Doomdark’s Revenge
(Beyond, 1986)
Shareth the Heartstealer, daughter of Doomdark, is set on avenging the death of her father. She has captured Morkin, son of Luxor the Moonprince, and vowed to slay Luxor and conquer the land of Midnight. As Luxor, you have travelled to the land of Icemark. Your main goal is to rescue your beloved son, but greater victory will be achieved if you destroy Shareth and bring Luxor’s companions, Rorthron and Tarithel, safely back to the Gate of Varenorn, where you begin your quest. This epic adventure follows on from events in The Lords of Midnight and it plays very similarly, with an even larger landscape to explore, a wide range of characters to meet, and armies to recruit and battle against. You can even explore underground tunnels. If you like fantasy games then you may easily find yourself spending hours or days engrossed in exploring Icemark and discovering its many secrets!
See also: The Lords of Midnight.
Known as Eden Blues to French readers, this is another adventure action game from Ere. You’re a prisoner who tries to escape from a high security jail. You have to avoid the robots that patrol the compound and find food, wine and coffee (it’s a French game!) to restore your health. The graphics are really good and manage to create a gloomy atmosphere. Your character is funny, even when he dies, which will happen very often. The game is very hard indeed; every move you make costs health points. You have to bash doors to progress (which lowers your strength) and your vitality decreases every second. So it’s nearly impossible to stay alive for more than five minutes. Without this flaw, it could have been a really good game.
Doomsday Lost Echoes
(Doomsday Productions, 2016)
Mike is a mercenary who has accepted a mission for which he will be handsomely rewarded – travel to the derelict Regus space station and search for a missing worker named Arnold Croft. This science fiction text adventure, written using the PAWS adventure creation program, is full of atmosphere and features around 60 beautifully retouched pictures, some of which contain important clues. There are lots of objects to be examined, and the authors intended the game to be suitable for all levels of experience, so you shouldn’t have many problems with the parser being unable to understand certain combinations of words. Experienced adventure players may not find it much of a challenge to complete, but there are three different endings, and the pictures that accompany each location really enhance the atmosphere. This is among the best text adventures ever to be released for the CPC.
Doors of Doom
(Amsoft, 1985)
There’s not much of a story to this game – just walk about and collect all the pieces of the Doors of Doom before you run out of energy. There are purple monsters which float and waste your energy, but there are refreshing cups of tea lying about to increase it again (I don’t like tea, myself). The graphics are relatively simple but still very bright and colourful, although the sound effects aren’t as good – and don’t mention the music! It also comes with its own scenery editor if you want to design your own levels.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
GameHammer Classic Gaming.
Doppleganger
(Alligata, 1985)
Become a sorceress as you explore the Castle of Doom in an attempt to find some treasure. The element of thinking that appears in this game is that both you and your ghostly doppelgänger (that’s the correct spelling of the word, by the way) can go through some doors but not others, so to reach the same room, you and your alter ego often need to take different routes. There are also objects to collect, and watch out for the spiders that will drain your energy. The problem with this game, though, is that the spiders are hard to avoid, and you have no idea what the objects are used for, or how to use them. This is a shame because the concept behind the game is clever and the graphics are quite impressive.
Double Dare
(Alternative Software, 1992)
Double Dare was a children’s TV quiz show that also included some very messy physical challenges. In this computerised adaptation, you and either a friend or the computer answer multiple choice questions. If you don’t know the answer, you can ‘dare’ your opponent to answer. They in turn can ‘double dare’ back to you, and if you still don’t know the answer, then you can either guess or complete one of three challenges, which are essentially short (but certainly not simple) puzzle games. The winner then plays an assault course where they must collect tokens while avoiding falling into tanks full of gunge. The number of questions is quite limited, and most of them are based around 1980s culture, so they feel rather dated now, and each question appears slowly on the screen, letter by letter, which makes the game fairly tedious to play.
Double Dragon
(Dro Soft/Melbourne House, 1989)
Billy Lee’s girlfriend Marian has been kidnapped by the ruthless Black Warriors gang, so he (and his brother Jimmy if a second player wants to join) has to go and save her. There are two different versions of Double Dragon on the CPC. This one, which was handled by Spanish developer Animagic, is very disappointing. The graphics are very colourful – although some of the enemies’ faces look quite strange – but it moves and scrolls extremely slowly, and all the gang members are so easy to beat that you’ll probably complete all five levels on your first go. There is also no music, and the only sound you’ll hear during the game is when you’re punching or kicking your opponents.
See also: Double Dragon (Melbourne House), Double Dragon II: The Revenge, Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
jgonza.
Double Dragon is the legendary saga of two brothers, Billy and Jimmy Lee, in a post-apocalyptic New York, fighting to rescue Billy’s girlfriend Marian from the Black Warriors gang. The coin-op was so successful that it ushered a new era for the beat-’em-up genre, and this particular CPC version is a faithful conversion. The graphics are colourful and there are numerous different enemies with a variety of abilities. The graphics aren’t very detailed but they create the proper atmosphere and remain as faithful as possible to the arcade. The sound is good; a tune plays throughout the game and there are sound effects. There is a multitude of moves to perform and all the moves from the arcade are here. It isn’t very difficult and there are five levels to complete, facing hordes of sometimes armed enemies. When you knock them down, you can use their weapons. The two-player mode is excellent. Overall, a very good game.
See also: Double Dragon (Dro Soft), Double Dragon II: The Revenge, Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
ZEUSDAZ.
Billy and Jimmy are back – and so are the Black Warriors who have been resurrected from the dead, thanks to one surviving member, and this time they’ve not kidnapped Marian, but just plain killed her! Thereby all that was achieved in the prequel is thrown out of the window. Needless to say, cue much head butting, punching and kicking of various thugs who come in all shapes and sizes with their own fighting styles. Essentially more of the same, the back end of this game is exactly the same as the first; it looks and sounds just right and plays equally so. The Spanish conversion of the game, which looks very different and is much worse than this version, can be downloaded here.
See also: Double Dragon (Dro Soft), Double Dragon (Melbourne House), Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Novabug.
Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone
(Storm, 1991)
Marian has been kidnapped again – typical, eh? However, Billy has to go in search of some rosetta stones. The journey takes him around the world to six different countries. Billy also has ten coins which function as his lives, as well as allowing him to buy power-ups by walking into a shop at the start of each level. Like the first game in the series, it’s far too slow and far too easy, and it’s not worth trying to complete – it’ll take you far too long to do it. The backgrounds are nice, though, even if they’re in monochrome.
See also: Double Dragon (Dro Soft), Double Dragon (Melbourne House), Double Dragon II: The Revenge.
Watch YouTube videos of this game by:
jgonza,
Xyphoe,
ZEUSDAZ.