Published by Domark in 1985. Believe it or not, I've never actually seen the original Friday the 13th film; this game is the closest I've come to knowing that much about it...I'm doubting whether it is anything like the actual film though. The objective of the game is to take control of a character who is on the hunt to find Jason Voorhees and to kill him before he can kill all of the local residents, including yourself. I suppose it's a bit like the board-game "Guess Who", only with more pitchforks. Jason will often disguise himself as one of the ordinary civilians and there are only 2 ways to find out if it's him in disguise: wait until he changes and tries to kill someone or hit the person with a weapon and see if he/she transforms. You'll recognise Jason as wearing a black top and black trousers; that's before you see the massive stick he's trying to beat you with. Once you kill Jason, the level ends and you repeat the experience again with a different character. You can eliminate suspects and also protect them by finding the crucifix and placing it in the church. Any person you touch from that point onwards will then take refuge in the church. As the game progresses, Jason will start killing off the other people, which is signified by a blood-curdling scream and one of the people indicators in the bottom right of the screen will change to a tombstone. You can stumble upon the dead corpse of the unfortunate victim, which can also give you a clue as to the path that Jason is taking. If you take too long and the body count stacks up, your "fright meter" begins to add up as the hair on your character portrait begins to stand on end. If Jason kills too many people and you get too scared, the game will end. I owned this as part of a multi-game collection. I think there might be another version where a skull/mask appears each time a person is killed, but I wouldn't be surprised if this were toned down for the UK; hacking people to pieces with a hatchet doesn't really sit well alongside child-friendly favourites such as Dizzy. The game isn't great, but it's certainly different. #retrogaming ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkqDMLXO-mU

Developed by Double Density/X-Ample and published by CP Verlag in 1991. Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Al82_Retro Add me on Google+: http://bit.ly/1tPwL1u As one of the most prolific genres during the 80's and early 90's, gamers were spoilt for choice with the number of horizontal shoot 'em ups on offer. Some were exceptional (Armalyte and anything from Manfred Trenz), many average and some down-right awful. Having played Lethal Zone, I'd put it somewhere towards the lower end of the scale. This might look like a Trenz game, but it sure as hell doesn't play like one. There is very little to recommend here in terms of gameplay. My chief complaint with the game is the fact that the player's ship is so sluggish to control. The vertical movement speed is far too slow, which makes it practically impossible to avoid oncoming enemy ships unless you've memorised the spawn patterns and know where they will be appearing from. Many of the enemies move extremely quickly too, thus making avoidance tricky. One of the most important features of a decent shoot 'em up is the power-up system; everyone loves collecting new weapons with which to make their ship more powerful. There is a single weapon power-up in the game that increases the number of shots the ship fires from one to two bullets and that is it. The frequency at which this power-up appears seems to be predetermined and, should you miss the enemy that drops it, you won't get another chance for the whole level. If that wasn't bad enough, the game actually removes the power-up between levels and sets you back to the default single-shot cannon! Holding down the fire-button will charge up the ship's super-beam weapon, but this has limited ammunition so can only be used sparingly. It's possible to collect additional charges by collecting the red spheres that are left behind by destroyed enemies and this does help with destroying some of the tougher enemies, especially the bosses. The developers thought it necessary to implement the "fuel" system, represented by the bar at the bottom of the play-field. Your fuel decreases at a constant rate and must be replenished by collecting green spheres dropped by enemy ships. The coders obviously forgot the need to provide the player with extra fuel on the final level as none of the enemy ships dropped any; the only thing they did drop was extra beasm charges. Therefore, the only way to beat the game is to have enough spare lives to deal with the lack of fuel. Given that your ship handles like a barge and that colliding with the scenery will cause you to explode instantly, you'll need an exorbitant amount of skill and luck to beat the game. Should you manage to complete it, you're greeted to some static text that announced that you have "kicked the evil o ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIZzcV9kyBg

Game Info --------------------------------------------------- Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Year of Release: 1984 Game Review & Impressions --------------------------------------------------- Certainly one of the earliest arcade titles I've played, Road Fighter is a simple premise: drive fast and avoid opposition vehicles and obstacles on the way to the finish line. Chapters --------------------------------------------------- TBC ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE7j5MUpGA0

Developed by Software Creations and published by Ocean in 1989. Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Al82_Retro Add me on Google+: http://bit.ly/1tPwL1u Based on the arcade coin-op from Data East, Sly Spy is a pastiche of Ian Fleming's famous secret agent, James Bond and everything associated with the character. My first brush with the game was on the Amiga, but I wasn't aware that the C64 received a port as well. Given that it was developed by Software Creations, I expected great things given that their conversion of Bionic Commando was a triumph. Unfortunately, I was sadly disappointed. The game isn't terrible, but it is depressingly mediocre. Each of the levels is extremely short and simply require the player to move to the right without dying. Enemies pop into existence seemingly at random and can also disappear with alarming uncertainty; when an enemy reaches the end of a platform it simply vanishes into thin air! Killing enemies can reveal power-ups, extra health as well as components of the "Golden Gun". Once collected, the player is given a special weapon capable of shooting through multiple enemies at once. Each stage typically culminates in a boss fight, but these are woefully disappointing. The aquatic robot suit is probably the worst of these sequences as the player can stand at the far left of the screen without any threat of getting hit. The graphics range in quality form general excellence to the bland and uninteresting. For example, the backdrops are generally well drawn and there is a very nice parallax effect on the underwater stages, yet the design and animation of the main sprite is quite poor (although the arcade barely had any animation either). The title screen graphic drawn by Martin Holland is excellent, although the guy hanging from the zip-wire bares an uncanny resemblance to Matt Smith of Dr. Who fame. It has to be said that this is something of a dud as far as Software Creation's games go, which is a real shame, although the source material was hardly the stuff of classic gaming to begin with. #retrogaming ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxFYNbYVs_s