Friday 23 February 2024

Gothik (Firebird, 1987)

Game concept and design by Paul Hutchinson.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum version written by Paul Hutchinson, with loading screen by Drew Northcott. Published by Telecomsoft (Firebird) in 1987.

Amstrad CPC version written by Paul Hutchinson, and published by Telecomsoft (Firebird) in 1988.

Commodore 64 version written by Gavin "Gaxx" Raeburn, with loading screen by Paul "Dokk" Docherty. Published by Telecomsoft (Firebird) in 1988.

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GAME STATUS


There are two reasons why I chose Gothik from Firebird's vast catalogue as the second of this year's two February Firebird items: one, because I noticed that there haven't been too many Gauntlet-clones here at FRGCB, so it's about time to have the second one, no more than 6 years and 10 months after Pandora's classic Into the Eagles' Nest, rather coincidentally released the same year; and two, because I didn't have to make a video accompaniment, thanks to one already available in the Mikroview series.

Friday 9 February 2024

Chickin Chase / Cock' In (Prism Micro-informatique S.A., 1984)

Developed by JAWX
Written by Francois Lionet
Originally published as "Cock' In" by Prism Micro-informatique S.A. for Oric Atmos in 1984.

Amstrad CPC version by JAWX, released as "Chickin Chase" by Firebird in 1985. Also released in France as "Poule Position" by Minipuce.

Commodore 64 version by JAWX, released as "Chickin Chase" by Firebird in 1985. Re-released in France as "Cock' In" by Prism Micro-informatique S.A.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum version by JAWX, released as "Chickin Chase" by Firebird in 1985. Also released in France as "Cock' In" by Prism Micro-informatique S.A.

Thomson MO5/TO7 version written by Alain Fernandes, with graphics by Olivier Corviole. Published as "Coq'Inn" by VIFI in 1985.

Atari 400/800 and MSX versions by JAWX, released as "Chicken Chase" by Bug-Byte in 1986.

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GAME STATUS


This year's Firebird February will have to make do with only two games due to my constraining work schedules. First off, we have a French game from 1984 that wasn't originally even a Firebird release. JAWX developed Cock' In originally for the Oric Atmos, and got released by Prism Micro-informatique, but the game got converted for other platforms with various different names, with Chickin Chase being the chosen title for the Firebird release. This game has probably become more famous in the recent years thanks to certain online lists of the worst game covers ever, for which the original Cock' In cover has usually been chosen.

Monday 15 January 2024

Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future (Virgin Games, 1986)

Developed by Gang of Five for Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and released by Virgin Games in 1986.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum version:
Written by Dave B. Chapman, Martin Wheeler, Neil Strudwick and Irwan Owen.

Amstrad CPC version:
Programming by Dave B. Chapman and Andrew Wilson
Graphics by Ian Mathias
Technical management by Steve Webb
Testing by Patricia Mitchell

Commodore 64 version:
Programming by Andrew Wilson
Graphics by Ian Mathias and Stu Jackson
Music by Graham Marsh and Andrew Wilson

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS


The year 2024 starts off bravely with a comparison of a game that I have never really given much notice to, although I did play Dan Dare on the C64 a few times in before the turn of the millennium, and I remember not liking it particularly much back then, because I didn't really understand how to play it. Since the game has more of a reputation on the ZX Spectrum, I decided to look into it now for the sake of balance. However, since deciding upon doing a comparison of Dan Dare, I realized all three versions of the game are quite different, so I wonder, what sort of sense would it make to do the comparison? Let's find out.

Monday 18 December 2023

New (Unique) CHRISTMAS Games!

For the 2014 Christmas season, I had prepared a special Unique Games entry on some of my favourite Christmas themed games for various platforms. Although I have found some more Christmas-themed games mostly from the olden days for the classic platforms, I decided to do a special entry on comparatively new unique and/or exclusive Christmas- and winter-themed games for old machines, most of these made within the last ten years, since there are plenty to be found. Links to games' pages provided as far as legally and/or officially possible.

As usual, I have tried to be as thorough in my investigations as possible, but it still could be that I might have missed some of even the more notable Christmas/winter-themed games from this list, so if you can think of anything to add, feel free to throw in a comment at the end of the post.

Wednesday 6 December 2023

FRGR #15: The Complete Works of Simo Ojaniemi (Amersoft, 1984)

For this year's Finnish Independence Day celebratory blog post, I decided to take a closer look at all four games by Simo Ojaniemi, who is one of the pioneers in Finnish game developing. He started out developing games on his brother Juha's Commodore VIC-20 in 1982, and ended his game developing career in 1984 after the release of his fourth game, RahaRuhtinas. All four games were briefly mentioned in the History of Finnish Games series in 2013-2014, so now is a good time to give them all more in-depth reviews.




MEHULINJA, HERKKUSUU and MYYRÄJAHTI written for the Commodore VIC-20, and RAHARUHTINAS written for the Commodore 64 by Simo Ojaniemi; all games published by Amersoft in 1984. MYYRÄJAHTI was released on the same cassette tape as HERKKUSUU.

Wednesday 15 November 2023

Impact! (Audiogenic, 1987)

Written for the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga by John Dale with graphics by Martin "Spiny Norman" Day. Originally released by Audiogenic in 1987. Also published as "Blockbuster" in North America by Mindscape.

Acorn BBC Micro/Electron conversion written by Gary Partis (in 1987). Amstrad CPC conversion programmed by Keith Prosser and Nigel Alderton; graphics by Dean Lester; sounds by Andy Williams. Commodore 64 conversion written by Steve Snake. IBM-PC compatibles conversion written by Brian Cotton. Sinclair ZX Spectrum conversion written by Steven Tucker.

All the conversions published by Audiogenic (EU) and Mindscape (US) in 1988.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS


I haven't made nearly enough comparisons of breakout-clones, perhaps because there aren't that many breakout games that have all that many versions of, apart from one. Obviously, I still haven't picked any of the Arkanoid games, because they still have too many versions to bother, but just so this wouldn't be too simple, I managed to pick a game that is available for IBM-PC compatibles, but doesn't work in DOSbox, so this should be interesting. Impact, with an exclamation mark, is a relatively unknown beast, that tends to generate wildly opposing opinions, but are the opinions more based on the played versions or is the game just an acquired taste in a more general sense?

Sunday 22 October 2023

Combat School (Konami, 1987)

Developed and published by Konami to the arcades in 1987.

Commodore 64 version:
Programming by David Collier and Allan Shortt
Graphics by Simon Butler and Shaun Ridings
Music by Martin Galway

Sinclair ZX Spectrum version:
Programming by Andrew Deakin and Michael Lamb
Graphics by Ivan Horn
48k Music and sound effects by David Whittaker
128k Music and sound effects by Jason C. Brooke

Amstrad CPC version:
Programming by James Higgins and Michael Lamb
Graphics by Ronnie Fowles
Music and sound effects by David Whittaker

Published in Europe by Ocean Software in 1987.

Arcade and Commodore 64 versions published in North America as "Boot Camp" by Konami in 1987 and 1989.

Converted for the IBM-PC compatibles by James R. Sletzer, with artwork by Brenda Johnson, and
published by Konami in 1989.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS


Since the early days of FRGCB, I have been wanting to do more comparisons of sports games that I have always enjoyed to some degree, but found them impossible to make reliable observations of, thanks to peculiarities of emulation. With my purchase of an Amstrad CPC 464 last year, these games are gradually opening up for comparisons, but there are still some aspects that cannot be taken into consideration. For example, the original Combat School arcade game had a trackball and two buttons, instead of a joystick, so I cannot actually do any reliable observations on that version. Happily, the global version, which was manufactured and released in 1988, had a joystick instead of a trackball, so I can use that in this comparison. It's been a long time coming, and now it has the honour of ending this year's Ocean October.