Tag Archives: weird

Electrician, Famicom Disk System

Electrician is a simple wire-connecting game originally made by Synapse Software for Atari 8-bit computers, and later converted to the Famicom Disk System by KEMCO in 1986.

The game is set in New York; the opening cut scene shows a beautiful and poignant pixel representation of the Twin Towers.

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Ai Senshi Nicol, Famicom Disk System

Translating into English as “Love Warrior Nicol“, Ai Senshi Nicol is an obscure Konami shoot ’em up, released for the Famicom Disk System in 1987. It has, to date, never been released outside of Japan.

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Knight Move, Famicom Disk System

Designed by the same guy who created Tetris (Alexey Pajitnov), Knight Move is a weird kind of puzzle game, with a bouncing chess piece knight who can only move in that funny ‘L’ shape that a knight moves in a real game of chess.

The knight must collect hearts by landing on top of them on the same square on the board.

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Druid, Famicom Disk System

Another weird one: a conversion of a British game to the Japan-only Famicom Disk System

Druid was originally created by Electralyte Software for Firebird Software on the Commodore 64, and was later converted to the FDS by Jaleco in 1988.

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Monty On The Run, Famicom Disk System

Now this is a weird one… Monty On The Run (aka Monty no Doki Doki Daidassou) is a bizarre Japanese conversion of a famous British platform game. It was released by Jaleco in 1987 and bears little resemblance to the classic original.

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Cotton 2: Magical Night Dreams, Sega Saturn

The second game in the infamous Cotton series, developed by Success and released into arcades first, then converted to the Sega Saturn in 1997.

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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.

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Kato & Ken, PC Engine

Hudson Soft‘s infamous 1987 platformer, Kato & Ken, is known by a variety of different names, depending on where it was released.

In its native Japan it is known as Kato-chan & Ken-chan and is loosely based on a television show called Fun TV, and the madcap antics of its two hosts, Kato-chan and Ken-chan. In North America the game is known as J.J. & Jeff and features a couple of bungling detectives out to solve a kidnapping case…

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Shinrei Jusatsushi Tarōmaru, Sega Saturn

Never officially released in English-speaking territories (but translated by fans as “Psychic Killer Taromaru“) this side-scrolling action game is one of the rarest Sega Saturn titles in existence.

Rare because publisher Time Warner Interactive only produced a very limited number of copies of the game in 1997, before pulling out of the games market altogether. So actual copies of Shinrei Jusatsushi Tarōmaru have changed hands for silly money over the decades.

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Q*bert, Arcade

Gottlieb‘s classic arcade game Q*bert was first released in 1982. It delighted gamers with its quirky mix of cube-jumping and ‘painter’-style gameplay.

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