Android 2 is a great little maze shooter for the 48K Spectrum, designed and programmed by Salford University graduate Costa Panayi and published by Vortex Software in 1983.
Tag Archives: Single-Player
Android 1: The Reactor Run, ZX Spectrum
Costa Panayi‘s 1983 release, Android 1: The Reactor Run, definitely showed the potential of the young games designer, even if the game overall is a little too short.
Crystalis, NES
Crystalis was SNK‘s response to Nintendo‘s Zelda games back in 1990, it being an action adventure with real-time combat, just like Zelda. But Crystalis is definitely something more than simply a Zelda clone – it is one of the best games on the system and a great game in its own right.
Laser Squad, ZX Spectrum
Another Julian Gollop classic – Laser Squad was one of the earliest squad-based tactical combat video games, released in 1988, and was originally developed for the ZX Spectrum (and later converted to various other systems).
Championship Pool, Super Nintendo
Bitmasters‘ 1993 title Championship Pool for the SNES is – I think – arguably the best pool game of all time. On any system.
Civilization, PC
Sid Meier‘s Civilization is a classic turn-based strategy game first released by MicroProse in 1991.
Since then it has been re-made and re-released many times, such is the allure of its classic gameplay.
Automania, ZX Spectrum
Automania – developed by Chris Hinsley for Mikro-Gen in 1984 – is the first ever appearance of the character Wally Week.
VVVVVV, PC
Terry Cavanagh‘s VVVVVV is an extremely smart-but-simple platform/indie game that feels a lot like a Commodore 64 game from the ’80s, although it was actually released in 2010.
Alone In The Dark, PC
Infogrames‘ Alone In The Dark is one of the earliest survival horror games to use 3D graphics (mixed with 2D graphics), and it really broke new ground when it was first released back in 1992.
Mr. Gimmick, NES/Famicom
Known as Gimmick! in Japan and Mr. Gimmick everywhere else, this 1992 release was an attempt by Sunsoft to push the graphical powers of the Nintendo Entertainment System further than they’d ever been pushed before (in order to compete with the Super Nintendo, which was relatively new on the market).
In order to do this, Sunsoft used all kinds of clever programming techniques using graphical tilesets and colours, and the end result is very striking. But it wasn’t enough to compete with the newer consoles of the time and Mr. Gimmick sank without a trace, into relative obscurity.
The King of Grabs 