My all time favourite video games – The Retro Gaming Treasury

Treasures of the Savage Frontier – PC (MS-DOS) – 1992

On July 10, 2018September 6, 2018 By Wingnut

Treasures of the Savage Frontier marks the end of the road for SSI’s Gold Box engine. It has given good service over the nine AD&D (and two Buck Rogers) games starting with Pool of Radiance in 1988. There have been a couple of hiccups along the way, but for the […]

Super Raiden – NEC PC Engine Super CD-ROM – 1992

On June 27, 2018September 4, 2018 By Wingnut

Raiden is a scrolling shoot ’em up that appeared in the arcades in 1990 and was successful enough to spawn several sequels and a few spin-offs. Home conversions started appearing the following year but the only ones on my shortlist are for the TurboGrafx-16 and PC Engine. Raiden was released […]

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 – Sega Mega Drive – 1992

On March 31, 2018September 4, 2018 By Wingnut

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is the inevitable sequel to the first Sonic the Hedgehog game. Once again it was well received by critics and went on to become 2nd best selling Mega Drive game of all time, beaten only by its predecessor. The plot is pretty much the same as […]

Pinball Fantasies – Commodore Amiga – 1992

On March 9, 2018September 4, 2018 By Wingnut

You wait ages for a good pinball game to come along then two turn up at once. Pinball Fantasies is the follow up to Pinball Dreams and was released later in the same year. The game contains four new tables each based around a different theme. The tables are the […]

Pinball Dreams – Commodore Amiga – 1992

On March 3, 2018September 4, 2018 By Wingnut

Pinball games have been few and far between on my shortlist. There have been a few 8-bit games which were fairly primitive in both looks and physics. More recently I’ve played four games in the ‘crush’ series. While good they were designed from the outset as video pinball games and […]

Parodius Da! – NEC PC Engine – 1992

On January 23, 2018September 8, 2018 By Wingnut

As I’ve stated a few times before, the Gradius series contains some of my favourite shoot ’em ups. These games in turn produced a couple of spin-off series – one being Salamander/Life Force, and the second being the rather strange Parodius. As can be deduced from the title, Parodius is […]

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – Nintendo SNES – 1992

On January 10, 2018September 4, 2018 By Wingnut

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is the third game in the Zelda series and the second to feature on my blog. I wasn’t keen on Zelda II: The Adventure of Link with its side-scrolling levels. A Link to the Past reverts back to the strange overhead […]

Grandad and the Quest for the Holey Vest – Atari ST – 1992

On December 23, 2017September 4, 2018 By Wingnut

Grandad and the Quest for the Holey Vest is a graphical adventure game release exclusively for the Atari ST in 1992. I thought this quite unusual as by this time the Commodore Amiga was the more popular home computer, but as it’s shareware instead of a commercial release I guess […]

Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou – NEC PC Engine Super CD-ROM – 1992

On December 14, 2017September 9, 2018 By Wingnut

Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou is a conversion of the second title in the Gradius series of arcade games. It was released on the CD-ROM format some four years after the arcade game. I have already featured the NES version of Gradius II on my blog. Where the NES […]

Dungeons & Dragons: Order of the Griffon – NEC TurboGrafx-16 – 1992

On November 30, 2017September 4, 2018 By Wingnut

Nice box art. Shame about the hairstyles. Order of the Griffon is the second RPG I have played on the TurboGrafx-16 after the highly enjoyable Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes. This game was published by SSI and developed by Westwood Associates who were also responsible for the Eye of […]

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride – Nintendo SNES – 1992

On November 16, 2017September 9, 2018 By Wingnut

While gamers in North America were still playing Dragon Warrior III, and a month before Dragon Warrior IV was released there, those lucky Japanese gamers were already getting their teeth into Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride. Poor sales of the previous games and the cost of localisation […]

Dragon Warrior IV: Chapters of the Chosen – Nintendo NES – 1992

On October 1, 2017September 4, 2018 By Wingnut

Here is another RPG I have completed, but is not one of my favourite games. It started off well enough and I enjoyed it but lasted too long and eventually became a chore to play…. Hot on the heels of Dragon Warrior III, we have Dragon Warrior IV: Chapters of […]

Dragon Warrior III – Nintendo NES – 1992

On September 3, 2017September 4, 2018 By Wingnut

Dragon Warrior is a long running series of RPGs dating back to the mid-eighties and still going strong today. The first game in the series, Dragon Quest, was released in Japan in May 1986. It predated both Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star making it one of the first (and arguably one […]

Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes – NEC TurboGrafx-CD – 1992

On August 1, 2017September 4, 2018 By Wingnut

Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes is the sixth installment in the Dragon Slayer series of RPGs. Its initial release was in 1989 for the NEC PC-8801 before being converted to other computers and consoles. The English translation was released on the NEC TurboGrafx-CD in 1992. The game takes the […]

Dizzy: Prince of the YolkFolk – Commodore Amiga – 1992

On July 14, 2017September 4, 2018 By Wingnut

With a main entry in the Dizzy series you know exactly what you are going to get – a fairly easy adventure game combining platforming, inventory based puzzles and slightly awkward controls. Dizzy: Prince of the YolkFolk is no exception. The game was first released in 1991 for the Sinclair Spectrum, […]

Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf – Sega Mega Drive (1992) & Commodore Amiga (1993)

On June 5, 2017September 9, 2018 By Wingnut

Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf was released in the first half of 1992, a year after Operation Desert Storm had ended and with the Middle East still fresh in mind. The plot involves a Middle Eastern despot invading a small Emirate and trying to gain weapons of mass destruction. […]

Defenders of Oasis – Sega Game Gear – 1992

On May 1, 2017September 4, 2018 By Wingnut

It can safely be said that I‘m not a fan of mobile gaming. I have never been tempted to download a game to my phone and the only portable system I have is a barely used Nintendo DS Lite I won many years ago in a competition. Until I started […]

The Dark Queen of Krynn – PC (MS-DOS) – 1992

On April 5, 2017September 9, 2018 By Wingnut

As I’ve said before, the longer the Gold Box series of games have gone on, the weaker they seem to have become. They certainly started well enough with Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds, but none of the subsequent games have managed to match them. Maybe the […]

Goodbye 1991, Hello 1992

On August 13, 2016September 4, 2018 By Wingnut

Goodbye Atari 2600 – Released way back in 1977, Atari Corp finally retired this piece of video game antiquity on 1st January 1992. Not only did it outlast its successor (the Atari 5200) but ceased production on the same day as the Atari 7800. Goodbye ZX Spectrum – Going through […]

Super Off Road – Nintendo SNES – 1991

On June 11, 2016September 4, 2018 By Wingnut

Super Off Road is obviously based on the 1989 arcade game Ivan ‘Ironman’ Stewart’s Super Off Road. I played the Amiga version from 1990 but didn’t included the subsequent console versions in the entry which, apart from dropping Ivan, are not quite straight conversions. First task is to pick the […]