A launch title – and a so-called ‘Killer App’ – for the Sega Saturn in 1995, Daytona USA is a conversion of the famous Sega arcade race game.
Tag Archives: Retro Gaming History
Q*bert, Arcade
Gottlieb‘s classic arcade game Q*bert was first released in 1982. It delighted gamers with its quirky mix of cube-jumping and ‘painter’-style gameplay.
Knight Lore, MSX
The MSX version of Knight Lore was developed by Tose Co. Ltd. for Jaleco and published in Europe and Japan in 1985.
Knight Lore, Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC version of Ultimate‘s famous Knight Lore is the best-looking version, in my opinion.
The Sentinel, BBC Micro
Another timeless classic video game that originated on the BBC Micro in 1986.
Geoff Crammond‘s The Sentinel is a strategic game of ‘hide and seek’ – played-out on a chequerboard-like surface over which a being called The Sentinel watches.
Mercenary, Atari 8-bit
The Atari 8-Bit version of the classic Mercenary is the original, published by Novagen in 1985.
From the opening sequence onwards you know that you are in for a special ride with Mercenary, and exploring the wireframe world of Targ (the name of the planet you’re trapped on) is a video-gaming joy – especially with the easy-to-use controls.
Miner 2049er, Atari 8-bit
The original Miner 2049er fitted into just 16K of RAM, so would run on an Atari 400 (as well as any other Atari 8-bit home computer). It is a very early platform game, written by Bill Hogue in 1982, and featuring the character ‘Bounty Bob’.
Bomberman ’94, PC Engine
Bomberman ’94 says “copyright 1993” on the title screen, and it came out in December 1993 in Japan, so just made it out before the turn of the year. And it’s a classic in the Bomberman series.
Booty, ZX Spectrum
Booty was a very early budget release from Firebird Software (the video game division of British Telecom) and was important in a number of ways.
Wanted: Monty Mole, ZX Spectrum
Back in 1984 in the UK there was an infamous, historic miner’s strike that lasted for over a year and caused hardship for many communities. Rather than sit and spectate, young Peter Harrap wrote a satirical platform game about a mining mole and published it, with all the profits going to help the struggling, striking miners. That game was Wanted: Monty Mole, and it launched Pete Harrap on his career making video games, and also the Monty Mole ‘franchise’. Although I can’t really call it a franchise because it wasn’t. It was simply a series of games.
