Game Covers - Action Biker (Commodore 64)

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Our handwritten guide, written way back in the 80s! (Part 1)

Our handwritten guide, written way back in the 80s! (Part 2)

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Games that remind me of my childhood Number 31 : Total Eclipse (Commodore 64)

As most regular visitors to my blog knows, I have a massive soft spot for the Freescape 'solid 3D' adventure games from Incentive Software.  Released for most 8-bit (and some 16-bit) computers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. the series of games included Driller, Dark Side, Total Eclipse and Castle Master (as well as Total Eclipse II Sphinx Jinx and Castle Master II The Crypt available through the Home Computer Club), not to mention the many Freescape games people made with the awesome 3D Construction Kit, including myself!

Total Eclipse got a massive 94% in Zzap 64 magazine exactly 30 years ago this month, and it's still a great game to play today, providing you don't mind the slow screen redraw.  Moving away from the sci-fi setting of both Driller and Dark Side, Total Eclipse is set on the 26th October 1930, and you must (well, according to the game instructions) reach and destroy the shrine of the Sun God Re at the very top of the Pyramid (should that be Ra?) within 2 hours before the moon eclipses the sun, showering the Earth with massive meteorites and bringing an apocalyptic end to civilisation as we know it.

Virtual Reality - The nearest to actually being there.  It's probably the closest I'll ever come to visiting Egypt!

Inside the pyramid.  Watch out for traps!

Now, for anyone feeling a little pedantic, I've done a little bit of research, and it appears Egypt had no solar eclipse on that date.  There was a solar eclipse on October 21st 1930, but totality was only visible in Niuafo'ou, Chile, and a small part of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. 

ANYWAY, I digress.  Total Eclipse was/is a classic game and a fantastic example of early virtual reality at its finest.

Front Box Art

 

Back Box Art. 

 

Instructions.  I wonder who won the competition to see the eclipse in Hawaii back in July 1991

 

The other side of the instructions.

 

The Commodore 64 cassette.  Total Eclipse was on side 1

 

Side 2 of the cassette featured Total Eclipse II The Sphinx Jinx

 

Zzap 64 review from 30 years ago!  Issue 46 February 1989

 

Mastertronic - What if? : Call of Duty WW2

Mastertronic brings you "Call of Duty WW2" 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! 

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.

Castle Master 2 The Crypt - A Walkthrough

Well, yesterday I took you on a tour of Castle Eternity as seen in Incentive Software's brilliant Castle Master from 1990.  Playing the game rekindled my love for it, and its equally brilliant sequel - The Crypt.

So now, one day later I bring you - Castle Master 2 - The Crypt.  A playthrough/walkthrough of the Commodore 64 version.

As with all Freescape games on the Commodore 64 (and most other 8 bit conversions), the solid vector graphics run incredibly slow, which is why I have had to speed the video up.  The slowness never bothered me, and I always thought it made the game more atmospheric when playing, but for a viewer it would probably bore the socks of you, so enjoy my 54 minute and 47 second walkthrough, compressed to just 10 minutes.