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.