The third and final entry in the “Super Star Wars” series was of course Super Return of the Jedi, which was first released in 1994 through JVC. It was again developed by Sculptured Software for the Super Nintendo. Unlike the other two games in the series this one also made it onto the Sega Game Gear and Nintendo Game Boy that same year (no other platforms received it, though, until the Wii Virtual Console in 2009).
Continue reading Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Super Nintendo
This sequel to Super Star Wars was once again developed by Sculptured Software and published by JVC, this time in 1993. Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is another hectic run-and-gun platform game, with added variety in the form of Mode 7 stages and a cockpit shooter.
Continue reading Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Super Nintendo
Boulder Dash III was developed and published in Europe only by a Swedish company called American Action AB in 1986 (it wasn’t released in North America at all). It was the first game in the Boulder Dash series not to be designed and programmed by original co-creator Peter Liepa, and it suffers as a result of that.
It’s not clear who converted the ZX Spectrum version of Boulder Dash II, but the game was published by Prism Leisure in 1985.
The MSX version of Boulder Dash II is subtitled “Rockford’s Riot“, which is different to the Commodore 64 version (which is subtitled “Rockford’s Revenge“). It was ported by Orpheus and published by Databyte in 1985.
Subtitled “Rockford’s Revenge“, Boulder Dash II was again designed and programmed by Peter Liepa and published in North America by Electronic Arts in 1985 as “Super Boulder Dash” (alongside a re-release of the first game). Boulder Dash II was published in Europe as a stand-alone game, though, by Beyond Software.
Boulder Dash co-creator Peter Liepa created Boulder Dash II on Atari 8-bit machines first, before converting it to the Commodore 64. He’s said openly in interviews that he prefers Atari‘s machine when it comes to programming games, so it should come as no surprise to find arguably the best version of Boulder Dash II on the Atari 8-bit.
As far as I know, though, it was only released in North America as part of the “Super Boulder Dash” package from Electronic Arts (alongside a re-release of the first Boulder Dash). The Atari 8-bit version was never released as a stand-alone game. At least not by First Star Software.
DMA Design‘s Grand Theft Auto III was where the GTA series really took off. It was released in October 2001 via Rockstar Games and took the series in a whole new direction, with a third-person street view perspective, rather than the overhead view of the previous two games.
The sequel to the notorious crime simulator, Grand Theft Auto, was developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games in 1999. Grand Theft Auto 2 is more of the same overhead, scrolling car-stealing action, although this time it is a set in a futuristic metropolis known as “Anywhere City“, where three feuding gangs are competing to become the dominant crime syndicate in the city.
The third and final game in the James Pond trilogy was written by Chris Sorrell and published by Millennium Interactive in 1993.
James Pond 3: Operation Starfish was originally developed for the Megadrive/Genesis and was later converted to AGA-based Amigas (the A1200, A4000 and CD32), but was not available on Amigas below that specification.
The King of Grabs 