19 Part One: Boot Camp

Commodore 64 - Released - September 7, 1988

IN 1965 VIETNAM SEEMED LIKE JUST ANOTHER FOREIGN WAR ... BUT IT WASN'T ... Imagine it's 1965 and you're 19... an American kid in an American town. Your family and friends. College. Girl friends. The people and things you know. Comfortable... And then one morning your world is shattered. You're young... You're content... You're comfortable... but you're drafted. At the start of 1965 there were 23,000 United States service personnel in Vietnam. By December there were 184,000 and the figure was still rising. To each and every one, Vietnam was a turning point in their life and each would...

The Activision Decathlon

Commodore 64 - Released - 1984

The Activision Decathlon is a series of Olympic games similar to the Epyx games series. Up to four players can compete in the ten different events of a real-life decathlon, either in sequence or individually. Included are the 100-meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 400-meter race, 110-meter hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw, and 1500-meter race. The flat running events involve simple joystick waggling, which must be balanced with accurately-timed button presses to clear the hurdles - hitting them or breaking stride causes a loss of momentum and thus time. For jumping...

Airwolf 2

Amstrad CPC - Released - December 13, 1987

Airwolf II is a direct sequel to Airwolf, however this side-scrolling shooter's story has even less in common with the popular TV series, as now Stringfellow Hawke has to pilot his ultra-modern helicopter to combat alien invasion, finding new weapons (lasers, missiles) on the way. First released in 1987 as a part of compilations, for Amstrad CPC, Commodore 16 & Commodore Plus/4, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum.

Beyond the Ice Palace

Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Released - 1988

AIM: Beyond the Ice Palace lies a mystical land caught up in a battle between good and evil. Dark spirits are setting alight the forests, destroying the homes and livelihood of simple woodcutters. In desperation the ancient and wise spirits of the woods shoot a sacred arrow into the air. Whoever finds it will be able to destroy the powers of darkness... GAMEPLAY: Like any other platform game - you run, jump and duck through a horizontally scrolling landscape, avoiding the various creatures and their shots. You can collect various weapons of differing strengths, ranging from a knife to a...

Blasteroids

Microsoft MSX - 1987

As the name suggests, this arcade conversion updates the basic Asteroids gameplay. That means to say that the main gameplay consists of flying through single-screen wrap-around levels shooting at rocks, which split into smaller rocks when hit, eventually becoming small enough to disappear. In this case the Asteroids are protecting Mukor, an evil being who is poisoning planets under the Colonising Corp’s control. Each level is split into either 9 or 16 sub-levels, which are chosen through a square in which any remaining level which is adjacent to the last level completed can be selected....

Blow Up!

Microsoft MSX - 1987

In Blow Up! the player takes on the role of Joe Kowalski who must navigate his way to the exit in six progressively more difficult caverns. The game has similar gameplay as Boulder Dash, and each cavern must be completed within five minutes. Along the way, Joe will encounter various enemies. There are grabbers who will jump on Joe and slow him down. Darth Vader heads who move around more quickly and will shoot at you. Walking grenades will explode when you come too close to them. The green virus will spread around when it is unleashed and it will make you sick when you come into contact...

Bronx

Microsoft MSX

In the slums of the Bronx, martial arts look a little different than in the East. Street fight is quite far from the high art of kung fu. But everything in life can come in handy. Try to compete with the leaders of the street gangs of the Bronx. Before the battle you will be introduced. The game is distinguished by a large and carefully worked out graphics.

Casanova

Microsoft MSX - February 1, 1989

As famous seducer of XVIII century, Giacomo Casanova, you are walking on the streets of some town full of obsessed women and jealous men. Using your mandolin you should clean your way of the town inhabitants shooting the music notes at them. The amount of notes are limited as well as the amount of life and the amount of your life energy, which may be reduced by items thrown at you by town inhabitants. Lovely doves may increase your energy feeding you with eggs, which they drop during flying. Also you may climb the static chains and the ropes emerging from the magic pots, jump, and collect the...

Circus Attractions

Commodore 64 - Released - 1989

The famous Circus Morelli offers five exciting events: trampolining, tightrope-walking, juggling, knife-throwing and jumping clowns. You control the artists during their sometimes dangerous stunts. Each attraction can be practiced on its own before all five have to be performed in order in the main performance of the evening. Each attraction also has a special two-player team mode.

Cyberbig

Microsoft MSX - Released - March 2, 1989

Cyberbig is an arcade-action game with very colorful graphics. The objective and mechanics of Cyberbig are quite simple (as much as the instructions of the game want us to believe otherwise): You are stranded with your robot on a planet full of gigantic monsters called Cyberbigs and other hostile inhabitants. The goal is to escape, running through one of the most gigantic maps in the history of 8-bit software. To eliminate the "normal inhabitants" you have to shoot them once with your laser, and when they are hit, they will shrink, at which time you'll have to crouch and shoot them again to...

Defcom 1

Microsoft MSX - February 1, 1989

Dragon's Lair

Commodore 64 - Released - 1986

Dragon's Lair features the hero, Dirk the Daring, attempting to rescue Princess Daphne from the evil dragon Singe, who has locked Daphne in a wizard's castle. The screen shows animated scenes, and the player executes an action by selecting a direction or pressing the sword button with correct timing. The comedy of the game stemmed not only from the bizarre looking creatures and death scenes, but also the fact that while Dirk was a skilled knight, he was somewhat clumsy in his efforts, as well as being a reluctant hero, prone to shrieking and reacting in horror to the various dangers he...

Dragon's Lair Part II: Escape from Singe's Castle

Commodore 64 - Released - 1987

Following the first adaptation of the laserdisc-based arcade classic Dragon's Lair, Software Projects followed it up with Escape from Singe's Castle, again loosely adapting scenes from the original game for the capabilities of contemporary 8-bit machines. After defeating the dragon Singe and rescuing Princess Daphne, Dirk the Daring still yearns for adventure. He ventures into the domain of the Lizard King, where according to legend a large pot of gold awaits bold adventurers. The player controls Dirk through eight distinct scenes: Ye River Caves: Dirk must go down a wild river in his...

Dynamic Duo

Amstrad CPC - Released - 1988

In Dynamic Duo the player takes the role of a bird and a dwarf who explore a haunted castle. The goal is to open the door the the calculation room, but to do so ten hidden keys have to be found first. The screen is divided into three parts: the action screen, a map and the status screen. The player can switch between the two protagonists at will and if they explore different parts of the castle (or if a second player takes part) the map gets replaced with a second action screen. This is necessary because the two have different abilities: the bird can fly and is generally faster while only...

The Flintstones

Commodore 64 - Released - 1988

The Flintstones is a game based on the popular cartoon series The Flintstones by Hanna-Barbera Productions Inc. It's weekend! Fred Flintstone thinks of only one thing: bowling with his friend and neighbor Barney. Unfortunately, his wife Wilma got other plans for him. Fred has to paint the living room and Wilma is not going to help him with it. No, she goes shopping. And if that's not enough, Wilma also tells Fred that his mother-in-law is coming over. The Flintstones game is divided in four parts. Part 1: Painting the walls of your living room. To go to the bowling alley before it is...

Ghostbusters II

Microsoft MSX - Released - 1989

The UK-produced adaptation of Ghostbusters II contains three action scenes based on the film: In the first scene, the Ghostbusters must collect slime samples from the sewers. One Ghostbuster is being lowered into a shaft on a cable and must collect the samples at the bottom. On the way down, many ghosts will try to stop him. Some of them try to saw off the cable, others deplete his courage upon touching him. He can destroy them with proton beams or bombs or employ a shield so they can't touch him. Weapon power-ups and elixirs that restore courage can be found on ledges in the shaft and can...

Guttblaster

Microsoft MSX - Released - 1988

Destroy all the evil and alien objects that you meet. But aware: they will creep up on you from behind and shoot back. Certain aliens can only be destroyed with a certain type of ammunition; you can change your type of ammunition by passing your ship over the circled numbers.

Habilit

Microsoft MSX

Haunted House

Microsoft MSX - Released - 1988

Joe must find his way through the 16 rooms to get out of this nightmare. He will come across the floating eyeballs, Frankie the mutant Frankensteiner student ghost, Dracula, blood and fire dripping from paintings, ghouls and goblins, and even the dreaded Brainiac, a mysteriously deceased lunatic brain surgeon, who was whispered to have performed surgery on himself after his license was taken away. To get out off each room, Joe has to find the clue to the hidden passageways and secret staircases.

James Bond 007: The Living Daylights: The Computer Game

Commodore 64 - Released - September 15, 1987

The Living Daylights is a side-scrolling action game which features eight levels of gameplay, centered around the Timothy Dalton movie of the same name. Beginning with a "training" mission in Gibraltar, Bond then assists General Koskov's defection to the West, rescues a Bond girl, fights off henchmen, and takes on an evil weapons dealer. Bond can run, duck, jump and use weapons created by Q (including the Ghetto Blaster) and take out enemies with his trusted Walther PPK.

Ke Rulen los Petas

Microsoft MSX - Released - 1989

In a dystopian future in Bangkok, drug addicts Mikel Jakson and Andrés Kasho Mulo fight against the corrupt dictatorship of the evil General Charoen. A very great Spanish language adventure that perhaps did not have an overwhelming success it should have. Everything is good, from the graphics to the setting, except perhaps the character set. The author of the game is the same as that of The Birds of Bangkok.

La Abadía del Crimen

Amstrad CPC - Released - January 1, 1987

La Abadía del Crimen was originally conceived as a version of Umberto Eco's book The Name of the Rose. This game is a video adventure with 3D isometric graphics, where a Franciscan friar, William of Occam (William of Baskerville in the book) and his young novice Adso have to discover the perpetrator of a series of murders in a medieval Italian abbey.

Powerplay: Game of the Gods

Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Released - 1988

As one of the four great Gods Apollo, Hermes, Hecate and Aphrodite, choose a team of four mighty warriors to fight for you in the Powerplay tournament to prove who is the greatest. This battle will be fought out not using swords or knives, but with knowledge - gameplay takes the form of a complex quiz on a chess-like board. You have four playing pieces, which start off arranged as a cross in one corner of the isometrically-viewed board. The squares are split into four different colours, which each represent a particular broad Trivial Pursuit-style subject area. The question has four...

Predator 2

Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Released - 1991

Los Angeles Lieutenant Mike Harrington is used to dealing with a drug war between Spanish and Jamaican drug gangs, but how he's caught up in the city's worst nightmare! The fearsome Predator species of alien has arrived, out to wreak serious destruction. It is your job to stop it. The game is a crosshair shooter influenced by Operation Wolf. The viewpoint is from slightly behind Harrington, while the game scrolls on as you clear each section. Mouse control is offered on 16-bit versions. Your armour must be kept functional by collecting top-ups, and there are weapon power-ups such as machine...

The Running Man

Microsoft MSX - Released - 1990

Inspired on the movie with the same name with A. Schwarzenegger, you are an ex-cop presumed guilty for the murder of many civils. In jail, one day, you can escape and go to the airport to go away. Unfortunately, you are captured again but for other person now. Not the state, a director of a show called running man. This show is the most popular hobby in future, everybody play money. A guy (you) are hunted by professional killers, he must runs and stay alive for win money. So with the four levels, you must fight with your hunters and go quickly to the end of levels if you want recovery freedom...

Sabrina

Microsoft MSX - Released - 1989

The game features the eventful journey that a popular singer -Sabrina Salerno.- must suffer to be able to be transferred from the airport to the nearest television studios. In order to arrive there, she must cross a town whose inhabitants seem to be a little dis-conformed with her way to be, act, and mainly, to dress. Your mission will be to guide Sabrina in an arduous way, avoiding or eliminating as many enemies as possible. They are of several kinds, although all of them have an aspect in common: they are normal people of whom can be found in the street in the dozens. Thus, for example,...

Space Harrier

Commodore 64 - Released - April 2, 1987

Space Harrier is set in the "Fantasy Zone", a surreal world composed of bright colors and a checkerboard-styled ground. The enemies are also unique, featuring prehistoric animals, Chinese dragons, and alien pods. The player is forced along the levels, running or flying around enemy fire, while shooting back with fireballs via the character's under-arm cannon (which doubles as a rocket-esque device allowing the character to fly).

Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles

Microsoft MSX - Released - 1990

With April O'Neil held hostage by The Shredder's thugs, Bebop and Rocksteady, once again, it's up to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to come to her rescue! Play as all four of the turtle heroes, rescue April, and then rescue your sensei Splinter from Mecha-Turtles clutches, and then go after The Shredder deep in the bowels of The Technodrome itself. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an action game based on the late eighties/early nineties cartoon series of the same name. Play as Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Donatello and Raphael (one turtle only, but the ability to swap between turtles at any...

Tetris

Microsoft MSX - Released - 1987

The original commercially-licensed version of Alexey Pajitnov's classic Tetris puzzle game. Geometric shapes fall from the top of a playfield to rest on the bottom; fit the pieces together, and the line they form disappears. If the pieces don't form lines and eventually stack up to the top of the playfield, the game is over. Difficulty increases by dropping the pieces faster and faster over time.

Toi Acid Game

Microsoft MSX - Released - 1989

Toi Acid Game begins while the protagonist, the Toi, is having a date in a discotheque with his girlfriend, Zoi. And then, there appears the usual crazy scientist, in this case called Dr Acid, who kidnaps the hero's girlfriend with the intention to provide diversion to his diabolic creations. The small and roundish friend cannot allow this, so he goes quickly to her rescue. In order to accomplish it, he will have to face four different levels in which all kind of tiny beasts will try to cut his way. Thus, on the first stage, the disco, he will have to avoid some crude dudes, siphons, drinks...

Vortex Raider

Microsoft MSX - Released - 1988