Tag Archives: real time combat

Anachronox, PC [Part 1]

Anachronox is a weird-but-great mixture of RPG and action game, developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive in 2001.

What is strange about it is the storyline, and the setting. It’s part ‘film noir-ish’ detective story; part comedy – part sci-fi fantasy; set across six different planets in a far-flung future, packed full of bizarre characters, environments and quests.

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Star Raiders, Atari 8-bit

Doug Neubauer‘s 1979 release, Star Raiders, is a very important game indeed. Predominantly because it was so hugely influential on many other games that followed it. Some people even point to it being the spark that started the first-person shooter market, but that is probably going a little too far…

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Golden Axe Warrior, Sega Master System

Golden Axe Warrior is an attempt by Sega to replicate the successes of Nintendo‘s The Legend of Zelda, and it kinda works pretty well.

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Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys, PC Engine

This Japanese RPG was released on CD-ROM only on the PC Engine, so required a disc player to work. Ys IV: The Dawn of Ys was first released in 1993 and was developed by Hudson Soft as a single-player, cinematic, cartoon-style RPG, with real time combat and exploration.

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Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, NES/Famicom

Although this second Zelda game sold well (more than 4 million copies worldwide at the time), it is not particularly well-liked.

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Dune: The Battle For Arrakis, Megadrive/Genesis

A 1993 potboiler hit, Dune: The Battle For Arrakis is a real-time strategy game based on the famous Frank Herbert novel, and one of a number of successful games based on that famous book, and developed by Las Vegas-based Westwood Studios.

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Planescape: Torment, PC

Created by Black Isle Studios using the BioWare‘s acclaimed Infinity Engine, Planescape: Torment is a classic Role-Playing Game with isometric graphics and a simple point-and-click interface.

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The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, PC

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings was first released in 2011 by Polish developer CD Projekt Red.

It is the predecessor to the smash hit The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and also follows the exploits of Geralt of Rivia – a Witcher, or monster-hunter – on a series of open-world adventures.

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Black Crystal, Commodore 64

Black Crystal is infamous for being an overpriced and under-produced RPG from the early days of home computing.

This Commodore 64 version plays pretty much the same as the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum versions, in that: it’s absolutely awful and will have you both tearing your hair out in minutes, and also wondering who on earth would make such a game…

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Black Crystal, ZX Spectrum

Black Crystal is infamous for being an overpriced and under-produced RPG from the early days of home computing.

The first version of Black Crystal was the ZX81 version, which was designed and programmed by Roy Carnell and Stuart Galloway and released in 1982. A ZX Spectrum version followed in 1983, then a Commodore 64 version later in 1985.

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