Captain's Blog: 1986

Showing posts with label 1986. Show all posts

Monday, October 10, 2022

Now That's What I Call Stuart's Favourite Music 68 - Electric Light Orchestra - Calling America

Here's a cracker from 1986 that I had nearly completely forgotten about, but last night I decided to stick on some Electric Light Orchestra, and in between classics like 'Mr Blue Sky' and 'Sweet Talking Woman' this beauty came on, and the memories hit me.

I loved this song when it came out. Released in the UK as a single from their album 'Balance of Power' on 21st February 1986, it only managed to peak at number 28.

It's a really upbeat, happy and bright song that really lifts your mood (well, it did mine). Enjoy!

Saturday, January 08, 2022

Now That's What I Call Stuart's Favourite Music 23 - Genesis (The Brazilian)

The 23rd song in my list of favourite songs is this little-known instrumental from UK rock band Genesis. "The Brazilian", featured as the last track on their four-times platinum UK hit album Invisible Touch from 1986.

Name a Genesis song from the mid-1980s and most people will probably say Invisible Touch or Land of Confusion, but ask them if they've heard of The Brazillian and they will just look at you with a confused look. Yes, Genesis also did some amazing experimental instrumental work too.

As great as their more familiar songs are, I've always had a soft spot for this track, but then I think it's because I've always preferred instrumentals to songs with vocals in. This is just great, especially Mike Rutherford's guitar finale. A perfect excuse to turn the volume up to maximum, and let those goosebumps appear.

The track was featured in an episode of Magnum, P.I, used extensively by the BBC during their TV coverage of the 1987 World Athletics Championships, and in 1987 it had a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, but lost out to Harold Faltermeyer and Steve Stevens with the "Top Gun" anthem. Sorry Top Gun fans, but I prefer this!

Big thanks to my sister Stephanie for introducing me to this song all those years ago. Enjoy.

Sunday, December 20, 2020

Game Covers - Kikstart (Commodore 16 and Plus 4)

Test your skills as a biker on 16 different courses in this all action simulation.

Joystick and Keyboard.

The Cover

The Inlay (with cheats)

The Tape

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Game Covers - Kane (Commodore 16 and Plus 4)

An all action, thrill packed arcade game where you take the role of Sheriff in a bid to make peace with the Indians.

The Cover

The Inlay

The Tape

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Game Covers - Hektik (Commodore 16 and Plus 4)

This all action, arcade game has 16 thrill packed levels.

With a limited oxygen supply for each level will you be quick enough to avoid a nasty death from a mutating monster?

Joystick and Keyboard.

The Cover

The Inlay

The Tape

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Game Covers - Harvey Headbanger (Commodore 16 and Plus 4)

Harvey Headbanger - Hamish Highball battle it out with fat bellies and hard heads for domination of the cocktail cabinet.

The Cover

The Inlay

The Tape

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Game Covers - Gnasher (Commodore 16 and Plus 4)

The Cover

The Tape

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Game Covers - Fingers Malone (Commodore 16 and Plus 4)

15 levels of sheer thril-power! In this challenging arcade game you must collect all the stolen money before the raiders get hold of you. Packed full of action and excitement!

JOYSTICK OR KEYBOARD.

The Cover

The Inlay (with cheats)

The Tape

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Game Covers - Finders Keepers (Commodore 16 and Plus 4)

Trapped within the Castle of Spriteland avoid certain death at the hands of the grisly ghouls whilst collecting treasures. Collect as much as possible and escape to freedom - if you can ..

The Cover

The Inlay

The Tape

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Game Covers - Dirty Den (Commodore 16 and Plus 4)

The Cover

The Inlay (with cheats)

The Tape

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Game Covers - 5th Quadrant (Commodore 64)

The ship has been taken over by the Zimen, can you free the robot crew and recapture the ship before the time runs out and the ship's energy runs out?

A desperate race against time in a stunning arcade adventure featuring 230 locations, replenishment points, an alien language to decode, controllable sub systems, intelligent aliens and many other incredible features too numerous to mention.

5th Quadrant Cover

5th Quadrant Inlay

5th Quadrant Tape

3D View (hold and move to rotate) New Tab (Full Screen)

Sunday, June 30, 2019

Game Covers - Con-Quest (Commodore 64)

A fully animated, 3-D icon driven, graphic adventure. Save Oscar's soul from the torment of walking through the eternal fires of Hell.

Con-Quest - The Cover

Con-Quest - The (rather blank) Inlay

Con-Quest - The Tape

3D View (hold and move to rotate) New Tab (Full Screen)

Tuesday, April 02, 2019

Game Covers - Tom Thumb (Commodore 16 & Plus 4)

Original cover (Click to enlarge)

Cleaned cover (Click to enlarge)

Click to enlarge

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Game Covers - Ghost Town (Commodore 16 & Plus 4)

Original cover (click to enlarge)

Cleaned cover (click to enlarge)

Click to enlarge

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Retro Game Boys Episode 6 - Outrun (Arcade and Playstation 2)

Just me, Kieran, a Ferrari Testarossa, an open road, and some random bloke who keeps getting hit by his abusive girlfriend whenever he crashes. Yep, it's Outrun.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Games that remind me of my childhood Number 22 : Paperboy (Arcade, Commodore Plus 4, Commodore 64)

I think I may have mentioned before in this blog that when I was young, my family would all go for walks from Leigh-on-Sea to Southend, stopping off at various watering holes (pubs) for a drink. Being young, we would have to sit in the family rooms of such pubs like The Peterboat, Ye Old Smack, The Cliffs Pavilion, The Shambles, and The Foresters Arms to name a few.

Anyway, the one thing these pubs all had in common (besides selling booze!) were a great assortment of arcade games, namely Carnival, Pac-Land and Commando. I would spend a fortune on these, but the highlight of these walks was finally reaching Southend and spending loads of my pocket money in the arcades on one classic game that I still love playing today…… Paperboy.

I never considered myself an expert at the game, but I used to fly through the levels, picking up the newspapers, and throwing them at the doors of subscribers, whilst avoiding road-workers, drunks, radio controlled cars, break-dancers, and other obstacles. On many occasions I had a large crowd standing behind me, watching and cheering me on. It actually made me feel good!

The original and best... The arcade version.

Back in 1986, I was excited when I found out that Paperboy was coming out on the Commodore Plus 4 (our family computer at the time). I remember getting the game from Software Plus in Basildon, getting home, loading the game for the first time, only to find the conversion a complete and utter pile of pooh! Actually, looking back at the game, the conversion wasn’t all that bad considering the limitations of the Commodore Plus 4 – As with many games on the system, it was also made to work on the lower spec Commodore 16. I’m sure a version made specifically for the Plus 4 would have been much better…… ANYWAY…..

The Commodore 16 and Plus 4 Version. A good attempt at a conversion, considering the limitations of the computer.

When I got my Commodore 64 for Christmas in 1987, one of the games that came with the computer was the C64 conversion – and WOW…. It was amazing.

Paperboy, the first game to feature a non-white character? Nah, just the limited C64 colour palette!

Well, it was at the time. Besides the blocky graphics, it was just as good as the arcade (just without the handlebar joystick), and included the training course which was missing in the Plus 4 version.

The game was simple – You played the paperboy and your task was to deliver newspapers along a suburban street shown in an isometric 3D view. If you ran out of newspapers, you would have to collect more and you could also damage/vandalise non-subscribers houses by throwing newspapers at their windows and other items located in their front gardens to boost your score. If you deliver a newspaper to every subscriber’s house, a non-subscriber becomes a subscriber the following day. If you miss a subscriber’s house, they become a non-subscriber on the next day. The game starts on Monday and you need to get all houses to subscribe to the newspaper by the following Sunday.

Try not to hit the guy going for a morning run!

Sounds easy? It would be if it wasn’t for break-dancers, cars, skateboarders, drunks, cats (and even the Grim Reaper) getting in your way. You also had to cross an intersection in the road which required the player to dodge traffic. Some obstacles could earn the player additional points such as throwing a newspaper at a burglar trying to break in to a house, or hitting one of two men having a fight in the middle of the street.

A non-subscriber. Smash some windows!

At the end of the street, the player would then need to complete a training course for additional points (and to improve your throwing aim). If you crashed on the course, you would simply just start the following day without the bonus points of completing the course.

The training course

The game was also featured on one of my favourite shows in the 1980s – a gameshow by the BBC called First Class which had young contestants play against each other on a variety of popular computer games at the time (720, Hypersports, and of course Paperboy).

Title for the BBC kids show "First Class" which featured Paperboy as one of its games.

The cover for the Commodore 16 and Plus 4 - The graphics were so bad, they didn't even put screenshots on the back of the cover!

The tape (Commodore 16 and Plus 4 Version)

The box!