Jeff Minter‘s affinity for Atari 8-bit computers meant that it was inevitable that the machine would get a version of his game, Gridrunner. Which it did in 1983.
Tag Archives: shoot em up
Matrix: Gridrunner 2, VIC-20
Matrix: Gridrunner 2 was confusingly re-titled as “Attack of the Mutant Camels” on the VIC-20 in North America. The suits in charge of this re-naming fiasco insisted that the title from one of Llamasoft‘s older games be used, instead of “Matrix“.
Well: f*ck them, I’m calling it “Matrix: Gridrunner 2” in light of a lack of some common sense here…
Attack of the Mutant Camels, Atari 8-bit
The Atari 8-bit version of Attack of the Mutant Camels came out simultaneously with the Commodore 64 version, in 1983, and is pretty much the same game, but with a few graphical tweaks.
Attack of the Mutant Camels, Commodore 64
Attack of the Mutant Camels is Jeff Minter‘s 1983 tribute to the then popular The Empire Strikes Back on the Atari 2600.
Abductor, VIC-20
Abductor is an early shoot ’em up from Jeff Minter and Llamasoft; releasing exclusively for the VIC-20 in 1983. The game is a sort of a cross between Galaxian and Defender, except that the aliens swoop down to try to take six arbitrary ‘men’ that you’re protecting. The unfortunate thing is that this idea doesn’t work that well in practise…
Gridrunner, VIC-20
Jeff Minter‘s original 1982 VIC-20 version of Gridrunner is not a bad game overall. It’s a simple Centipede variant fought on a basic grid background, with sprites zipping all over the place and insects trying to get the better of you by destroying you before you can destroy them.
Andes Attack, VIC-20
Andes Attack was the first commercial game release from Jeff Minter and Llamasoft, and it was of course a clone of an arcade game (Defender). Andes Attack was first released in 1982 for the VIC-20 and did reasonable business, in spite of it not actually being very good.
Sexy Parodius, Arcade
Parodius is a spin-off series from Konami‘s classic Gradius/Nemesis series. It’s a parody of Gradius, thus “Parodius“, and “Sexy Parodius” is the arcade version of it.
Exhumed, Sega Saturn
Also known as “PowerSlave” in some regions, Exhumed is an Egyptian-themed first-person shoot ’em up with survival horror overtones and it is arguably the best first-person shooter on the Sega Saturn. It was developed by Lobotomy Software and first released in 1996.
Hawkeye, Commodore 64
Hawkeye is a scrolling run-and-gun platform shooter developed by Boys Without Brains and published by Thalamus for the Commodore 64 in 1988. It is considered to be one of the best C64 releases of all-time, with simple gameplay, attractive graphics, and memorable music by Jeroen Tel.
The King of Grabs 