We take a look back to see what the 80s (mainly) left us in terms of video game development, in this case to collect some of the best english games. A selection of titles that made us have a great time for hours and hours and that are part of our culture.
There are many of us who live through that peak period of the Spanish games without being aware of it. We simply went to the kiosk or to the store on duty and asked our parents to buy us this or that game for our brand new computer. If we were lucky and had previously read something about them in the occasional specialized magazine, all the better, but I think that in my case, and I imagine that in the case of many others, on most occasions I was guided a lot by the cover. If it was flashy or had ships, stop it.
As always happens with this type of list, it is most likely that you will miss some titles, but that’s what you have the comments for. There you can leave your favorite Spanish video games and release phrases like “how can it not show up [insertar aquí juego preferido que no sale en la lista]?”. Without further ado, she left you with fourteen of the best english games (the list is in chronological order).
The flea
The flea, developed by Paco Suárez and launched by Indescom, has the honor of being the first Spanish video game published in our country (we are talking about the year 1983). The most curious thing is that it was first distributed in the United Kingdom thanks to Quicksilva under the name Bugaboo (The Flea) and later it would arrive in Europe at the hands of Investrónica.
The initial approach is very simple: we must help a flea to escape from the cave in which it has fallen. That’s it. Be careful because the bug was on a ship called Onion X7 and the aforementioned cave is located on a strange planet in the Almak-1 sector. The game is a full blown nerve breaker.
Sir Fred
In Europe we also played games about going to rescue kidnapped girls and Sir Fred, released in 1985, is a case in point. The poor thing was locked up in the Beni-Gómez castle, a most gloomy and enormous location full of dangers, of course. To this we must add the brilliant idea of making the objects necessary to advance the adventure change their location in each game, which ended up leading to a good number of ramifications. Nothing to learn everything by heart.
It was the first game of the seal Made in Europe and in his credits we find Paco Menéndez, one of the most important developers in our country despite having participated in only three games: Fred, Sir Fred and The Abbey of Crime.
Livingstone Supongo
Livingstone Supongo, developed and released by Opera Soft in 1986, is inspired by a true story. The story of Henry Stanley and David Livingstone when the former went in search of the latter in Africa and ended up finding him. Livingstone had disappeared en route to Lake Tanganyika after years in Africa as a missionary, doctor, and explorer. It was in 1871 when Stanley, sent on a search expedition by the New York Herald, found David in the city of Ujiji and blurted out the now mythical phrase “Doctor Livingstone, I suppose.”
In the game we control Stanley and, obviously, our task will be to find Livingstone. Temples, precious gems and all kinds of dangers await us inside.
The Abbey of Crime
A little further up, when talking about Sir FredI was telling you that Paco Menéndez was one of the most important programmers in our country. And here we have him again with his masterpiece The Abbey of Crimea game based on the novel by Umberto Eco The name of the rosewell accompanied by Juan Delcán, the person in charge of the graphic section of the game.
Our goal in The Abbey of Crime is to find the author of a series of murders that have been taking place in a Benedictine abbey. Like any self-respecting friar, we must carry out the daily tasks and obey the orders of the abbot. One of the rules is not to leave our room at night, but hey, it’s the best time to bring out the investigator in us. Beware of the labyrinthine nature of the abbey. Crazy.
Freddy Hardest
A playboy who does not give a stick to the water thanks to an inherited fortune that ends up crashing on the moon of the planet Ternat for having piloted his ship under the influence of alcohol? Why not. And best of all: on that satellite is the enemy base of Kaldar. Goals? Reach the base to steal a ship and flee without looking back. Let’s go there.
The game was released by Dynamic in 1987 and had a double charge: one to reach the enemy base and the other for the rest. Many years later, a somewhat strange mobile remake called Mighty Freddy: Alien Terminator was released by Lakento, Víctor Ruiz’s platform.
Spirits
Spirits is a great game developed by Topo Soft and released by Erbe in 1987 that has something that was quite curious for the time: the division of the screen in two to offer us the game on the upper one and clues and information about our objectives on the bottom.
The protagonist is a wizard and, as in many other games, the plot revolves around a princess in distress. In this case, she has been enchanted with a strange spell that has turned her into a dwarf and we must disenchant her with the help of a magic wand. Be careful that we will have to kick around two castles in search of the necessary objects and destroy a bad guy in the form of an eagle.
Game Over
Who in their right mind would say no to a game where we can control a rebellious android capable of kicking up to three different planets to destroy Gremla, its own queen? Advance, shoot, advance, shoot… pure and simple action with enemies appearing from all sides is what it offers Game Over.
Dinamic knew how to sell the game very well in 1987 when he decided to put a work by Luis Royo on the cover, in which the damned Gremla appears dressed in more than suggestive clothes. In fact, the image was censored upon arrival in the UK.
Temptations
Temptations It had it all: cover by Alfonso Azpiri, soundtrack by Gominolas and a good dose of platforming to spend the afternoons glued to the computer. Few games have to have starred monks and this is one of them. The star is Noni, a brother of the Vitigudina Order who has to deal with a bunch of demons to prove his worth.
It was developed by LuigiLópez for Topo Soft and distributed by Erbe in 1988. In this case only for MSX, unlike the vast majority of games listed here that were released for computers of the time such as MSX, Spectrum or Amstrad. .
Navy Moves
logically Navy Moves You cannot be left out of a list of good games developed in Europe. Actually, as always happens with the lists, it is difficult to have to leave out some titles that could have entered perfectly.
This is the second installment of the Moves trilogy launched by Dinamic in 1988, with Army Moves opening fire and Artic Moves closing the trident, and we had to guide the soldier Derdhal by sea and land to infiltrate the enemy base and recover a series of secret documents.
Goody
Before getting with Commandos At Pyro Studios, Gonzo Suárez was in charge of games like the one at hand, in this case for Opera Soft. In Goody
Platforms, action, robberies and lots of colors for an adventure in which the main character is always hot on his heels.
Mad Mix Game
Once again we have Erbe distributing a Topo Soft game, in this case in 1988 and based on the classic Pac-Man, to offer in Mad Mix Game his own version of what a pacifier should be. Because here we are that nice.
The game consists of 15 different mazes and a handful of very interesting enemies whose objective is none other than to make life miserable for MAD, the gluttonous protagonist, and for the player. But not everything was going to be bad. To combat Pelmazoides, Maricocos and Disgusting we have a lot of useful objects such as the Hippopotamus, thanks to which MAD turns into a destructive hippo, or the Cocotank.
The Original Adventure
It is possible that many of you sound like Chinese about conversational adventures, but the truth is that they had their moment and they made us have a great time. The Original Adventure presented us with a series of landscapes accompanied by a brief description and we had to enter text to carry out the actions. It was divided into two parts: in the first one we had to find a way to enter a cave protected by bars and a padlock, strange as it may sound, while the second charge was already taking place inside the cavern.
The Original Adventure It was launched in 1989 by Aventuras AD, a label born from Dinamic Software to host games of this genre, and it was our particular tribute to the original by William Crowther and Don Woods called Collossal Cave Adventure.
PC Soccer
Before being known as PC Soccerthe game was released in 1992 under the title Professional Soccer Simulator. What’s more, before I was even a soccer manager, the game was born from a system of menus and cataloging of products for companies created by Carlos Abril. What do you think of that?
To date, it is still a reference within the video game sector in our country.
Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines
we will finish with Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines, one of those titles that we played non-stop at the time thanks to its intelligent mixture of strategy and stealth, not to mention its characters and the mythical phrases that they released when we gave them orders. In fact, they were based on real special commandos that acted during the Second World War. It was developed by Pyro Studios and released by Eidos in 1998.
How many of all these great games have you ever played in your life? Let it be clear in the comments who already has a few decades behind them.
In ExtraLife | The golden age of Spanish 8-bit software, from A to Z
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