Xybots (Atari Games, 1987)

Designed by Ed Logg
Programmed by Ed Logg and Bob Flanagan
Art by Sam Comstock and Mark West
Music by Hal Canon, Brad Fuller and Earl Vickers
Originally released as an arcade game by Atari Games in 1987.

Commodore 64 conversion by John Scott for Tengen, and released by Domark in 1989.

Amstrad CPC, MSX and Sinclair ZX Spectrum conversions by Teque Software Developments Ltd: Programming by Barry Costas and Dave Colledge. Music by Matt Furniss. Released by Domark in 1989.

Atari ST conversion by Teque Software Developments Ltd: Programming by Barry Costas. Music by Ben Daglish. Released by Domark in 1989.

Commodore Amiga conversion by Teque Software Developments Ltd, and released by Domark in 1989; no further credits are known.

Atari Lynx version by NuFX, Inc:
Programming by Patrick Quinn
Music and sound effects by Matt Scott
Released by Atari in 1991.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

Because April has in the blog's recent history been dedicated to American games, I decided to try and work on this comparison of Xybots, an Atari arcade classic, during April, in the hopes of getting it out before the end of the month. You can see by the date of this comparison's publication, whether or not I succeeded in my mission.

Anyway, the comparison of Xybots has been a long time in my to-do list, because it was originally suggested by my gaming and podcasting colleague, Bob Engstrand, too many years ago to count, and besides, the blog seemed to be in sore need of another title for the archive starting with the letter X. It just so happens, that Xybots has also become one of my all-time favourite Atari arcade games in the last 15 years, which is why it took a while to gather the courage to write this one. For all I know, Xybots is a rare example of a brilliant, if somewhat misunderstood, arcade game, because it never really seemed to get a home conversion that would do it proper justice, so a clone of it has never really been attempted, either.

Super Cars (Gremlin Graphics, 1990)

Designed by Shaun Southern and Andrew Morris
Developed by Magnetic Fields

Commodore Amiga version:
Programming by Shaun Southern
Graphics by Andrew Morris and Jeremy Smith
Music by Ben Daglish

Atari ST version:
Programming by Shaun Southern and Dave Makin
Graphics by Andrew Morris and Jeremy Smith
Music by Ben Daglish

Amstrad CPC version:
Programming by Steve Marsden and Dave Cooke for Spidersoft
Music by Ben Daglish

Sinclair ZX Spectrum version by Spidersoft; no further credits are known.

The Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC and Sinclair ZX Spectrum versions
were all published by Gremlin Graphics in 1990.

Commodore 64 version:
Programming by Jason H. Perkins
Music by Ben Daglish
Published by Gremlin Graphics in 1991.

Nintendo Entertainment System version (uncredited):
Produced by Gremlin Graphics
Graphics by Paul Gregory
Music by Barry Leitch
Published by Electro Brain Corp. exclusively for the North American market in 1991.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

Here's a relatively big one to finally start the year 2026 here at FRGCB. At least, Super Cars was a relatively big series in our small Amiga-based community back in the olden days, and of course, the first sequel was an even bigger thing than the original game was. To be honest, most of us didn't even know Super Cars even had a third game, because it was only ever released on the PC's in 1996, by which time most of us had already moved on to more advanced racing games. Anyway, since Super Cars II was only released on three 16-bit platforms, the original game seemed like the more interesting choice to do a comparison of. Besides, having found out only recently about the existence of the NES version, I was rather interested to know, how these six versions line up. I suppose it's only inevitable, that I find myself also comparing the two games to each other occasionally.

SITREP Feb 2026

Hi folks, I figured it might be good to let you inform that FRGCB won't be activated to its full potential in the near future. This is because I'm currently in the midst of packing all my gear and moving to another location, and it takes time to get everything in order again, which means that any unemulated YouTube activity will be on hold until further notice. The process will likely stretch until June, but we'll see. As things are now, I might be able to squeeze in a comparison per month, starting in March, but even that will have to pause when the final stretch of the move is taking place. So I guess this is the year of the long-planned cool down at the blog, only now due to an unforeseen situation, but after six long years of blogging and YouTubing simultaneously, this enforced quieter period is welcome. Thanks for the patience; see you next month!