Tag Archives: Retro Gaming History

Mayhem In Monsterland, Commodore 64

Mayhem In Monsterland came very late in the life cycle of the Commodore 641993 to be precise – but it made a huge impression on any games-player who saw it and demonstrated that the machine was still a force to be reckoned with at the time.

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Salamander, Arcade

Konami‘s Salamander is a classic scrolling shooter first released into arcades in 1986. It is part of the Gradius/Nemesis series and features both side-scrolling and vertically-scrolling gameplay set over six different levels.

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H.E.R.O., ColecoVision

The ColecoVision version of the classic rescue game, H.E.R.O., looks quite similar to the Commodore 64 version, in that: the graphics are a little rough around the edges.

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For The Frog The Bell Tolls, Game Boy

Known in Japan as Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru, this intriguing monochrome adventure game was developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and released on the original Game Boy in 1992.

While it never got a release outside of Japan, a fan translation into English was released in 2011, finally making the game playable for non-Japanese-speaking gamers.

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Uridium 2, Amiga

Uridium 2 is the sequel to Andrew Braybrook‘s classic Commodore 64 shooter, published on the Amiga in 1993 by Renegade Software, and it really is quite excellent.

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Jonathan Smith’s Classic ZX Spectrum Games

A British programmer/developer who made a name for himself with his very first game, Pud Pud, which was published by Ocean Software for the ZX Spectrum in 1984. Smith was just 17 at the time Pud Pud was released, but was fortuitous in that his pitch to Ocean, and them signing him up as ‘talent’, was all filmed and later broadcast on television in an episode of BBC TV’s Commercial Breaks, which gave him an instant profile to an appreciative audience. Bob Wakelin‘s ace cover art also did Smith‘s early games a lot of good.

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Hyper Sports, ZX Spectrum

This British conversion of Konami‘s Hyper Sports arcade game is a smash hit ZX Spectrum game – arguably one of the best Spectrum arcade conversions of all time.

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Fallout, PC

Interplay‘s 1997 release, Fallout, began its existence as a post-apocalyptic Role-Playing Game based on the Steve Jackson “GURPs” ruleset, and also as the ‘spiritual successor’ to the classic 8-bit RPG, Wasteland.

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Hyper Sports, Arcade

Hyper Sports is the iconic 1984 sequel to Konami‘s arcade hit Track & Field.

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Streets of Rage 3, Megadrive/Genesis

Ask anyone what their favourite beat ’em up is on the Megadrive/Genesis and they will probably reply: Streets of Rage 3.

Released by Sega in 1994, Streets of Rage 3 is the jewel in the crown of a brilliant trilogy of scrolling fighting games.

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