For many of us Atari’s Combat was the first introduction to a cartridge-based console game, and for that reason has a special place in many people’s retro memories. As one of the launch titles for the Atari 2600 (VCS), Combat was included with every console sold (a bit like Wii Sports now), and as such…
It’s Burger Time! Few arcade games of the 1980s have achieved the timeless charm and quirky appeal of BurgerTime, a classic by Data East that first hit arcades in 1982. Combining fast-paced action, strategic gameplay, and a (then) unique premise, BurgerTime puts players in the shoes of Chef Peter Pepper as he assembles towering burgers while dodging relentless…
Although most people will remember the various home ports for ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and BBC Micro, Hunchback was originally released by Century Electronics in 1983 as an arcade machine. The game itself was a relatively simple “pitfall” style platformer, with multiple left to right flip screens, each one featuring a number of challenges to…
A new kind of game for the Spectrum JetPac was one of the first of the games released, in 1983, for the 16k Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer, and developer Ultimate managed to fit a lot into the tiny memory. This game didn’t fit into any easily definable retro gaming genre, as it had a number…
Introducing a pixel perfect clone of Mr Do! Mr Ee! came from a time when copyright law didn’t seem to apply to video games, otherwise this game would never have existed. Imagine taking the latest Super Mario game on the wii, copying it, calling it Super Dave and releasing it on the XBOX. That’s what…
Inspiration for the Nintendo DS and the D-Pad Nintendo’s most famous (if not the first) arcade game needs very little introduction, but the origin of the Donkey Kong Game & Watch is less well known. Gunpei Yokoi, the Japanese creator of the Game & Watch series, as well as the Gameboy, got his inspiration whilst…
