Jungle Hunt (Taito, 1982)

Originally developed and released for the arcades as "Jungle King" by Taito Corporation in 1982, but later re-released as "Jungle Hunt" and re-worked as "Pirate Pete".

Converted for the Atari 2600 by John Allred and Michael Feinstein. Converted for the Atari 5200 and 400/800 by Allen Merrell with graphics by Jerome Domurat. Converted for the Commodore 64 by Bill Bogenreif.
All the above published by Atarisoft in 1983.

Converted for the ColecoVision by David Cartt. Converted for the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A by Jim Dramis, Garth Dollahite and Paul Urbanus.

Both versions published by Atarisoft in 1984.

Also converted for the Apple II, Commodore VIC-20 and IBM-PC compatibles by Atarisoft in 1984. Further details unknown.

Unofficial conversion "Jungle Queen" for the Tandy TRS-80 CoCo written by David Shipka, and published by ZoSo Software in 1984.

Unofficial conversion "Jungle King" for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum written by Luca Bordoni, and published through Load 'n' Run magazine in 1985.

Unofficial port of Jungle Hunt from ColecoVision to MSX written by Muffie, and published by ICON Games in 2008; re-released by Repro Factory in 2014 as part of "Muffie's Tutankham & Conversions" compilation cartridge.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

Once again, we're heading into classic arcade territory, which means plenty of different versions, but due to the relative simplicity, I'm expecting this to be relatively easy to get through. Mind you, digging up through all the different platform-specific archives online, I didn't expect to find quite as many unofficial conversions for all the machines as I ended up finding. I guess it only goes to show,
just how big of a classic we're talking about here.

Knight Rider (Ocean Software, 1986)

Amstrad CPC version written by Anthony Heartley and Gary Knight.

Commodore 64 version written by Grant Harrison and Kevin Grieve.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum version written by Antony R. Lill and Gary Knight, with loading screen by Frederick David Thorpe.

All versions published by Ocean Software in 1986.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

Disastrous games based on TV shows were a vogue thing in the 80's, and FRGCB has already touched the subject with Elite's Dukes of Hazzard and the Fall Guy some time ago. Since I apparently didn't learn from that mistake, I decided to attempt tackling at least one of Ocean Software's offerings in the same vein. Out of a few good candidates, such as Miami Vice, It's A Knockout and Roland's Rat Race, I decided to go for the fantastically horrendous Knight Rider, because firstly, it epitomizes everything that was wrong with the idea of trying to turn an exciting TV-show into a computer game, and secondly, it's the only one of the lot, which actually offended me even as a young kid, since I was a fan of the show, as well as most of Ocean's offerings that I knew of. Thirdly, it allows me to speak of two other Knight Rider games in the same context.

TWOFER #20: Bank Panic (Sega, 1984) + West Bank (Dinamic, 1985)

Bank Panic developed by Sanritsu Denki Co., Ltd. in 1984. Originally published as an arcade game by SEGA Enterprises Ltd. for the Japanese market. Manufactured for the American market by Bally/Midway.

Converted for the MSX computers, Sega SG-1000 and Sega Master System by Sanritsu Denki Co., Ltd. // Sega SG-1000 conversion published by SEGA Enterprises in 1985. // Sega Master System conversion published by SEGA of America in 1986. // MSX conversion published by Pony Canyon, Inc. in 1986. // Sega SG-1000 version unofficially converted for the ColecoVision by Eduardo Mello; published by Team Pixelboy in 2011.

Cloned as "West Bank" for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MSX and Sinclair ZX Spectrum by Dinamic Software. // Sinclair ZX Spectrum version programmed by Álvaro Mateos Herrera. Original Spanish version published by Dinamic Software in 1985. English translation published by Gremlin Graphics Ltd. in 1986. // Amstrad CPC version published by Gremlin Graphics Ltd. and Dinamic Software in 1986; details unknown. // Commodore 64 version programmed by Richard J. Gibbs, with music by Fred Gray. Published by Gremlin Graphics Ltd. in 1986. Spanish version published by Dinamic Software in 1987. // MSX version written by Animagic, and published by Dinamic Software in 1989.

Unofficial conversion "Gold Bank" for the Acorn BBC Micro published by Fast Access magazine in 1989. Unofficial conversion "Bang! Bank!" for the Atari 400/800 developed by OUR 5oft, and published by Mirage Software in 1992.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

After a relatively quiet month and a half - apart from the three My Nostalgia Trip Games episodes, that is - it's time for another actual comparison. Just for the heck of starting on the right foot, this entry will be listed as both Bank Panic and West Bank in the archive, because although it's roughly the same game, some people might not be aware of either the game by its original title or the unlicenced Dinamic rewrite and its conversions. Personally, I was introduced to this game as the Gremlin translation of West Bank on the C64, and only found out sometime after emulation started becoming a thing, that it was originally an arcade game called Bank Panic, all the way from 1984. This entry is dedicated to those of you, who ever were as much in the dark as I once was.

Unique Games: Afterlife, Part 3

Continuing the celebrations of a new decade, and because it's been 4 years since I did my last UG: Afterlife entry, I thought this would be a good time to revisit this particular series. Considering the amount of time passing since the previous one, there should be plenty of interesting, exclusive and perhaps even unique games to browse through, so let's get straight on it!

My Nostalgia Trip Games continues!

Just a quick update this time. In case you haven't noticed, I've been sporadically making content for my YouTube channel, the prominent series being My Nostalgia Trip Games, for which I made 16 episodes last year, featuring mostly unemulated gameplay footage. There's also a few unemulated Let's Play videos, as well as the most recently started series of comparison accompaniment videos, which are all compiled of emulated footage, just for the sake of convenience. Links to all the videos can be found under the VIDEOS menu item here.

As the header implies, the second "season" of My Nostalgia Trip Games has started with the first entry for MS-DOS games. This time, the footage is practically emulated due to DOSbox+Fraps being the only method I have of getting footage recorded. But next time, it's back to unemulated business as usual.

Dragonfire (Imagic, 1982)

Originally designed and programmed by Bob Smith, and published by Imagic for the Atari 2600 in 1982.

Converted in 1983:
Mattel Intellivision version by Alan Smith, with graphics by Dave Durran. Commodore VIC-20 version by Tim Yu. Both versions published by Imagic.

Converted in 1983 for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum by Jim Rothrock; published in 1984 by Cheetahsoft.

Converted in 1984: Apple II version by Imagic; details unknown. ColecoVision version by David Ross, with graphics by Matthew Sarconi and Wilfredo Aguilar. Commodore 64 version by Bob Smith and David Ross (to be confirmed); published by Imagic.

Also converted in 1984 for the Tandy TRS-80 CoCo by Frank Ellis, with graphics by Matthew Sarconi; published by Tandy Corporation.

Unofficial conversions: Commodore 64 remake written with Garry Kitchen's Gamemaker by Fabian Del Priore in 1990; Atari 400/800 version written by Kemal Ezcan in Turbo Basic for a Zong magazine release in 1993; Sinclair ZX Spectrum version called "Dragonfire ZX" was made by Luca Bordoni with AGDx in 2018.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS

With no real time to make plans for an actual Christmas/New Year's entry for 2019, here's something at least perhaps a bit unexpected, so... Happy New Year, everybody, and welcome to 2020! While starting to write this entry, I was having a difficult time thinking of any other game in the history of my blog, that started its life as an Atari 2600 game. There is a perfectly good reason for that, however: apart from some random gaming through emulation, I had not been properly initiated to the Atari 2600 gaming lore until a few months ago, when I finally bought my very own Atari 2600jr, along with about a dozen games to start with - Dragonfire being one of them. Thus began a new obsession.

Dragonfire was one of Imagic's bigger successes, along with classics such as Atlantis, Cosmic Ark and Demon Attack. Sadly, the company did not recover from the North American video game crash of 1983, so their legend is forevermore tied firmly to the Atari 2600. As are their games, to be honest, since most of the positive reviews and nostalgia are directed towards the Atari versions of the games, not their conversions. So, we are here to find out, whether that's at all sensible or not.

FRGR #11: Slicks 'n' Slide (Digital Footmark, 1993-2017)

Written by Timo and Juha Kauppinen.
Originally released as shareware for MS-DOS compatible PC's in 1993.
Currently available for digital purchase at Digital Footmark's website.

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INTRODUCTION

For my first Finnish Retro Game Review since taking a break, I decided to bring the series a bit closer to the present day. Not too much, though, because the game I'm about to dwell upon is still available for purchase after 26 years (!!!) of existence, and it also has been recently demade onto retro platforms. You won't be getting an actual comparison, although there is an entire chapter about the demakes. But I digress; the original Slicks 'n' Slide is such a famous Finnish game in the midst of old DOS gamers around the world, that I thought it was the only fitting game for reopening this series. With this, I wish you all a happy Finnish independence day!