Ballblazer (Epyx, 1985)

Designed by David Levine, Peter Langston, David Riordan and Garry Hare.

Originally developed by Lucasfilm Games, Ltd.
Main programming by David Levine
Atari 65XE programming by Aric Wilmunder
Atari 7800 programming by Josh Littlefield and David Payne
Graphics by David Levine and Gary Winnick
Atari music and sounds by Peter Langston
Atari 400/800/65XE version published by Epyx in 1985.
Atari 5200 version published by Atari Corporation in 1986.
Atari 7800 version published by Atari Corporation in 1987.

Commodore 64 conversion by K-Byte, with additional programming by Ron Gilbert, and music by Russell Lieblich.
Published by Epyx in North America, and Activision in Europe in 1985.

Converted for Apple II by K-Byte, and published by Epyx in 1985.
Converted for Sinclair ZX Spectrum by Graeme Devine for Program Techniques, and published by Activision in 1986.
Converted for Amstrad CPC by IC&D, and published by Activision in 1986.
Converted for the MSX computers by Mr. Micro Ltd., and published by Activision in 1987.
Converted and published for Nintendo Famicom by Pony Canyon Inc. in 1988.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

This one has been a long, long time in coming, since a comparison of Ballblazer was first requested by a reader by the handle of "cubamanuel" many years ago. Sorry for the delay, but here it is. The thing is, for the longest time, I couldn't figure out, how to play this game, but some time ago, I realized my mistake being to only try to play the C64 version, which would usually be the most natural and logical choice for me to try out first. Of course, Ballblazer was developed for the Atari computers, and should be played there first, but my "a-ha!" moment actually came through playing the Famicom version after getting that one into my collection a few years ago... which might seem a bit weird, in hindsight, but there's a perfectly good explanation for this, which might become clear eventually.

Being as heavily occupied as I am these days, I found myself in luck, because Gaming History Source had made a video comparison of Ballblazer a long time ago for their YouTube channel, but then I found to my utter horror, that the game Masterblazer on the Amiga and Atari ST is basically an updated version of the same game, but with some new elements, so I have to include a separate segment for Masterblazer near the end of this thing.

Thanatos (Durell Software, 1986)

Designed and programmed for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC by Mike Richardson.
Original graphics by Mike Richardson, with title screen by Jane Richardson.
Music for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum and Amstrad versions by Julian Breeze.

Converted for the Commodore 64 by Rod Barrington, with music by Rob Hubbard.

All versions published by Durell Software in 1986.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

While the majority of my time is still taken by work, and will likely do so for the near future, I have at least settled down enough to start writing some proper comparisons again, but just to ease myself back into the action, I decided to dig up another Durell classic that hadn't been compared on the blog yet. In the case of Thanatos, I was introduced to it through the Commodore 64 version, which I have to admit, didn't hold my interest for very long, mostly due a lack of understanding since my copy didn't have instructions with it - what a shock, eh? Anyway, some 20+ years later on, I bought the original Spectrum version into my collection, and finally started to understand the game's reputation a little bit better.

FRGR #19: Turboraketti (Heikki Kosola, 1992-1993)

Originally written by Heikki Kosola for the Commodore Amiga between 1991 and 1993, and fully published as shareware in 1993.

The game was eventually released as freeware into public domain in 1998.

A PC remake called "Turboraketti Remake 2020" was developed by TapanilanKTT, and released through itch.io in 2020.

NOTE: The floppy disk picture on the left is my personal estimation of what a professionally manufactured disk of the game could have looked like. No such thing exists.

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INTRODUCTION/PRELUDE

Thanks for your patience. Now that I finally have my things set up more or less as they should be, I figured it might be a good idea to get back to blogging with something light-weight, so here's another Finnish Retro Game Review to start things off at my new blogging headquarters. This one puts more weight on the attempt to keep the balance more in the 1990's, and out of all the plausible choices for the Finnish Retro Games I have left to review, Turboraketti is one of the more important and influential ones, making way for an astounding number of cave flying games to pop up from the Finnish independent game developing scene for many years to come.

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!

NGOTY: Yoomp! (Public Domain, 2007)

Designed by Marcin Żukowski
Main programming, tile graphics and level design by Marcin Żukowski
Main graphics by Bartek Wąsiel
Music, main level design and tile graphics by Łukasz Sychowicz
Compression and music routines by Piotr Fusik
Originally developed for the Atari 8-bit computers, and released to public domain in 2007.

A limited edition physical copy of Yoomp! was released in 2008 through the team's website.
https://yoomp.atari.pl/

PC remake called Yoomp! 4K was developed by Jetset Entertainment in 2007. (download link)

Commodore 64 conversion was written by Zbigniew Ross with music by Michał Brzeski, and published by Psytronik Software and RGCD in 2018.
https://rgcddev.itch.io/yoomp-64

Atari 2600 demake called Zkeep! was written by Krzysztof Kluczek and released to public domain in 2023.

Commodore Amiga conversion was written by zr-games, and released through itch.io in 2024.
https://zr-games.itch.io/amiga-yoomp

Atari ST/STe conversion was developed by Dekadence:
Programming by Peter Halin
Graphics by Terho Tanskanen
Music by Johan Halin
Released as a "pay what you will" through itch.io in 2025.
https://dekadencedemo.itch.io/yoomp

A Commodore Amiga 1200 version called Jump! has been in development since 2019 by Machinery Software, with programming by Kefir/Union and music by XTD/Lamers.
http://www.amigajump.com/

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

Things seem to have gone a bit weird on the new-games-for-old-systems front, because it's getting increasingly difficult to come across new games that would be even potentially interesting to do comparisons of, since the most obvious candidates seem to suffer from too much of balanced quality. So, for this year's New Game Of The Year comparison, I decided to dig up a game that is already considered a classic on the 8-bit Atari computers, since Yoomp! was originally released 18 years ago. The reason for the sudden need for a comparison is, because in the last few years, there have been a few conversions/remakes/demakes/whatever of the game, that make it a good game to finally be featured on the blog in this context.

And with this slightly more special entry to end this year, I wish you all a very happy Christmastime (or at least, what's left of it), and the bestest of new years, and further announce that I will be taking time off from the blog at least until February, if not further.