Hard Drivin’ is a 1989 arcade game developed and manufactured by Atari Games. It allows the player to drive a sports car on a track that emphasises speed and stunts, and was one of the first driving games with a fully 3D polygonal environment.
Tag Archives: simulation
Sim Ant, PC
Initially released for PC MS-DOS in 1991, Sim Ant (aka SimAnt) is a video game that simulates the life of an ant colony. It’s a game that has fascinated me since I first played it, in the same way that watching a real ant nest – or documentaries about ants – fascinates me.
Falcon 3.0, PC
Developed by Sphere Inc. and published by Spectrum HoloByte (MicroProse in Europe), Falcon 3.0 is a DOS-only combat flight sim from 1991. It is the third entry in the F-16 Fighting Falcon series of games.
Theme Hospital, PC
Theme Hospital is a humorous, satirical hospital management simulator from legendary British developer Bullfrog Productions. It’s a sort of sequel to the popular Theme Park and was first published by Electronic Arts in 1997.
The game has a similar isometric viewpoint to Theme Park and successfully mixes jolly, cartoony gameplay with serious themes, such as budget balancing, public health, and customer satisfaction.
World Class Leaderboard, Game Gear
The Game Gear has a surprisingly good conversion of World Class Leaderboard in its library. It was programmed by British company Tiertex and published by Sega in 1991.
Anyone who knows golf games will know Leaderboard – created by Bruce and Roger Carver of Access Software – because it was one of the first really good golf games ever made for home computers. It has a very simple but effective control system that makes its easy to play and understand. All versions of Leaderboard use this two-bar, two-press control system, including this conversion on the Game Gear.
Super Pool, Archimedes
Another Archimedes game that I had recommended to me, but turned out to be poor, is Super Pool. It’s another game by the prolific Gordon J. Key (E-Type; Apocalypse) and published by The Fourth Dimension in 1991.
Leaderboard, Amstrad CPC
The 1987 Amstrad CPC conversion of Leaderboard was developed by Canvas – the same team who made the ZX Spectrum version. And – in truth – it’s definitely the worst version of Leaderboard available, falling massively short of the Commodore 64 original.
Leaderboard, Atari 8-bit
A version of the classic Access Software golf game, Leaderboard, was ported to Atari home computers by Kevin Homer in 1986.
World Class Leaderboard, ZX Spectrum
The more fully-featured sequel to Leaderboard on the Spectrum is better than its predecessor, but not without its problems.
Leaderboard, ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum conversion of the classic Commodore 64 game, Leaderboard, was coded by Roy Gibson and Ian Weatherburn, with graphics by Simon Butler, and was published by US Gold in 1987.
While it is playable enough it’s fair to say that it is probably the most bare-bones and basic conversion of this great golf game out there.
The King of Grabs 