Video Game Search

showing 1 - 50 of 545 games

name	publisher(developer)	year	game type	description	platform
Heart of China	Sierra On-Line (Dynamix)	1991	adventure Historical		Amiga
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella	Sierra On-Line	1990	adventure Fantasy		Amiga
Maniac Mansion	Lucasfilm Games	1989	adventure Humorous	Ever since the meteor landed, strange things have been sighted at Dr. Fred's old mansion. Disembodied tentacles hopping around. Chainsaws in the kitchen. Plants with unusual appetites. And odd glow from the swimming pool. And now, sweet Sandy the cheerleader is in Dr. Fred's clutches. So round up your pals, take a deep breath, and get ready for the weirdest, funniest adventure of your life. - Just point 'n' click... no typing ever! - High resolution graphics and great sound effects. - Meet all sorts of zany characters	Amiga
The Black Cauldron	Sierra On-Line	1987	adventure Fantasy		Amiga
Wing Commander	Origin Systems	1993	shooter flight Science Fiction	[22]* [37]*You're a starfighter pilot, the best of the best, but nothing in your training prepared you for action this hot. Deepspace dogfights against Kilrathi aces are deadly, and the future of humanity is on the line each time you fly! Wing Commander puts you in the middle of the most intense starship action you've ever experienced outside of a movie theatre. But in Wing Commander, you're the star! - Thrill to the dynamic soundtrack that senses the action on-screen and alters the pacing, tempo and mood of the music to match! - Advance in rank while piloting one of four unique Terran spacefighters against a deadly array of enemy ships. - See the action from all angles using Wing Commander's player-controlled camera. - Count on your wingman, a skilled pilot, thanks to the advanced Wing Commander artificial intelligence system, but don't get cocky: the enemy flies intelligently too!	Amiga
Shogo - Mobile Armour Division	Hyperion Entertainment	2001	shooter Manga Science Fiction		Amiga AGA
Angelique Tenkuu no Requiem	Koei	1999	simulation role-play Manga		PS
Chrono Cross	Square	2000	role-play turn-based Fantasy Manga	While it's officially a sequel to the immensely popular Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross is completely its own role-playing game with over 40 characters, a branching story line, and multiple endings. Like its predecessor, the game is about crossing through time and setting things right. This story focuses on Serge's quest for the Frozen Flame, which will give the beholder the power to bend space and time. Serge wants the power to save himself from dying in a parallel universe but, as you can guess, nefarious forces are also vying for the Frozen Flame to suit their own purposes. Chrono Cross features the stylish character designs and wondrous cut scenes that gamers have come to expect from SquareSoft, but the game also has a number of gameplay innovations. Though the battle engine is essentially turn-based, characters don't have to wait their turn to cast a spell or make an attack; battles are moderated by stamina. Also, the repetitive battles with lesser monsters that make so many RPGs sag can be easily avoided because all monsters can be seen on the screen.***Sequel to the legendary Chrono Trigger (SNES). And a rather disappointing one in my opinion... there's almost no character development (I mean seriously, how do you develop like a hundred characters?) and the crappy battle system was the final nail in the coffin. [cjlee001]	PS
Clock Tower - The First Fear	Human	1997	action/reflex adventure Horror	Multi-ending story that changes the number of friends who rescue, etc. by use of the item. Runaway mode switch and meet Shizaman increases the tension of the player. Achieve a smooth operation in the corresponding mouse controller. A variety of events fear of inciting unrest Player! Stage setting reminiscent of the Italian directing the horror of terror Fukabuchi.	PS
Clock Tower	Human	1996	action/reflex adventure Horror	Released as 'Clock Tower' in the West. [cjlee001]	PS
Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within	Human;Agetec (Human)	1998	action/reflex adventure Horror	Prepare for a journey into the darkest recesses of human experience. Clock Tower II: The Struggle Within features all the suspense and terror that kept you on the edge of your seat in the original, but this time with a twist. Alyssa Hale must learn to control her split personalities as she attempts to solve this horrifying mystery. Having been buried alive, she has arisen and is out for revenge. Armed only with her multiple personalities- she is thirsty for blood. * Switch between the two personalities * 13 different possible endings * Feel the terror with vibration function compatibility * Battle crazed enemies including a psycho knife-wielding child, zombies, and Ghosthead himself***Japanese version [31]	PS
Colony Wars	Psygnosis	1997	shooter simulation flight Science Fiction	Pilot stat-of-the-art military aircraft in a full-scale war for intergalactic supremacy taking place in over 60 'real world' missions. High-resolution 3D engine delivers movie-quality special effects and outstanding graphics.* [32]* [32]*** [27]	PS
Colony Wars: Vengeance	Psygnosis	1998	shooter simulation flight Science Fiction	This is the second of the Colony Wars series of games and is considered one of the best. There are four different spacecraft at your disposal with dozens of weapon combinations to choose from. The missions vary greatly from escorting freighters to salvaging wrecked ships. The title includes 40 different missions with six possible endings. [R2D2-A]	PS
Disruptor	Universal Interactive Studios;Interplay (Insomniac Games)	1996	shooter Science Fiction	Like Doom? Duke Nukem? Then try Disruptor. You are a new recruit in the LightStormer Corps defending United Earth against scores of enemies. Blast your way through 13 different levels of action with 20 real time, 3-D environments in this first person shoot-em-up game. Use the arsenal of 9 guns or "psionics" (psychic powers) to destroy the enemy. Controls are easy to learn controls and the action is fast and furious.	PS
Fushigi no Kuni no Angelique	Koei	1997	simulation board game Manga		PS
Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus	GT Interactive (Oddworld Inhabitants)	1998	action/reflex platformer adventure Humorous	ODDWORLD: Abe's Exoddus takes Abe and his enslaved friends on a wacky journey. Cast with a zoo's worth of bizarre characters almost all of whose favorite past time is to injure, torture, or brutalize the benevolent Mudokons Exoddus features similar gameplay to the first ODWORLD title: 2D platforming.* [31]* [32]* [27]*Box Blurb Welcome to the tastiest gaming brew ever concocted Here begins Abe's newest and greatest trial. In the classic Oddworld tradition, Abe's Exoddus delivers more intuitive communication and entrepreneurial evil than ever before. Slug it down! Astonishing graphics and rich gameplay that made Abe's Oddysee absolutely MINDBLOWING All the favourite enemies, plus some new guys...Flying Sligs, Greeters and Fleeches. Expanded GameSpeak(TM). More phrases for Abe and the other inhabitants! The first game to feature genuine emotions. Mudokons can be happy, manic, spiteful, or suicidally depressed! More possession. Possess Sligs, Scrabs, even Glukkons - and use them to do your dirty work! Fart power! Abe can even possess his own farts and blow stuff up. No other game has it...No other game wants it!	PS
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee	GT Interactive (Oddworld Inhabitants)	1997	platformer Humorous	In a world run by ruthless meat barons your entire race is about to become pie filling... Unless you can escape RuptureFarms and make it through the most inexplicably challenging gameplay in the known universe. Sound Odd? Welcome to Oddworld. A new kind of game and a brave new world of interaction. Communicate with real characters. Possess and blow away your enemies. Solve wicked situations. ODDWORLD: ABE'S ODDYSEE takes every game genre you've ever seen and blends them into a smorgasbord of pure gaming delight. So trust in Odd and you'll never be hungry again!* [32]* [29]*** [27]	PS
Sentient	Psygnosis	1997	strategy adventure Science Fiction	Radiation sickness has struck the crew of Space Station Icarus, and you are sent to investigate. When you arrive, you discover that radiation is the least of their problems. Someone has murdered the Captain, and the station is on a collision course with the Sun that no one can correct. Will you be able to find the source of the sickness and save the Icarus? Play SENTIENT to find out.	PS
Silent Hill	Konami (Team Silent;Konami)	1999	action/reflex shooter adventure 3D Fantasy Horror	[100]* [12]Whatever you do, don't go into this town! Unfortunately for Harry Mason, that advice is too late. After a near fatal car crash on the edge of town, his daughter Cheryl has disappeared into the night. Waking from a disturbing crash-induced nightmare, Harry finds the town almost deserted and a young motorcycle cop, Cybil, watching over him. Cybil is here to find out what happened to the towns' folk. But is she a friend or something much worse? [31]Japanese version [31]European version [32]* [32]* [27][b]Endings:[/b] [b]Good[/b]: Kaufman is saved, Cybil is killed * [b]Good+[/b]: Cybil is saved (?) * [b]Bad[/b]: both Kaufmann and Cybil are saved * [b]Bad+[/b]: Cybil is saved (?) * [b]UFO[/b]: joke / easter egg ending*Silent Hill is a stunning, true-to-life game that will send a chill through your spine every time you play it. The game starts off with a near fatal car crash which separates the main character from his daughter. In his search for her, Harry Mason encounters devilish creatures in the eerie buildings and streets of a nearly deserted town. The graphics in Silent Hill will immerse you in a world of demonic creatures and dark, menacing imagery, while the sound effects and atmosphere will have you looking over your shoulder while you are playing.*Uses fog, rain, snow, and darkness effects to scare you witless. Also has an interesting storyline which will be hard to understand the first time. Look for secret weapons such as the Hyperblaster when hidden endings are uncovered. [Haoie]	PS
Fushigi no Kuni no Angelique	Koei	1997	simulation board game Manga		Saturn
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde	Toho;Bandai (Advance Communication Company)	1988	platformer Horror	"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide" is often regarded to be one of the worst NES games ever. While I agree that it is really bad I must also admit that I have seen worse games. The concept of the game is unusual. You main task is to get Dr. Jekyll to his wedding. Once you die as Dr. Jekyll the game switches to Mr. Hide into a mirrored nightmarish version of the level. In the Mr. Hide part yo Neeu have to kill enough creatures to get enough power to switch back to Dr. Jekyll. The special thing or problem about this is the fact that once you reach the place with Mr. Hide where Dr. Jekyll died, he will die as well and the game is over. The concept does not work well but was worth a try. The graphics, especially the background graphics are also not too bad. What makes this game bad is the frustrating difficulty level, especially of the Dr. Jekyll part. Controls are bad and when you are hit you suffer a huge knockback. So playability stinks, but as I said at the beginning that was the case with quite some more NES games as well.***"Houma ga Toki" is used in official documentation. [Zerothis]	NES
Heroes of the Lance	Pony Canyon;FCI (Natsume)	1991	action/reflex role-play Fantasy	At last! You can play the first Official ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS action game made for the Nintendo Entertainment System! HEROES OF THE LANCE is based on the Dragons of Despair DRAGONLANCE module, placing you in control of eight fantasy characters. Guide your brave companions through their adventures as they encounter dragons and dwarves... magic and monsters, in their quest for the precious Disks of Mishakal. The fate of the world of Krynn is in your hands! Vanquish the ancient black dragon Khisanth or you are doomed to failure! Action-packed animated graphics. Eight characters, each with different attributes and skills. Fight giant spiders, Gully Dwarves, dragons and monstrous Draconians. Defend yourself with magic and an arsenal of weapons!***This is an side scrolling RPG with action elements. Slow, action elements, such as running and jumping and sword fighting. This is a conversion, and I don't know the development history, so I will not venture to guess why's and hows of this game's creation. I will say there somewhere in the process, at least this version of the game was not handled well. First off, the characters are in a 3D environment represented by 2D side scrolling. This is not usual, as most 2D side scrollers take place in a 2D world despite the occasional 3D effect or shifting planes. Characters travel through a series of hallways that either point north-south or east-west. This alone can be confusing, but this game complicates the problem by having inconsistent connection between the hallways. You can turn a corner into a new hallway but when to arrive there is a door, archway, or bridge behind you instead of a corner. To further complicate things, the layout of the hallways and interconnections have inconsistent topography. 'Parallel' hallways can be joined together by two or three perpendicular hallways of differing lengths. I made some maps and realized that hallways would have to bend and stretch to fit together and not all hallways would strictly line up with the 4 cardinal directions. Also, the viewing direction is sometimes reversed. So you are usually seeing the 'right' wall as a background but occasionally you see the 'left' without indication of the 'camera swap'. Adding insult is the nearly black and white environment. There's no excuse for an NES game published in 1990 to have such a poor color environment. Developers could have added shades of brown, and other dark colors, or at the very least a few more shades of grey like the computer version had. Rather than communicating a 3D world, the game ends up feeling like navigating a series of tubes. The developers tried to reproduce a 3D world with a side scrolling interface, but it fails IMO. Except for the 3D attempt, I get the impression that the developers set out to do the bare minimum to make this game. There are no noticeable subtle details. SoundFX are not any better than you would expect from an Atari 7800 and there are few of them. The best when you character yells while falling, which isn't that impressive. The music is passable. The game devotes a total of 19 words to the story or 29 if you get the good ending. This is only before and after the game, there is basically no in-game story. This is doubly bad because the characters have rich histories and are stars in the DragonLance setting and books. Apparently computer versions of this game included short descriptions of each character's history but they were cut from this conversion. This is triplex bad since RPGs are generally expected to come with more text than other games types. This one has less text than your average action/adventure games. Lost-in-translation to English doesn't apply here since the game was originally in English and was published in North America before the Japanese version (I'm tempted to count that as an innovation). Fortunately the in-game story has a surprise that allows a conclusion without the player succeeding. [spoiler=open;close]There is a teleport trap on the Disks of Mishakal. If you hesitate to quickly approach and take the disks, you will be teleported outside and the sealed dungeon.[/spoiler] Even though is it cruel to the player, its a great plot element. Well actually, most players will be enraged by this alternate surprise ending, but I like it. But, that's all you are gonna get for story unless you count 4 of the characters' unexplained refusal to share or drop their personal weapons (each weapon has its own history too, also absent from this version of the game). Not only is there no character development, they do not even benefit from stats improvement. The somewhat known D&D experience system (which many developers have adapted for thier own games) is here reduced to a system of scoring points. The player is free to explore the current dungeon floor but cannot go back to a previous floor. Exploring is not that enjoyable because of the inconstant 2D/3D layout. But there are rewards of special weapons and items waiting in nooks and crannies. However, obtaining and using these items has very little effect on the difficulty of beating the game. Stumbling through the game to learn it is the point here. So its frustrating. No in-game clues to explain where to go, what to look for, what each item does, or who to fight when. No in-game mapping of any kind. Making you own maps is problematic because of the 2D/3D inconstancies. If you want to make complicated maps and learn everything by trial and error, then this game offers a good challenge. At least you have a save slot. This is also where this single player game gets its sole social aspect. That is in the sharing of information about the game. This game, more than most, begs for it if only to reduce player frustration. The level of violence is mild. Especial compared to most games where the point is to kill enemies. Very few lives are required to be taken in order to progress and beat the game. Both endings require killing only the boss. This is particularly abnormal for a D&D game. Its actually faster and easier to avoid killing most minions. However, the young dragons are difficult to get past unless the player kills them. And the player can choose to direct the killing of minions indefinitely to accumulate score. Players are also awarded points for collecting items and treasures, of which there are a limited number. There are no other ways to score experience points, which is not in keeping with many other D&D games; and especially not paper D&D. Violent strikes are shown as tiny explosions which is comically absurd. When enemies die, their tissues vanish leaving their standing bones to turn to dust and dissipate. A odd phenomenon that is left unexplained. There is no bad language, no sexual themes, no gambling, and no addictive substances. Goldmoon wears a loincloth under her robes that provides antiquate coverage (she is a member of a barbarian tribe). The best ending attributes the character's success to "THE GODS" (the bad ending blames the player). And finally, the only strategy the enemies in the game demonstrate is backing up when the player gets too close to them. The enemies in Kung Fu are smarter. In conclusion, if you liked Faxanadu but considered it's level design to be too easy to understand, the overall design to be to complex, to fast, having too much action, too many smart enemies, and too many colors, then Heroes of the Lance might appeal to you. This game is unlikely to appeal to fans of RPG games, action games, platformers or D&D games. [Zerothis]	NES
Maniac Mansion	Jaleco	1988	adventure Humorous	マニアックマンション is transliteration of "maniac mansion" and literally reads [code]maniakku manshon[/code].***The Japanese Famicom version of Maniac Mansion was developed by Jaleco and while it is essentially Maniac Mansion it is not the same game as the port done by LucasFilm Games with some development also by Realtime Associates. The LucasFilm Games version is the one that was translated and published in every other region. The LucasFilm Games version uses battery backed save RAM. The Famicom version credits simple show Maniac Mansion Project Room as the creators and coordinated by Hiroyo Odachi. The LucasFilm Games version has a full list of credits. No people developed for both versions. These two game are as different as the different versions of Tetris for NES. This version is not supported by ScummVM	NES
Mighty Bomb Jack	Tecmo	1986	platformer	[100]*Mighty Bomb Jack improves the single-screen platform action of the original [game=#24]Bomb Jack[/game] by featuring scrolling levels. The game plays generally very well, but is fully packed with sometimes very difficult to find secrets, secret rooms, different exits and so on. And you had to find a couple of hidden items to unlock the "best" ending.*Mighty Bomb Jack is an action/adventure game that was originally released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987 by Tecmo. The hero of the game, Jack, must make his way through 16 levels of a pyramid in order to defeat the demon Belzebut and rescue the royal Pamera family. Each level is split into two parts; an action zone and a Royal Palace room. Action zones can be split up into several portions, and contain power-ups usually hidden in treasure chests such as money bags, Mighty Coins, and Mighty Drinks. Mighty Coins allow Jack to change colors; blue allows Jack to open orange treasure chests, orange allows him to open any treasure chest by simply touching it from the side, and green transforms all enemies on the screen into coins for 5 seconds. Mighty Drinks add 10 seconds to the game's timer.	NES
Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken	Enix (Chunsoft)	1985	adventure Manga	The first real adventure game for the NES (or any other console system) is a port from a popular game on Japanese homecomputer systems. Instead of typing in commands they changed the system to feature a command list in the rigt side of the screen which you could choose from. This control method set a standard among Japanese-style console adventure games. The game itself is only mildly interesting though. It doesn't have a save feature, neither via battery backup nor passwords. But that isn't really necessary, because the game is very short. The graphics of the few locations are not very detailed and in parts look like drawn by a six-year old kid. The game sold very well on the NES and paved the way for many successors with similar gameplay, but today the content feels rather shallow. The game didn't age very well.	NES
Ripple Island	Sunsoft (Tokai Engineering)	1988	adventure Manga	In a country where humans and animals live peacefully together, an evil being kidnaps the princess. Your task is of course to rescue the princess. The game is divided into areas. Each area (consisting of about 20 screens) has to be played through in order. In contrast to most other early console adventures, the game uses icons instead of a verb list. It is also centered more about finding objects inside the screen, which is the main problem with objects sometimes not very easily recognisable to be able to interact with. Graphics are very cute and fitting for the fairy tale scenario. Language is in Japanese only with no translation patch available yet. All in all a decent and a bit "different" adventure game for the Famicom.***Developers were self-compelled to amp up the animation and graphics of this game due to the talent of a new artist at Sunsoft that was creating the cover art for the boxes and labels of several of their games.	NES
Super Star Force: Jikuureki no Himitsu	Tecmo	1986	shooter adventure Science Fiction	"Super Star Force" mixes classical vertical-scrolling shooting action mixed with Zelda-like dungeon exploration parts. In order to defeat the endboss you have to collect "Time Stones" from dungeons which are hidden in different time zones. With your space fighter you fly through the different time zones and shoot lots of enemies. With shooting down enemies you earn time pieces which can be used as currency in shops to upgrade your ship/man and buy extra items that are needed in some parts of the game. Time pieces also work as life bar, each hit by enemies reduces your amount of time pieces. You also have to find clues how to open up some dungeons. Often you have to shoot a certain object in a past time zone to open up a dungeon or hint in a later time zone. I liked the game more than the very similar [game=#176988]Ginga Denshou: Galaxy Odyssey[/game] that was released at the same time for the Famicom Disk System. Super Star Force has ok graphics and plays well. Although sometimes it is rather difficult and without a walkthrough you will hardly find some of the secrets that are needed to finish the game.	NES
Tetra Star The Fighter	Taito	1991	shooter Science Fiction	[spoiler=Alternate Endings Spoilers;hide spoilers]The destruction of Statue of Liberty, destruction of the World Trade Center, and the death of Omega can each be avoided if the player has insane level gaming skills[/spoiler] There are additional songs that have not yet been identified and tagged.	NES
Toki no Tabibito: Time Stranger	Kemco	1986	adventure Historical Science Fiction	Toki no Tabibito: Time Stranger is a game based on an anime dealing with time traveling. You are a time cop fleeing into the past where you meet and talk with historically important Japanese persons. You talk to them by answering yes or no and thus influencing Japanese history. The game is short but has lots of replay value with different endings depending on your answers throughout the time zones. Enjoyable if you understand Japanese and Japanese history and you are interested in "what if" scenarios. Graphically with only a dozen or so pictures there is not much to speak of.	NES
Yōkai Dōchūki	Namco	1988	platformer Fantasy		NES
Clock Tower	Human	1995	action/reflex adventure Horror	[b]movie[/b] - loosely based on [url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087909/]Phenomena[/url], a film by Dario Argento.*Another Japanese game that never made it across the Ocean. Clock Tower - The First Fear was re-released for PlayStation. The game resembles the many point-'n-click adventures on the PC. You move the main character through an old mansion, in search of your lost friends. Not a game for the faint of heart.*An excellent (perfect) translation of Clock Tower - The First Fear has been created by Aeon Genesis. [[link:http://agtp.romhack.net/]]	SNES
Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense	Activision (Luxoflux)	2000	shooter racing/driving	Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense Delivers all the elements of its best-selling predecessor-fully destructible environments, over-the-top characters and breakthrough graphics-while upping the ante with morphing vehicle advancements, special attack moves, explosive realism, and even more Multiplayer options. The King of Auto Combat is on the road again! With Insane Auto Combat Action, blast away through 12 fully destructible battle arenas across the United States. Uncover hidden and bonus areas, cars, power-ups, and weapons throughout graphically distinct environments. For a better look at the destruction, switch between behind-the-wheel or behind-the-car views on-the-fly, plus Multiplayer split-screen. Enjoy High-tech abilities and upgrades. Drive 17 new, fully loaded '70s-style vehicles, plus the bus, which are all upgradeable with high-tech enhancements and power-ups, that morph into place as you progress, allowing improved snow/ice/water driving and hovering for jumps. Build the ultimate super-charged V8 hotrod, then save it to memory to wield against friends in Multiplayer modes. You can wreak havoc with 18 lunatics. Returning for another off-road war on wheels are eight of the original Vigilante 8 wackos, including Molo, Slick Clyde and John Torque, plus 10 new characters, including the introduction of the blood-thirsty Drifter gang. New vehicles include a garbage truck and a futuristic space vehicle. You now have four different ways to play. Single-Player modes include Quest, Brawl and Desperado. Two-Player modes include Quest, Co-op, Versus, Brawl, Team, and Desperado. In addition, there are Three-to Four-Player modes.	N64
Contra: Hard Corps	Konami	1994	shooter Science Fiction	[media=youtube]https://youtu.be/Pz9ah1erYJk[/media]*The vaunted CONTRA series finally makes its way to the Sega Genesis with CONTRA: Hard Corps. Picking up five years after the first game ended, the world is under attack by an army of biogenetic experiments gone bad, and it's your duty to put things right and wipe out the mutant armada. Playing as one of four gun-toting warriors, you'll be confronted with 10 grueling levels of scum-blasting action as you try to save the planet. Take advantage of the high-powered weapons at your disposal, like the homing gun, crush gun, needle laser, and mine setter, to deal out the damage. As the game progresses, you'll face many boss characters and choices, which will affect the game's ending, should you get that far.Probotector (European version) [26] [29]* [27]* [20]Genesis version of Contra. You can play as 4 different characters, all of whom have their special weapons. You can also slide in this game.**Additional info: This game was called Contra Hard Corps in USA and Japan, but its name was changed to Probotector in Europe (as most Contra titles were). The characters were also changed into robots and certain sequences and gfx was censored/edited (apperantly, the original was too violent for the german audience). The japanese version is also much easier (you get an unlimited number of credits and more health). There are more differences, but nothing too severe. [zinger]	Mega Drive
Sonic the Hedgehog	Sega	1991	platformer Cartoon	[22]* [26]* [63]* [52]* [37]* [27]Also included in Mega Games 6 Vol. 3 (aka Mega 6 Vol. 3), released in 1995 in Europe and published by Sega, rated ELSPA-3, that included [game=#10306]Super Monaco GP[/game], [game=#10455]Sega Soccer[/game], [game=#20418]Sonic the Hedgehog[/game], [game=#10281]Streets of Rage[/game], [game=#10161]Revenge of Shinobi[/game] and [game=#9667]Columns[/game]. Also included in Sega Top Ten, released in Brazil and published by Tec Toy, that included [game=#10455]World Cup Soccer[/game], [game=#10298]Super Hang-On[/game], [game=#9667]Shapes and Columns[/game], [game=#10281]Streets of Rage[/game], [game=#9832]Golden Axe[/game], [game=#20418]Sonic the Hedgehog[/game], [game=#10203]Shadow Dancer[/game], [game=#9802]Flicky[/game], [game=#10306]Super Monaco GP[/game] and [game=#9628]California Games[/game]. Also included in Sonic Compilation (Sonic Classics in the USA and Brazil, 소닉클래식 in Korea, Sonic 3-in-1 in the New Zealand), released in 1996 and 1997, published by Sega, rated ESRB K-A, that included [game=#20418]Sonic the Hedgehog[/game], [game=#10244]Sonic the Hedgehog 2[/game] and [game=#10139]Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine[/game].Bust the video game speed barrier wide open with Sonic The Hedgehog. Blaze by in a blur using the Super Sonic Spin Attack. Loop the loop by defying gravity. You can even spin around in a 360° rotating maze. You've never seen anything like it! [spoiler=Stage Select;Close]On the title screen, quickly press ↑ ↓ ← → A+Start[/spoiler] [anonymous]I'll admit, I was wowed by the graphics, sound and speed of this game when I first seen it. The fast paced music matches Sonic's speediness well (and is an amazing accomplishment since the music itself is only 8-bit and not 16-bit). The sound effects don't sound nearly as artificially generated as the one's on 8-bit systems. So far so good. But then story falls short, presented as one small paragraph in the game manual. The levels have lots of rings to collect and having at least one acts as a hit point so enemies, flames and spikes don't instantly kill Sonic. Sonic needs to be holding a minimum number of rings to access the special stages at the end of each level so he can grab the Chaos Emeralds. No where in the manual does it say what this minimum number is, nor what use the Chaos Emeralds have. Though it does say Sonic must prevent Dr. Robotnic from obtaining them. In fact the manual seems to have been written by someone unfamiliar with the game. It says to look for "secret rooms" when there is nothing that really resembles "rooms" in the game. There are areas difficult to see or access and [spoiler=secret shortcuts;Close]breakable walls that look like normal walls. The manual does not explain or even hint at breakable walls.[/spoiler]The manual says the special zones are traps! (Traps where Sonic cannot lose a life. Traps without time penalties. Traps full of all sorts of great bonuses)! There is no AI to the enemies, they all follow a set pattern and most of them are very simple. The Atari 2600 has better controls, seriously. When I press down on the Atari joystick, my character always take the proper action. But in Sonic, pressing down often causes Sonic to move left or right instead of crouching while standing still, or rolling into a ball when speeding. Actually, I prefer to use an Atari joystick to play Sonic, its compatible with the Genesis game port, and it helps. Sonic only needs one button during play anyhow. The control scheme doesn't not have a 0 learning curve becuse it takes a moment to learn that all three buttons preform the exact same jump. When in a level (an "Act"), Sonic has access to the whole level being able to go forward or backward with only certain spots being difficult to access once passed. This is a bit unusual for platform games at the time. Sonic's main competition, Super Mario Bros, didn't allow this. Like SMB, Sonic cannot go to a previous level. Unlike SMB, there are no shortcuts to higher levels. Sonic is very linear but allows some freedom to explore every nook and cranny of each individual level. There are multiple checkpoints in each level. Without activating a checkpoint, Sonic will restart the level when killed. Otherwise he will start at the last checkpoint he touched. Sonic has lives, and can earn extra lives. There is no way to save progress if the Genesis is switched off. Sonic has an absolute minimum playtime of just under 18 minutes, and a [b]maximum[/b] of about 3 hours. This maximum is because there is a time limit on each level. The challenge comes not from [i]completing[/i] the game, which is fairly easy, but from [i]winning[/i] against Dr Robotnic. Winning the game is somewhat satisfying. The way to win the game is strongly suggested by the ending you get when you don't win and its a spoiler for me to say how. [spoiler=Winning;Close]The story demands that Sonic stop Dr Robotnic before he collects the Chaos Emeralds. Yet it is possible to 'beat' the game without collecting them. In this case, the player actually loses (according to the story), because Dr. Robotnic is seen juggling the Chaos Emeralds and will proceed with his evil plans. Collecting 6 chaos emeralds before beating the game is required to "win".[/spoiler]This element of beating the game with or without winning kinda rescues the story a bit, but doesn't save it. Along the way, Sonic does not gain any permanent abilities nor is the story advanced during the game. Sonic 1 is simple, this has a certain appeal I suppose. But it doesn't lend well to social interaction revolving around the game. There are some hidden things that can be shared with other players. There are subtle details in the character's animations and extras in the graphics like shadows. But very little gameplay details. Piratically all the innovation in this game has to do with the sound and graphics, which were great improvements for games but not quite full innovations. They take good advantage of the Genesis hardware, which is the actual innovation. Sonic can be a bit destructive to his environment and the robots sent to attack him. On the other hand, he's destroying robots instead of actually killing as most platformer protagonists do. And he's simultaneously rescuing animals that are imprisoned in the robots. Their's no bad language, addictive substances, or sexual themes at all in the game. Later games, but not this one, added slot machine elements. Bottom line: Its not very good. Its all about the speed, graphics and sound. Sonic 1's SG&S were amazing at first, and it was a pioneer game for SG&S. But SG&S competition among game manufacturers would eventually devastate game quality as they were given top priority and all other aspects of the game, especially gameplay, became lesser priorities or even ignored. Playing Sonic 1 now just makes me sad. I do note however, that the later games in this series did improve tremendously. [Zerothis]Rocket Sonic, the fastest blue hedgehog on earth, through hair-raising loop-de-loops and dizzying dives past bubbling lava, waterfalls and on as you gather up Rings and stop Dr. Eggman's (AKA Dr. Robotnik) schemes for world domination!*Some people like it... in fact, 90% of people like it. Side scroller where you jump on bad guys at really high speeds. p.s. if you're an RPG fan, chances are you won't like this game... all you can do is run, jump and spin.	Mega Drive
Streets of Rage	Sega;Tec Toy;Samsung (AM7;H.I.C.)	1991	beat 'em up	[media=youtube]https://youtu.be/p7-xlFDtfPE[/media]* [22]Score shown on Mega Force #27 (Apr. 1994) [26] [64]Included in Sega Mega Drive Classic Collection (Steam version)Un beat'em up entretenido, de controles sencillos pero realmente complicado por lo escurridizo de los enemigos. Merece la pena usar el especial para ver a un policía con un lanzamisiles. 6 de 10* [37]* [32]* [29]* [27]Also included in Mega Games 6 Vol. 3 (aka Mega 6 Vol. 3), released in 1995 in Europe and published by Sega, rated ELSPA-3, that included [game=#10306]Super Monaco GP[/game], [game=#10455]Sega Soccer[/game], [game=#20418]Sonic the Hedgehog[/game], [game=#10281]Streets of Rage[/game], [game=#10161]Revenge of Shinobi[/game] and [game=#9667]Columns[/game]. Also included in Mega Games 6 (aka m6 or Mega Games 6 Vol. 1), released in Europe in 1995 and published by Sega, rated ELSPA-3, that included [game=#10455]World Cup Italia '90[/game], [game=#10298]Super Hang-On[/game], [game=#9667]Columns[/game], [game=#10281]Streets of Rage[/game], [game=#10161]The Revenge of Shinobi[/game] and [game=#9832]Golden Axe[/game]. Also included in Mega Games 2, released in Europe in 1993 and published by Sega, that included [game=#10281]Streets of Rage[/game], [game=#10161]The Revenge of Shinobi[/game] and [game=#9832]Golden Axe[/game]. Also included in Sega Top Ten, released in Brazil and published by Tec Toy, that included [game=#10455]World Cup Soccer[/game], [game=#10298]Super Hang-On[/game], [game=#9667]Shapes and Columns[/game], [game=#10281]Streets of Rage[/game], [game=#9832]Golden Axe[/game], [game=#20418]Sonic the Hedgehog[/game], [game=#10203]Shadow Dancer[/game], [game=#9802]Flicky[/game], [game=#10306]Super Monaco GP[/game] and [game=#9628]California Games[/game].A top secret crime organization has taken over what used to be a happy, peaceful metropolis and now no one is safe. Rampant crime and violence are commonplace after the syndicate bought off government officials and the majority of the police force with lucrative bribes. Frustrated by the corruption on their force, a group of young officers quits with a plan to take back the city in their own way. With special hand-to-hand combat abilities, Adam Hunter, Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding step onto the Streets of Rage to risk it all to save their city, even if it means putting their lives on the line. [Sega]The city was once a happy, peaceful place...until one day, a powerful secret criminal organization took over. This vicious syndicate soon had control of the government and even the police force. The city has become a center of violence and crime where no one is safe. Amid this turmoil, a group of determined young police officers has sworn to clean up the city. Among them are Adam Hunter, Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding. They've decided to put their lives on the line and take back their city through their special hand-to-hand combat abilities. They are willing to risk anything, even their lives, on the Streets of Rage.**Both Japanese (Bare Knuckle) and US/European version on same cartridge	Mega Drive
Yōkai Dōchūki	Namco	1988	platformer Fantasy	[49]* [52]*A funny platform game. It's an arcade port with a slightly different level design. This game has a very 'Japanese style of humor' which I found quite amusing. Controls are only average though and it seemed that when you didn't hurry, some very nasty monsters appeared... making this game unnecessarily difficult.	PC Engine
Caesar's Travels	Mirrorsoft	1985	edutainment		Amstrad CPC
Black Hole Adventure	Softside	1981	adventure	This is an unofficial adaptation of Disney's The Black Hole released on that film's 2 year anniversary. Disney's official computer game for the movie was [url=/game-217208]Space Probe: Math[/url] released on that film's 4 year anniversary. Guess which was more popular? Softside did not get sued. Instead of 6 crew (as in the movie), the Palomino apparently only has the captain of the Palomino leaving to investigate Deep-Space One. The population of Deep-Space One does not differ from movie but the player's interaction with them is drastically altered to fit a suitable text-adventure plot. There are a multitude of "game over" options. The player can work toward escaping or two other plot resolutions.	Apple II E
Freedom!	MECC	1992	simulation manag./econ. strategy adventure edutainment Historical	Players are presented a randomly generated protagonist; a slave during the 1830s. You have no choice in circumstances, skills, equipment, or name provided to you. A back-story is generated and your family members from it might be nearby to offer help or perhaps betray you for a variety of reasons. Two choices are provided, Male or Female and which zone in the southeastern United States the plantation you are held at. The zone represents difficulty level for the game. Some people will act differently to a male or female. The goal is to escape to freedom in the northern states. You might be blessed with literacy, swimming or a variety of other practical skills, or none. Money might come in handy (or not), if you can even get some. Nourishment, stamina, health, and injury level will be important factors to notice. Also the position of the sun during the day and the starts during the night will help, if You know how to use them. Or perhaps which side of the tree the moss is growing on. You will need to keep oriented somehow. If only you could obtain a compass. You will need sleep, food, and rest. If injured, you must tend to yourself somehow. You can also wait, knock on doors to ask for help, run, hide, fight, go around areas, people, houses, rivers and obstacles or go through them (not advised to go through a river if you cant swim). There's three ways to bring the game to an intended conclusion. Make it to freedom, get captured, or get killed. MECC had released many versions of the The Oregon Trail. They followed the very successful Apple II version of it with The Africa Trail, The Amazon Trail, and the Yukon Trail. It took a while, but someone at MECC finally noticed a disturbing pattern. This series of games were about colonialism and white people. The game engine for these games was promptly used for something a bit different. As MECC put it, Freedom was about providing "inclusive instructional materials," and their goal to "portray the experiences and perspectives of people from various cultures." Granted, MECC had an large non-white customer base; a fact that most certainly had not been ignored at the time of the game's release. Well, no good deed goes unpunished, as they say. Something very important to note is that regardless of MECC's profit-seeking and catering to an audience, the roots of this game were in place and the game designed long before anyone in the marketing department knew about it. It was motivated by history, not demographics. It was Kamau Kambui's [url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/02/17/can-slavery-reenactments-set-us-free]Slavery Reenactments[/url] in the early 1980s in Minnesota that inspired the game. MECC began by enlisting Kamau Kambui as a consultant for a game to play out his simulations on a computer. Kamau Kambui pushed the idea of having characters speak in historical dialect, which often made the characters difficult to understand. But there was a problem, historical dialect of slaves, is not what history has recorded for us. Instead, those who wrote history were, in one way or another, selective when they recorded the dialect of the day. But the problem goes deeper that recording the history of 'outsiders'. Authors who were slaves were quite conscious of their image and many did not write as they spoke or even as they once spoke. They were careful to use standard English even though they probably spoke or had spoken a local dialect of an outside culture or of their own culture. But there was another option, and that was to write, or even speak, as they were expected to, in an effort to gain acceptance in one way or another. A phenomenon that Frederick Douglass called "Negro Masking". Outside observers, for both historical and entertainment purposes, were clearly biased to the second option. But, both options share a problem, the actual dialects used were not recorded. Kamau Kambui and MECC decided to go with the dialects as improperly recorded by history. And, well, the problems didn't end there. For any given Apple II hardware (though not IIgs), a developer can only count on 6 distinct colors to work with. 15 colors on luxurious models, but that's not what schools tended to have. Depicting human skin tones cannot be done accurately even with 15 available colors. Kamau Kambui wanted the slaves in the game to look distinctly 'African'. The best the Apple could do ended up looking more like a minstrel show (blackface depictions). But, there's more. Some very well intentioned people a MECC created teacher's materials, same as with all their games, to offer helpful suggestions to classroom instructors. While most of MECC's descriptions of the game carefully adhere to 'political correctness' (almost ridiculously so), the teacher's materials did not contain carefully crafted words. The language was blunt, clumsy, naive and managed to offend many who saw it. Finally, MECC crafted the entire product for use in an classroom with children under instructor guidance (clearly, they understood the game could be misinterpreted). The reality of the vast majority of educational software in schools was that it was used as an unassigned activity and often with minimum to no supervision. Group participation and instructor guidance for individual titles rarely happened. It wasn't long before parents who never played the game heard of it. A few quick glances at the screen was enough for many parents to condemn this "Nintendoized" slavery. Those wanting a more in-depth study of the game didn't seem to play it at all, they instead asked for the game's instructor materials. Which of course described activities invoking "white children" and "black children" etc... MECC attended one meeting with one parent group and an NAACP representative and promptly retreated from the situation. MECC stated all copies of Freedom were recommend to be returned or destroyed and it was no longer offered to sell. The Oregon Trail, The Africa Trail, The Amazon Trail, and the Yukon Trail continued to sell well and let children play as colonizing white people. [Zerothis]	Apple II E
Interactive Fiction: Six Micro Stories	Adventure International	1980	adventure		Apple II E
Intrigue!	Spectrum Holobyte (Kinemation)	1986	adventure		Apple II E
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella	Sierra On-Line	1990	adventure Fantasy	This game is aware if it is running on a IIc+ in 4mhz mode and will run better.	Apple II E
Maniac Mansion	Lucasfilm Games	1987	adventure Humorous		Apple II E
The Black Cauldron	Sierra On-Line	1986	adventure Fantasy	According to Al Lowe, "feel free to copy them and share them with your friends." He only provides the Apple ][ version.	Apple II E
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella	Sierra On-Line	1988	adventure Fantasy		Atari ST
Maniac Mansion	Lucasfilm Games	1989	adventure Humorous	[52]***Ever since the meteor landed, strange things have been sighted at Dr. Fred's old mansion. Disembodied tentacles hopping around. Chainsaws in the kitchen. Plants with unusual appetites. And odd glow from the swimming pool. And now, sweet Sandy the cheerleader is in Dr. Fred's clutches. So round up your pals, take a deep breath, and get ready for the weirdest, funniest adventure of your life. - Just point 'n' click... no typing ever! - High resolution graphics and great sound effects. - Meet all sorts of zany characters	Atari ST
The Black Cauldron	Sierra On-Line	1986	adventure Fantasy		Atari ST
Caesar's Travels	Mirrorsoft (Chalksoft)	1984	edutainment		C64
Eis und Feuer: Teil I - Der Magier	Eurogold;Nightridersoft	1985	adventure Fantasy Science Fiction		C64
Intrigue!	Spectrum Holobyte;Mirrorsoft (Kinemation)	1988	adventure		C64

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