The manual to 1989's Stunt Car Racer is an impressive forty-eight pages thick, and instead of opening with helpful tips on how to get this Amiga port of the game running (just so you know - it was an Atari ST game first) or a handy explanation of the controls it decides to go with a short … Continue reading Boingy bouncy racing
I've played a lot of Amiga games in my time - some very well, most very badly, but definitely in vast quantities whatever my skill level - and I'm fairly certain sci-fi resource 'em up Deuteros: The Next Millennium (Amiga version shown and played, although an Atari ST port was also available) wasn't one of them - until now. … Continue reading Turning quick goes into all nighters since 1991
Silkworm began its overlooked life as a 1988 arcade shmup by Tecmo but I've always known it better as an Amiga game, one of those mostly forgotten home ports that, like Rodland, seemed to be more popular on grey-shelled computers in Europe than it ever was in its native environment. If this was released today … Continue reading One game, two ways to play!
It's remarkable to think Captain Blood managed to stand out from the crowd in the late eighties, a time when alien menaces with laser cannons and planet hopping space adventures were considered such very ordinary gaming fodder it was actually quite refreshing to play anything that wasn't "inspired by" Space Invaders, Star Wars, or Aliens. The overuse of the genre … Continue reading Welcome to the age of the BIO-GAME
There are some temptations I can resist, but an Amiga RPG promising cyberpunk vampires enclosed in a box bearing the portrait of a man who is clearly bloodsucking sci-fi David Bowie is not one of them. What's that? It comes on twelve floppy discs? I don't care, all that disc swapping has got to be worth … Continue reading A cyberpunk gothic
There's a struggling creative inside me, and in all honesty they should probably stay there. Just when I think I've finally put my dreams of releasing a critically acclaimed bestseller to bed 3D Construction Kit comes along and says "Hey you, normal person - would you like to make a game? Would you like making … Continue reading World building
There's an expectation old arcade games will have an OK-ish port you already own, a decent port you'll have a realistic chance of buying if you're fond of the game in question, and a mythical best port spoken of in great reverence by people who will never own it, its existence only vaguely confirmed by … Continue reading Fairy tale floppies
Light sabres, flamethrowers, and restorative hi-tech nutrients fed through an IV line incorporated into bulky futuristic spacesuits. A rag-tag bunch of battle-hardened survivors of a past war and prodigious specialists picking their way through the dark. Out of control robots and bizarre creatures roaming the dark halls and abandoned rooms of an eerily quiet space … Continue reading In space no one can hear you walk into things
An ambiguously moody and "mature" adventure for 1994 Amigas/PCs featuring guns, violence, and sex starring a twenty-something guy in a trenchcoat? Spare me. Actually - please don't. While it's true to say Creative Reality's Dreamweb really does possess the usual checklist of supposedly grown-up subject matter and is unapologetic for the graphic nature of these … Continue reading Is this the real life, is this just fantasy?
I was utterly terrified of this game when it first hit home computers back in 1987: At the time this is what "realistic" looked like, a 3D space where monsters freely roamed the endless stone corridors, where violent aggressors could catch your party unawares and then swiftly turn them into a pile of bones, where … Continue reading Dungeon Master (not that sort of dungeon master, the other one)
Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster 