#zx spectrum
Atthe big VGJunk site today: who ya gonna call? An Italian with a small van! Well, you will if you’re playing ZX Spectrum mini-game Ghost & Booster,which you can read all about here!
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Atthe big VGJunk site today: it’s another princess rescue mission, folks, but this one’s got evil dressing gowns, hidden cauldrons and key cutting: it’s Heartbroken on the ZX Spectrum, and you can read all about it here!
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Atthe big VGJunk site today: a look at a bunch of cover art from some computer games with “knight” in the title, because why not? We’ve got regular knights, buff knights, futuristic knights and permed knights, and you can get ‘em all out here!
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Atthe big VGJunk site today: a selection of cover art from computer game versions of tennis and other racquet sports. There are a lot of very smooth people, a variety of poorly-drawn racquets and the raw horror of squash, and you can read all about it here!
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Atthe big VGJunk site today: it’s the brand-new ZX Spectrum adventure All Hallows: Rise of the Pumpkin! Yes, really, it was released a couple of weeks ago and you play as a bouncy pumpkin, read all about it here!
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Atthe big VGJunk site today: a ZX Spectrum game called SAS Combat Assault, which features no combat or assaults and frankly I’m dubious about the “SAS” bit, too. Read all about it here!
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Atthe big VGJunk site today: a look at the terrible ZX Spectrum “sports” action in It’s A Knockout, which somehow manages to include the Holy Roman Empire and Charles de Gaulle. Read all about it here!
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Atthe big VGJunk site today: a young wizard called Slightly saves a princess using suntan lotion, dead mice and a human skull in the ZX Spectrum platform-puzzler Slightly Magic, and you can read all about it here!
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Batman: The Caped Crusader video game
Released by Ocean Software Ltd in 1988, Batman: The Caped Crusader was the second computer/video game to utilize the Batman license Ocean Software acquired from DC comics in 1986.
Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns (1986) revitalized the Batman franchise which suddenly turned Batman into a serious contender as a merchandising gold mine for DC comics. I don’t know if Ocean Software heard of the upcoming Batman film in the works and decided to pick up the license before it became a hot property, or if they were in the right place at the right time and the cards just fell in to place. The former would not surprise me.
As you have probably guessed from the ad, Batman’s main antagonists in this game are the Penguin and the Joker. Including the Joker was more or less a no-brainer since he is the pen-ultimate Batman villain (also: Moore’s Batman: the Killing Joke was published in 1988), but I’m kind of stumped as to why the Penguin was selected to be the second villain. I guess he was a popular character at the time?
The game itself was well-received by fans. It was pretty innovative in terms of game-play: the player had to solve the mission by finding items in-game and then make them interact with the correct in-game components - all while dodging villains and other obstacles. If you were old enough to remember owning this game, you probably also remember the interface was set up so that it looked like Batman was entering a new comic book panel every time he entered a new in-game area.
Another detail of the game that may resonate some nostalgia with old microprocessor owners is that Batman: The Caped Crusader was released on a magnetic tape for the 8-bit and 16-bit processors of the day. Side A of the magnetic tape had the game where you battled the Penguin, and side B contained the more difficult game where you had to battle the Joker.
The art for this ad came from BobWakelin.Wakelin was a UK artist who illustrated many covers for UK comic books in the 1980s. Coincidentally, Wakelin also created the famous ‘Ocean’ logo for Ocean Software Ltd (visible in this ad).
I don’t believe this ad appeared in any DC publications, just computer gaming/hobbyist magazines.
Batman: The Caped Crusader was available for Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, ZX Spectrum.
If you’d like to know more about the history of Ocean Software Ltd, check out http://www.oceanthehistory.co.uk/.
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Samus Aran Origins: Metroid’s Influences Beyond Alien | Hardboiled History
My new video is about the origins of one of my favorite video game characters. Everyone knows Metroid was inspired by the movie Alien, but what about its other influences?
Other questions explored include: Who did “Samus Is A Girl” before Samus? Why does Adam call Samus “Lady” in Metroid Dread? Were Metroid and Zelda inspired by Rareware games? Why does Samus fight a Mother Brain? Where does Samus’ first name come from? What does “Metroid” mean? What is a “bailey”? Who was the first character with an arm canon? And why can’t Metroid crawl?
Vintage computers at work
We prepared a small room with old computers as a part of a bigger event at work. After careful consideration, we selected Atari 800XL and Commodore Amiga 500 for the contest purposes. Atari was running Space Invaders and each visitor played with the highest difficulty (three lives, level 12). For Amiga, we chose Pinball Dreams and the goal was to get the highest score using just a single ball.
To make the room more appealing, we brought several old computer magazines and 80s props. Curious visitors could also experience ZX Spectrum+ with the Who Dares Wins game. The feedback on our room was very positive and people were talking a lot about their first computers there. However, the biggest surprise for me is that the joystick survived all the players. Some of them gave it a hard time.
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Ace (US) Vs. Ace (EU) Vs. Ace (EU). 1985/6
Get in touch if you have better scans of any of these!
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