There were a number of decent Batman games on the ZX Spectrum, but this one from Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond was particularly memorable. For having a pudgy Batman and an isometric viewpoint…
Batman was released by Ocean Software in 1986 and was Ritman and Drummond‘s first isometric game together.
Williams Electronics‘ savage and heart-pounding single-screen shoot ’em up, Robotron: 2084 (1982), used twin joysticks to give the player 360 degree firing action, while at the same time allowing full 360 degree movement.
The third and final game in the Mother series, Mother 3, was released in Japan only in 2006 for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance.
Nintendo published the game, with development by Brownie Brown and HAL Laboratory – directed by Nobuyuki Inhoue and written by series creator Shigesato Itoi.
Airheart is Dan Gorlin‘s predecessor to/prototype of the brilliant Typhoon Thompson and was first released for the Apple II by Broderbund in 1986.
First released by Ocean Software in 1986, Parallax is a wild overhead shooter from legendary UK gamedev company Sensible Software.
Sub-titled “Tau Ceti II“, Pete Cooke’s stunning Academy is a brilliant mission-based surface shooter that combines great presentation and atmosphere, with interesting use of light – quite radical for a humble ZX Spectrum.
Sega‘s single-player arcade classic race game – Out Run. Played and enjoyed by millions of people throughout the world.
Out Run was first released in 1986 and took video game arcades by storm with its superfast, colourful graphics, jaunty music, gripping gameplay, and cabinet steering wheel.
When I first played Shining In The Darkness – a 1991 party-based Role-Playing Game for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis, developed by Climax Entertainment and published by Sega – I was ready to dismiss it, because of the unattractive, ‘cartoony’ graphics, the clunky interface, and the generic script. But after some determined play – admittedly: in an emulator, and using quicksaves – it became apparent that this was no ‘throwaway’ level-grinder. It was in fact something quite special…
Arguably game designer Steve Crow‘s finest hour, Starquake is a brilliant platform action game first released through Bubble Bus Software in 1985.
By 1986 the ZX Spectrum was awash with isometric action/adventures games. After the success of Ultimate Play The Game‘s Knight Lore, everyone was trying to make and release them.
Looking back now I would have to say that many of the so-called “clones” were actually very good, although few were outstanding.
Piranha‘s Nosferatu the Vampyre was one of the few outstanding ones, it having been created by Spectrum veteran game design team Design Design, and it also being an interesting take on the classic tale of vampirism written by Bram Stoker (actually this game being based on the 1979 film starring Klaus Kinski).
The King of Grabs 