Another lookback at the news and
events for yesteryear. Just over
fourteen years ago, this was the
scene: o Mastertronic, rags-to-riches style
budget masters, finally entered the
big time and bought out the UK
division of software vetrans Melbourne
House. Mastertronic, famous for the
£1.99 range of budget software, payed
a 7-figure sum for the well-respected
MH. Melbourne were responsible for
such classics as The Hobbit, Sherlock
and RedHawk.
o Arkanoid, the game which launched a
thousand clones whilst being a clone
itself, was set loose on the public by
Ocean. The arcade convertion which
took Breakout, added power-ups, aliens
and not much else, was recieved with
lukewarm reviews in the computing
press. Nowadays, every PD library
worth its salt will have enough
versions of Arkanoid/Breakout to sink
a ship. o The last true Monty Mole game was
released. Auf Wiedersehen Monty was
the last game to be written by the
Peter Harrip, who first wrote Wanted:
Monty Mole three years earlier (the
C64 version, slightly different, was
coded by Tony Crowther). Wiedersehen
Monty (which featured one of the best
pieces of music Benn Daglish, or
anyone for that matter, has ever
written) was in the standard platform
mold that Monty made his own, but on a
much larger scale. Travelling from
country to country, picking up air
tickets, climbing the Eiffel Tower and
enjoying one of the best platform
games yet. o Anyone remember Gonch and Hollo?
The money-making twat with the glasses
and the small one from Grange Hill?
These two immortal characters, along
with numerous others, were brought to
the small screen, thanks to Argus
Press Software (now defunct). Based
around the gripping scenario of
retrieving a confiscated Walkman, the
player took charge of the
afformentioned characters, determined
to free the walkman whilst avoiding
numberous hazards. Sounds crap,
doesn't it? It was; a rare
dissappointment from Binary Design. o Adrian Mole (no relation to Monty)
recieved another outing on the 8-bits,
in The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole.
Read the adventures of the
bespectacled pimple on legs, and make
crucial choices at varius stages in
his teenage years. o The Way of the Exploding Fist, the
game which started the whole
beat-em-up craze which resulted on
Street Fighter II (God help us),
gained a sequel in February of '87.
Fist II, as it was usually called,
added the brilliant fighting action of
the original to a scrolling quest to
find a way to free his land (as per
usual). However, it soon become
obvious that the attraction of the
original was firmly with the fighting
half of the game, and the walking
about soon become tedious. Melbourne
House tried again a few years later
with Exploding Fist +, which tried to
beat IK+ at it's own game, and failed. Is there any year or time of interest
to you? Want to see the era you
enjoyed most relived on your screens?
Contact THE CRYPT and we will do our
very best to please.