MicroDeal Ltd. Games - LaunchBox Games Database

Airball

MS-DOS - 1987

"Now you're really in trouble" said the Evil Wizard. "I'm turning you into a ball of air and sending you into my mansion, with over 250 rooms, to search for the Spellbook that may give you the clues on how to transform yourself into a human again. It's not as easy as it sounds, for you, as the ball of air, have a slow leak, and you'll need to jump on an air pump in some rooms to remain inflated. Take heed, for if you pump up too much you will burst! If you are lucky enough to find the book in these rooms, you'll next have to pick up the objects I've left, such as: crosses, tins of beans, a Buddha, a dragon statue, a pumpkin, a flask, and even crates that you'll need to get over treacherous obstacles! This is your one chance for survival", he cackles. "Sounds easy" you laughingly boast to the Evil Wizard. "Oh! Does it now?" He sneers. "Well, I'm also putting spikes in these rooms that will take your breath away, as well as killer pads on the floor. You have no chance for success...Hee! Hee! Hee"

Airball

Commodore Amiga - Released - 1989

You have been turned into a ball of air with a slow leak by an evil wizard. You must find the Spellbook and the ingredients for the spell. Without these, you will never turn back into a human again. These items have to be collected in the maze which consists of 150 isometric rooms. These can be explored freely but sometimes you need to have special objects to proceed, e.g. a candle in dark rooms. The dangers consist mostly of sharp objects which can cause your ball to burst. Additionally you are on a timer because your balloon loses air constantly. But it can be refilled by using pumps which can be found in the maze - but you have to leave them in time or you explode because of overpressure.

Arena 3000

Commodore 64 - Released - 1984

Fight for your life (and highscore) against endless waves of killer robots cornering you on the futuristic Galactic Arena of the year 3000. When you clear the level, the next wave gets faster and tougher, luckily you get 3 lives and extra one every 20 000 points. This top-down shooter offers optional dual joystick control (movement/shooting).

Arena 3000

Commodore Plus 4 - Released - 1984

Arena 3000

Oric Atmos - Released - 1984

Beam Rider

TRS-80 Color Computer - Released - 1983

Beam Rider is a 1-player arcade game for the TRS-80 Coco. The player moves a small ball about a puzzle, trying to gather all the blue blocks on the screen. The player moves rapidly about the blue blocks, but moves very slowly when in open green space. If the player moves towards blue blocks separated by a green space, they shoot out a beam that pulls them immediately towards that position. If all blocks are gathered, the player moves to a new puzzle. A bouncing red ball poses danger to the player. Bonus blocks offer temporary invincibility. The player starts with 3 spare balls.

Crash

Dragon 32/64 - Released - 1984

Electronic Pool

Commodore Amiga - Released - 1987

Electronic Pool is a simplified cue sports game with only six billiard balls on the table. The game offers two different game modes. In 1-player mode your goal is to pocket the balls in as few shots as possible and try to get as high a score as possible. Missing too many shots means an early game over. In 2-player mode you try to get more points than your opponent to win the game.

Electronic Pool

Atari ST - Released - 1986

Flip Side

Atari ST - Released - 1985

Flip Side is a conversion of the Reversi board game. Two players are setting stones in turns and each stone is coloring all stones which are lying in a lines with stones of the same color. These lines can be horizontal, vertical or diagonal. This computer conversion features 7 skill levels of the computer AI, has an integrated board editor to set up special board situations, allows two players to play and the AI can suggest moves. On the higher skill levels a normal Atari ST requires several minutes to calculate a single move.

Fright Night

Commodore Amiga - Released - 1988

Fright Night is based on the 1985 Columbia Pictures movie of the same name. You play vampire Jerry Dandridge in this arcade-style action game. You prowl the rooms of the mansion searching for victims. You have to dodge the Crucifixes thrown at you and sink your teeth into anything that looks tasty. Once you've drained the blood of all your victims, you can proceed to the next level. Keep an eye out for the unhealthy as they will drain your lifeforce; too much bad blood and you're a dead vampire. You can run back to your coffin if you're low on health to regenerate, as well, you must be back in your coffin before the sun comes up, or you're a toasty vampire.

Goldrunner

Commodore Amiga - Released - 1987

Goldrunner

Atari ST - Released - 1987

In Goldrunner, a vertically scrolling shooter, earth has to be evacuated because of the damage caused by environmental pollution. Unfortunately the space ships have to pass through the world of Triton - and the inhabitants are unfriendly. So the obvious solution is to destroy the rings, huge space stations. A full frontal attack is without a change of success because the rings have to be destroyed from within. So the player is chosen to man a small space ship to do the job. Every ring has a certain amount of energy which has to be reduced by destroying everything inside. Of course the Tritons won't give up without a fight, but touching the enemies won't hurt the space ship (it hurts them): the only way to die is by touching enemy mines (the ship can take up to five hits) or by flying against a high, indestructible building (instant death). The ship also has a turbo boost function and between levels there are bonus rounds which are used to rack up points for the high score list.

Goldrunner II

Commodore Amiga - Released - 1988

Goldrunner II is set 50 years after the events of its predecessor. Since then humanity has started to use robot pilots for defense, but space pirates have managed to capture them. The hero, the grandchild of the original Goldrunner, now has to save or at least destroy the robots before they can be used against their creators. To do so he flies through 16 vertically scrolling levels, called platforms, to shoot down the transporters carrying the robots. Then he collects the robots (the capacity is up to five at a time) flies to the teleporter station, unloads and repeats until all robots in the level are captured or destroyed. Well, it is not that easy: every destroyed transporter causes recovery ships - basically enemy fighters and mines - to show up, which need to be destroyed first. The game also features dust clouds which block the ship's shots and smart bombs which destroy all enemies on the screen when used.

Grabber (MicroDeal Ltd.)

Commodore 64 - Released - 1983

Grabber is a top view single screen maze game where the player moves a creature around the screen collecting treasure in the shape of bones over various levels. The screen has two mazes and the player may switch between either maze with the press of the fire button. The player then has to grab a piece of treasure and take it to the centre of one of the mazes. There are eight pieces of treasure, four for each maze to grab and place. As the player moves and grabs, there are various creatures that also appear and move around the maze. These have to be avoided or the player lose one of four lives. Yellow bones can be collected and these allow the player to kill the creatures, however an indestructible creature will appear occasionally and may only be avoided. The creatures the player can kill will also grab the treasure themselves from the centre and place it elsewhere in the mazes. Two players can play and each player takes it in turns to play when the other player loses a life.

Invaders Revenge

TRS-80 Color Computer - Released - 1982

Invaders Revenge is a 1-player arcade game for the TRS-80 CoCo. As the last space invader, your mission is to destroy the human ships that prowl the space lanes. The human laser base fires at you with deadly accuracy. The player controls a space invader which can move in all directions, and tries to destroy the human vessel moving at the bottom of the screen. The player has limited shots to make their kill, and must avoid other horizontally moving alien vessels. The player starts with 3 invaders, and can set the game speed and number of shots available. Developed by Ken Kalish, the game was first released in 1982 by Med Systems Software in North America. Microdeal published the game in the UK two years later.

Jupiter Probe

Atari ST - Released - September 1, 1987

Jupiter Probe is a vertically scrolling shooter in which the player has the task to fly over Jupiter to collect photographic data. Unfortunately, there are many alien spaceships which try to prevent this. Being hit by an enemy ship or projectile is deadly. Besides the standard shot, the player can activate ultrasonics to get rid of all enemies on the screen or shields which grant invulnerability. Of course, those useful items are limited and can be replenished by defeating a whole enemy formation. They can't be activated separately; the shields are always used up first.

Jupiter Probe

Commodore Amiga - 1987

Your mission in Jupiter Probe, the latest release from Microdeal is to fly above the surface of Jupiter sending back photographs. However, a hostile race of beings whose only desire is to destroy Earth is trying to stop you from discovering the dark secrets of Jupiter. The mightiest powers on Earth have united and supplied three scout ships with which to scour the surface of Jupiter. These ships are equipped with twin laser cannons and a limited number of 'advanced features'. These advanced features are Ultrasonics, which cause a disturbance in the area around your ship, thus destroying all aliens in your vicinity, and Shields which protect your craft from enemy fire for a short period of time. As you can probably tell from the above, this is yet another shoot ‘em up game. In fact it is very much like many other games of this type. Vertical scrolling, nice bold graphics, neat soundtrack, lots of aliens and plenty of action. The many craters, mountains, rivers (on Jupiter!!!?) and ground bases are all well drawn and very colourful, however they appear to be very 'chunky'. The sound is, in most respects, excellent. The game is very playable as it is just about the right difficulty level for most people, making it fairly hard but not impossibly so. Control is with either mouse, joystick or keyboard. Jupiter Probe is a good value for money game, the price being something which I hope to see more often from both Microdeal and other software companies.

Lands of Havoc

Commodore 64 - Released - 1985

The Dark Lords have defeated the sorcerer High Vanish and hold the power over the land of Haven. Before he left, High Vanish left magic hidden around the land and now you Sador the reptile man must find various items to defeat The Dark Lords. Haven is split into nine areas which include forest, desert and village. Once a item has been found, a cryptic clue is given on what and where to find the next item. The Dark Lord's aren't going to let you just look around so have sent many and varied monsters to stop you. You can fire and destroy these monsters but if they touch you then your energy bar gets smaller. The Lands of Havoc is a flick screen maze game viewed from above at an elevated angle. There are two skill levels, easier and harder and you can also adjust the speed of the game from 1 (slowest) to 8 (fastest). The joystick moves your character while the fire button fires your weapon.

Microdeal: Hit Disks Volume 1

Commodore Amiga - Released - 1988

GREAT compilation from Microdeal! - Contains the following FOUR hard-to-find Microdeal games!:- • GOLDRUNNER • THE KARATE KID PART II • SLAYGON • JUPITER PROBE

Monkey Kong!

TRS-80 Color Computer - Released - 1983

Monkey Kong, or as it was dubbed by MicroDeal, King Cuthbert, is yet another Donkey Kong clone (of course). Two screens from the original are present in this version. The first is the classic first "barrels" screen, where the Mario-like character must climb a scaffolding and jump over the barrels that Monkey Kong rolls toward him. In the level are also two hammers, which Mario/Cuthbert can use to smash the barrels. Wielding the hammer makes him unable to jump and climb ladders, though. The second screen is the "rivets" screen, where you must climb the ladders of another scaffolding that is on fire. Avoid the fires and pop the rivets that hold the platforms together. Once they are all popped, the scaffolding will collapse and take the monkey with itself. Graphically, Monkey Kong is not as blatant a copy as Donkey King, but still makes no effort to mask Mario as anything else but Mario (or Cuthbert). The game runs in four-colour mode.

Mr Dig

Commodore 64 - Released - 1984

Mr Dig is based on the arcade game Mr. Do! where you have to collect all the cherries over various single screen levels to move to the next level. As you move through the tunnels or dig through the dirt there are various nasties chasing you, but they can only move through tunnels and can't dig. To stop them you can either throw a bouncing ball where only one can be thrown at a time, or remove the dirt below an apple and make it fall on top of them. If you are touched by a nasty then you lose one of five lives and when all are gone it's game over. Before you play you can select a skill level from 1 to 9.

Pengon

Commodore 64 - Released - 1984

Just as the name implies, Pengon is a clone of Sega/Coreland's old arcade game, Pengo. You play Willy the penguin, who is trapped in a maze filled with dangerous mutant sea lions. Willy's only defense is to push the blocks of ice that the screen is made up of, so that the blocks hit the sea lions and crush them against the walls. Of note is the difference between the versions; the original program was made in America for the Tandy Colour, then ported to Dragon 32 and published by Microdeal, who liked the name enough to put it on Pengo clones for the Commodore and Atari which graphically have little in common with the CoCo game.

Racer Ball

TRS-80 Color Computer - Released - 1982

Race your ball around the space corridors on the moon base but avoid the enemy Laseroids that keep coming in the airlock. Features the "teleport" tunnel in the lower left quarter of the maze, which would teleport you to the top when you ran over it (unless you hold the joystick button down).

Shuttle Simulator

Commodore 64 - Released - 1983

This game is an early simulation of NASA's space shuttle, on a mission to retrieve a failed satellite. Most of the controls are handled using the joystick. The mission is comprised of five different stages: Launch: After an automatic lift-off out of Earth's gravity, you guide the shuttle to a rendezvous point. Park: With the satellite in sight, approach it until you are right next to it. Arm: Use the robot arm to catch the floating satellite and bring it into the cargo space of the shuttle. Entry: Just like the launch stage, but without throttle control, you guide the shuttle to a target box indicated in the plotter instrument. Final approach: From an outside view of the shuttle, try to decelerate at the same time as dropping to an altitude of zero. The main view is from the cockpit, with a small stripe in the centre dedicated to the outside view, and the rest comprised of instruments and indicators. All of these instruments, indicating the stages of the mission, the attitude of the craft and its course, as well as altitude and speed, are functional. Certain parts of the mission are moved to an outside view for pædagogical reasons. To make the game more beginner-friendly, the mission is not aborted if a certain stage is not fulfilled, but points are awarded for how well each stage is completed.

Slaygon

Commodore Amiga - Released - 1988

In Slaygon the player takes control of an advanced robot and has to infiltrate the facility of Cybordynamics, a corporation that is developing a toxic virus that potentially can kill all humans. The task ahead is to locate the main computer and disable it so that the cooling system of the facility's reactor will fail. To do so five override codes have to be found and entered into the computer. As the cooling system fails the facility will ultimately explode, but before that the player has to steal a top secret data disk and flee from the building. The game is played from a first-person perspective similar to a dungeon crawler and is completely controlled though a mouse based interface. While exploring the facility, various objects have to be collected, such as key cards to get through locked doors. There are also traps such as force fields, ionizer beams and proton mines that require the right items to get past without harm. The player also has to watch out for the robots that guard the facility. The player also have access to devices that can be turned on, but they will cost energy which is the robot's health and when all out of energy the game is over. These are a cloaking device that makes the robot invisible, battle sensors that show enemies' laser and shield strength, a shield generator that protects from damage, a laser amplifier that attacks robot guards, a long range scanner that plots out a large area on the map and a plotter that maps areas as the player moves around. Interesting fact: The game's developers actually asked Kenneth "Slaygon" Mutka's permission to use this name for the title of this game. Mutka, at the time was a C64 demoscener, who did, and still does, go under this handle. If the name sounds familiar, Mutka is the owner of the C64 Remix online radio station, SlayRadio.

Slip Stream

Commodore Amiga - Released - 1989

Slip Stream is a shoot 'em up with a third person chase view similar to Space Harrier. The player controls an aircraft called the emerald fighter and has to fly through nine levels (here called streams) which have been overtaken by alien forces. In each stream there are various defence structures and crafts that are powered by a crystal located at the end of the stream. It is the player's task to destroy these crystals and thereby liberate the streams. Like in other chase view shooters the player's craft is automatically moving forward while the player can steer it left and right, climb, dive and shoot. Movement is restricted to stream though which is located in the centre of the screen. Various obstacles and enemies will come in the player's path and these have to be either avoided or shot down. Getting hit by a projectile or colliding with a structure will lead to a life lost and the level has to be replayed.

Storm

Dragon 32/64 - Released - 1983

Storm is a clone of Atari's arcade hit, Tempest, but whereas that game used sharp vector graphics, this version is rendered in blocky text graphics. You control a ship moving along the edge of a tunnel-like construction. From the far end of the tunnel come coloured bars of various colours. Moving around the tunnel's mouth, you shoot the bars until you reach a set score, which will promote you to the next level. With only 99 shots granted on each level, it is better to let the bars reach the end of the tunnel than to miss them with your gun. One kind of bar that should not be missed, though, is the orange kind, called ”Millibars”. These will, if they reach the edge of the tunnel, chase you around. After a while, the Millibars will disappear, but if more than one has reached the edge where you are, avoiding them long enough can be very difficult. The game becomes gradually more difficult as you progress through the levels, and on later levels, the tunnel itself is no longer shown.

Talespin

Commodore Amiga - Released - 1989

Talespin is an adventure game creation system made by Mark Heaton and his family (wife and their five children), which allows you to create interactive graphic- and text-oriented adventure games, demos, books, tutorials, or whatever application you can think of. It offers graphics, 100 development commands, mouse control, no copy protection, hard drive support, and Telltale, a run-only module that allows users without Talespin to see your work. Talespin also includes two sample adventure games: The Grail made by 19-year-old Rudyard Heaton and The Wolf made by another artist

Tetra Quest

Commodore Amiga - Released - 1988

In Tetra Quest the Galaxy is waiting in anticipation for the first Galactic Games, similar to the Olympic Games. But unfortunately an evil alien race stole the Phoenix Tablet and broke them into 64 pieces each. The player's goal is to recover all pieces and save the Games. Each level (overall 384) consists of four screens which one coin each. The goal is to collect the coins in the correct order, but the player can only travel on interconnected lines - sometimes teleporter or switches have to be used to reach the goal. Also restricted to the lines are the aliens which try to harm the player, but they can be disposed of by shooting them. Some of them leave extras behind which help the player when picked up. If in a tight spot, the player can transform into a bird and fly over obstacles, but this costs an considerable amount of points.

The Karate Kid: Part II

Atari ST - 1986

The Karate Kid: Part II - The Computer Game is a one-on-one fighting game based on the movie The Karate Kid: Part II. The storyline of the movie is not directly addressed; the player only participates in five fights based on movie scenes. The difficulty rises from fight to fight. The player uses the input device to perform a multitude of moves, kicks and strokes. When changing direction (e.g. after jumping over the opponent) the controls reverse. Every successful hit drains the opponent's energy and improves the high score - the opponent tries to do the same to the player, of course. Between fights there are two mini games with digitized movie images: either catching flies with chopsticks (basically a reaction game) or breaking an ice block with bare hands (building up enough force by joystick wiggling).

Time Bandit

MS-DOS - Released - 1988

Time Bandit is a Gauntlet-style arcade game with text adventure elements. Having nothing to do with the Terry Gilliam movie Time Bandits, this game utilises the time-travel theme for a fast-paced preview of the concept getting famous with Gauntlet two years later. Your bandit visits 16 different worlds throughout time to grab as much loot as possible and, in the long run, do some universe-saving stuff as well. Each of the 16 locations -- featuring such varied places like a medieval arena, a bomb factory, a wrecked spaceship and a ghost town -- is basically a labyrinth filled with treasure and -- you guessed it -- monsters. You've got to dodge these or blast them with your weapon, while collecting keys, opening doors and searching for the exit. Although theoretically each location consists of 16 sub-levels, these are merely the basic layout flipped or mirrored, some items redistributed and the monster speed increased. After completing a level, you return to the world map, where you may freely choose the next challenge (nice) and save your game (very nice). Interestingly, Time Bandit tries to spice up the fast arcade action with text adventure scenes. Due to this strange mixture, you will occasionally bump into persons or computer consoles with which interaction is possible. For example, you've got to explore and repair the damaged spaceship Excalibur. However, the parser is crude at best; you'll have to know exactly what to do, or else you will trigger no reaction. Gaming veterans will discover a score of elements of and allusions to arcade classics, such as Tutankham, Pac-Man, Centipede, Bomberman, and others.

Williamsburg Adventure 3

Enterprise - Released - 1985

In this text adventure you are in the colonial town of Williamsburg and your quest is to explore the town to find the Golden Horseshoe. There are evil spirits and a ghost to encounter as well as a maze. The screen has text for each location describing your surroundings and you type in commands with the keyboard to interact with the locations.

Zero Gravity

Commodore Amiga - Released - 1988

At its most basic level, Zero Gravity can be thought of as a Pong game, as the player controls a bat which must be used to hit a ball as it comes towards you. The main twist is that the gameplay is completely 3-dimensional, with control over the horizontal and vertical positions of the bat. The game uses a split-screen view, with the top half viewed from the perspective of Player 1, and the bottom from that of Player 2, even when only one of them is human. Each time you get the ball past your opponent's bat, a score is added to a tally, and a number of points are awarded. Along the side-wall of the playing arena there are 8 tokens to be hit, awarding extra points, speeding the game up, deducting points from your opponent, and so on.