Tag Archives: Single-Player

M.U.L.E., Atari 8-Bit

M.U.L.E. (meaning: Multiple-Use Labour Elements) is a classic business-based strategy game that mixes turn-based and real-time gameplay, and supply-and-demand economics, with multiplayer competition for up to four players. It was designed by the late Danielle Bunten Berry of Ozark Softscape and first published for Atari 8-bit computers by Electronic Arts in North America in 1983. Later, Ariolasoft published the game in Europe, and Bullet Proof Software published the game in Japan. M.U.L.E. was also converted to a number of other systems and has become something of a cult hit since its original release.

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Asteroids, Atari 2600

Asteroids on the Atari 2600 is a conversion of the classic 1979 arcade game, written by Bradley G. Stewart of Atari, Inc. and first published by Sears, Roebuck and Co. in 1981.

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Castle Master II: The Crypt, PC

The sequel to Castle Master continues where the first game left off: you’re still trapped inside Eternity Castle and must escape to finally complete your quest.

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Castle Master II: The Crypt, ZX Spectrum

Castle Master II: The Crypt was the final Freescape game to be released for the Spectrum (or any system it found its way on to), and was only made available as a double pack with the original Castle Master, not long after the first Castle Master‘s release in 1990. It was again developed by Incentive Software/Major Developments and published by Domark.

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Castle Master, ZX Spectrum

I’ve written about a variety of Castle Master versions on this website (Amiga, PC, Amstrad CPC, and even Commodore 16/Plus4), but I haven’t yet covered the original ZX Spectrum version, which was developed by Major Developments (an internal team at Incentive Software) and published by Domark in 1990.

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Super Hunchback, Game Boy

Developed by Ocean Software and first published in 1992, Super Hunchback is a sequel to the Hunchback games that were successful in the mid 1980s (which were all based on the arcade game, Hunchback, by Century Electronics).

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The Chaos Engine, PC

The MS-DOS version of The Bitmap Brothers‘ classic ‘steampunk’ shooter, The Chaos Engine, was first published in 1994 by Renegade Software in Europe and WarnerActive in North America. It features overhead, scrolling gameplay for one or two players.

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Star Fox EX, Super Nintendo

Star Fox EX is a recently-released ROM hack for the Super Nintendo classic, Star Fox, that takes ROM-hacking to another level. It was created by “kandowontu” (and a team of other contributors) and was first released in November 2022. The “EX” means “Exploration Showcase“.

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Defender 2000, Atari Jaguar

Developed by Jeff Minter of Llamasoft and published by Atari Corporation in 1995, Defender 2000 is a re-imagining of the classic Williams Electronics arcade game from 1981, but with more ‘realistic’ graphics. It was an Atari Jaguar exclusive and only appeared on Atari‘s ill-fated console, in cartridge form. It was released as a companion title to Tempest 2000 – also by Llamasoft – and which is arguably the better game of the two. Both are decent games, though.

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Defender II, Amiga

Defender II was programmed by Jeff Minter of Llamasoft and published by Arc Developments in 1990. It is a home computer-only sequel to Williams Electronics‘ classic arcade game, Defender. The game includes a version of the original Defender, and its sequel, Stargate – as well as Minter‘s own Defender II.

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