Retro Gaming Australia

An early entry into Activision’s plan to establish themselves as a major force in Windows gaming, HyperBlade was an ultraviolent future sport not unlike that seen in the film Rollerball combined with ice hockey. One particularly amusing part of the game was that the rok (the ball) could be replaced with decapitated heads if one were to execute their opponent mid-match.

River Raid is one of Activision’s most popular releases for the Atari 2600. It was also the first game to be indexed by the BPjM in Germany, due to the game’s war theme being considered harmful to minors. Creator Carol Shaw is believed to be the first female video game programmer.

Zork II: The Wizard of Frobozz was the 1981 follow up to the highly successful text adventure Zork. The series was the crown jewel of Infocom’s output, and continued for several games after the company was purchased by Activision. Just don’t mention the short-lived freemium MMO.

The one that started a real turnaround for superhero games.

Spider-Man is the nineteenth (I believe) game based on Marvel’s most popular comic book character, and the first to be published by Activision, who still holds the license to this day. The game was developed by Neversoft using the same tech from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.

Out of seemingly nowhere, a port of the 1997 classic Australian-developed real-time strategy game Dark Reign has appeared on the Xbox Live Indie Games service.

For 400 points, those of you that can actually play Xbox Live Indie Games can enjoy this excellent real-time strategy game. Those of us who live in Australia and don’t have secret US Xbox Live accounts will have to go without.

The port appears to have been done as a technology test by a studio called Magnetar Games.

More game, less challenge.

Pitfall II: Lost Caverns is the oft-overlooked sequel to the smash hit Pitfall! Harry’s second adventure is a lot bigger, but it also removes the time limit and life counter, making the experience a whole lot easier.

One for the inferior console versions, at least.

Quake II was one of the biggest hits of 1997 on the PC, so it was only a matter of time before Activision tried to bring it to consoles as well. The results were mixed – it’s pretty impressive that the games are running on the consoles in the first place, but the compromises made are ultimately too much if you’ve already experienced the PC version – which only got better through patches and mods.

Search for Quake II on eBay

Once upon a time, Activision made more than just Guitar Hero and Call of Duty.

MechWarrior 2 is a mech simulator based on the popular BattleTech property. It was one of the earliest hits for the newly reborn Activision. The game was deep, challenging and hugely customisable – almost nothing like what Activision produces today. We recommend tracking down the 3DFX enhanced version – it looks so much better than the base version.