The Train: Escape to Normandy (Accolade, 1987)

Developed by Artech Digital Entertainments, Inc.
Designed by Paul Butler and Rick Banks.

Commodore 64 version:
Programming by J. Stuart Easterbrook and Lise Mendoza
Graphics by Grant Campbell
Music and sound effects by Paul Butler

IBM-PC version by Dynamix, Inc.:
Programming by Greg Rose and Lincoln Hutton
Graphics by Tom Collie and Connie Braat
Sounds by Bryce Morcello

Amstrad CPC & Sinclair ZX Spectrum versions:
Programming by Nick Wilson
Graphics by Imagitec Design Ltd.
Unknown credits: Mick Hanrahan, Barry Leitch, Gavin Wade and Adrian Ludley

Originally released for the Commodore 64 in North America by Accolade in 1987, and for the IBM-PC compatibles in 1988. European distribution, including Amstrad CPC and Sinclair ZX Spectrum versions by Electronic Arts in 1988.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

Along with the other thematic changes to the blog's calendar, I'm also trying to unravel the mess that is the combined list of old requests and games that are still logical and relatively easy to do before taking my next break and moving on to focus more on the 16-bit games. Today's entry had actually been sitting in the wishlist for some years, so whoever wished for this one back whenever, here's to you.

Master of the Lamps (Activision, 1985)

Originally conceived by Russell Lieblich.
Designed and programmed by Peter Kaminski for the Commodore 64, with music and additional programming by Russell Lieblich, and published by Activision in 1985.

Adapted for the Amstrad CPC and MSX computers by James Software Ltd. in 1985.

Atari 400/800 conversion by David R. Lubar.

Apple II conversion by Dan Thompson.

All versions published by Activision in 1985.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

Welcome to the new, reinvented April at FRGCB! Instead of abominations, we're now focused on American publishers, that might or might not begin with the letter A. This year's American April's chosen publishers both start with A, so it's all phonetically appropriate. Of course, this doesn't mean there won't be any abominations here in the future, but I have chosen two rather good games for a change, one of which has been in the to-do list for many years now. This first game, though, is an old Activision favourite of mine, that doesn't seem like any other game ever made, which is what Activision were really good at in the 80's.

Oil Imperium (reLINE/Rainbow Arts, 1989)

Developed by reLINE Software:
Concept by A. Graf von der Schulenburg, Thomas Kruza, Peter Börner, Holger Gehrmann and Tobias Richter.

COMMODORE AMIGA version programmed by A. Graf von der Schulenburg, Thomas Kruza and Peter Börner. ATARI ST version programmed by Simon Gleissner. IBM-PC version programmed by U. Pasch. COMMODORE 64 version programmed by Peter Fröhlich and H. Heinrich.

Graphics by Tobias Richter, and for the C64 version by Peter Fröhlich and Tobias Richter.

Music by Karsten Obarski, and for the ATARI ST and C64 versions by Karsten Obarski and Holger Gehrmann.

Translations by Rachel Gauntlett.

Released for Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, Commodore 64 and IBM-PC compatibles in 1989.

Originally published in Germany by reLINE Software in 1989. Released in Europe by Rainbow Arts, and in North America by Electronic Zoo as "Black Gold".

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INTRODUCTION AND GAME STATUS

Lo and behold, we have a strategy game on our hands this time! Perhaps this occasion should be celebrated with something, because it is a rare thing to happen on this blog. "Why is that?", I'm hearing at least one of you pondering. I admit to not being a huge fan of strategy games in general - although I do enjoy the occasional game of Civilization or Heroes of Might & Magic, that's as far as I have let myself get into it all, because even in my youth, I never liked the idea of a single game taking too much of my time at any given time. Of course nowadays, you can't get all that many games on any platform that would take less than 40-50 hours to complete. In addition to SimCity and Ports of Call, Oil Imperium (or Black Gold for you North Americans out there) was one of the first strategy games that got me hooked, because it was so clearly a light-weight strategy game, made so much more entertaining to gamers like myself by having some nice little action sequences. Like many of my friends at the time, we got to experience this marvel of a game on the Commodore Amiga with its proper title, translated to English, and naturally, cracked to bits, so this entry goes out to all the Amigist friends from my youth.

FRGCB's YouTube channel happenings

It's that time of year again, when the "My Nostalgia Trip Games" series makes its return on FRGCB's YouTube channel, and it's already the seventh season that the series is starting. This season starts off with the only episode on Philips' infamous CD-i console from the early 1990's, and while it's an emulation based episode out of necessity, it is a nostalgic console for me, albeit in a second-hand manner. With this episode, new intro and outro music is introduced, and an alternating intro sequence, which will be different for each episode this season. That also means, this season will be a bit shorter than usual.

TWO-FER #27: Fantasy Software Special

1. The Pyramid

Designed and written by Bob Hamilton, with additional graphics by Darren and Ian Hamilton. Originally published for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum by Fantasy Software in 1983.

Converted for the Commodore 64 by John White, and published by Fantasy Software in 1984.

2. Beaky and the Egg Snatchers

Designed and written by Bob Hamilton, and originally published for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum by Fantasy Software in 1984.

Commodore 64 version by Bob Hamilton and John White, and published by Fantasy Software in 1984.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS, PLURAL

Because the first game comparison for 2025 was so utterly C64-centric, I thought the situation should be balanced out with something that was originally made for another platform. It just so happens, that there were only two games ever published by Fantasy Software, that were available on more than one platform, so I decided we are going to have them both in the same entry. In fact, none of the other games by Fantasy Software were ever ported to any other computer than C64 from the ZX Spectrum, so these two are somewhat special. So, let's see if this attempt at balancing works out.

BMX Kidz (Firebird, 1987)

Designed by Colin Fuidge, Aunty Milton & Captain Creative

Commodore 64 version:
Programming by Jo Bonar and Dave Korn
Graphics by Paul Docherty
Loading screen by Bob Stevenson
Music by Rob Hubbard and Jori Olkkonen
Released by Firebird in 1987

Sinclair ZX Spectrum version:
Programming by Christian Pennycate
Loading screen by Jodie
Released by Firebird in 1988

Amstrad CPC version:
Programming by Christian Pennycate
Graphics by Alex Smith
Released by Silverbird in 1989

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GAME STATUS

To start this year's comparisons on a lighter note, I have chosen one of the earliest Firebird games from my C64 collection, just to feed my nostalgia for a change, but this doesn't mean this is going to be yet another Firebird February here. You can consider as this something like a transition. BMX Kidz is not exactly a game I hear talked about or featured in the Top Insert-A-Number Best C64 Games Lists on the internet, but what it really is, is the closest equivalent to Nintendo's Excitebike that we had for the C64 at the time. And, I suppose, still do, which is an equally good reason to give this game more advertising space.

Unique Games: Afterlife, Part 4

Another four years have passed since the previous UG Afterlife post on the FRGCB, so it felt like a good time to scan through all the usual dedicated platform-centric website forums, game developing competition websites and itch.io to get a wide enough range of all things released since the beginning of 2020. As with the previous Afterlife entries, I shall have to restrict each platform's offerings to four or five, when possible, because otherwise I'd be writing this still well after New Year's Day; and the platforms with clearly less unique and/or exclusive games released for them shall have to be featured more quickly at the end of the entry. With this, I wish you all a happy remainder of this Christmas season; prosperity for the year 2025, and hopefully lots of more new games for old platforms for as long as possible.