Tag: Video gamesPage 5 of 40

Mugsy – “Da boys in the mob”

After the massive success of The Hobbit, the wait was on for Melbourne House’s successor. Before they’d even finished it, Philip Mitchell and Veronika Megler had decided on…

Twin Kingdom Valley – “In The Hall Of The Forest King”

Twin Kingdom Valley is a graphic adventure game, set in a fantasy valley with two rival kingdoms, headed by a Forest King and a Desert King. It doesn’t…

Jet Set Willy – “Entrance to Hades”

Manic Miner wowed reviewers and players with its sheer scale. Its solo developer Matthew Smith aimed to create sixteen rooms for it, and successfully landed at twenty, four…

Valhalla – “You are in an icy waste in Hell”

One popular repeating story in games history is that of technical advances powering improved experiences. Being able to do more technically allows you to make better games, the…

Lunar Jetman – “8 laser hits will be required”

The selection of Ultimate games included in the 2015 compilation Rare Replay almost completely lines up with their list of UK #1 hits. This is not surprising as…

Kong – “Today’s highest”

In April 1983, UK magazines Home Computing Weekly and Personal Computer News each carried an advert for “the world’s greatest arcade games”. It was from the company Spectrum…

Flight Simulation – “Hills 1000 feet”

By the time Psion published Horace and the Spiders, they were a well-established success story. Sinclair had struck a deal with Psion to get first option on co-publishing…

Horace and the Spiders – “From thread to thread”

In 1984, Home Computing Weekly and games chart compilers ASP would split their charts into two categories: ‘arcade’ and ‘non-arcade’. Not all of the games in the arcade…

Manic Miner – “Miner Willy meets the Kong Beast”

When I was five years old, teachers would seek me out to resolve issues with the school’s BBC Micro. I didn’t have a BBC Micro at home, but…

Donkey King – “There are four screens”

1983 was a big year in video game history. In Japan, Nintendo released the Famicom console, later known elsewhere as the NES. Nintendo would go on to sell…