Friday, December 31, 2021

Game Covers - Buggy Boy (Commodore 64)

Use the joystick to select a course and press fire.  The race begins.  Drive your race-tuned Baja Bug along the race track, passing through gates and collecting flags for points.  Time gates give you an additional two seconds on the next leg so drive through them if you can.  Collecting the flags in the specified order gives you extra points.  Avoid hitting the fences, walls, trees etc. as they flip your buggy over and slow you down.  You are competing against the clock so don't waste time, push the pedal flat to the floor.  Try jumping obstacles by hitting the logs that lie across the track,  Show off your driving skills by running over molehills and tree stumps, tipping your car onto two wheels - see how long you can keep your buggy in this trick position.  Fasten your seat belt for the ride of your life.




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Game Covers - Flintstones (Commodore 64)

BOWL OR BUST!

Fred and Barney want to go bowling but Wilma has other ideas and guess who's left holding the baby?

Join the Flintstones in this officially licensed arcade adventure based on the famous Hanna Barbera cartoon characters.






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Thursday, December 30, 2021

Now That's What I Call Stuart's Favourite Music 16 - Taurus II (Mike Oldfield)

The album "Five Miles Out" introduced me to the music of Mike Oldfield long before I first listened to his famous Tubular Bells for the first time, and the one track which stands out for me is the very first one from the album, "Taurus II".  As with most of Mike's earlier work (Tubular Bells, Incantations, Ommadawn etc.), this track is one long, continuous track (24 minutes) made up of several different melodies and styles.

I remember my sister copying it onto an old C90 for me in the mid 1980's...  I still have the tape!  (Shhh.... although I've bought several CD releases since, so that kind of makes up for having a naughty copy when I was a child!)

If you've never heard it before, give it a go...  Modern chart musicians can only dream of producing music of this quality.  As a big fan of Mike Oldfield, I still find this one of his best albums ever.


The copy my sister dd for me in the 80s.  Shhhh, don't tell anyone!

Game Covers - Frankenstein (Commodore 64)

Imagine...

Just imagine................................  That you could be God.

I am Doctor Victor Frankenstein.  I believed...   Oh foolish man!...  I believed I could equal the wonders of God.  For I, in my researches had discovered the secret of life!  For two wearisome years I experimented with my secrets of life force.  Long hours spent in the laboratory tolling over bloody tissue.  Re-animating dead animal muscle:  Notes, experiments, more notes, adjustments to my apparatus.

My experiments became an obsession!  I forgot about food.  My body became wasted.  My eyes stared wildly from sunken sockets.

Friends had deserted me, considering me eccentric, I did not care!  For I was destined to stand among the Gods!  Their equal, a creator...   A giver of life itself!

"Extracts from the memoirs of Dr. Victor Frankenstein."







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Sunday, December 26, 2021

Game Covers - Miami Vice (Commodore 64)

Crockett and Tubbs have heard;  the word on the street - a one million dollar contraband shipment is due in town on Thursday morning for collection by Mr 'J' - an old-fashioned gangster with a respectable new image and some influential friends.

These big deals usually go down under the cover of a waterfront warehouse and as of Midnight Sunday, that's as much as you know.

Just get out there and squeeze the network of dealers, starting with the real low-life, the $10 wrap men who frequent the local bars.  If you handle them right, you just might get to their suppliers, the next link in the chain, and eventually, the slick businessmen who operate in the casinos - they should have lots of information if you don't have to shoot them first!







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Saturday, December 25, 2021

Game Covers - Knight Rider (Commodore 64)

Michael Knight and his amazing computer-controlled vehicle K.I.T.T. are in Atlanta on yet another dangerous mission.  Michael's co-ordinator, Deven, has discovered that a group of international terrorists are planning to alter the precarious status quo between the East and West.  It is even possible that for some reason known only to themselves they are trying to trigger a Third World War.  Deven has instructed the KNIGHT RIDER to uncover the insidious plot and put a stop to it - but no-one knows exactly what the plot is!






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Friday, December 24, 2021

Game Covers - The Sentinel (Commodore 64)

Beyond your wildest dreams, in a world where the only force is pure energy, stands the Sentinel.  Battle against him through 10,000 lands, in the most original, compelling and addictive computer game ever devised.

Firebird issue the challenge, and the Sentinel awaits.





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Game Covers - Xybots (Commodore 64)

A year ago, the experts said it couldn't be done.
It was too big, too complicated.  But our programming team just smiled at each other, and now here it is...

It's here and it's sensational - Domark's latest blockbusting coin-op conversion from Tengen.

Join Major Rock Hardy and Captain Ace Gunn in their battle for supremacy against an army of invading Xybots!

With a split-screen for one or two platers and a unique viewing area, you'll find Xybots a challenging strategic blast'em up.

It's non-stop action all the way and working together in two-player mode is the ultimate fun.  Each player controls one character and the split-screen gives each his own playing area.

A map shows the section you're battling through and the positions of the patrolling Xybots.  And to keep one step ahead, pick up energy pods, super weapons, keys and coins.

Xybots made a challenging arcade game ...  as a computer game, it can't be matched. So grab hold of the controls and help the intrepid duo, Rock and Ace, rid the labyrinth of these metallic monsters!







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Thursday, December 23, 2021

Now That's What I Call Stuart's Favourite Music 15 - Action Biker (Rob Hubbard)

My favourite songs are not just limited to popular music which was available and eligible for the charts.

One song in particular which always conjures up fond memories from when I was little is from a classic computer game called Action Biker. 

I was first introduced to this game back in late 1985.  My friend, Steve Ready had it on his Atari 800XL, and the theme song got stuck in my head ever since. 

At the time, our family only had a Commodore Plus 4 and I was extremely jealous because Action Biker was not available for that machine.  A few years later I managed to get it when I was lucky enough to receive a Commodore 64 for Christmas in 1987.

Rob Hubbard wrote some of the most memorable songs on the Commodore 64, but this one will always stand out for me. 

   

I even wrote a remix of it a few years ago, along with a short video of me playing, and finishing the game (see the video below), although the original will always be the best!


A great game, a great song, and some fantastic memories - not bad for £1.99!

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Game Covers - Dominator (Commodore 64)

Warnings, S.O.S.'s and stories of total planet absorbtion had been banded around a terrified solar system for some time now but had been conveniently overlooked by spineless, so-called 'leaders'.

And now it was too late.  This was incomprehensible.  This was immense.  It's vast appetite was closing in on Earth and the putrid smell of partly digested nations hung ominously in space above a society that had refused to believe that its very existence would ever again be in question.

Who could fight?

Who would dare go inside this mutant horror and battle against its bodily defence mechanisms, to obliterate its sustaining organs, to stop its crazed hunger stampede across the universe?

Mankind needs you, the 'Dominator' ...   You need to fight ...  IT NEEDS TO FEED ...









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Tuesday, December 21, 2021

Broadway at Christmas

Every year, around Christmas time, I pop over to Broadway to take some photographs of the stunning lights that stretch along the High Street.

In case you don't know, Broadway is a gorgeous village located in the Cotswolds about 30 miles south of Birmingham in the UK.  It's a short 10-minute drive from where I live, so I try to visit it as often as I can.

Last night, I took my daughter Sophie over there and used the opportunity to take some pictures which I thought I would share with you here.









Game Covers - Chase H.Q. (Commodore 64)

THE FASTEST, MOST THRILLING, 3D DRIVING GAME YET!

Take the wheel of your turbo-charged Porsche as you and your partner go in pursuit of dangerous criminals all driving an evil array of souped-up-roadsters.

TURBO BOOST!

Need to catch up in a hurry?  Well, just one press of your Turbo Button will leave your eyes in the back of your head!

BARRELLING THROUGH THE CITY STREETS.

along the roughest of dirt tracks ad through busy tunnels - if you can hold the line!  The low life can run, but they can't hide...

CHASE H.Q.










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