Air Inferno

Air Inferno is a 1990 flight simulation arcade video game developed and released by Taito, in Japan, Europe and North America.^[7] A spin-off from Taito's Landing series, Air Inferno is an aerial firefightingsimulation that involves piloting a helicopter on various rescue missions, shooting a fire extinguisher to extinguish flames while rescuing civilians.^[8][9]

Like its predecessor Top Landing (1988), Air Infernoused flat-shaded, 3D polygon graphics. Both games ran on the Taito Air System hardware, which used 68000 (12 MHz) and Z80 (4 MHz) microprocessors as CPU and a TMS320C25^[10] (24 MHz) digital signal processor as GPU.^[11] The game comes in two types of arcade cabinets,^[3] a larger deluxe motion simulatorcockpit cabinet^[12][3] and a smaller standard cockpit cabinet.^[3]

Air Gallet

 Air Gallet^[a] is a 1996 vertical-scrolling shooter arcade game published by Banpresto. Players control a fighter jet through six level to destroy a terrorist organization, who are destroying major worldwide cities and brainwashing the world's population with propaganda. Its gameplay involves destroying waves of enemies, picking up power-ups and new weapons, and destroying bosses.

Air Gallet was developed by Gazelle, an off-shoot of defunct developer Toaplan. It was directed by Tatsuya Uemura and designed by Junya Inoue, who wanted it to have a more boisterous presentation compared to his previous works. Gazelle's financial difficulties and strict time schedules forced its development to be hastily rushed. The game was released to mixed reviews; while its graphics and sprite layering techniques were praised, critics felt that it wasn't as polished or innovative as other, similar games were. Inoue has since 

expressed his disappointment in its quality.

 

Air Duel

Air Duel (エア・デュエル) is a vertically scrolling shooter game released for arcades by Irem in 1990.

The player selects from a jet fighter or helicopter, shoot enemies in the air and ground, collect power-ups, and defeat bosses to advance levels.

The game differs from most others in the genre in that you can change the aircraft you use at the start of each level. The jet fighter always shoots straight forward; power-ups increase the width and strength of its shots. The helicopter fires thinner and weaker shots, but turns in the direction it moves (similar to the later Zero Gunner), giving it great range; powerups increase the strength of shots, as well as the number of bullets per shot (adding a small "spread" effect to the shot while moving around).

Both the fighter and the helicopter also start with three bombs which wipe out everything in their path, including enemy shots. These bombs are also unique compared to similar games, in that they produce a line of small horizontal blasts that can be "directed" at the line travels across the ground, by pressing left and right (similar to the helicopter's shots). Additional bombs can be picked up during the course of the game.

Losing a life resets your power and bomb count to the amount you start with. "Air Duel" is a challenging game, and later levels can become nearly unplayable if a single life is lost.

Armored Patrol

Title: Armored Patrol

Publisher: Adventure International

Version: TRS-80

Year: 1981

#retrogaming 

TURBO OUT RUN DOS - 1990

 

TURBO OUT RUN

DOS - 1990

Turbo Outrun is a solid PC conversion of SEGA's arcade game of the same name, follow-up to OutRun. A much better conversion this time than its lackluster predecessor, Turbo Outrun very faithfully recreates the addictive arcade experience on your PC. Here is your chance to drive the famous Testarossa Ferrari F-40 with a voluptuous blonde on the front seat, racing against a guy who thinks he is cooler than you just because he drives a Porsche 959.

The cannonball-run race spans 16 cities of the United States, from New York to Los Angeles. Along the way, you will encounter different weather conditions (i.e. sun, rain, and snow), roadblocks (barrels, grease, etc.), and cops who try to run you off the road. To advance to the next stage, you must beat the clock. In contrast to OutRun, you can now upgrade your car similar to Street Rod games with components ranging from better engines, and super-turbo booster. You can toggle automatic transmission on and off, and even activate a special turbo boost that sends you into warp speed with flames coming out of your rear-exhaust. The only problem is that it makes your temperature gauge see red if you use it too much, and renders it inactive until your car has cooled down sufficiently.

Overall, Turbo Outrun is an excellent PC conversion of one of SEGA's best known arcade games. The graphics are good, and the car handles well. Although it lacks the variety of Street Rod 2, Turbo Outrun is a lot of fun while it lasts. Two thumbs up!

THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE & FRIENDS DOS - 1992

 

THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE & FRIENDS

DOS - 1992 

Thomas The Tank Engine and its sequel are two fun action games for kids based on the popular kids' stories of the same name.

For those who aren't familiar with the books, Thomas The Tank Engine is over fifty years old. The stories of British Railway locomotives with smiley human faces were created by Reverend Wilbert Awdry, as a way of entertaining his son Christopher as he was recovering from scarlet fever. The first book was published in 1945, starring Edward the engine. Thomas, which became the series' most popular character, did not appear until 1946. Christopher is now keeping his father's legacy alive by creating more Thomas stories for children all over the world. The series has been translated into numerous languages, turned into syndicated TV series, and licensed to produce a wide range of toys, board games, and of course computer games.

Fans of the series will be delighted to learn that Thomas The Tank Engine games by Peakstar/Alternative are very faithful to the series. Best described as "side-scrolling action games for kids," both Thomas games feature colorful graphics, user-friendly interface, and rather simplistic gameplay that kids can get the hang of very quickly. In the first game, you as Thomas must undertake 6 delivery missions of varying difficulty levels.

The missions range from delivering medical supplies to the hospital, to taking children to the seaside, etc. Gameplay is a simple matter of steering Thomas on the rail track, but you must be careful to avoid collision with other locomotives and various obstacles. Thomas needs fuel to run, so you must also pick up fuel along the way. There are also bonus items to collect and time limit (although it is very generous). The game also comes with a bonus memory game you can play against the computer, with cards showing pictures of locomotive characters from the book.

The second Thomas game, also published by Alternative, is a 2-player racing game that you can play either against a friend or the computer. The idea is simple: choose the 2 locomotives and track, and it's off to see who can reach the finish line first. The race makes the game more exciting than the first game, although the basic concept remains the same since you cannot go anywhere except on tracks (duh).

Overall, both Thomas games are fun, family-oriented platformers that fans of the book should enjoy. Probably be a bit too dull and repetitive for adults, but great for young action fans in your family.

Gremlin

 Well known for releasing superb Speccy games, the Sheffield software house published some cracking C64 titles too. Monty on the Run, Thing on a Spring, Trailblazer & Bounder are my favourites. Each one - is original & totally brilliant.