Jeff Minter is an English video game designer and programmer who often goes by the name Yak. He is the founder of software house Llamasoft and has created dozens of games during his career, which began in 1981 with games for the ZX80.
Andrew Nicholas Oliver and Philip Edward Oliver, together known as the Oliver Twins, are British twin brothers and video game designers.
Moon Patrol is a 1982 arcade video game developed and released by Irem. It was licensed to Williams for distribution in North America. The player controls a moon buggy which can jump over and shoot obstacles on a horizontally scrolling landscape as well as shoot aerial attackers. Designed by Takashi Nishiyama, Moon Patrol is often credited with the introduction of full parallax scrolling in side-scrolling games. Most of the home ports were from Atari, Inc., sometimes under the Atarisoft label.
Krome Studios Melbourne, originally Beam Software, was an Australian video game development studio founded in 1980 by Alfred Milgrom and Naomi Besen and based in Melbourne, Australia. Initially formed to produce books and software to be published by Melbourne House, a company they had established in London in 1977, the studio operated independently from 1987 until 1999, when it was acquired by Infogrames, who changed the name to Infogrames Melbourne House Pty Ltd.. In 2006 the studio was sold to Krome Studios.
Nebulus is a platform game created by John M. Phillips and published by Hewson Consultants in the late 1980s for home computer systems. International releases and ports were known by various other names: Castelian, Kyorochan Land, Subline, and Tower Toppler.
Ace of Aces is a combat flight simulation video game developed by Artech Digital Entertainment and published in 1986 by Accolade in North America and U.S. Gold in Europe. It was released for the Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit family, Atari 7800, Commodore 64, MSX, MS-DOS, Master System, and ZX Spectrum. Set in World War II, the player flies a RAF Mosquito long range fighter-bomber equipped with rockets, bombs and a cannon. Missions include destroying German fighter planes, bombers, V-1 flying bombs, U-boats, and trains. In 1988 Atari Corporation released a version on cartridge styled for the then-new Atari XEGS.
Bomb Jack is a platform game published by Tehkan for arcades in and later ported to home systems. The game was a commercial success for arcades and home computers. It was followed by several sequels: the console and computer game Mighty Bomb Jack, the arcade game Bomb Jack Twin, and Bomb Jack II which was licensed for home computers only.
Xenon is a 1988 vertical scrolling shooter video game, the first developed by The Bitmap Brothers, and published by Melbourne House which was then owned by Mastertronic. It was featured as a play-by-phone game on the Saturday-morning kids' show Get Fresh.
Stormbringer is a computer game written by David Jones and released in 1987 by Mastertronic on the Mastertronic Added Dimension label. It was originally released on the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and MSX. A version for the Atari ST was published in 1988. It is the fourth and final game in the Magic Knight series. The in-game music is by David Whittaker.
Synapse Software Corporation was an American video game development and publishing company founded in 1981 by Ihor Wolosenko and Ken Grant. It initially focused on the Atari 8-bit family, then later developed for the Commodore 64 and other systems. The company was purchased by Broderbund in late 1984 and the Synapse label retired in 1985.
Blue Max is a scrolling shooter written by Bob Polin for the Atari 8-bit family and published by Synapse Software in 1983. It was released for the Commodore 64 the same year. U.S. Gold published the Commodore 64 version in the UK in 1984 and ported the game to the ZX Spectrum. In 1987, Atari Corporation published Blue Max as a cartridge styled for the then-new Atari XEGS. The player controls a Sopwith Camel biplane during World War I, attempting to shoot down enemy planes and bomb targets on diagonally scrolling terrain. The game is named after the medal Pour le Mérite, informally known as Blue Max. Its theme song is "Rule, Britannia!".
Hunchback is a video game developed by Century Electronics and published in arcades in 1983. The game is loosely based on the 1831 Victor Hugo novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the player controls Quasimodo. Set on top of a castle wall, the player must guide the Hunchback from left to right while avoiding obstacles on a series of non-scrolling screens. The goal of each screen is to ring the church bell at the far right.
Zub is a 1986 platform video game designed by Ste and John Pickford, developed by Binary Design, and published by Mastertronic for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. The game has the player control Zub, who has to travel to different planets to retrieve the Green Eyeball of Zub. A parody of the game Light Force, called Lightfarce, was added in as an easter egg. The music on all computers was composed by David Whittaker.
Gridrunner is a fixed shooter video game written by Jeff Minter and published by Llamasoft for the VIC-20 in 1982. It was ported to the Atari 8-bit family, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Commodore PET and Dragon 32. Many remakes and sequels have followed, including versions for the Atari ST, Amiga, Pocket PC, Microsoft Windows, and iOS.
Canyon Bomber is a black-and-white 1977 arcade game, developed and published by Atari, Inc. It was written by Howard Delman who previously programmed Super Bug for Atari. Canyon Bomber was rewritten in color and with a different visual style for the Atari VCS and published in 1979.
World Cup Soccer: Italia '90 is a football video game released for various home computers in 1990 by Virgin Mastertronic. It is the officially licensed game of the tournament. It was known simply as Italia '90 for the Tronix budget reissues.
The English Software Company, later shortened to English Software, was a Manchester, UK-based video game developer and publisher that operated from 1982 until 1987. Starting with its first release, the horizontally scrolling shooter Airstrike, English Software focused on the Atari 8-bit family of home computers, then later expanded onto other platforms. The company used the slogan "The power of excitement".
Ninja is a beat 'em up game developed by Sculptured Software and released by Mastertronic in 1986 for the Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum, then in 1987 for the Amstrad CPC, Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS. An arcade version of the game was released in 1987 for Mastertronic's Arcadia Systems which is based on Amiga hardware. The Amiga, Atari ST, and Arcade versions were released as Ninja Mission. As a Ninja, the player attacks a fortress made of individual fixed screens which can be explored non-linearly.
Judge Dredd is a 1990 platform shoot 'em up video game based on the character of the same name. It was developed by Random Access and published by Virgin Mastertronic. It was released in Europe in 1990, for the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum. Critics found the gameplay repetitive.
