Santa's Xmas Caper (Zeppelin Games, 1990)

Developed for the Commodore 64 by Reflective Designs: Programming by Duncan Scott Kershaw, graphics by Tyne Base Computer Design, with music and sound effects by Mark Wilson.

Also written for ZX Spectrum in 1990 and Amstrad CPC in 1991: Programming by Ian Richards and graphics by John Cassells.

Yet again written for Commodore Amiga in 1992 and IBM-PC compatibles in 1993: Programming by The Chief Elf, graphics by David Taylor and Ted E. Bear.

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GAME STATUS

Yeah, okay... when the credits section is so difficult to write, what can you expect from the game? Santa's Xmas Caper is not the most interesting game to end a year with, but somehow, it has the dubious honour of being a Christmas-themed game with the most conversions out there... or whatever. You already might have seen the Lazy Game Reviewer's video about this unfortunate little title, but since we're talking about two entirely different kinds of games with the same name (more or less), published by the same company, I don't really know whether this should have been a two-fer or not. But it's a Christmas special, so what the heck.

Olympic Skier (Mr. Chip Software, 1983)

Originally developed and released for the unexpanded Commodore VIC-20 as "Ski Sunday" by Shaun Southern in 1983. Expanded and refined for the Commodore 64 by Shaun Southern, with loading screen by Andrew Morris. Redesigned for the Commodore 16 by Shaun Southern, and released in 1985 by Mr. Chip Software. Conversion for the Atari 8-bits based on the C64 version written by Amin Hoque, and released in 1986 by Americana Software.

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GAME STATUS

The obligatory sports title for this winter season is a fairly small title from the early days of Shaun Southern's career, because I've got a more Christmas-oriented number planned for the big event of the year. Whether or not that one will be any good is another matter entirely, but now, let's focus on this one.

The Snowman (Quicksilva Ltd, 1983)

Based on the book "The Snowman" by Raymond Briggs.
Developed by David Shea for the ZX Spectrum in 1983.

Converted for the Commodore 64 by Robert Harris in 1984.
Also converted for the MSX in 1984, but the credits are currently unknown.

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GAME STATUS

It's time to start the 2015 Christmas season proper, and this time I shall be getting into another suggestion (or was that a request?) by a reader - I think it was Alessandro Grussu who mentioned this one last year. To be honest, I wasn't too aware of this game, until mr. Grussu suggested the game, so I had to take a proper look at it.

The World of Spectrum users have given 23 votes for their version, rating it with a total score of 7.67, which isn't too bad. At Generation-MSX, the game has 9 votes, with a rating of 4 and a half stars. Curiously, the C64 version has no scores whatsoever anywhere - the Lemon64 archive doesn't even have this game in its database, nor does MobyGames. I guess my lack of knowledge in this case mirrors the overall C64 population's, since I originally became aware of this game's existence due to extensive browsing of the WoS archive, but never paid much attention to it. So, let's see how this turns out.

FRGR #1: Afrikan Tähti (Amersoft, 1985)

Adapted for the Commodore 64 by Otso Pakarinen & Jari Heikkinen. Produced by Jouko Riikonen. Based on the board game by Kari Mannerla, originally published by Tilgmann in 1951.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

Since it's been so long since I did anything Finnish-related on the blog, for this year's Finnish Independence Day, I decided to start a new series on the blog to add some more justification for the blog's title. So, the new series is called Finnish Retro Game Reviews, which features in-depth reviews of old Finnish-made games - as a kind of extension of my History of Finnish Games entries. For my first Finnish Retro Game Review, this might seem like an odd choice, but you shall find soon enough, that there is some logic here.

Uridium (Hewson, 1986)

Developed and programmed by Andrew Braybrook for the Commodore 64, with music by Steve Turner. Published for the European market in 1986 by Hewson Consultants.

Converted for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum by Dominic Robinson. Loading screen by Stephen J. Crow. Published for the European market in 1986 by Hewson Consultants.

Converted for the Atari ST by Joe Hellesen. Published for the North American market in 1986 by Mindscape.

Converted for the Amstrad CPC by Neil Latarche, with music by Dave Rogers. Published for the European market in 1987 by Hewson Consultants.

Converted for the Acorn BBC Micro by A.I.M. (Angus Hughes has hailed himself as the "A." part of the conversion team on YouTube.) Published for the European market in 1987 by Hewson Consultants.

Converted for the IBM-PC compatibles by John Friedman and Joe Hellesen. Published in 1988 by Mindscape.

Converted for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Graftgold. Published in 1990 by Mindscape as "The Last Starfighter".

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HISTORY & GAME STATUS

Andrew Braybrook is a name that continues to evoke waves of nostalgia-related emotions in retrogamers, particularly of the Commodore population. His influence in the latter half of the 1980's computer gaming industry was incalculable, with games like Paradroid, Gribbly's Day Out, Alleykat, Fire & Ice, and Uridium perhaps most particularly, since it spawned so many clones with varying success. He also worked on some of the better conversions of Rainbow Islands and Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Super Off Road, which could well explain their home conversion statuses. Sadly, after the fall of Commodore circa 1995-96, Braybrook quit the game industry and joined an insurance company - a sad loss to be sure, but his legacy lives on.

The reason why it has taken me so long to get to work on a comparison of a Braybrook game is exactly because my respect for his games is so great that I'm still unsure whether I can make a properly fair comparison - after all, he was a Commodore programmer, and it can only be expected that his original work would best the others quite easily. But, perhaps a comparison should be made if only for the sake of giving you detailed descriptions of all the versions, and not primarily for the sake of letting a certain group of retrogamers gloat in their betterness.

Jumping Jack (Imagine, 1983)

Written by Albert Ball with graphics by Stuart C. Ball. Originally released for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 16k as "Jumping Jack"

Converted for the Atari 8-bit computers by Roy B. Gibson, and for Dragon 32/64 by R.K. Lowry, and released as "Leggit!"

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

I wish I could say the regular service at the blog continues with a slightly lighter theme, but looks can be deceiving. Although most of us who remember Jumping Jack (or Leggit!) will remember it as a cunningly simple, but addicting little bugger, only a person determined to find every version of the game out there will notice how difficult such a task can be. So, I have given myself the freedom to only write the main comparison based on the three official Imagine Software versions, and focus on the unofficial conversions after the main event. Who knows, perhaps to some of you, the main event comes after the comparison.

Unique Games! - Part 9

Now that the Halloween season is over again, it's time to move on to something different. And sure enough, it's been a long time coming, due to various different delays caused by real life and other obligations, but at long last, we've got another set of exclusive games, some of them hopefully even unique. This time, we've got games for mostly familiar machines, but we're going to start with a couple of consoles that haven't been featured in the series all too many times for good reasons. Here we go...