The Sacred Armour of Antiriad (Palace Software, 1986)

Programming by Andrew Fitter
Plot and graphics by Daniel Malone
Sound design by Richard Joseph
Originally released for the Amstrad CPC in 1986.

Converted for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 by Stanley Schembri in 1986.

Converted for the IBM-PC compatibles and Apple ][ in 1987 by Stanley Schrembi and Craig Seastrom. Converted for the TRS-80 CoCo by Jesse Taylor in 1988. The Commodore 64, IBM-PC, Apple ][ and TRS-80 CoCo versions published in North America by Epyx as "Rad Warrior".

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

Now, here's a game I have to admit having an almost complete ignorance on, even though I came across it plenty of times back in the day. The Sacred Armour of Antiriad, or just plain Antiriad, as it was often referred to, never caught my fancy due to its initially awkward controls and slightly more than usually restrictive flip-screen system. Only lately I have found out that there is actually more to this game than just walking around naked in a jungle, dying randomly on things I don't understand, and since a comparison of Antiriad was suggested a good while back in a blog comment posted by Brain Breaker in 2014, I thought I might as well try and learn to play this game now, almost 30 years after its release. Better late than never, right?

NGOTM & TWOFER: The New Dimension Special!

Balloonacy

Concept based on "Crazy Balloon" arcade game by TAITO from 1980. Programming and music by Richard Bayliss. Graphics by Richard Bayliss and Hiram Kumper. Loading screen by Marq Watkin. Originally released as freeware for the Commodore 64 in 2001 by the New Dimension, and published by Cronosoft in 2003. Converted for the Amstrad CPC by Kevin Thacker, and published by Cronosoft in 2007.

Sub Hunter

Concept based on a Commodore VIC-20 game "Sub Hunt" by Mastertronic from 1984. Programming by Richard Bayliss. Graphics by Frank Gasking. Music by Thomas "Drax" Mogensen and Richard Bayliss. Originally released for the Commodore 64 in 2008 through Psytronik Software.

Converted for the Amstrad CPC by Paul "Axelay" Kooistra, with music by Herve Monchatre. Released in 2011 through Psytronik Software.

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GAME STATUS, PLURAL

All right, so we have a curious little twofer here this time: it's simultaneously a New Game Of The Month special entry, although neither of these games are particularly new anymore, only released well after the two machines' commercial demises. Also, neither of these games are particularly original - rather remakes of over 20 year old titles, so I shall be taking a quick look at the original games the two remakes are based on, as well.

Eliminator (Hewson Consultants, 1988)

Designed and developed for the Atari ST by John M. Phillips, with graphics by Pete Lyon.

Converted for the Commodore Amiga by Linel: Programming by Christian Haller and Christian A. Weber, Music and sound effects by Roman Werner, Graphics by Pete Lyon, Title screen by Michael Tschoegl.

Converted for the Amstrad CPC and Sinclair ZX Spectrum by John Wildsmith, with sounds by Nicholas A. Jones. Graphics for the Amstrad version by Hugh Binns and for the Spectrum version by Stephen Crow.

Converted for the Commodore 64 by Tim Rogers, with graphics by Darrin Stubbington and Hugh Binns, title screen by Stephen "SIR" Robertson and sounds by Jeroen Tel for Maniacs of Noise.

All versions released in 1988 by Hewson.

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GAME STATUS

Here's something that this blog hasn't featured in quite a while: a game that was made for all three principal 8-bit computers, that these sorts of comparisons usually are focused on, as well as the two next-generation computers that went through a similar battle of "whose reproductive organs are more appropriate for the job" as the three 8-bits. If only the MSX and 8-bit Atari computers were included here, it would be perfect. But curiously enough, Eliminator was first made for the 16-bit Atari, so that's something to consider with a bit of seriousness. Particularly as it is also one of the select few three-dimensionally behaving games featured on the blog so far. And if that's not reason enough to write about Eliminator, then at least having included it in the teaser picture in last August should give me some excuse to do this now.

Frak! (Aardvark, 1984)

Game concepts by DCE, OMP & BOF
Designed and programmed by Nick "Orlando" Pelling for the Acorn BBC Micro in 1984, and converted for the Acorn Electron in 1986.

Converted for the Commodore 64 by Jason Perkins, Anthony Clarke and Mark Rodgers, and published by Statesoft in 1985.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

For a change, we have a slightly edited blog version of another RESET magazine article for you all to browse through. And once again, if you haven't read the original magazine yet, you can do so here. Now, I've been trying to put our C64 against a different machine for each Format Wars article, whenever possible, and since it's the sixth article in the series already, it's inevitable that the game under the magnifying glass should be a more obscure one. I never knew much about the Acorn computers, since we didn't get them here in Finland, but believe it or not, Frak! was one of my favourite platformers on the C64 back in the day, because it was deceivingly simplistic in its mechanics, but completely unique in certain ways. Finding out only lately, that it was originally made for the Acorn computers came to me as a bit of a shock, so of course I had to do a comparison of it as I test the original game for the first time.

FRGR #3: Miner Machine (Boss Company, 1987)

Written by Tero Weckroth and Mika Savolainen for the MSX computers in 1986.

The original Finnish release published by Boss Company in February 1987, and later the same year, published by Eaglesoft in France (from which the cover art here is taken) and by System 4 in Spain.

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DESCRIPTION & GAME STATUS

Merely for the sake of change, I decided to take a look at something not C64-based this time. Although there were quite a few Finnish games released for the MSX (and SVI) computers, most of them are still unavailable on the internet. Miner Machine is one of the rare examples of Finnish MSX games that are available, so I decided to take a closer look at it.

Renegade (Technos Japan Corp./Taito, 1986)

Originally developed by Technos Japan and released for the Japanese arcades as "Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun".

Detailed credits for the original arcade version are currently unknown. However, since there are so many people involved in all all 10 home conversions, I decided to construct another separate Credits section before the actual comparison material. So, apologies for the short introduction, but click on "Read more >>" (or whatever it is in your language) to read the whole thing - sure enough, there's a lot of it to be had. And before you do so, you might as well prepare yourselves with a fresh pot of coffee - I haven't done a comparison this huge since Pirates! before my last summer holiday.

BoneCruncher (Superior Software, 1987)

Designed and programmed by Andreas Kemnitz for Commodore 64, with music by Michael Winterberg.

Converted by Martyn Howard for the Acorn Electron and BBC Micro computers in 1987.

Converted by Andreas Staerkert for the Commodore Amiga, with music by Michael Winterberg. Released in 1988.

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GAME STATUS

Here's another quick one for a change, because I also need to get through the games that I hinted on in that season-opening post in August. Yeah, this one was hinted in that collage. BoneCruncher (or Bone Cruncher, as it's sometimes seen written) was one of those games that was made during that time period, when Boulder Dash variants were made as variants, instead of clones, as they would be a bit later on. Perhaps it is not one of the most interesting games of all time, but it has some charm, and it was one of my childhood's more intriguing gaming experiences on the C64, which is why I chose to do a comparison of it.