Alongside Donkey Kong, Sega‘s Zaxxon was another ColecoVision arcade conversion that wowed gamers back in 1982 when they first saw it. And it was so close to the original that it drove sales of the console itself, because gamers wanted the arcade experience in their own homes.
Tag Archives: shoot em up
Venture, ColecoVision
Venture is a conversion of Exidy‘s 1981 arcade game of the same name, and was a launch title on the ColecoVision in 1982.
Frenzy, ColecoVision
Frenzy is a 1984 conversion of the 1982 arcade game of the same name, which in turn is a sequel to the maze shooter, Berzerk. The ColecoVision port was developed by Stern Electronics, who made the original arcade game, and is therefore very authentic to that game. In fact: it’s even better than the arcade game, because it’s less archaic, more playable, and is more varied.
Eliminate Down, Megadrive/Genesis
Eliminate Down is a top-quality single-player, side-scrolling, bullet hell shooter developed by Aprinet and published exclusively for the Megadrive/Genesis by Soft Vision in 1993. The game was only ever released in Japan, but is in English, so is easy to understand. There are fan translation patches available, and those translate the game into Spanish and Dutch.
Midnight Resistance, ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum conversion of Data East‘s Midnight Resistance was created by Jim Bagley and Keith Tinman and was published by Ocean Software in 1990. It wouldn’t be unfair to say that it is probably the best run-and-gun shooter on the humble Speccy, and punches well above the machine’s weight.
Frankenstein 2000, ZX Spectrum
Icon Software‘s 1985 release – Frankenstein 2000 – has the barest of premises when it comes to links to the Mary Shelley novel, but it does count as a ‘Frankenstein‘ game in my opinion. And it’s actually not a bad game either, which might come as a shock to some people.
Forgotten Worlds, Arcade
Forgotten Worlds is a classic Capcom arcade shooter from 1988, with simultaneous two-player coop, a rotational aiming system, and intense bullet hell action set across a landscape of the desolate Earth in the 29th Century.
Thunderhawk, Sega CD
Thunderhawk is an action-based helicopter combat game developed and published by Core Design in 1993. It first came out for the Amiga and PC in 1992, although the Sega CD version is probably the most memorable.
Arcadia, ZX Spectrum
Written by David H. Lawson and published by Imagine Software in 1982, Arcadia is another early Spectrum game that sold hundreds of thousands of copies, but has not weathered the sands of time well at all…
Cobra, Commodore 64
The 1986 Commodore 64 version of Cobra – based on the Sylvester Stallone film of the same name – is infamous for its sheer awfulness. It is based on the more successful ZX Spectrum game, designed and programmed by the late Jonathan Smith, but has lost a great deal in translation to the C64.
The King of Grabs 