Another lookback at the news and events for yesteryear. Just over fourteen years ago, this was the scene:
o Mastertronic, rags-to-riches style budget masters, finally entered the big time and bought out the UK division of software vetrans Melbourne House. Mastertronic, famous for the �1.99 range of budget software, payed a 7-figure sum for the well-respected MH. Melbourne were responsible for such classics as The Hobbit, Sherlock and RedHawk. o Arkanoid, the game which launched a thousand clones whilst being a clone itself, was set loose on the public by Ocean. The arcade convertion which took Breakout, added power-ups, aliens and not much else, was recieved with lukewarm reviews in the computing press. Nowadays, every PD library worth its salt will have enough versions of Arkanoid/Breakout to sink a ship.
o The last true Monty Mole game was released. Auf Wiedersehen Monty was the last game to be written by the Peter Harrip, who first wrote Wanted: Monty Mole three years earlier (the C64 version, slightly different, was coded by Tony Crowther). Wiedersehen Monty (which featured one of the best pieces of music Benn Daglish, or anyone for that matter, has ever written) was in the standard platform mold that Monty made his own, but on a much larger scale. Travelling from country to country, picking up air tickets, climbing the Eiffel Tower and enjoying one of the best platform games yet.
o Anyone remember Gonch and Hollo? The money-making twat with the glasses and the small one from Grange Hill? These two immortal characters, along with numerous others, were brought to the small screen, thanks to Argus Press Software (now defunct). Based around the gripping scenario of retrieving a confiscated Walkman, the player took charge of the afformentioned characters, determined to free the walkman whilst avoiding numberous hazards. Sounds crap, doesn't it? It was; a rare dissappointment from Binary Design.
o Adrian Mole (no relation to Monty) recieved another outing on the 8-bits, in The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole. Read the adventures of the bespectacled pimple on legs, and make crucial choices at varius stages in his teenage years.
o The Way of the Exploding Fist, the game which started the whole beat-em-up craze which resulted on Street Fighter II (God help us), gained a sequel in February of '87. Fist II, as it was usually called, added the brilliant fighting action of the original to a scrolling quest to find a way to free his land (as per usual). However, it soon become obvious that the attraction of the original was firmly with the fighting half of the game, and the walking about soon become tedious. Melbourne House tried again a few years later with Exploding Fist +, which tried to beat IK+ at it's own game, and failed.
Is there any year or time of interest to you? Want to see the era you enjoyed most relived on your screens? Contact THE CRYPT and we will do our very best to please.