Released in Japan and North America in 1988, and Europe in 1991, Sunsoft‘s Blaster Master is a mixture of platforming and shooting that was a minor hit on the Nintendo Famicom/NES.
Tag Archives: Sprites
Rocket Roger, Commodore 64
Rocket Roger is a scrolling action game written by Steve Evans and published by Alligata Software in 1984. In it you control the titular Roger who must fly around using a jet pack and collect crystals from a series of underground caves. The crystals are needed to power your spaceship and you need to collect 99 of them to escape the planet.
Ikari Warriors, MSX
The 1987 MSX2 version of the classic coin-op, Ikari Warriors, is arguably the best 8-bit conversion of this scrolling shooter around. It was converted by SNK themselves, so is about as authentic as an MSX fan could hope for. In fact: the producer of this port was Koji Obada, who designed the original arcade game.
Mama Llama, Commodore 64
Mama Llama is a scrolling action game where you have to protect a family of llamas from attack with a robotic sphere called a “Killdroid” while destroying waves of enemies on a 10×10 grid. It was written by Jeff Minter and first released by Llamasoft in 1985.
Sheep in Space, Commodore 64
Sheep in Space is a weird horizontal shoot ’em up, written by Jeff Minter and published by Llamasoft in 1984, and featuring a flying sheep who must complete horizontally-scrolling levels by shooting all the available enemies. Sheep in Space has its roots in Defender and Jeff‘s previous game, Ancipital.
Hellgate, Commodore 64
I would say that Hellgate is one of my least favourite Jeff Minter/Llamasoft games. While it is competently-programmed and nicely-presented, Hellgate is also a very difficult game to play effectively as a single-player.
Matrix: Gridrunner 2, ZX Spectrum
Published by Salamander Software in 1984 the Spectrum conversion of Jeff Minter‘s Matrix: Gridrunner 2 is a decent enough game, with non-flickery graphics and responsive controls. The conversion was coded by Shaukat Ali Tenquist, who kindly commented below to let us know.
Laser Zone, ZX Spectrum
The Spectrum version of Llamasoft‘s Lazer Zone was programmed by Chris Clark for Salamander Software and first published by Quicksilva in 1983. It’s a fairly decent shoot ’em up, with a tricky dual gun mechanic to get your head around.
Laser Zone, VIC-20
The 1983 VIC-20 version of Laser Zone is a bare-bones conversion of the Commodore 64 original, but with one important extra: in this version you can fire diagonally too.
Laser Zone, Dragon 32
The Dragon 32 port of Jeff Minter‘s Laser Zone was coded by Lee Barnes for Salamander Software and first published in 1983.
