Tag Archives: tanks

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.

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Beach Head, Apple II

The Apple II conversion of Bruce Carver‘s classic Beach Head was coded by Bryan Brandenburg of Sculptured Software Inc. and first published by Access in 1985, two years after the originals were released.

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Beach Head, Atari 8-bit

The Atari 8-bit version of Bruce Carver‘s classic Beach Head came out simultaneously with the Commodore 64 version, so both are considered “the originals”, although this version was co-coded by Kevin Homer so technically could be considered a conversion.

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Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, Game Boy Advance

Developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo in 2003, Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising is the sequel to Advance Wars and is a turn-based tactical strategy war game with cartoony graphics and a variety of single and multiplayer game modes.

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Rogue Trooper Redux, PC

Rebellion‘s Rogue Trooper was originally released in 2006 for Windows, PlayStation 2 and XBox, and it was remastered in HD by Tick Tock Games and re-released in 2017. It is the remastered “Redux” version that we’re looking at here.

For those who don’t know: Rogue Trooper is based on the character made famous in the British comic, 2000AD. Famous enough for him to have appeared in a ZX Spectrum game in 1986, and an Amiga/Atari ST game in 1991. And also slated to appear in a forthcoming film by Duncan Jones, who directed Moon (2009), and Warcraft: The Beginning (2016), among others. So Rogue Trooper does have some pedigree.

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Military Madness, PC Engine

Military Madness is the Western title for the Japanese tactical war game, Nectaris, and it was first released for the PC Engine in 1989 by Hudson Soft. A North American TurboGrafx-16 release followed in 1990.

Nectaris, or Military Madness, or whatever you want to call it, is an early turn-based strategy game that involves moving units around a map and engaging in combat. When units clash it then cuts away to a confrontation scene to show how the opposing forces fared against each other. These action cut scenes would later greatly influence similar games such as those in the popular Advance Wars series.

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Beach Head, Commodore 64

Beach Head is an infamous war-based action game created by Access Software and first published for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers in North America 1983. It was later released by US Gold in Europe in 1984.

The game is set in the Pacific theatre of the Second World War and features five individual stages of combat, each based on a fictitious amphibious assault of an enemy island. You can play Beach Head at four difficulty settings.

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Deathchase XE, Atari 8-bit

Based on the classic 1983 ZX Spectrum game by Mervyn Escourt, Deathchase XE is an Atari 8-bit remake first released in 2013. It is a first-person bike shooting game where the aim is to speed through a forest full of trees, shooting enemy bikers, helicopters and tanks, while at the same time avoiding collisions with arboreal obstacles that come zooming towards you.

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TimeSplitters: Future Perfect, XBox

TimeSplitters: Future Perfect is a first-person shooter developed by Free Radical Design and published by Electronic Arts in 2005. It is the third game in the TimeSplitters series and was released for XBox (the version shown here), GameCube, and PlayStation 2.

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