Gyron was developed by released by Firebird Software in 1985 and was something of a bolt out of the blue at the time. Nothing quite like it had been seen before.
You play as a Hedroid and roam a wireframe 3D maze, avoiding towers and spheres, while searching for the exit goal. In other words: you’re just trying not to get squished on your way out…
Atari’s 1984 arcade hit I, Robot was the ever first video game to use 3D polygonal graphics in its presentation.
David Lubar‘s relatively obscure 1984 classic, Pastfinder, is a weird vertically-scrolling shooter in which you control a spider-like craft that can crawl, shoot and jump, and you must explore a radioactive landscape picking up artefacts from a mysterious planet.
Jeff Minter‘s classic Iridis Alpha is a weird horizontal shoot ’em up first released in 1986 through Llamasoft and Hewson Consultants.
Intensity was Andrew Braybrook‘s final Commodore 64 game (before moving on to 16-bit machines), and it’s a pretty good rescue the colonists type game, where you control a skimmer that has to contend with all manner of obstacles, all of which either want to kill you, or eat the colonists you’re trying to rescue.
Alleykat is a strange-but-enjoyable mix of vertical shooter and race game. Although – in this case – you ARE taking part in races, but not actually racing anyone.
Andrew Braybrook’s 1985 cult hit Gribbley’s Day Out is a strange kind of platform game in which you control a bouncing (and floating) head-on-a-foot, called Gribbly Grobbly.
Sensible Software‘s bizarre but brilliant 1987 Commodore 64 shooter with a difference!
Jeff Minter‘s seminal shooter Ancipital features psychedelic sprite-based visuals and fast blasting/running/jumping action.
This obscure Commodore 64 classic is one of THE scariest – and most confusing – games of all time. Both in one!
In Scarabaeus you have to explore an ancient Egyptian tomb, chasing ghosts, avoiding zombies and spiders, and eventually making your way to the Pharaoh’s tomb in the centre of the third level.
