SPECIAL: Mastertronic Exclusives

For many years, I've been thinking about writing about games by some of my favourite publishers that aren't particularly unique, and don't really fit in elsewhere because of their general nature of being kind of mediocre, but should probably be mentioned in some context anyway. So, finally, I figured I could replace the Unique Games series with a new one, and write just about games exclusively released on a certain platform by the chosen publisher (or perhaps include games that were only released on two very similar platforms), and since this month has been dedicated to Mastertronic games since 2020, what better time to start this new tradition, particularly as there's a Mastertronic book coming out later this year.

Since Mastertronic was one of the most prolific publishers of its time, which lasted roughly from 1983 to 1988 before merging with Virgin Group, there are undoubtedly many games exclusively released for just one platform by them, so I shall divide this article by the platforms, going alphabetically (the games, not the platforms), and write about four selected games for each platform, where at least so many are available.

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AMSTRAD CPC

Conveniently, I can start off this list with a game I came to know only after getting my very own Amstrad CPC 464, not much more than a year ago, and include another one within the first four games.


1. The Apprentice (1986)

Written by James Higgins, who went on to work on such classics as Arkanoid: Revenge of Doh, Combat School and Total Recall, The Apprentice is an action-adventure in the style of Sorcery, which was a huge Amstrad hit in 1985. The idea is to collect items and deliver them to other wizards like
yourself, who will then pay you with silver rings.

It's not a particularly well-made game, but certainly good enough to raise an interest in Ocean Software's headquarters to hire Higgins for a few arcade ports. The main problem with The Apprentice is a fairly common one with games of this age; as this is a flip-screen adventure/maze game, enemies move about in a certain manner and have their points of origin, and respawn to the exact same spot each time you enter the screen, so if you don't take care, you might get stuck in a death loop.

Other than that, it's a nice, if a bit common example of the genre, but certainly not nearly the worst Mastertronic ever put out. Good filler for your collection, too.


2. Dr. Scrimes' Spook School (1988)

Here's an intriguing adventure game that makes things a little bit more difficult than necessary. In Dr. Scrimes' Spook School, you first need to define a whopping 12 keys to play the game with, one by one, so you can't really tell what to expect, unless you either have the original tape or you've gone through this sequence more often than you'd like to think.

For a Mastertronic game, Spook School feels surprisingly ambitious, as it starts off with a fairly lengthy intro animation, showing the cast of characters on a different scale than what you see in the game. Once the game starts, you need to find Dr. Scrimes from a room at the other end of the hallway to actually find out what you are supposed to do.

Eight tasks must be completed in order to become a "spook smasher", which is one of the strangest goals in 8-bit flip-screen adventure games that I have come across. Also, since the game's graphical style is close enough to games like Pyjamarama et al, it seems a bit odd to have the focus on more adventure-oriented actions than walking and jumping. Speaking of which, you can only jump straight up in this game, and it doesn't really seem to help much in terms of avoiding enemy contact, but eventually, you'll find a gun and bullets to shoot the spooks with. Not really the same level of epicness as Ghostbusters, but there's potential.

That is, until you realize, the entire game is basically about filling all the holes in the walls of Dr. Scrimes' mansion, with each task being more about what items to use to fill the holes. For what, frankly, is really more or less a joke rather than a solid game, Dr. Scrimes' Spook School is certainly more complex and challenging than it's actually worth. Still, good for filling up your collection.



3. Flyspy (1986)

A familiar name from the Island of Dr. Destructo is behind this action/adventure that owes a lot to games like Airwolf, Fort Apocalypse and any adventure game that allows you to carry more than one item at a time. Regardless of all that, Richard Aplin's first of many game credits on the CPC feels like nothing precisely that I've played before, which in this case can be considered a positive thing.

You control a small helicopter-like device in a vast cavernous maze not dissimilar to early Gremlin and Interceptor games, in that the environment feels unpleasantly crowded and devoid of efficient maneouvering space. At least you're not so delicate as to explode when colliding with a wall. Maneouvering the Flyspy device is perhaps the most surprising thing about the game, because you fly around by adjusting a meter for climbing and diving, kind of in a similar vein to Lunar Lander, but with no focus on actual gravity.

In order to make progress, you need to pick up and use items similarly to any regular adventure game. Another big surprise in Flyspy is the teleport system, which uses randomly generated codes for each game, so you can't really cheat your way to other teleports. There are also checkpoints, which is a very welcome feature in this kind of a game, because you also have an energy meter and a fuel gauge, both of which get constantly depleted, although you do get refills here and there.

Flyspy might not be the most impressive of games, but in the Mastertronic catalogue, it's certainly one of the better Amstrad exclusives, and I highly recommend it.



4. Radzone (1986)

Similarly to the Apprentice from earlier, Radzone is another flip-screen action game, in which you can move around in all directions in not quite as free a manner as you would suspect. The idea is quite similar to Jet Set Willy and such other games, as you need to collect all the designated items from the map before the game can be brought to an end. Only this time, the items are radioactive waste, and they slowly disintegrate your protective suit until you dispose of every bit of waste.

If you have ever played Fahrenheit 3000 on the ZX Spectrum, the plot is certainly a familiar one, but the gameplay is very different indeed. In some ways, Radzone is a platformer, but it's also a maze game that allows you to walk freely on certain surfaces and enter new rooms through marked exits on any side of the screen, if the room allows it. It takes a few tries to get behind the logic of the game, but it's definitely a grower.


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COMMODORE 16

The Commodore machines are bound to be over-represented in this blog entry, so let's start going through them in a... I suppose a numerical order is as good as any. The C16 was the platform of origin for many well-known Mastertronic titles, but here's a few exclusives you might have missed, that haven't been mentioned in any of the Unique Games articles yet.


1. Dingbat (1988)

Shaun "Sout" Southern is one of the most recognized names from the C16 Hall of Fame, and was easily the most productive member of Mr. Chip Software, who produced a lot of games for Mastertronic before becoming Magnetic Fields in the late 1980's. Dingbat from 1988 was one of the last titles, and was based on a game called Jetbrix from 1986, published by Gremlin Graphics, which itself was based on a Vic-20 game called Brickblaster, a game Sout published in Computer & Video Games magazine in 1982.

More simply put, Dingbat is a high-tension, high-energy variation of Jet-Pac, in which you can only move left and right, and your only method of altering your altitude is to press the fire button, which uses the jetpack and fires your weapon simultaneously. The difference to Jet-Pac is, that you don't start off collecting things right away, but the idea is to collect a certain amount of gems that drop from the sky after you have killed enough enemies. It's obviously more of a joke than a real game, but it manages to be playable enough to be fun and addicting in spite of itself. Highly recommended!

2. Megabolts (1986)

The problem with maze games is, that they tend to look too much like any other, so you can't always really tell if there's anything interesting lurking behind the screenshots on the retrogaming websites. I didn't get to know the hidden gem that is Megabolts (or Megabolt, as the title screen says), a game from Simon and Stuart Cross (again from Mr. Chip Software), exactly because it never looked particularly interesting while browsing the Plus/4 World archive.

Megabolts are little creatures that have invaded the undisclosed area of 64 screens, and you need to dispose of them by any means possible. They occasionally lay down time bombs, which you need to run over before they go off, and then you also need to watch out for triangular yellow spinners. Your cross-shaped vessel also has a fuel concern, which can be refilled from fuel containers dropped by dead Megabolts. The cool thing about Megabolts, the game, is that you can actually move the surrounding walls by running into them and shooting, which can be to your advantage. Although it's certainly a cheap-looking game with seemingly basic gameplay style, it's surprisingly fun and addicting. Definitely one of Mastertronic's finer moments on the C16.



3. Powerball (1986)

Not quite as fine a moment, but definitely worth a look: Powerball from Patrick Strassen. It has nothing to do with either the gyroscopic Powerball wrist training device or the American lottery game, but it rather bears more resemblance to the bouncy synthetic rubber toy ball called Superball. Why Strassen decided to go for Powerball (or Power Ball) when giving a title for the game, might have something to do with copyrights or trademarks or whatever.

But Powerball doesn't survive a nuclear blast, unlike Superball, so I'm not really sure what Strassen was going for with this one. You can give the ball various levels of bounce, which obviously makes it go further. Of course, you can't control the ball in mid-flight. The object of the game is to collect golden chalices and avoid hitting harmful objects. It's sort of like Impossaball from Hewson, only in a completely 2D environment and more platformish than a pure gravity puzzle. Because the element of gravity isn't all that well realized into this game, making progress in the game can sometimes be difficult, but despite everything, you can get sucked into Powerball quite easily. For a C16 game, it's moderately enjoyable.



4. Xadium (1987)

The fourth C16 title is a double-genre action game from Michaelanglo Pignani at his only game program, with graphics from Andrew Morris. You start on the surface of the planet Xadium, where you need to race through an endless set of gates in a similar 3D style to the old Buck Rogers arcade game, but the gates get narrower as you get closer to the end. Hitting a gate pole will decrease your fuel, but missing a gate decrease your fuel a bit less, so quick thinking is required on the way.

If you ever manage to pass the gates, you are taken to an underground cavern system, now showing the action from a traditional 2D side-view. Again, you race against the clock, but this time you also need to shoot your way through enemies and obstacles, although avoiding contact is just as recommended. At least you now have three lives to buffer your inevitable crashes. For a C16 game, Xadium is unusually multi-layered, and while it plays far from perfect, it's still a highly recommended C16 title from Mastertronic.


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COMMODORE VIC-20

The oldest of Commodore machines possible for this article had plenty of exclusive titles that were, more often than not, clones of other classic games that the game developers of old didn't necessarily even bother to ask for official conversion rights. But there were some nice, less obvious gems in the midst of all that other stuff that need not be mentioned.


1. Crazy Cavey (1985)

Our second Stuart Cross title for this article, yet for another platform, is Crazy Cavey, and the only one he ever made for the VIC-20. His third and last known game, Cyberdroids, was written for the Commodore 16, and published by Mr. Chip Software. But while Crazy Cavey might be the most simplistic of his games, I dare say it's also the most recognizable.

It's a ladder-based platforming game, in which you collect keys and avoid colliding into enemies that have very restricted movement patterns. The graphics are large enough to warrant closer comparison to games like Fast Eddie and Miner 2049'er, yet the game does have its fair share of elements from Manic Miner. Visually, the only variable is the enemies, which look different on every level, but it's really the level designs that make the game as enjoyable as it is.



2. King Tut (1985)

Probably my favourite VIC-20 game from Mastertronic is this maze game, King Tut. The thing that separates King Tut from other run-of-the-mill maze-style arcade games, is nothing more than a nice lighting trick.

You need to collect as much of treasures as you can possibly find, but you cannot really exit the tomb before you have found the large golden headstone of King Tut himself. Unless you're phenomenally quick, you might have to try to find the exit in almost complete darkness, because the torch you carry from the beginning of a level will go off before too long. As far as I know, there aren't much of moving enemies in the tomb, but I have only played the game until the second level so far. Still, good and simple fun, and I highly recommend it.



3. Psycho Shopper (1984)

The only game from the VIC-20 list to require a RAM expansion (4kb or 8kb), Psycho Shopper (a.k.a. Shopper) is not much more than a Frogger clone. At least not until you get to the final part of the game, which is the supermarket section, in which you need to grab the trolley and collect everything you can in the very brief time period, before exiting through the cashier.

Perhaps I'm simplifying it a bit by calling it a Frogger clone, since you actually have to collect money from each of the three road-crossing screens before you get to the actual shopping screen, and you can't get to the next screen before you have collected all the money. It's a tough little bugger, this, but addicting enough to get you going at it for a while.



4. Rest In Peace (1984)

Also known as R.I.P. The Game, this one is a fairly basic maze action game, if unnecessarily random in some ways. The title might certainly be about the inevitability of your death in the game, for that you will do quite a lot, but I would hazard a guess it was selected as the title because the only bit of music you hear in the game is the short bit everybody knows of the Funeral March, and it repeats ad nauseam.

Still, for a VIC-20 game from 1984, and a Mastertronic one in particular, it's not exactly the worst of the bunch. The room designs are interesting, the random enemy behaviour keeps you constantly on your toes, and the clunky method shooting in the axis you were moving last is something to get used to, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Also, the odd title that makes you intrigued about what awaits you at the end of the game, if not death.


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SINCLAIR ZX SPECTRUM

Elsewhere in the 8-bit arena, the almighty ZX Spectrum was blessed with quite possibly the largest amount of platform-exclusive Mastertronic games. While several of them were certainly the usual sub-par ordeal, there were a few solid classics amongst them as well.


1. Alcatraz Harry (1984)

Just to start off with the right foot, Alcatraz Harry is one of those "so bad it's kind of good" games, that are infuriatingly dodgy to play, but have a certain amount of humour in them - whether it's intentional or not - that you can at least get a good laugh out of them. Funnily enough, the game even had a sequel despite it being more or less butchered by the gaming press at the time. But then, Barry Jones developed himself a peculiar history of producing sub-par games for the ZX Spectrum.

So, why is Alcatraz Harry deserving of its questionable fame? Well, it wasn't one of the prettiest games around even in 1984, and the way the game played felt like an exercise in BASIC game programming. To top that, there is an element of randomness to the game that makes it practically impossible to predict, which is a bit of a nuisance, when the key element of the game is to get into random holes in the ground to see if you can find some secret documents or will you be captured and shot dead instead.

Despite all that, and perhaps precisely because of all that, Alcatraz Harry is a funny game that is easy to get back into. What's more, it's a game of strategy and suspense, even though it's all fairly preliminary. The randomly generated game map is also what makes Alcatraz Harry infinitely replayable, if you can get past the cheapness factor. If you somehow got interested in trying out this game, note that it only works on either a real 48k Spectrum or a 128k Spectrum in 48k mode.



2. Future Games (1986)

As a title, Future Games could practically mean anything, because you can not really have a preconception of what specific kinds of games would the title suggest. That is, unless you happened to be a fan of Epyx's famous multi-event sport game series, in which all the titles had the word "Games" in it. Future Games is basically that, only reimagined as what sorts of games would mankind be playing in the future, were we to occupy the outer space.

There are practically 6 events in Future Games, although one of them is actually a link between all the other events, so if you decide not to practice the events, you will have to play the link level between each of the 5 "regular" events. Of course, being a space-oriented game, none of the events can be described quite as simply as you would in a decathlon-type game.

Because Future Games was designed for the 48k Spectrum, there's a bit too much of data for the game to be contained in one load, so instead, it loads up in two parts. The first part of the game features three events, as well as the link level which is a top-down horizontally scrolling shoot'em-up. Event #1 requires you to walk through a corridor, jump and crawl past obstacles and throw grenades at hostile droids, then access a computer and get back to the start line. Event #2 is a reflex event, in which you need to dodge plasma spheres fired at you from deep space, by jumping over three synthesized asteroid rocks. Event #3 is a cheap imitation of the game Defender, or Dropzone, to be more precise, since you're flying around as a man with a jetpack, instead of a spacecraft. Event #4 is more or less a pigeon shooting event with an infinite amount of bullets, and the final event is a joystick-waggling running event, in which you need to run away from a hungry beast hunting you. Of course, if you manage to beat the game, you're in for a fairly traditional sports game-like closing ceremonies.

The only problem is, that most of the events are brutally hard, and others are very light-weight by comparison. It might take a lot of practice to beat the game in its full form, but I do consider it worth the bother. The variety is very well-thought, the gameplay is harsh but fair, the graphics are rather nice and even impressive at times, and the soundtrack is made by none other than my favourite 8-bit game composer of all time, Tim Follin. Very much recommendable.




3. Level 5 (1987)

Another surprise is this multi-directional shooter that has one of the worst, or at least the most uninteresting titles of all time. Level 5's title refers to your goal, as you control a droid trapped in an alien spacecraft, and you need to traverse through the craft's four levels and find the passage to the fifth level to escape the hostile environment.

Level 5 feels surprisingly like Paradroid from C64, as it is viewed from a similar angle (instead of isometric 3D, as in Quazatron); it uses elevators to get to other parts of the spacecraft; and you can use certain platforms on each level to recharge your energy and weapons. Of course, in order to not be too much like Paradroid, you can only control your humble self, and what's more interesting, the enemies you destroy will respawn as more powerful creatures elsewhere. It's a tough game, but interesting and singular enough to require a bit more time put into it than you might judge from the reviews and ratings.



4. Rescue (1988)

Perhaps one could call Rescue an archetype of a Spectrum-specific flip-screen maze-styled action-adventure game, but that would only be the first impression. What makes Rescue special is the actual mission and how you're supposed to go about accomplishing it.

Your game starts from the small escape pod attached to the United Nations' Deep Space Research Base, which is being invaded by alien forces. Your mission is to locate the scientists from their personal chambers all over the base, and guide them to the escape pod and take their experiments with you. The trick is, you can only do that once they become distracted enough to start wandering about in their quarters, but luckily, that happens one at a time.

The escape pod also needs to be filled with fuel, so you need to find 8 fuel drums to use for the escape pod, and make sure the aliens won't get their hands on them. Most of the environment and items can be destroyed, so you really need to take care not to cause damage where you shouldn't. The problem is, the aliens are easily able to cause damage as well, so it's really a race against time to deal with the aliens, get the escape craft ready for launch, and get all the scientists and their experiments into the escape craft alive and well. Happily, there are plenty of teleports that you can use to hasten your endeavours.

In short, Rescue is a somewhat overlooked gem of a game because it resembles too many similarly attired games of the genre, but it certainly deserves a bit of time and thought put into.

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COMMODORE 64

Much like ZX Spectrum above, Commodore's main competitor machine had more than its fair share of exclusive Mastertronic titles, so I had to really dig up to find the most interesting ones.


1. Aqua (1984)

A properly hidden gem from Mr. Chip Software was only ever released on a free cassette, which hasn't been quite confirmed yet, whether it was bundled with a magazine, or if it was handed out at computer fairs or what. So, the chances of anyone actually owning an original copy of this game are pretty slim.

Aqua is a surprisingly challenging and addictive arcade-style game that feels like a cross between Pac-Man and Anteater, but the game takes place underwater, so it is considerably slower than either of those. This underwater element also adds to the difficulty in requiring the player to get back up every once in a while, to fill up the oxygen meter. Another thing to set Aqua apart from its sources of inspiration is the simultaneous two-player mode. Considering all the sub-par nonsense made with The Games Creator that Mastertronic put out in their early days, Aqua feels like at least a £2.99 game from that period.



2. Hunter Patrol (1985)

Best remembered for its Rob Hubbard -penned jolly marching theme tune, Steve Lee's Hunter Patrol was always a bit of a missed opportunity. Originally, Steve (the writer of the two Falcon Patrol games) meant to have this game use the cockpit view, but apparently, the controls were so much trouble to get working that it ended up in the behind-view version that we see in the final product, again adopting a similar style to Sega's arcade game Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom.

The way this game works is, you fly a fighter plane and shoot any enemy vessels that you see, whether they're flying or on the ground. By shooting down enemies, you decrease the distance to the main target, which is a bit odd, but there you go. I can't remember if I have ever actually managed to destroy the main target in the first level, but I couldn't be bothered with trying too long with it now, because the control method is so awkwardly slow and difficult to handle. But the music is great, at least.



3. Kromazone (1988)

Although the C64 portion of Mastertronic games is my area of expertise, at least comparatively to other platforms, Kromazone I had never played until making research for this entry. And what a happy new discovery it was! Although it's one of those brutally difficult games that you can't completely understand the point of at first, but you get better each time you play it.

Kevin T. Green's Kromazone is a first-person rail shooter of sorts. However, the first level is an avoid'em-up, where you just need to pass through the field of flying rocks or whatever. So far, I have managed to get to the third level, which along with the second level, is a shooting level, in which you can still move your vehicle left and right, but you now aim your laser weapon by moving the joystick up and down. The difficulty in aiming is, that there is no crosshair or other indicator for the weapon's aim, and you just have to follow the laser's vertical point. While it's not the most inspirational shooter of its kind, it is more enjoyable than many others of its sort that came before it for the C64.



4. Night Racer (1988)

The only latter day Mastertronic game (at least, before they merged with Virgin) that I used to play a lot back in the day was this somewhat understated racing game, also written by Kevin T. Green. Night Racer draws its gameplay style from old C64 racing classics like Pitstop II and Super Cycle, except you race against one particular opponent over the course of 5 increasingly difficult segments of road, with lots of unpredictable traffic.

There is a thematically appropriate mood in the game, created by the night-time road surrounded by a never-ending dark forest and moody music between stages. As you would expect, though, the game becomes almost unbearably difficult close to the end, mostly because of the timer, which keeps count of the very finite amount of bonus time in case you lose to your main opponent. Not that it isn't unbearably difficult from the start, since you realize the importance of winning every stage around the time you realize you've lost the first time. There are only around 5-6 seconds of bonus time to begin with, which practically means that you basically need to win the first two segments, and the last two segments need to go as perfectly as possible in order to actually complete the game. I can proudly say that I have completed Night Racer a few times, but it is still an insanely suspenseful 10 minutes to go through. Very frustrating, but also very addicting.



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OTHER 8-BITS

Naturally, not all platforms were created equal, so even some of the more well-known 8-bit platforms got a lesser amount of exclusive games. As far as I know, only the usual Acorn duo and the 8-bit Atari computers had some Mastertronic in their catalogue that were out of the usual set of conversions.


1. Galactic Patrol (BBC/ELECTRON, 1984)

Nothing to do with the Falcon Patrol and Hunter Patrol games, this is still very much a shoot'em-up game, obviously set in space. At least, this one is played in different types of sections, starting with a cross-hair section, followed by a pseudo-3D'ish third-person section, and then there's an avoid'em-up section and a couple of docking sections.

Galactic Patrol seems to have taken some inspiration from games like Missile Command and Moon Cresta, but it feels handcrafted enough to give it a unique feel. The most impressive thing about this game is the title screen, which is a bit over-the-top in all its cheapness, but that's nothing if not a good reason to check out this game. Not highly recommended, but also not nearly the worst game I've played on the BBC Micro.



2. Thunderball (BBC/ELECTRON, 1984)

Here's a type of breakout variant that you don't see very often, probably for very good reasons. But the fact that it's a breakout game that bears the same title as one of the earliest Bond movies should have been a good incentive to at least try to be a bit creative and attempt to somehow use the Bond name to the game's commercial advantage. Alas, there is no such foolishness to be found here.

Thunderball is played in three sections, and is only to be played by two human players. The first section is really the only properly breakout'ish section in the game, and it takes ages to get to the second section, because the bricks between the players' bats and the middle lane are all a single pixel high, and there are 80 rows of bricks to break through to get to the second layer of bricks, which thankfully can be destroyed with a single hit. The idea then is to hit the bullet icons (at least that's what I think they are) in the middle row, which switches your control to what looks like the ball, and the second section's mission is to shoot the middle conveyor belt to claim all the ammunition pods within.

So, the purpose of the first and second sections is to gather ammunition for the third section, which is the actual battle between the two players. You control some sort of vehicle that moves automatically and bounces off from walls, and you just need to steer the vehicle. You are advised to shoot the other player, but the main object is to get fuel for your tank, and the first player to have a full reserve tank wins the game. It's a really odd concept, and stupidly time-consuming to play, but it's worth a look.



3. Crystal Raider (ATARI 8-BIT, 1986)

Again, the 8-bit Atari series of computers is one of those that has had its fair share of Mastertronic games featured in the Unique Games series, but Crystal Raider had been left out of that series because it's not particularly unique. It's a fairly enjoyable maze-like platformer, though, in which you do nothing more than walk and jump around, avoid contact with enemies and collect all the crystals.

The fun aspect of Crystal Raider comes in the protagonist's ability to jump to any possible height. This might take a bit getting used to, when most platforming games give you a certain height and arc of sorts for your jumps, but here, your jumps are fully controllable - at least, as far as the game allows you to, because there's also a character block -based movement limitation (8 pixels at once). While this is all good fun, the game's graphics are unspeakably boring, and make the game almost unbearable to play more than two minutes at a time.



4. Power Down (ATARI 8-BIT, 1987)

It seems like I've found a new addiction for Atari gaming with this one. Power Down is a top-down maze shooting game with high emphasis on puzzles, and with this game, I realized that I have always loved games that have graphics that are small and efficient, yet they do not necessarily have a clear look of anything in particular. Power Down has that bit down exceptionally well.

You control a small ship of undisclosed sort, and you move around inside a fortress built on an asteroid. You can shoot in the four cardinal directions, and doing so can destroy red boxes, stun the blue moving things called Argoniks, open and close doors, as well as move crystals. You need to watch out for laser beams and triangular force fields, which will kill you instantly, but they toggle on and off in a steady rhythm, so you need to work out your way around everything based on that.

The Argoniks, named after the evil mastermind behind all this, are lethal to touch, but they move around in a similarly pre-meditated manner as certain monsters in Boulder Dash, and they are able to turn indestructible white boxes into red ones. You also need to use the Argoniks at later stages in your mission, to manipulate a passcode system. Eventually, you will come face to face with the evil mastermind Argon himself, and even that confrontation has been made into a puzzle.

The game has a time limit of one hour, so you need to be quick in going about your business. Of course, it takes a while to figure out how to deal with everything, but that's all part of the fun. If the cheap-looking graphics don't put you off, and puzzle games are your thing, Power Down is a highly recommendable Atari-exclusive.



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16-BITS

Finally, we have a few odd 16-bit exclusives, that are, as usual, a bit hit-and-miss. None of the three platforms featured here - Atari ST, Commodore Amiga or IBM-PC compatibles, had too many Mastertronic games in their catalogue to begin with, so finding exclusives at all was a bit of a surprise.


1. The Last Trooper (ATARI ST, 1989)

Here's a rare example of an adventure game viewed in isometric 3D, that I actually enjoy playing, and I haven't even known about this game's existence for more than a year or so. Unlike most isometric adventure games, though, The Last Trooper is level-based, so in a way, it has a more modern approach to these sorts of adventure, or even strategy games, and each level has its own mission to accomplish. In a way, it reminds me more of games like Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines and such, rather than Knight Lore and its ilk.

But make no mistake, this is a Mastertronic game, which means it has a certain level of cheapness to it. This time, the cheapness comes across in the form of a lack of playtesting, as the game really is brutally difficult. It doesn't help that there are no full instructions to be found on the internet, so you need to trust your gut instincts to figure out exactly what you're supposed to do. The mission, apparently, is to first break out of the POW camp, and then infiltrate the enemy base and destroy some highly important thing, but while the initial premise is simple enough to figure, the onslaught of constantly respawning enemies is a bit too harsh to make the game especially enjoyable. But it's not impossible, so if you think you're trooper enough, grab this one on your Atari ST.



2. Outcast / Renegade (ATARI ST, 1987)

Now here's a type of game you don't often see mentioned on this blog: a first-person 3D shoot'em-up with polygon graphics. It's not a simulation, however, not by far. Rather, it's a straight-forward futuristic shoot'em-up that just happens to take the appearance of a flight simulator.

It has been speculated, that Sculptured Software was making a Star Raiders sequel for the Atari ST, but ended up getting it published through Mastertronic as Outcast. The game was published in North America as Renegade, which is a bit odd choice for a title, seeing as it would have easily gotten confused with the famous beat'em-up game. But Outcast is simple and fun blasting, that doesn't take itself too seriously. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone in particular, but if this was 1987 and you wanted to buy something worth a laugh for your Atari ST, preferably cheap, this would be an obvious choice.



3. TASAR / Space Ranger (AMIGA/ARCADIA, 1987)

To my utter disappointment, the only Amiga-exclusive Mastertronic game I could find turned out to not be a very interesting one. TASAR (short for Terran Armed Search and Rescue) is nothing more than a clone of Defender with funky graphics, but it was designed to be played on the keyboard, or a pad, because it uses two fire buttons: one for firing your weapon and the other for throwing down a net for catching the critters you need to rescue.

The only thing truly interesting about it is it's extreme rarity, yet it was still re-released as an Arcadia coin-op machine in 1988 as Space Ranger. Oddly enough, the Arcadia version is a bit easier than the original Amiga version, but happily, you can also find the Amiga disk image for Space Ranger, if you feel like having a go. That one's somewhat more recommendable, although I still cannot honestly call it more than a passable curiosity.



4. Metropolis (DOS, 1987)

Here's a game I wanted to like so bad, when I first read about it on the old Home of the Underdogs abandonware website. Metropolis is a strange adventure game that is played both by moving your character in a graphical environment similarly to games like Andy Capp and Pyjamarama, and by writing text into speech bubbles. In effect, the game is very much conversation-driven, which apparently is a first for any game.

Metropolis is actually a detective/crime-solving type of an adventure game, although your character does not look much like a crimefighter. Your plot opens up when you follow the droid asking you to do so, and you will eventually find a mission waiting for you at a game developing studio, quite a long way out from the starting point. Unfortunately, the game is awkward to navigate, since the city you walk around in is quite large with plenty of unoccupied space to make your game sessions 90% longer than would be necessary. A map screen would have been nice to navigate on, but as it is, the game consists too much of walking around aimlessly compared to being able to do some investigating.

Another grievance is the absolutely relentless digitized speech, which goes through every bit of dialogue and cannot be turned off. What I would suggest, if you ever decide to have a proper attempt at getting somewhere in the game, is to use Tandy mode in your DOSbox, because that way, the speech bits don't work properly, and get over quicker. The downside of the Tandy version is, you cannot make it as quick on general terms as in regular EGA mode. Regardless of all that, Metropolis is a game I would like to learn to appreciate more than I do currently, and it is one of the rare DOS-exclusive Mastertronic games arguably worth knowing.



5. Street Fighting Man (DOS, 1989)

Finally, we go back to the isometric 3D format, but this time it's all action and no puzzles, at least as far as I can tell. Street Fighting Man is comparable to Mastertronic's earlier 8-bit classic, Ninja, in many ways. First, that it's much simpler than it appears. Second, the way the game develops is similar - the closer you get to your goal, the more enemies are thrown at you (mostly), and you can pick up weapons to aid you on your way. Otherwise, kicking and punching are your methods of persuasion, and you have separate keys for all three actions.

What Street Fighting Man does differently from the usual lot of fighting games is, your strength level raises each time you knock down a gang member. You also have a macho level indicator, which gives the game that little bit more character to make it a fun experience. Street Fighting Man is one of those cult classics that you never hear anyone talk about, but is loved by all who had the chance to play it when it was new, and is rated surprisingly highly on abandonware sites.



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FINAL WORDS

If you felt like some important games were left out from this article, it's very likely that I have already mentioned some of these games in the Unique Games series. From a quick search, I found these games from that part of the blog: Agent X in the Brain Drain Caper (ZX Spectrum), Despatch Rider (Atari 8-bit), the Exploits of Fingers Malone (Commodore 16), Mr. Puniverse (Commodore 16/+4), and Oblido (Commodore 16). Some other exclusive games for various platforms here do exist, but I had to draw a line somewhere.

Personally, I don't count the time Mastertronic was merged with Virgin as part of the classic era, although it can't be denied Virgin Mastertronic certainly had its fair share of classic games released. Just to name a few, there was Continental Circus, Dan Dare III: The Escape, Gemini Wing, Golden Axe, Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off-Road (which will be getting its own comparison later this year), Shinobi and Supremacy. Along with the merging, though, the number of exclusive titles for different platforms decreased alarmingly, which is basically why I didn't feel like including any of those here.

All the well-known classics are, for the most part, what built most of our personal gaming histories and connect us retrogamers to each other, but I have long felt that it's the hidden gems that are often platform-exclusive titles from publishers such as Mastertronic, that make each specific platform as special as they are. Then again, it also needs to be remembered, that certain publishers concentrated almost exclusively on certain platforms - valid examples being Superior Software focusing mostly on the Acorn computers, and Microdeal focusing mostly on the Dragon 32/64. Anyway, I expect to be returning to this topic at least once later this year.

Next month will probably be another relatively quiet month, at least here on the blog, but keep an eye on FRGCB's YouTube channel for more videos. Until the next time, thanks for reading, and please leave a comment if you feel like a comment is required.