Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is the 1992 sequel to the first Sonic on the Game Gear and it is considered by some to be better than the previous game. I’m not sure I agree, though…
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Sonic the Hedgehog, Game Gear
Released for the Game Gear in 1991, Sonic the Hedgehog is a handheld-specific version of the classic Megadrive game featuring Sega‘s famous blue mascot who is battling Dr. Robotnik to free the animals he’s kidnapped.
Underwurlde, Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 version of Ultimate‘s classic Underwurlde was developed by Softstone and published by Firebird in 1985. It is a faithful recreation of the Spectrum original.
Starquake, BBC Micro
Steve Crow‘s classic Spectrum game, Starquake, was converted to the BBC Micro by Kenton Price and published by Bubble Bus in 1987.
Graphically, the game is rather chunky because it uses a low-resolution screen mode (presumably so that more colours can be used on-screen at the same time), but the gameplay is mostly the same as the original.
Project Firestart, Commodore 64
Developed by Dynamix and published by Electronic Arts in 1988, Project Firestart is a science fiction survival horror game set on a research station orbiting Saturn’s moon, Titan, in 2061. It is considered to be one of the first survival horror games ever made, and is often cited as pioneering many conventions of the genre.
E.T.: Interplanetary Mission, PlayStation
Known as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: The 20th Anniversary in Europe, Interplanetary Mission is an isometric action adventure featuring the famous movie character, E.T. And, while the game is no classic, it is at least much better than the infamous Atari 2600 game from 1982. In fact: it’s not too bad at all.
Pepsiman, PlayStation
Now here’s a game that’ll make you laugh out loud… Pepsiman by Japanese developer Kindle Imagine Develop (aka KID). It was only ever released in Japan, although the game is entirely in English and features full motion video segments in English too.
Pepsiman was the Japanese Pepsi mascot who appeared in TV commercials for the famous soft drink manufacturer in the mid-to-late 1990s. He apparently became quite popular in Japan so naturally someone decided to make a video game based on him, and the resulting game is pretty funny. Pepsiman (the game) was apparently made on a low budget and sold for a low price when it came out, although I can’t find a reference to how much it sold for. If it was for the Japanese equivalent of less than ten pounds, then it was an okay purchase!
Ganbare Goemon: Uchū Kaizoku Akogingu, PlayStation
Yippee! A Goemon game on the PlayStation! This one called Ganbare Goemon: Uchuu Kaizoku Akogingu (in English: “Ganbare Goemon: Space Pirate Akogingu“), and it’s apparently a direct sequel to Ganbare Goemon 3 although Sasuke and Yae are not playable characters in this game. This was the first Goemon game on the PlayStation and it was first published by Konami in 1996.
Thankfully this game was given an English fan translation in 2020 by Adventurous Translations, which makes it playable to non Japanese speakers. According to the readme file on the translation patch the game was not much fun to translate (mostly for technical reasons), and isn’t seen as being a very good game by the person who translated it. That said: I got the translation patch to work fine and am overjoyed that I can now play it in English, so a big thank you to Adventurous Translations for their efforts (they are much appreciated).
Continue reading Ganbare Goemon: Uchū Kaizoku Akogingu, PlayStation
Nightbreed, ZX Spectrum
Nightbreed is a relatively obscure movie license from Ocean Software, based on the Clive Barker film of the same name (which was based on his 1988 book, Cabal). It was designed and programmed by Chris Kerry and Mark Rogers.
Chris Kerry you might remember from Jack and the Beanstalk and Monty Is Innocent infamy; Mark Rogers had programmed a number of games by this point, including Avenger and Run the Gauntlet.
Daley Thompson’s Olympic Challenge, ZX Spectrum
The third and final of the Ocean-released Daley Thompson sports games is Daley Thompson’s Olympic Challenge, which was first published in 1988.
This one again features ten Olympic decathlon events, split over two days, they being: 100 metre dash, long jump, shot putt, high jump, 400 metres, 110 metre hurdles, pole vault, discus, javelin, and 1500 metres.
This time Daley is trying to beat the world record, rather than win a gold medal.
Continue reading Daley Thompson’s Olympic Challenge, ZX Spectrum
The King of Grabs 