extremely clever and very challenging, and is one of those games that really gets the brain muscles flexing in order to beat it.
The King of Grabs 