A Game Boy port of Falcom‘s maze-based fantasy action game, Dragon Slayer, was developed by Epoch Co., Ltd. and published by Falcom – in Japan only – in 1990. While Dragon Slayer is an ideal match for Nintendo‘s monochrome handheld marvel, this conversion does leave a bit to be desired.
Tag Archives: real time combat
Dragon Slayer, MSX
Although it may look extremely basic, Dragon Slayer is an important game in the development of Japanese Role-Playing Games. It is a real-time action/exploration game where you control a fighter who must collect gold, orbs, potions, and various other useful items, inside a scrolling maze that is crawling with deadly monsters.
Dragon Slayer was initially released in 1984 for the PC-8801, PC-9801, X1 and FM-7, and the MSX version followed in 1985, being ported and published by Square. It was, in fact, one of the earliest releases from Square.
The Hobbit, Game Boy Advance
The Game Boy Advance version of The Hobbit was developed by Saffire, Inc. and first released by Sierra Entertainment in 2003. This game is based on Tolkien‘s famous book, and not the Peter Jackson films (the first Hobbit film was released in 2012, and this game actually came out the same year as The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King).
Double Dungeons, PC Engine
Developed by NCS Corporation and published by Masaya Games in Japan and NEC in North America in 1990, Double Dungeons is a one or two-player, first-person, dungeon-crawling JRPG with real-time combat. The game’s unique selling point is that it features two-player split-screen cooperative play, which is unusual for a game like this, and which makes it simultaneously playable with a friend.
Dungeon Master, Apple IIgs
The 1989 Apple IIgs conversion of FTL‘s Dungeon Master was created by the original developers and is therefore a perfect port of this classic Role-Playing Game. The game requires a minimum of 1MB of RAM to run, like the Amiga version, and a processor running at 2.8MHz or above makes it playable at the right speed.
Vradark’s Revenge, ZX Spectrum Next
The sequel to Vradark’s Sphere on the ZX Spectrum, Vradark’s Revenge is another fantasy-based Roguelike from the same development team, SaNchez, only this time it has been created specifically for the ZX Spectrum Next, which is an enhanced, modern ZX Spectrum remake/variant that first came out in 2017.
Vradark’s Revenge was initially released in 2022 and an emulated version, that runs in Windows, was later released on Steam in 2023 through publisher “Drunk Fly Oy” (which is a bizarre company name if ever there was one).
Slayer, 3DO
Based on TSR‘s Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition ruleset, Slayer is a first-person Role-Playing Game that was developed by Lion Entertainment and released exclusively for the 3DO in 1994. The game was published by SSI in North America; by Mindscape in Europe, and by T&E Soft in Japan (under the title “Lost Dungeon“).
Sword of Fargoal, Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 conversion of the VIC-20 classic, Sword of Fargoal, was published in 1983 by Epyx. It features the same Roguelike gameplay of the original, with a few small enhancements.
Sword of Fargoal, VIC-20
Written by Jeff McCord of Automated Simulations, Inc. and first published for the expanded VIC-20 by Epyx in 1982, Sword of Fargoal is a simple dungeon-crawling, Roguelike action game where you play an explorer who is searching a series of randomly generated levels for a legendary sword.
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, FM Towns
Origin/Blue Sky Productions‘ classic MS-DOS RPG, Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, was released for the FM Towns in 1993 by Electronic Arts Victor, Inc.*
*= Electronic Arts Victor was a joint venture between Electronic Arts and the Victor Musical Industries subsidiary of JVC, established in September 1992 in Tokyo. Electronic Arts Victor‘s mission was to translate Electronic Arts‘ library of games to Japanese language and to distribute them in Japan, as well as to create original titles for the Japanese market.
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