Showing posts with label 1985. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1985. Show all posts

Sunday, September 05, 2021

Game Covers - 1985 The Day After (Commodore 64)

It is the day after, Big Brother has been destroyed and the Earth has to learn how to survive on its own. 

You have been assigned to find the energy your planet needs to survive.  The OLD Republic stored nuclear plasma on four neighbouring planets.  It is your mission to visit the twelve alien landscapes to retrieve it.  





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Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Game Covers - Icicle Works (Commodore 16 and Plus 4)

ICICLE WORKS is a multi-screen game of snowballs, gift wrapped presents, polar bears and penguins.

Santa has returned from holiday to find that his presents have been scattered over the polar cap and are buried in the snow.  Your task is to help Santa dig his way through the snow, collecting as many gift wrapped presents as are required to complete the toy in each scene.

Life in the north, however, is fraught with many perils and poor Santa must be very careful not to get caught under an avalanche of his own creation.  His life is further endangered bu the many bad tempered polar bears and penguins which run up and down the passages Santa has dug.

Christmas is not as far away as you may think and Santa faces a horrible fate if he cannot complete the toy and escape to a new task before the time runs out.







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Friday, December 25, 2020

Game Covers - Treasure Island (Commodore 16 and Plus 4)

Treasure Island is a multi-screen arcade adventure in which you help Jim Hawkins find buried treasure.  Use the map provided to guide Jim around the island.  Collect items which may be useful but avoid, or deal with, the cutlass-wielding pirates.  Having found the treasure you must then win the race to get back to your ship.  You can be sure that Long John Silver will do all in his power to stop you escaping with what he believes is rightly his.  Treasure Island is a game requiring careful planning and quick reactions.










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Sunday, November 15, 2020

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Game Covers - Zzzz (Commodore 64)

Not one of my favourite Mastertronic cheapos.  Zzzz was released way back in 1985 and was a text based adventure game but had a unique icon system included.  

You are trapped in your dream and to escape from this graphic, text and icon driven adventure you must find and cross the border or wander lost in the land of 'Zzzz' forever.

Yes...  being lost in the land of 'Zzzz The Computer Game' is indeed a fate worse than death!

Zzzz - The cover! 

Zzzz - The Inlay 

Zzzz - The Tape

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Monday, April 01, 2019

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Retro Game Boys Episode 8 - Streetbeat (Commodore 64)

Stuart introduces Kieran to one of his favourite childhood computer games on the Commodore 64.  A little known game called Streetbeat (which itself is a re-release of a game called Ghettoblaster). 
 
May the funk be with you!


Thursday, October 30, 2014

Games that remind me of my childhood Number 27 : Mission Mars (Commodore Plus 4)

One of the (many) good things about spending a few days back home in Laindon is the opportunity to rummage through the family game collection and to reminisce on old Commodore Plus 4 classics.

So for this visit, I bring you Mission Mars, from 1985

Mission Mars...  The type of game where the box art makes the game look reasonably good (complete with a tagline saying that the game is 100% machine code!), but upon getting home and loading the game, you realise that you've just blown a good sum of money on a rather naff game.

That said, I do have fond memories playing this game which is why I have included it here.  The game is very simple and has you control a small space ship through vertical tunnels, avoiding various obstacles that get in the way.

That's it! 

Ok, the game description is as follows.

You have been sent on a mission to raid the caverns on Mars.  However, these caverns are known to be filled with booby traps.  Your task is to reach the centre of the caverns and land your ship.  Each cavern has 5 stages to survice and you will need a lot of skill to do so.
 
Hmmmm.  Basically the game has 5 stages which repeat over and over again once you reach the end of stage 5.
Stage 1 - Fly down the cavern, shooting enemy installations.
 
Stage 2 - Fly down the cavern, shooting randomly generated spaceships

Stage 3 - Fly down the cavern, avoiding randomly generated bouncing balls!
 
Stage 4 - Fly down the cavern, avoiding what I assume are comets.
 
Stage 5 - Fly down the very narrow cavern, avoiding the walls.
 
Sounds exciting eh?
 
Once you reach the end of Stage 5, you don't even need any skill to land the ship - just let it hit the wall at the end and then you're greeted with the following message...
 
!! MISSION COMPLETE !!
WELL DONE YOU HAVE
RAIDED THIS CAVERN
 
Once you press the fire button, you get to do it all over again!  No change in the game difficulty, no change in stage order.  You can literally finish this game in 5 minutes.
 

End of the game?


Oh yeah....  That was worth it!
 
Now, for the reason why I have included the game here....  I remember playing this game once on a little black and white portable television in the corner of our living room at my parents house, amassing a huge score just from playing the game from start to end, and restarting again with each completion on stage 5.  I wish I took a note of my final score
 

The box cover

The tape