Express Raider (Data East, 1986)

Developed by Data East Corporation and released for the arcades in 1986. Released in North America as "Western Express".

Commodore 64 conversion by Damned House: Programming by Zoltán Kanizsai, Zoltán Czigler, István Rátkai & Ferenc Frank; Graphics by Melinda Legradi; Music and sound effects by Istvan Toth Gy. Published by Data East (US) and U.S. Gold (EU) in 1987.

Amstrad CPC conversion by Paul Zsadanyi, Gergely Gyurkovits, Peter Kovacs and Laszlo Kovacs
for Homega Software. Published by U.S. Gold (EU) in 1987.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum conversion by Paul Zsadanyi, Paul Zsadanyi Jr., Attila Kertesz and Zoltán Farkas
for Homega Software. Published by U.S. Gold (EU) in 1987.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

Some time ago, Reset64 magazine had a train theme on their 13th issue, which inspired me to dig out one of my old C64 favourites, an arcade original called Express Raider, which I had on a compilation called Arcade Alley, a relatively rare compilation with only games by Data East. Ported only to the three major 8-bit home computers, Express Raider seems to be somewhat of a cult classic that's rarely spoken of, but mostly with very rose-tinted glasses stitched over the old gamers' eyes.

Inside Outing (The Edge, 1988)

Design and main programming by Michael St. Aubyn.

Programming for Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum versions by Pamela Roberts for Timedata. Graphics for Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC versions by Michael St. Aubyn. Graphics for the ZX Spectrum version by Mike Smith. Music for the 8-bit versions by Wally Beben.

Originally published for Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum by The Edge in 1988. Alternative titles were "Raffles" in Germany and Epyx's release "Devon Aire in the Hidden Diamond Caper" in North America.

Atari ST and Commodore Amiga versions:
Atari ST programming by Michael St. Aubyn, Commodore Amiga programming by Glyn Kendall; Graphics by Mike Marchant; Sounds by Dave Lowe. Published as "Raffles" in Europe by The Edge, and "Devon Aire in the Hidden Diamond Caper" in North America by Epyx in 1989.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

FRGCB's long time readers might recognize my general indifference towards isometrically viewed 3D arcade adventure games, but the keyword there is "general". I do like them when they are comfortable to play, and The Edge's Inside Outing just about crosses that threshold for me, which is why I've had this game lurking for its moment on my to-do list for a few years now. A request from a Lemon64 forum user by the name of MinerWilly (apparently a fellow countryman, too!) forced me to finally let this beast have its share of blog space.