Retro Gaming Australia

It should sadden you that there will never be a good Masters of the Universe game.

Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man was released for the Intellivison and Atari 2600 in 1983. Given that He-Man was a huge thing for Mattel, it was only a matter of time before he got his own video game. However, the game generally reflected the low budget productions of just about anything He-Man related, and was not very good.

Something I spent way too much time playing as a kid.

Brian Lara Cricket is the first entry in Codemasters’ now long running cricket series for home consoles. It was an adaptation of Allan Border’s Cricket previously developed by Audiogenic. Two versions of the game exist – one with fake player names, and one with real player names.

Every great developer has to start somewhere – even Naughty Dog.

Way of the Warrior is a 3DO exclusive fighting game that was heavily influenced by Mortal Kombat. It was developed by Naughty Dog when the studio was just a two man operation: Jason Rubin & Andy Gavin. The game was developed on a shoestring budget, with the developers and their friends and family serving as the characters in the game, using cheaply made costumes. The digitised footage used in the game was shot in the hallway of developers’ apartment building. Still, the game proved effective enough for the Naughty Dog duo to get a three game contract with Universal Interactive Studios, which led to the creation of Crash Bandicoot.

Search for Way of the Warrior on eBay

Working Designs’ first Sega CD effort has quite the following.

Lunar: The Silver Star was developed by Game Arts and brought to America by Working Designs. It is widely considered to be one of the best RPGs of the 16-bit era, and was the second best selling Mega CD game behind Sonic CD. The game has been remade twice – once as Lunar: Silver Star Story for the Saturn (released on the PlayStation as Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete) and then on the PSP as Lunar: Silver Star Harmony. Lunar Legend for the Game Boy Advance is an alternate retelling of the story.

Search for Lunar: The Silver Star on eBay

Big money! Big prizes! I love it!

Super Smash TV was the name given to the 16-bit ports of Midway’s arcade hit Smash TV. This ad is for the Probe-developed Mega Drive/Genesis version, but it’s worth nothing that the Super Nintendo version of the game was developed here in Australia by the late Beam Software. Both versions were published by Acclaim. Like the ad suggests, the game is pretty damn difficult, but it’s all in good fun.

Search for Super Smash TV on eBay

I’ll let you fill in the blanks.

Shaq Fu is an infamous fighting game developed by Delphine Software International and published by Electronic Arts. The game has a reputation as being one of the worst fighting games in existence, but the reality is that the absurdity of the concept generally overshadows the underlying game. Word on the street is that the game was not conceived with Shaq in the titular role, but rather just as an original otherworldly fighting game – demands from the publisher may have been the factor that led to the basketball superstar’s inclusion.

Search for Shaq Fu on eBay

Seriously fun, or seriously disturbed?

Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now is the second installment in the controversial series. It added new weapons and greater visual effects like enhanced vehicle deformation and polygonal pedestrians that can have their limbs separated or be decapitated. The German version of the game replaces the human pedestrians with aliens.

Search for Carmageddon II

Ah, the days of mocking your competitors.

ClayFighter was a fighting game developed by Visual Concepts and published by Interplay. The game used clay figures and stop motion animation instead of sprites, but the gameplay underlying the fancy graphics was far from good. In spite of this, the series continued for another three iterations.

Search for Clayfighter on eBay

A little insight into what might have caused the 1983 crash in North America.

Q*Bert was a smash hit in the arcades, so it was only a matter of time before it headed to home consoles and computers. As you can see in the ad, it came to absolutely everything. Ad fails to mention that Q*Bert has a mouth like a sailor.

Search for Q*Bert on eBay

An early hit on the Mega Drive

Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin was the webhead’s first 16-bit home console outing. The game was pretty unique in that you had to manage Spider-Man’s supplies of web by taking pictures for the Daily Bugle while on your missions. You could also head back to Parker’s apartment to rest – but time was a limited resource, as you had just 24 hours to prevent a bomb from destroying New York, and to rescue Mary-Jane from a pool of acid.

Search for Spider-Man vs the Kingpin on eBay