Ho-Ho-Ho ! Dashing through the snow ... ( cough ! ) Ah ! It's time for another batch, racing past the 200 Tape postmark and with a surprise to boot as well. Just in time really for this festive post.
Although, we only have four Tapes, most of this batch has a sporting theme. Hole-in-One is a classic Golf game, although not in the same league as Leaderboard Golf, it's still a pretty cool game all the same. Sport of Kings is a run of the mill Horse Racing game that steadies you from splashing out on the hard cash in a betting form. Both Hole-in-One and Sport of Kings have nice colourful graphics, even if they look a little basic. Still bags of fun though ! Vectorball is football / soccer, score a goal in the opposing teams side type of game. Nice vector graphics though and it feels like Spindizzy might have inspired the game players a little.
Mastertronic ::
Vectorball
Mastertronic Added Dimension ::
Ball Crazy, Hole in One and Sport of Kings.
Now it's time for a little surprise ! I found ( bought ) a copy of Water Polo on the Mastertronic Label, but on Disk. Technically, it isn't part of my mission to collect titles on Disk, but it was cheap enough and I thought I would check it out. I have come to the conclusion though, that this title has been released at least twice.
The other software house that released it, was Gremlin. Despite this Disk, Box and Instructions being around 25 years old, it's done remarkably well. I took the liberty of creating an image file for use with an emulator like Vice. So, you can see, it seems to be a rare release by Mastertronic and I have not yet encountered a copy on Tape. As far as I am aware, no other sites have an copy of this version, just the Gremlin one.
So, we have actually reached ... 203 Tapes, leaving the few that maybe tough cookies to obtain next year, but we will see what crops up. Until the next batch, see you then.
Well, we are rolling up to another *big* one ! Hopefully, if the next batch of Tapes arrives before Christmas, the grand total will be ... 203 with only 30 or so to go. So, out of the remaining Tapes, I reckon that about 12 will be tricky to get hold of. I know I might have mentioned this before, but you can see it happening.
This batch contains a nice selection of shoot'em ups, a platformer and a nice Pool and Snooker game, On Cue. P.O.D. ( Proof of Destruction ) is a great little shoot'em up, perfect for releasing any stress through blasting away the baddies. It's also, another great game from the Shaun Southern stable, who is also responsible for giving us Vegas Jackpot, Kikstart and Lotus on the Amiga under the company name of Magnetic Fields.
Mastertronic ::
Hyperforce, P.O.D., Prowler and Rasterscan.
Mastertronic Added Dimension ::
On Cue and Wizards Pet.
Ricochet ::
5th Quadrant.
Hold on to your Hats and get ready for the next batch coming soon ...
" I'm a Lumberjack and I'm okay " ... Immortal words as sung by the Monty Python crew. But also one of the sub-songs in Geoff Capes Strongman as translated to the great Commodore 64 SID by Rob Hubbard.
Did you know that Geoff Capes keeps and breeds Budgies ? It might seem like an unusual hobby, but what an excellent one, for one of Great Britains Strongmen.
Ricochet ::
Geoff Capes Strongman
Hopefully, there should be another batch or two before the end of 2011 ... Until then !
At last ! I have managed to get hold of one the earlier ones, from 1984 ! That would be Orbitron, another game with what appears to have the trademark and feeling of an early David and Richard Darling production. It's tricky to play and for some reason you just want to better your last attempt all the time. If you think about it, it's pure genius, create a game creation engine or tool and churn out stuff for all to play and cuss over. I don't think it really mattered then, I was more for buying and playing budget games. Not leaving out the games that cost up to £15, even back in the 1980's.
I don't seem to remember Camelot Warriors, it's another re-release and appears to be from Ariolasoft / Dinamic. For some reason, I kept thinking of Sacred Armour or Antiraid. Perhaps it was the suit ?
Mastertronic ::
Camelot Warriors and Orbitron.
Until the next batch ...
