Leaderboard (Access Software/U.S. Gold, 1986)

Originally written for the Commodore 64 by Bruce and Roger Carver.

Atari 800/XL/XE conversion by Kevin M. Homer.

Atari ST conversion by Brent Erickson.

Commodore Amiga conversion by Craig Conder, Hal Rushton and Bryan Brandenburg from Sculptured Software.

Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum conversions by Roy Gibson, Chris Pink, Ian Weatherburn and Simon Butler from Canvas.

Arcadia conversion by Starbuck the Space Cowboy of Soft Arts, Inc. in 1989, with sounds by O.M. Underwood and graphics by Vadron.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

After Raid Over Moscow, it's almost too early for another game from Access Software, but since I'm currently in a mood for finishing off some writings that I started a while ago due to some requests made a longer while ago, then why not this one this time. So, this one goes for Aki V. for making the request for Leaderboard first, and for a couple of other blokes as well for making the additional suggestions to fuel this writing.

Where Time Stood Still (Ocean Software, 1988)

Originally written by John Heap and Fred Gray of Denton Designs for the ZX Spectrum 128k.

Converted for the Atari ST by Ian Brown and Bob Weir, with graphics by Steven Cain.

Credits for the DOS version are currently unknown.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

While Lemon64 was offline for an unnaturally long period, I decided to write about a game that has always somehow intrigued me, but I never really got to play it when it was a new and exciting thing. Since the game was ever available for the 128k Spectrum, DOS and Atari ST (although I didn't even know about the DOS and ST versions until I started digging up information for the Unique Games features), Where Time Stood Still effectively escaped my young gamer experiences. I was very much aware of it, though, as it was advertised in the 1988 Ocean catalogue that came with the box of Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge, bundled with my first Commodore 64, and it was one of the only things in that catalogue that I really wanted to try out. But alas, the experience would only come in the age of emulation, and by that point, it was already too late to make any sort of wow-effect, and my seriously multiplied hatred for isometric adventures didn't help. So, why am I doing this again? Besides the reason mentioned above, I wanted to have a go at the 16-bit conversions and see if it manages to uninspire me any less. Perhaps then, I might understand the game's and the genre's appeal slightly more.

A History of Finnish Games: Appendix

This one has been a long time coming, almost six months, in fact. There are a couple of good reasons for it, though. First of all, let's go back to September of last year, after I had released the first in the series of my own version of a history of Finnish games. I found out that a book about the same subject was in the making, although it would cover more of the commercial side of Finnish game industry all the way to the end of 2013. This book has now been out for a while, and currently it's only available in Finnish - it's called "Sinivalkoinen Pelikirja" (translates to "The Blue-and-White Book of Games"), and the official website is here. So, I decided to wait until the book had been released, to find out if I missed something particularly important from the really early days. And on the 11th of April, 2014, I asked the author, Juho Kuorikoski's permission to use his book as a source for this update entry on my blog, and was granted it. So, thank you very much, mr. Kuorikoski. Secondly, originally I had decided to wait and see whether this subject raised enough interest to require some sort of update on the matter, and seeing now that all the original three parts of the series are in the top 5 of my most viewed entries, I suppose it's time to bring something more to the table, so thanks for all of you readers out there for making this lecturing feel worth the while. Hopefully, some of the information in this appendix entry will be of some worth to all you historians out there as well. However, I feel I need to warn you in case there are any readers out there with a more sensitive mindset - this entry features some highly questionable screenshots from underground games that should not exist. Proceed with caution.

Toobin' (Atari Games/Tengen, 1988)

Original game design by Milt Loper -- Coded by Dennis Harper, Gary Stark and Dusty Rawe -- Animations by Will Noble, Mark West and Deborah Short -- Audio by Brad Fuller and Hal Canon -- Engineered by Gary Stempler and Doug Snyder -- Technics by Dave Wiebenson -- With additional help from Rich Moore, Mike Albaugh, Marty Levy, Jess Melchor, Lyle Rains, Pat McCarthy, Cris Drobny and Marty Viljamaa.

This game has so many conversions, and so many differently compiled teams were working on them, that for the first time ever on this blog, I felt I needed to create a separate full credits list, so let's start with that one. This bit of text is only here to keep the stuff in the main blog page in form. So, if you happen to be on the main page, why don't you click on that "Read more" link below to read more. =P

Donald Duck's Playground (US Gold/Sierra On-Line, 1984)

Designed by Al Lowe and the Walt Disney Personal Computer Software Design and Development Staff.

Written by Al Lowe for the Commodore 64, and released by US Gold in 1984.

Converted for the Commodore Amiga, IBM-PC and Atari ST by Al Lowe, Jeff Stephenson and Chris Iden, with graphics by Mark Crowe, and released by Sierra On-Line in 1986.

Converted for the Apple ][ computers in 1986 and TRS-80 CoCo in 1987 by Al Lowe, Jerry Moore and Doug MacNeill, and released by Sierra On-Line.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

This is the 50th blog entry here, which requires some sort of special thing to celebrate the occasion. So, instead of making a boring celebratory blog post just to mark the occasion, I decided to write something a bit out of the ordinary. For one, it's the second Disney-licenced game to feature on the blog, and it's also the first title on the blog to be originally advertised as educational entertainment. It was mostly aimed for the younger audience, but today, it's nothing if not one of the biggest nostalgy trips for us old C64 folks.