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.

FRGR #16: Coloris (Avesoft, 1990)

Developed by Signum Victoriae
Designed by Pertti Lehtinen and Keijo Heljanko
Intro programmed by Keijo Heljanko
Game programmed by Pertti Lehtinen
Graphics by Harri Granholm, Mika Meriläinen and Jyrki Kummola
Music and sound effects by Tor Bernhard Gausen and Jean-Pierre Jandrain
Published for Commodore Amiga by Avesoft in 1990.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

It's that time of year again, where we celebrate the Finnish Independence by reviewing a classic Finnish game from the olden days. This year's chosen title is Coloris from Avesoft, easily one of the best known Finnish games ever released for Commodore Amiga. It was one of the first Amiga games that I ever played, only to find out afterwards, that it was a Finnish game, which somehow didn't occur to me while seeing Signum Victoriae's obviously Finnish logo. I suppose I must have not been too bright at that age. Anyway, Coloris was the first notable Amiga game from Finland, only to have its international release cancelled by the publisher Avesoft due to fear of copyright infringement. Whether it was the right choice or not, I shall leave it for you to decide, because I'm not 100% certain.

Popeye (Nintendo, 1982)

Developed by Nintendo R&D1
Designed by Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto
Programmed by Ikegami Tsushinki (unconfirmed)
Originally published by Nintendo as a Japanese arcade game in 1982, followed by European and American releases by Atari, Inc. in 1982.

Magnavox Odyssey2 / Philips Videopac version was developed and published by Parker Brothers in 1982.

Atari 2600 version was written by Joe Gaucher, and published by Parker Brothers in 1983.

Atari 400/800 version was written by David W. Johnson, and published by Parker Brothers in 1983.

CBS Colecovision and Mattel Intellivision versions were written and published by Parker Brothers in 1983.

Nintendo Famicom version was developed and published by Nintendo in 1983, but wasn't published for the North American and European NES systems until 1986.

Apple II version was developed and published by Software Computer in 1984.

Atari 5200, Commodore 64 and TI-99/4A versions were developed and published by Parker Brothers in 1984.

Timex TX2068 version was written by Amazon Systems and published by Parker Brothers in North America in 1984; the UK counterpart for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum version was unreleased, but has the prototype been salvaged.

An unlicenced clone called Popie was written in 1984 for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum by Simon Freeman, with graphics by Simon Freeman and Dave Hayhoe, but was unreleased until 2015.

Unofficial Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer version was written by Chris Latham, and published as "Sailor Man" by Tom Mix Software in 1984.

Unofficial Commodore 16 & Plus/4 clone named Popeye written by Roby YU in 1988.

Unofficial Commodore Amiga conversion developed by Bignonia:
Programming and graphics by Ard Joosse
Music by Christian Blaha
Published as "The Real Popeye" by Bignonia in 1993.

Unofficial conversion for the 32k expanded Commodore VIC-20 was written by Beamrider in 2015.

Unofficial re-authored version "Popeye ZX" for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was written by Gabriele Amore, with music by Alessandro Grussu, and released as public domain in 2016.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

For the first arcade comparison since Kung-Fu Master from April this year, we now have an even earlier arcade classic by Nintendo, based on one of the best known King Features Syndicate comic strip characters - Popeye the Sailor. This happened while Nintendo were still co-operating on worldwide distribution with Atari, which likely opened up more possibilities with regards to other home conversions. This is, by far, my favourite era in the collective lives of Nintendo and Atari, which resulted in a considerable number of arcade classics also known on many home systems, and I shall be attempting to revisit this era more in the coming year. However, this comparison shall be an anomaly, since we're dealing with no less than 19 different versions of Popeye, which is something I would normally avoid getting into, but knowing there is not all that much content in the game, I decided to go for this one anyway.