Crystals of Arborea is the predecessor to the Ishar series of games. It’s a first-person, tile-based RPG, with a character-based party system and turn-based combat.
Tag Archives: strategy
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.
Continue reading Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin, Intellivision
The Sentinel, BBC Micro
Another timeless classic video game that originated on the BBC Micro in 1986.
Geoff Crammond‘s The Sentinel is a strategic game of ‘hide and seek’ – played-out on a chequerboard-like surface over which a being called The Sentinel watches.
Lords of the Rising Sun, Amiga
This 1989 release from Cinemaware is probably one of the least played Amiga games ever made.
It is based around historic (12th Century) Japanese warfare, with you playing one of two famous generals (Yoritomo or Yoshitsune) fighting to unify (pacify; subjugate) Japan under one rule.
Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon, Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 version of Cinemaware‘s Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon is the version to play in my opinion – the earlier Amiga version of this excellent fantasy adventure game is uncharacteristically poor in terms of presentation.
Continue reading Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon, Commodore 64
The King of Chicago, Amiga
The King of Chicago is a strategic gangster simulator, released by Cinemaware in 1987. And – while “gangster simulator” might sound bad – the game is full of dark humour and is something of a satire, so is not to be taken too seriously on that front.
Koronis Rift, Atari 8-bit
A number of classic Lucasfilm Games‘ titles originated on Atari 8-bit home computers and Koronis Rift is one of them, first released in 1985.
You play a scavenger hunting for lootable scrap on the surface of hostile alien planets.
Star Trek, ZX Spectrum
Star Trek, released by Mikro-Gen in 1983, is designer and programmer Derek Brewster‘s first commercial game.
Codename MAT II, ZX Spectrum
Codename MAT II is the sequel to Derek Bewster‘s acclaimed space combat game. It was published by Domark in the UK in 1985.
Codename MAT, ZX Spectrum
Derek Brewster‘s Codename MAT (Mission: Alien Termination) is what I would call a ‘Star Trek’ game, with a liberal ‘borrowing’ of elements from Star Raiders. It was published in 1984 by Micromega.
The King of Grabs 