Westwood Studios‘ Eye of the Beholder is a bold attempt to replicate the thrills of Dungeon Master, with real time, first-person exploration and combat.
Tag Archives: skeletons
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin, Intellivision
An early, proto RPG based on the TSR AD&D universe, released for the Intellivision in 1983. It’s actually a sequel to the previous Intellivision AD&D game: Cloudy Mountain.
Treasure of Tarmin is one of my all-time favourite Intellivision games; it’s like an early prototype version of Dungeon Master, with crude graphics and minimal sound. That said: playing Treasure of Tarmin is a great experience if you learn how to play it properly. Reading the manual helps. As does configuring the controls correctly.
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Akumajō Dracula, Famicom Disk System
Released on 26th September 1986 in Japan, Akumajō Dracula (translating as: “Demon Castle Dracula“) was the very first release in the Castlevania series, predating the MSX version of the game by about a month. Konami released it on the Famicom Disk System where it quickly became a hit with Japanese gamers.
It began a long-running series of platform/horror-themed video games and set the template for the Castlevania series as a whole.
Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams, Arcade
Sega‘s 1991 arcade release, Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams, is a strange-but-cute side-scrolling shoot ’em up featuring a young witch on a broomstick, called Cotton.
Master of Magic, Commodore 64
Master of Magic is an archaic Role-Playing Game that is a throwback to the earliest days of home computing – except that it was released in 1985.
The game was programmed by Richard Darling (of Codemasters fame) with graphics by James Wilson. It was published at a budget price (£2.99) by Mastertronic on their M.A.D. label.
Deathsmiles, Arcade
Deathsmiles is an infamous (and much-loved) 2007 shooter from Cave – a Japanese company known for its relatively innovative and leftfield output. Cave shooters are ‘Bullet Hell’ in overdrive…
The Curse of Sherwood, ZX Spectrum
The Curse of Sherwood is a 1987 action/adventure game from the prolific programmer/designer Derek Brewster.
Dragon’s Lair, Arcade
Dragon’s Lair is one of those old arcade games that has developed a legendary status, even though there isn’t actually much of a game there. And what there is is incredibly difficult.
Redguard, PC
The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard is a third-person action/adventure set in the world of Bethesda‘s famous The Elder Scrolls series. It was initially released in 1998 for the PC, running under MS-DOS.
Ecstatica, PC [Part 2]
Here’s a second, completely different set of grabs of Andrew Spencer‘s classic Ecstatica. The game is so good that it deserves more attention…
