The PC Engine version of Salamander was first released by Konami in 1991, and it demonstrates why NEC‘s small-form console was so ahead of everything else at the time. It has great graphics and sound, smooth scrolling, large objects moving around the screen, very little sprite tearing, responsive controls, and a simultaneous two-player gameplay mode.
Tag Archives: spaceships
Salamander, MSX
The MSX port of Konami‘s classic arcade shooter, Salamander, was first released in Japan – on cartridge – in 1987. And although it shares the name and certain elements from the arcade game, this is a completely new version of Salamander, with a new storyline, new characters, ships and levels. It is sometimes referred to as “Salamander: Operation X“.
Return of the Jedi, ZX Spectrum
Developed by Consult Computer Systems and published by Domark in 1989, the ZX Spectrum port of Atari‘s Return of the Jedi is an okay attempt to bring the fair-to-middling arcade game to Sinclair‘s diminutive home computer.
The Empire Strikes Back, ZX Spectrum
A port of the arcade sequel to Star Wars, released into arcades in 1985; converted to the Spectrum by Vektor Grafix and published by Domark in 1988.
Star Wars, ZX Spectrum
This port of the classic Atari arcade game, Star Wars, on the ZX Spectrum, was developed by Vektor Grafix and published by Domark in 1987.
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Arcade
Based on the 1983 film of the same name, Atari‘s Return of the Jedi was first released into arcades in 1984, and the game uses 2D, rasterized graphics, instead of vector-based graphics, like the Star Wars arcade game does.
Total Eclipse, 3DO
Developed and published by Crystal Dynamics for the 3DO in 1994, Total Eclipse is a third-person space shooter with impressive graphics (for the time), but two major flaws…
Battletoads, NES/Famicom
Battletoads is a scrolling action game, developed by Rare and published by Tradewest in 1991. It satirises (and takes advantage of the popularity of) the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and features a group of cartoon toads, called Zitz, Rash and Pimple.
Two of the toads – Zitz and Rash – are on a mission to rescue their third member, Pimple, and Princess Angelica, both of whom have been kidnapped by the evil Dark Queen and taken to her planet. The toads fly to the planet in their spaceship and lower themselves down to the surface using their ‘Turbo Ropes’. From there they begin the fight to free their friends.
Starglider, Apple II
The Apple II version of Argonaut Software‘s classic cockpit shooter, Starglider, was ported by Solid Image, the same developer who made the flawed C64 version. And – unsurprisingly – it retains all the flaws of the C64 version, and brings a few problems of its own to the party, just for good measure…
Starglider, PC
The 1987 PC MS-DOS version of Argonaut Software‘s classic 3D shooter, Starglider, was ported by Realtime Games Software, who did the excellent Amstrad and ZX Spectrum ports. Unfortunately, the game is available only with four-colour CGA graphics, which does diminish the look of the game significantly.
The King of Grabs 