Zybex (Zeppelin Games, 1988)

Designed by Kevin Franklin and Michael Owens.

C64 Programming by Kevin Franklin
Atari programming by Brian Jobling
Graphics by Michael Owens
Sounds by Adam Gilmore
Published by Zeppelin Games in 1988 for Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum conversion by Gareth Briggs, with graphics by Kevin Franklin and Michael Owens.
Published by Zeppelin Games in 1989.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

FRGCB is back from a relatively brief time off, and we're starting 2022 with a fairly lightweight comparison of a game that will almost certainly keep the bottom end of the alphabetical list of the blog henceforth. This comparison was requested some time ago by an anonymous reader, which makes it as good a reason as any to start this year off with it, and I have to admit some curiosity for this one, because although Zybex seems to be one of the best-regarded horizontal space shooters of all time on the 8-bit home computers, it's one that I never actually played until starting to write this comparison.

SPECIAL VIDEO: 12 Games of Christmas!

It was a close call this year, but here's the special Christmas video presentation, as promised. This year, I'm doing a quick run-through of 12 strictly Christmas-themed games for various retrogaming platforms, most of which have been mentioned in this blog already in some form or another.

With this, I wish you all a very happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas (or whatever holiday you happen to be celebrating), and a better next year! I'll be taking a relatively short break from posting anything here, but keep an eye on more FRGCB content around the end of February or early March.

Retrogame Talkshow Episode #8 out now!

Retrogame Talkshow, my other retrogaming-related project, co-created and co-hosted by my friend Bob Engstrand, is back in action with the 8th full-fledged episode! This time, we're digging deep into the history of PC's in both terms of hardware and games, travel through the beginnings of our personal PC gaming history and listen to lots of great music while at it. Here's the YouTube link to see some gameplay footage while listening to the episode, but it's also available as regular audio-form podcast on Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and loads of other podcasting platforms. Enjoy!

FRGR #13: GOLF (Oy Hedengren Ab, 1985)

Written by Kimmo Mäkinen for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k in 1984, and published by Oy Hedengren Ab in 1985.

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INTRODUCTION

Happy Finnish Independence Day, everybody! Today, we have a truly special entry in the history of Finnish games, as it is a game that is effectively lost from wider public even currently. It was only ever reviewed in the Finnish computing and gaming magazine MikroBitti in May 1985, and even there, the review had no screenshots to see. I recently came by this game by an accident, when I bought a bundle of used Spectrum tapes from another collector, and Kimmo Mäkinen's "Golf" was included in the collection. After a long last I have now played it, so I can finally write a review of it. If nothing new is to be learned from this article, this review shall at least fix the hitherto lack of screenshots from public view, although of course I shall attempt to give proper attention to the game itself, as well. Enjoy!

Metro-Cross (Namco, 1985)

Originally developed and released for the arcades by Namco Ltd. in 1985. Designed by Masanobu Endo, Tatsurou Okamoto and Yukio Tahahashi. Programming by Kyota Tanaka. Graphics by Hiroshi Ono and Yuki Kasukawa. Sounds by Nobuyuki Onogi. Illustrations by Satoshi Kitahara.

Converted and released for the Nintendo Famicom by Namco Ltd. in 1986; no further information available.

Converted for the Commodore 64 by Probe Software: Programming and sounds by Brian O'Shaughnessy. Graphics by Vakis Paraskeva. Produced by Fergus McGovern. Published by U.S. Gold (EU) and Epyx (US) in 1987.

Also converted for Amstrad CPC and Sinclair ZX Spectrum by Probe Software in 1987; no credits are known.

Atari ST version programmed by Timothy Moore, and published by U.S. Gold in 1988.

Converted for the Sharp MZ-700 by Kazuhiro Furuhata, and published by Namco in 1989.

The Atari ST version unofficially ported for Commodore Amiga by Wanted Team in 2013.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

Back to more arcade cult classics. This time, the game under the magnifying glass, Metro-Cross, was the ninth-biggest arcade table in Japan in 1985, but it was rarely encountered elsewhere in the world. In fact, the International Arcade Museum website lists Metro-Cross as one of the least common games among collectors, with a 6 out of 100 in popularity based on census ownership records (1 being the least common). Taken that into consideration, all the European conversions must have been made after finding out about this game through the Famicom port from 1986. But that's just guessing. My personal introduction to Metro-Cross happened on the C64 around the mid-90's when the local C64 scene in my area had already turned more to Amigas and consoles, but because it never came up in anyone's collection on other platforms, it felt like such a hidden gem, which I still think it is.

The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants (Ocean/Acclaim, 1991)

Designed by Garry Kitchen, Barry Marx, Dan Kitchen, Roger Booth and Henry C. Will IV for Imagineering Inc.
Developed by Arc Developments
Directed by Garry Kitchen
Produced by Colin Gordon
Story conceived by Barry Marx
The Simpsons theme song written by Danny Elfman
Original score by Mark van Hecke

NES credits:
Programming by Roger Booth, Barry Marx, Garry Kitchen, Dan Kitchen, Rob Harris, David Crane and Scott Marshall
Graphics by Jesse Kapili
Audio engineering by Alex de Meo

Other versions' programming by: Chris Coupe (SMD/GEN, AMIGA and ATARI ST); Julian Scott (SMD/GEN and ATARI ST); Tim Coupe (AMIGA); Colin Gordon (AMIGA); Byron Nilsson (CPC, SPE, SMS and GAME GEAR); Richard Underhill (C64); John Wildsmith (DOS)

Other versions' graphics by Paul Walker
Additional graphics for Commodore Amiga by Gary Tonge

Sega sounds by Mark Cooksey
Other versions' sounds by Jonathan Dunn
Additional sounds for Commodore Amiga by Byron Nilsson and Derrick Owens

Published by Ocean Software for Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, IBM-PC compatibles and Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128k, and Acclaim for the NES in 1991.
Published by Acclaim (Flying Edge) for the Sega consoles in 1992.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

On the long run, horror games is not exactly a bottomless well for trying to find games specifically with comparison in mind for Halloween, so in the spirit of transforming October from a month of horror games to a month of Ocean games (hopefully starting properly next year), I chose to go with one of the most commercially successful tie-in games of the 8- and 16-bits era with some sci-fi/b-movie theme going on in it. And, well, I had to visit the 1990's for a change, didn't I? Well, hold on to your hats and eat your shorts while at it, because this is going to be an unusually long comparison.

Anteater / Oil's Well - the origins and variations

My attempt at writing a comparison of Oil's Well from Sierra On-Line fell short quickly, when I realized, how many other clones of this game there actually were. Not only that, but that the game was itself a clone of an arcade game that never got officially ported to home systems with the original title - Anteater. By another coincidence, it has been almost four years since my previous "origins and variations" entry about Bomberman, so it's definitely time for another one of these special entries.

The problem with these sorts of entries is, that the existence of clones based on certain games is documented very loosely, usually only mentioning the most well-known clones of any said game. So, inevitably, the amount of Anteater clones for this entry will not be as close to the truth as it could be, but you're very welcome to mention more clones in the comments section, that I might have missed during my research. Having said all of the above, it might not come as too much of a shock that this entry will not feature a companion video.