Captain's Blog: 80s

Showing posts with label 80s. Show all posts

Friday, August 09, 2019

Game Covers - Knightmare (Commodore 64)

Welcome to the game....

This is the Time to end Time
This is the Time out of Mind
This is the Game out of Time
And the game to blow your Mind!

Knightmare - The Cover

Knightmare - The Inlay

Knightmare - The Tape

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Game Covers - Kikstart 2 (Commodore 64)

Now this was a blinder of a game, and a real bargain for £2.99. I would've been happy to pay full price for this. 24 courses of motorcross/trials fun, based on the BBC television series Kick Start, but what made this stand out from the previous Kikstart game (besides the better graphics) was the inclusion of a powerful, and very easy to use course editor. I spent countless hours designing my own fiendish tracks and saving them to tape.

An amazing game, made by the same team that would like go on to make the Lotus series on the Commodore Amiga.

Ride your bike over the 24 all action courses in this new improved version of Kikstart. Devise your own mindbendingly tortuous test with the course designer or make things really easy - the choice is yours!

JOYSTICK OR KEYBOARD
PROGRAM FROM MR CHIP SOFTWARE

Kikstart 2 - The Cover

Kikstart 2 - The Inlay

Kikstart 2 - The Tape

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Game Covers - Space Hunter (Commodore 64)

A fun romp in space, featuring two styles of game play (3D space flight simulator, and 2D maze/map exploration). Well worth the £1.99 which I paid for this back in the day.

"The world is starving and the only food available is in space. You must search through 15 star systems to feed the world. This complex 3-D simulation takes you from rookie pilot to the hero of the world... If you're good enough!"

Space Hunter - The Cover

Space Hunter - The Inlay

Space Hunter - The Tape

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Game Covers - Strike (Commodore 64)

"Superbly playable, addictive and challenging. This game will have you hooked in minutes and playing for hours trying to achieve that elusive STRIKE".

More like...

"Completely unplayable, dull and impossible. This will have you bored in minutes and throwing your controller at the screen within hours before switching off the computer because you cant be arsed to achieve the elusive and near impossible STRIKE"

What could have been a fantastic game, ended up being rather 'meh' with awful controls. The graphics look great, but the king of Commodore 64 bowling simulators has to stay with the amazing '10th Frame'.

Oh well, what did I expect for £2.99

Strike - The Cover

Strike - The Inlay

Strike - The Tape

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Game Covers - Zzzz (Commodore 64)

Not one of my favourite Mastertronic cheapos. Zzzz was released way back in 1985 and was a text based adventure game but had a unique icon system included.

You are trapped in your dream and to escape from this graphic, text and icon driven adventure you must find and cross the border or wander lost in the land of 'Zzzz' forever.

Yes... being lost in the land of 'Zzzz The Computer Game' is indeed a fate worse than death!

Zzzz - The cover!

Zzzz - The Inlay

Zzzz - The Tape

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Saturday, June 22, 2019

Game Covers - Agent X II The Mad Prof's Back (Commodore 64)

The second encounter between super sleuth Agent X and his old adversary the Mad Professor. There's no peace. Even though you foiled the Mad Prof's attempts to kidnap the President, you failed to defeat him totally, and he is back with a vengeance. No more small fry for him, this time it's total world domination, and beyond! Only you can foil the Mad Professor!

A thrilling fight against his minions followed by a climactic confrontation for the future fate of freedom. Long awaited sequel to the classic Agent X

A fun three stage game, featuring an amazing soundtrack, especially on level 1 by Tim Follin

Main Cover

Inlay (Featuring handwritten codes for the levels!)

The Tape!

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Tuesday, April 02, 2019

Game Covers - Street Beat (Commodore 64)

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)

Monday, April 01, 2019

Game Covers - Mercenary & Mercenary The Second City (Commodore 64 & Commodore Plus 4)

Click to enlarge

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Game Covers - Total Eclipse & Total Eclipse II The Sphinx Jinx (Commodore 64)

Click to enlarge

3D View (hold and move to rotate)

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 45 - Heaven In My Hands (Level 42)

My first STRMOMC for 2019 is this classic from Level 42, called Heaven In My Hands, and was appropriately chosen because I finally reached my own personal Level 42 yesterday. Yes, I've reached 42 years old, and another year closer to getting my pension. Woohoo!

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 44 - Zambezi (The Piranhas)

Flipping heck... I hadn't heard this song in years until hearing it earlier today. I remember loving it when I was kid. Utter crap now, but boy it sure gave me flashbacks of my youth.

A cover of Zambezi by Lou Busch and his Orchestra, this was released back in 1982 by The Piranhas (and featuring Boring Bob Grover - The Man With The Golden Trumpet) where it entered in to the UK Top 40 in September/October when I was but a 5 year old lad with obviously no decent taste in music.

"Well if my bank should phone, tell them I ain't at home,

Just say I packed my plastic bag and went away.

As for the landlord's rent, I spent it on a tent,

So if he's asking questions, you'll know what to say.

You don't get lyrics like that anymore.

Thursday, September 07, 2017

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 42 - Don't Lose My Number (Phil Collins)

Well, here's the first "Songs That Reminds Me Of My Childhood" in a very long time (sorry for the delay). Whilst reacquainting myself with Phil Collins excellent "No Jacket Required" album, Don't Lose My Number gave me a massive flashback feeling. Gosh, I forgot how much I love this song, and how good an album it is.

Enjoy!

Sunday, April 02, 2017

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 41 - Dancing Girls (Nik Kershaw)

Another S.T.R.M.O.M.C. to make up for a lack of them over the past year. As I've probably mentioned before in a previous post, my sister was a massive fan of Nik Kershaw, and quite often when I was a small child in the mid 80s I would be able to hear his tunes coming through the wall between our two bedrooms. At the time, I was not a fan but over the years I've grown to really like his music.

Whenever I listen to Dancing Girls, I have a vivid memory of helping my sister write a "Nik Kershaw" lyrics program on our Commodore Plus 4 computer in BASIC, a programme I still have stored on one of hundreds of old cassettes to this day, named "Nik 16"

Coincidently released exactly 33 years ago on this day - April 2nd 1984, (gosh, 33 years ago - I feel old), Dancing Girls was a single from his excellent "Human Racing" album and peaked in the UK charts at No. 13 around the same time as classic favourites of mine such as Queen's "I Want To Break Free", Depeche Mode's "People are People" and Blancemange's "Don't Tell Me"

Enjoy this classic example of mid 80's synth-pop

Saturday, April 01, 2017

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 40 - Shattered Dreams (Shattered Dreams)

Blimey, I've been neglecting my poor Blog lately, and I can't believe it's been well over a year since my last "Songs That Remind Me Of My Childhood" post. 483 days to be precise.

Anyhoo, there are a large number of songs that remind me of family walks from Leigh-on-Sea to Southend, mostly because we used to stop off at different pubs on the way, and most had the songs of the day playing over the speakers. This was around the mid to late 1980's where we'd jump on a Class 302 from Laindon, get off at Leigh-on-Sea, and stop for a quick drink at the Peterboat, Ye Olde Smack, and then onwards towards Southend-on-Sea with a quick stop at the Cliffs Pavilion for another bevvy - or in my case, another pint of orange squash!.

Shattered Dreams by Johnny Hates Jazz is one of those songs that was played a lot in those pubs. It was released in March 1987 and went straight to number 97 in the UK charts. Only through lots of airtime on the radio did it finally reach a deserving number 5 two months later.

An absolute stonker of an 80s track. Enjoy

Sunday, March 05, 2017

Mastertronic - What if? : Resident Evil VII

Mastertronic brings you "Resident Evil VII" on cassette for £1.99, only for Commodore, Amstrad, Spectrum and Atari - Available from all good newsagents, chemists and game shops!

If only..... :o)

Because I have WAY too much time on my hands, I thought I'd mess around with putting together some fake Mastertronic covers for modern computer games in an attempt to give them the retro 1980's 8-bit cassette look.

Remember... These are just for fun, and are obviously NOT real and NOT available, (although I'd love to see an 8-bit version with blocky graphics and cool chip-music).

In case you are not aware (or can not remember), Mastertronic were big in the mid to late 1980s and were a major budget software label in the United Kingdom and produced a large number of cheapo games and re-releases for the Commodore/Spectrum/Amstrad/Atari 8-bit computers (and some 16-bit too) - most at a pocket-money-friendly £1.99! They're still going now, but dare I say it I doubt anyone from the original days is still running things.

Anyway, remember this is just a bit of fun, but what would modern games look like if Mastertronic still released games like the good ol' days? Well, here you can find out!

As always, click the images to enlarge.

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.

Monday, December 07, 2015

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 39 - Keeping The Dream Alive (Münchener Freiheit)

Wow, here's a blast from the past. I loved this song when I was younger, and completely forgot about it until hearing it on the radio earlier today.

I had some serious childhood flashbacks after hearing this one again after such a long time.

Released in 1988, it peaked at number 14 in the UK Charts during December of that year and is apparently known as being a Christmas song due to it being released during the festive season, even though the song has no link to Christmas at all.

Crank up the volume and listen to that awesome orchestral sound. It always reminds me of a bit of a mix of ELO and the stuff Paul McCartney released in the 80s.

Enjoy.

Monday, September 21, 2015

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 37 - Why (Carly Simon)

Listening to this song always brings back nostalgic memories of when I was a wee lad. There's nothing special about the song that makes it stand out for me - in fact, the video is three and a half minutes of cringworthy footage of Carly prancing along a street (back in the days when music videos could be done on the cheap and still be successful). Still, I remember listening to this song on the radio when it came out, and I guess that memory just stuck with me. Released in 1982, it reached number 10 in the UK charts in August of that year.... I was only 5 years old. Gosh I feel old.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Alive and Kick'Starting'

Kickstarter is addictive.... There I said it.

Last year, I backed my first Kickstarter... a book called "Commodore 64: a visual Commpendium", by Sam Dyer, and published by Bitmap Books. It surpassed all expectations and became quite a hit with fans of the Commodore 64 (including me).

So, when I heard that Sam was producing a follow up book entitled "Commodore Amiga: a visual Commpendium", I just had to back it immediately.

The book had a target goal of £25,000 so I think it came as a bit of a surprise to most when the total amount pledged to the project came in at just short of £130,000. Wow. It just goes to show how much love there is for the old Commodore computers.

Anyway, after several months of waiting, the book finally arrived through the letterbox today, and WOW.

The book is fantastic, and considerably larger than the Commodore 64 one. The graphics on each page depicting various well known games are truly remarkable, with a small piece of text from well known people from the Amiga days (game/demo programmers, designers, graphic artists and fans)

AND due to the massive success of the project, backers also get loads of cool extras with the book as standard.

Shadow of the Beast 2015 Remix CD by Tim Wright (CoLD SToRAGE)
I Love Commodore Amiga Sticker
Metal Amiga engraved bookmark
Amiga pen
Amiga Ball Pin
6x Demoscene postcards (one signed by the author of the book)
Another World poster
Ask Me About Loom badge (from The Secret of Monkey Island) Limited to first 100 Backers

I highly recommend this book (and the Commodore 64 one) to any person who has an interest in old computer games - even if you never had a Commodore computer. I cant wait for Sam's next book which I hear may be about the Spectrum.

Amiga Book - http://www.funstock.co.uk/commodore-amiga-a-visual-commpendium-book
C64 Book - http://www.funstock.co.uk/commodore-64-a-visual-commpendium-c64-book

Now, I've just got to wait for the other Kickstarter projects I've backed to arrive, including Matt Gray's "Reformation" C64 music project, From Bedrooms to Billions : The Amiga Years, Marcel Donne's "Project Sidologie" CD Box set, and Uncle Art's Elite 2 (Frontier) Orchestral and Retrogaming Music Remakes.