Oh dear. Formula 1 Simulator unfortunately proves that not all of talented and prolific coder Shaun Southern‘s games were “good”… Because this game is quite awful.
It’s a bad rip-off of Atari‘s Pole Position, and not even a playable one at that.
Tag Archives: Retro Gaming
Kikstart, Commodore 16/Plus4
Shaun Southern‘s Commodore 16 version of his hit bike game, Kikstart, is somewhat different to the original Commodore 64 version.
Tom Thumb, Commodore 16/Plus4
This 1986 release from Anirog is seen as something of a ‘killer app’ on the Commodore 16, although personally I think it’s over-rated.
Tom Thumb is a smooth-scrolling platform game with a strange jump mechanic: Tom can only jump when the run button is pressed, and when he does it’s very slowly. Thankfully you can change his direction in mid air. Not that that makes a great deal of difference, because Tom Thumb is an extremely difficult game to make progress in.
Commodore 16/Plus4 Special
The Commodore 16 is a somewhat underrated home computer that had a relatively short lifespan and was intended as a low-cost replacement for the Commodore VIC-20.
It had 16K of RAM (thus the name) and a 6502 compatible CPU that ran twice as fast as the CPU in its older and more expensive cousin, the Commodore 64. It had a video and sound chipset called “TED” that offered a colour palette of 121 colours, and more efficient use of video memory than the C64, but it had no hardware sprites (it did however have a built-in software sprite routine with fewer restrictions than on hardware sprites).
Trailblazer, Commodore 64
Trailblazer is a well-regarded, ball-based racing game written and designed by the prolific Shaun Southern of Mr. Chip Software and published by Gremlin Graphics in 1986.
Trailblazer did apparently originate on the Commodore 16 and was expanded to take advantage of the Commodore 64‘s extra memory, and the result is a suped-up version of the original game.
Kikstart, Commodore 64
Less successful than its sequel (and arguably less enjoyable too), Kikstart was written by Shaun Southern and published by Mastertonic in 1985.
Fantastic Voyage, ZX Spectrum
An officially-licensed adaptation of the classic 1966 science fiction film, written by John R. Edmonds and published by Quicksilva in 1984.
Stop The Express, MSX
Hudson Soft converted and published Stop The Express (aka Bousou Tokkyuu SOS) itself in Japan in 1984.
Stop The Express, Commodore 64
Converted from the ZX Spectrum original by Hudson Soft and published on the C64 by Commodore itself, Stop The Express is both an excellent conversion, and a great little game in its own right.
One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird, Commodore 64
This classic one-on-one basketball game on the Commodore 64 originated on the Apple II in 1983 and was later converted to other systems courtesy of Electronics Arts.
One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird is remembered as one of the best basketball games of all time and does indeed have a lot of subtlety to it that isn’t obvious until you play it.
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The King of Grabs 