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.

---

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.

---

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.

FRGCB's Let's Play series continues with a new episode!

It's time to do another Let's Play video for a change, and today's game is Actman on the MSX, a relatively obscure single-screen platformer that I managed to acquire as a cartridge into my collection some time ago.

I was planning on creating another three or four Let's Play episodes back-to-back after finishing off this season of My Nostalgia Trip Games, but due to some health issues, I haven't been able to record all the necessary material for the final episode of MNTG. So, this one Let's Play was recorded about a month ago, and now acts as a substitute for the postponed MNTG episode. Perhaps more Let's Plays will be made next month, but we'll see how long my illness remains. Meanwhile, a comparison with a third-party video accompaniment is being prepared to be released later this month.

Push-Over (Ocean, 1992)

Developed by Red Rat Software.
Concept by Chris Partington.
Design by Harry Nadler, Helen Elcock, Avril Rigby, Don Rigby and Chris Waterworth.
Licenced from Smiths Crisps Ltd.
Box art by John Haslam.

ATARI ST version:
Programming by Dave Elcock, Helen Elcock and Keith Watterson. Graphics by Bryan King, Barry S. Armstrong, John Palmer and William Harbison. Music and sound effects by Keith Tinman, Dean Evans and Jonathan Dunn.

COMMODORE AMIGA and IBM-PC versions:
Programming by Dave Elcock, Helen Elcock and Keith Watterson. Graphics by Bryan King and Barry S. Armstrong. Music and sound effects by Keith Tinman, Dean Evans and Jonathan Dunn.

SUPER NINTENDO version by Red Rat Software; further details unknown.

All versions released by Ocean Software in 1992.

---

INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

After 11 years of blogging almost entirely about games from the 1980's, it has been brought to my attention that games from the 90's should be included as well, so I'm now trying to gradually ease my way into that area. Mind you, games from the 90's were not nearly as different across different platforms as what the 80's had, so the focus will still be largely on the 80's stuff. For now, though, the first comparison from the 90's since the comparison of The Simpsons: Bart vs. Space Mutants from 2021, is another Ocean game - the newest classic era game on the blog so far.

Match Day (Ocean Software, 1984)

Designed and written by Jon Ritman and Chris Clarke for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, with sounds by Guy Stevens. Published by Ocean Software in 1984.

Acorn BBC Micro version by Chris Roberts, and published by Ocean Software in 1985.

Amstrad CPC/PCW version by Sentient Software Ltd, and published by Ocean Software in 1985.

Commodore 64 version by Mercury Microwave:
Programming and graphics by Derek Ham and Paul Thomas Ralphs, with music by Martin Galway.
Published by Ocean Software in 1986 in "They Sold A Million II" compilation; no standalone release is known to exist.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128k updated version released as "International Match Day" was written by Jon Ritman and Chris Clarke, with loading screen by Frederick David Thorpe. Published by Ocean Software in 1986.

---

INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

Ocean October 2024 starts off with a game that all the retrogamers out there will already know, which version will lose the most spectacularly. I'm not completely sure, though, whether Match Day is really a game we need to put too much energy into comparing, though, because ever since football games went over to the 16-bits, trying to decide on which one is better over any other has been as futile as trying to decide whether pineapple belongs on a pizza or not. But here at FRGCB, the comparison shall be made nonetheless.

Nemesis the Warlock (Martech, 1987)

Designed and written by Creative Reality.
Game concept by David Dew, Jason Austin and Michael J. Archer.

Amstrad CPC version:
Programming by Neil Dodwell and Jason Austin
Graphics by David Dew
Sounds by Rob Hubbard

Commodore 64 version:
Programming by Michael J. Archer
Graphics by David Dew
Sounds by Rob Hubbard

Sinclair ZX Spectrum version:
Programming by Jason Austin and Michael Archer
Graphics by David Dew
Sounds by Rob Hubbard

All versions published by Martech in 1987.

---

INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

As a reasonably quick one to fill the gap between August and the upcoming Ocean October, I decided to take a look at a game, that I knew from previous experience, would not be too complex to write about. My first memory of Martech's Nemesis the Warlock was reading about it from a Finnish games yearbook in the late 1980's, where the reviewer mentioned the game's ultra-violent approach, which instantly piqued my interest, being a horror fan from an early age. It wasn't a particularly praising review, but the concept of games being ultra-violent was a new idea to me then, and I did wonder, how would this style be approached in a computer game. So, having only ever played the C64 version, I wanted to finally see, how the two other versions compared to it.

TWO-FER #26: Datamost Double-Feature

1. Monster Mash / Monster Smash! (The Software Farm/Datamost, 1982-1984)

Written by David Eisler for the Apple II computers, and originally published by The Software Farm in 1982.

Converted for the Atari 8-bit computers by David Eisler, and published by Datamost, Inc. in 1983.

Converted for the Commodore 64 by David Eisler and Mark Riley, and published by Datamost, Inc. in 1984.

2. Mr. Robot and his Robot Factory (Datamost/Comptiq, 1983-1984)

Atari 8-bit version written by Ron Rosen with music by Gary Gilbertson.
Commodore 64 version written by Ron Rosen.
Both the Atari and C64 versions released by Datamost, Inc. in 1983.

Apple II version written by Ron Rosen with Robert "Wolf" McNally, and released by Datamost, Inc. in 1984.

NEC PC-88 conversion by Programmers-3, with title by M. Katuka, and released by Comptiq in 1984.

Fujitsu FM-7 conversion by Programmers-3, and released by Comptiq in 1984.

---

INTRODUCTION AND GAME STATUS, PLURAL

Datamost was one of the earlier game publishers that focused on the Apple II, Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers for about four years before going belly-up, and they were based in Chatsworth, California, United States. Although they did produce some rather well-known games for their time, such as the Bilestoad, Ardy the Aardvark, Cohen's Towers, Cosmic Tunnels, Ankh and Polar Pierre, they haven't had their turn properly in the comparison blog so far. So, after my summer holiday and the recent Updates entry, I decided to take two of Datamost's classic games and deal with them in the same entry, since I talked about the possibility of a comparison of Monster Smash in my most recent C64 episode of My Nostalgia Trip Games on FRGCB's YouTube channel. Unfortunately, we're already in a bit of trouble, since there seems to be no readily available image file of the Fujitsu FM-7 version of Mr. Robot and his Robot Factory, and the only gameplay video I found of it anywhere was from twitch.tv, which has been deleted since starting to write this comparison. Hence, the FM-7 version is missing from the accompanying video until I can properly update both this comparison and the video, if I can ever bother to do so.

UPDATES.. not again? (These go to eleven.)

Unfortunately, that seems to be the case once more. Since the last Updates post, which goes all the way back to July 2021, a good deal of new versions for games previously featured on the blog have been released for various platforms. I have been spotting and collecting these items for a few months now, most of them through the irreplaceable Indie Retro News blog, so I thought it a good time to release this entry after getting back from my summer holiday, to have a relatively gentle landing back to reality while starting the blog's eleventh year.

Kung-Fu Master (Irem, 1984)

Designed by Takashi Nishiyama and developed by Irem Software Engineering, with music by Masato Ishizaki.
Originally published as "Spartan X" for the Japanese arcades by Irem in 1984, and distributed as "Kung-Fu Master" by Data East in North America in 1984 and in Europe in 1985.

Nintendo Famicom / NES version developed by Nintendo:
Designed by Shigeru Miyamoto
Programming by Toshihiko Nakago
Music by Koji Kondo
Published as "Spartan X" in Japan, and "Kung Fu" elsewhere in 1985 by Nintendo.

Apple II version:
Programming by Clayton Jung and Mike Farr
Art by Erin M. and Donna Steiner Buttlaire
Published as "Kung-Fu Master" in North America by Data East in 1985.

Commodore 64 version adapted by Berkeley Softworks.
Programming by Chris Hawley
Published as "Kung-Fu Master" in North America by Data East in 1985, and in Europe by U.S. Gold in 1986.

MSX version developed and published as "Seiken Acho" by IREM/ASCII Corporation in 1985.

Amstrad CPC version by Choice Software.
Programming by James Edward Cosby
Loading screen by C. Thornton
Published as "Kung-Fu Master" in Europe by U.S. Gold in 1986.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum version:
Written by David J. Anderson (for Ocean Software)
Loading screen by F. David Thorpe
Published as "Kung-Fu Master" in Europe by U.S. Gold in 1986.

Atari 2600 version programmed by Dan Kitchen. Published as "Kung-Fu Master" by Activision in Europe and North America in 1987, and by HES in Australia in 1987.

Atari 7800 version developed and published as "Kung-Fu Master" in North America by Absolute Entertainment in 1989.

---

INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

Seeing as Kung-Fu Master was released on practically every major 8-bit home computer and the NES, there should be no question that this arcade classic is one of the biggest games of its time. This beat'em-up grandaddy was loosely based on an old Jackie Chan movie, titled Spartan X (hence the original Japanese title), although it has been said, that inspiration was also heavily drawn from the Bruce Lee film Game of Death. Released in November 1984, Kung-Fu Master has the distinction of being the first side-scrolling martial arts action game, prototyping later beat'em-ups as much in the way of structure and narrative, as in gameplay mechanics. So, celebrating the game's 40th anniversary this year, I thought it would be proper to write and sync up this comparison to that. Be warned, though - it's a long one, so you might want to grab a cup of coffee before you read any further.

Army Moves (Dinamic Software, 1986)

Amstrad CPC, MSX and Sinclair ZX Spectrum versions:
Programming by Víctor Ruiz Tejedor
Graphics by Víctor Ruiz Tejedor and Santiago Morga B.
Loading screen by Javier Cubedo
Music by Manuel Cubedo
Amstrad and Sinclair versions published by Dinamic Software (Spain) and Imagine Software (rest of Europe) in 1986.
MSX version published by Dinamic Software and Imagine Software in 1987.

Commodore 64 version:
Programming by Zach Townsend
Graphics by Andrew Sleigh and Jane Lowe
Music and sound effects by Fred Gray
Published by Imagine Software in 1987.

Commodore Amiga version:
Programming by Marc Wilding
Graphics by Simon Butler
Music and sound effects by David Whittaker
Published by Imagine Software in 1987.

Atari ST version:
Programming by Marc Wilding
Graphics by Steven Cain
Music and sound effects by David Whittaker
Published by Imagine Software in 1988.

IBM-PC compatibles version:
Programming by Victoriano Gomez
Title screen by Javier Cubedo
Published by Dinamic Software in 1989.

---

INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

In the 80's, and to some extent, 90's as well, Spanish game developers were more or less known primarily for using highly suggestive imagery for game cover art, perhaps to render themselves more appealing to more adult audiences. Before this style would take off properly, Dinamic Software did publish a few reasonably highly considered games, such as Saimazoom, Camelot Warriors and the home conversions of the arcade game West Bank. One of Dinamic's most well-known game series would take off with Army Moves from 1986, which I personally found through Ocean's game compilation called Live Ammo on the C64. I figured, now would probably be a good time to dig into all seven versions of the game, as I have been trying to balance things out a bit here on the blog, and I have strong suspicions that the C64 version might not win this time. Let's see.

Jail Break (Konami, 1985)

Developed by Konami for the arcades.
Directed by Oolong Sugimo.
Produced by Kagemasa Kozuki and Soft Second Development Room.
Music and sound effects by Sound Effect Study Room.
Originally published as an arcade game kit in North America by Konami Industry Co., Ltd. in 1985.
Full arcade game published in Japan as "Manhattan 24 Bunsho - NY 151 Nishi Dai 100 Street"
by Konami Industry Co., Ltd. in 1986.

Amstrad CPC conversion:
Programming by Neil Dodwell (Catalyst Coders)
Graphics by Stuart J. Ruecroft
Sprites by Mark R. Jones
Scrolling and sprite routines by Michael Croucher
Music by David Whittaker
Published by Konami Ltd. in 1986.

Commodore 64 conversion:
Programming by Darrell Etherington and Dave Garside
Graphics by Mark Jones
Music by David Whittaker
Published by Konami Ltd. in 1986.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum conversion:
Programming by Andrew Glaster
Graphics by Stuart J. Ruecroft
Published by Konami Ltd. in 1986.

---

INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

This year's Abominations April ends with arguably one of Konami's worst arcade games ever, which had three even worse home computer conversions, giving Jail Break the sort of infamy that not many games can boast of. When you think about that, it is of small wonder, that Konami decided to cancel the MSX release of Jail Break before it got finished, and there's no trace of any Famicom version having even been under consideration. For my part, I find all that rather unfortunate, because this comparison would have become much more interesting with those two, but we shall have to make do with the four versions we have.

Pub Games (Alligata Software, 1986)

Sinclair ZX Spectrum version:
Programmed by Richard Stevenson and David Wright (as Dollarsoft)
Published by Alligata in 1986.

Commodore 64 version:
Programming by John Stevenson
Graphics by JLM (?)
Music by Ben Daglish
Published by Alligata in 1986.

Amstrad CPC version written by Nix, and published by Alligata in 1987.

---

INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

Starting this year's Abominations April, FRGCB is proud to present the non-awaited comparison of Alligata's classic pile of multi-event dirt that goes by the name Pub Games. It's a game that was unfortunate enough to find its way into my collection a couple of years ago via a joblot that I purchased from eBay, after solemnly swearing that Pub Games shall not ever be part of my collection. It's also a game that is often spoken of as a joke by myself and my friend and colleague Bob (of Retrogame Talkshow), merely by mentioning the name. So, of course, Pub Games was a perfect candidate for one of the games to be featured in Abominations April.

Zynaps (Hewson Consultants Ltd., 1987)

Sinclair ZX Spectrum version:
Designed and written by Dominic Robinson; In-game graphics by Stephen J. Crow; Loading screen by John M. Phillips; Music by Steve Turner.

Commodore 64 version:
Designed by John Cumming and Dominic Robinson; Programming by John Cumming; Graphics by John Cumming and Stephen J. Crow; Music by Nigel Grieve.

Amstrad CPC version:
Programming by Michael Croucher and Dominic Robinson; Graphics by Stephen J. Crow and Mark R. Jones; Music by J. Dave Rogers.

Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum versions published by Hewson Consultants Ltd. in 1987.

Atari ST version:
Programming by Howie Davis; Graphics by Pete Lyon; Music by J. Dave Rogers.

Commodore Amiga version:
Programming by Howard Ball and Neil Metcalfe; Graphics by Pete Lyon; Music and sound effects by Giulio Zicchi.

Atari ST and Commodore Amiga versions developed by Microwish Software, and published by Hewson Consultants Ltd. in 1988.

Cover/poster art by Steve Weston.

---

INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

Happy Easter, everybody! Having known this was going to be a busy March for me, I chose to put all my blogging focus on one of the last games I remember from my original Spectrum days (ca. 1984-1987), that I was somewhat obsessed about: Zynaps, Hewson's input into the already vast enough range of Gradius variants. I didn't know it at the time, nor did I give it much thought until years later, but now it seems somewhat obvious, that the game was originally designed for the ZX Spectrum. Despite being very likely the first game of its kind that I ever played, the genre didn't appeal to me even then, so I never did become all that good in Zynaps, but in an attempt to finally get better at it, I decided to give this game its turn now.

Gothik (Firebird, 1987)

Game concept and design by Paul Hutchinson.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum version written by Paul Hutchinson, with loading screen by Drew Northcott. Published by Telecomsoft (Firebird) in 1987.

Amstrad CPC version written by Paul Hutchinson, and published by Telecomsoft (Firebird) in 1988.

Commodore 64 version written by Gavin "Gaxx" Raeburn, with loading screen by Paul "Dokk" Docherty. Published by Telecomsoft (Firebird) in 1988.

---

GAME STATUS

There are two reasons why I chose Gothik from Firebird's vast catalogue as the second of this year's two February Firebird items: one, because I noticed that there haven't been too many Gauntlet-clones here at FRGCB, so it's about time to have the second one, no more than 6 years and 10 months after Pandora's classic Into the Eagles' Nest, rather coincidentally released the same year; and two, because I didn't have to make a video accompaniment, thanks to one already available in the Mikroview series.

Chickin Chase / Cock' In (Prism Micro-informatique S.A., 1984)

Developed by JAWX
Written by Francois Lionet
Originally published as "Cock' In" by Prism Micro-informatique S.A. for Oric Atmos in 1984.

Amstrad CPC version by JAWX, released as "Chickin Chase" by Firebird in 1985. Also released in France as "Poule Position" by Minipuce.

Commodore 64 version by JAWX, released as "Chickin Chase" by Firebird in 1985. Re-released in France as "Cock' In" by Prism Micro-informatique S.A.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum version by JAWX, released as "Chickin Chase" by Firebird in 1985. Also released in France as "Cock' In" by Prism Micro-informatique S.A.

Thomson MO5/TO7 version written by Alain Fernandes, with graphics by Olivier Corviole. Published as "Coq'Inn" by VIFI in 1985.

Atari 400/800 and MSX versions by JAWX, released as "Chicken Chase" by Bug-Byte in 1986.

---

GAME STATUS

This year's Firebird February will have to make do with only two games due to my constraining work schedules. First off, we have a French game from 1984 that wasn't originally even a Firebird release. JAWX developed Cock' In originally for the Oric Atmos, and got released by Prism Micro-informatique, but the game got converted for other platforms with various different names, with Chickin Chase being the chosen title for the Firebird release. This game has probably become more famous in the recent years thanks to certain online lists of the worst game covers ever, for which the original Cock' In cover has usually been chosen.

Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future (Virgin Games, 1986)

Developed by Gang of Five for Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and released by Virgin Games in 1986.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum version:
Written by Dave B. Chapman, Martin Wheeler, Neil Strudwick and Irwan Owen.

Amstrad CPC version:
Programming by Dave B. Chapman and Andrew Wilson
Graphics by Ian Mathias
Technical management by Steve Webb
Testing by Patricia Mitchell

Commodore 64 version:
Programming by Andrew Wilson
Graphics by Ian Mathias and Stu Jackson
Music by Graham Marsh and Andrew Wilson

---

INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

The year 2024 starts off bravely with a comparison of a game that I have never really given much notice to, although I did play Dan Dare on the C64 a few times in before the turn of the millennium, and I remember not liking it particularly much back then, because I didn't really understand how to play it. Since the game has more of a reputation on the ZX Spectrum, I decided to look into it now for the sake of balance. However, since deciding upon doing a comparison of Dan Dare, I realized all three versions of the game are quite different, so I wonder, what sort of sense would it make to do the comparison? Let's find out.