‘Fists of Fury’ Game Review – Ninja (1986)

The second Entertainment USA release in this mini-series, and this is a vast improvement over Cage Match, although not without its own quirks.

‘Fists of Fury’ Game Review – Intergalactic Cage Match (1987)

Kicking (and punching) off another mini-series called ‘Fists of Fury’ we have this Entertainment USA offering…

‘Olympic Sports’ Game Review – Bump Set Spike! (1986)

I rather enjoyed the Beach Volleyball at the Olympics – the women’s version that is! The same can’t really be said for this Volleyball simulation on the Entertainment USA branding however...

Game Review – Panther (1986)

Isometric perspective shooters are complicated, but this one is very nicely put together!

Collection Update – Nine New Additions

Another week and another bunch of games join the collection.

First up came a bundle of five games donated by one of my YouTube subscribers, Retroid64. For just £3 to cover postage I got two Mastertronic games, Hyper Force and Jungle Story, two M.A.D. games, Hole in One and Master of Magic, and also Cage Match which is an Entertainment USA release that completes my collection of games in that packaging.

Also this week came more games from Ebay. For a combined price of £4.22 came three games - Big Mac and Quest for the Holy Grail (both Mastertronic) and Hero of the Golden Talisman (M.A.D.) And finally for this update is a Ricochet offering, the re-release of Ultimate’s Outlaws, which at cost of £2.06 is my most expensive purchase so far!

That brings the total number of games past the 170 mark, with a little over 45 still to go.

Total games: 172

Average cost: £1.02

Game Review – Street Surfer (1986)

My last review before I go away on holiday for a couple of weeks, and it’s one of my personal favourites.

Collection Update – So much for slowing down!

Despite my best intentions to ease off on the purchases, the collecting bug has bitten hard and I continue to find deals too good to pass up...

First up this time is another trade with Retro Gamer forum member simes. I sent him half a dozen unwanted games from some of my earlier C64 bundles, and in return I got no less than 14 Mastertronic titles, including a few of the harder to find ones. The net cost to me worked out at a very generous 30p per game!

The bulk of the bundle was games in standard Mastertronic packaging, including The Captive, Munch Mania, Prowler, Rollaround, Starlifter, Super Nudge 2000, Super Trolley and Vegas Jackpot.

Also in the lot were four M.A.D. titles - Angle Ball, Superstar Ping-Pong, The Wizards Pet and Zub – and rounding things off came FA Cup Football (Ricochet) and Yes, Prime Minister (Mastertronic Plus).

I also picked up some more games from Ebay, mostly from the same seller thus saving money on postage costs. Again this was a mixed bag, covering most of the different brands. In Mastertronic packaging came Beat It, Street Beat and Treasure Island, and there was also Fighting Warrior (Mastertronic Plus).

Finishing things off for this update were Ball Crazy and On Cue (M.A.D.) and Las Vegas Video Poker (Entertainment USA). None of these games cost more than £2 so my average price paid has actually dropped below a pound again!

Even more games are on their way, so this won’t be the last of the collection updates this month!

Total games: 155

Average cost: £0.98

Game Review – Los Angeles SWAT (1986)

My first review of an Entertainment USA branded game, and some mediocre run and gun action...

Collection Update - Various Bits and Bobs

Over the past week I’ve received a number of small bundles through the post, including some of the harder-to-find Mastertronic titles.

First up was a copy of the M.A.D. re-release of the classic Manic Miner. This was an Ebay purchase costing £1.99 including postage. Also on the same day came a donation from Retro Gamer forum member Bub&Bob. There were three games in the package, all from the Mastertronic range – two new additions in the form of Motorbike Madness and Wing Commander, plus another copy of Kikstart that had a better quality inlay than the one I already owned. These cost me absolutely nothing!

A few days later came three packages. Two were Ebay purchases, containing two games in each. First were titles that I’ve thus far only seen on Ebay once (and these were them!) – Street Hassle from Mastertronic Plus and Brian Jacks Superstar Challenge from Ricochet. They cost £1.99 each with free postage. The second pair were more common but the Ebay seller had a 20% off sale so I picked them up while they were a bit cheaper than usual – Rebel (Ricochet, £1.59) and Pulse Warrior (Mastertronic, £1.43)

The third package contained five games courtesy of tachi from Retro Gamer forum. These cost £7.00 for the lot and included several uncommon titles. From the Mastertronic brand came Kobayashi Naru and Venom, the Ricochet range was represented by Dragonskulle and Little Computer People, and finally there was Bump Set Spike! from Entertainment USA.

And finally, yesterday came another couple of games via Ebay – Silkworm (Mastertronic Plus) and Scout (Mastertronic) which cost £3.28 for the pair.

So the collection grows once again and the average cost has increased a little, but with under 100 games remaining I’m well on course to keep below that £1.99 per game target.

Total games: 120

Average cost: £0.91

Collection Update – A Century Reached!

Four more packages of games have arrived over the last week or so, taking the collection to well over 100 games...

From fellow collector and blogger Alex Aris came a bundle of five new additions plus a couple of bonuses. The new games are Amaurote, Magic Carpet, Squirm, Starace and Werewolves of London. Alex only charged me for postage on these so the cost for these games was just 60 pence each!

Next came a completely free donation of five games from Retro Gamer forumite Antiriad2097, although only one of these games was a new one. The other four were generally in better shape than my existing copies however, so have made their way into the collection, with the surplus to be passed on to other C64 gamers. The one new addition was Knuckle Busters, a re-release on the Ricochet brand and a relatively rare one too.

Also popping through my letterbox were two Ebay purchases. The first was Ninja, which cost £1.25, and the second was a pair of uncommon titles in the form of Bazooka Bill (another Ricochet offering) and Knight Games (Mastertronic Plus packaging). These cost £1.79 each including postage.

So that’s another nine games in the collection and yet the average cost hasn’t changed at all!

Total games: 106

Average cost: £0.85

Collection Update – Starship Delivers The Goods!

If you thought the last update was big, this one’s even bigger…

The video goes into more detail, so to keep it brief, this batch came from Retro Gamer forum member StarshipUK and basically features 36 new games for a derived cost of 62p each. As you’ll see from the photos some of the boxes are going to need replacing as they are in poor shape or covered in stickers, but there’s no denying this is another bargain bundle.

The majority of titles are on the main Mastertronic brand but there are offerings from all the other variants as well, with some of the rarer games included. There’s not really much more to say other than a big thanks to StarshipUK and here’s a full list of all those games:

Mastertronic

1985: The Day After, Agent X II, Bionic Granny/Jungle Story, BMX Racers, BMX Trials, Chiller, Dark Star, Duck Shoot, The Election Game, Excaliba, Hyperbowl, Kane, Kane 2, Kikstart, Milk Race, One Man and His Droid, Orbitron, Sailing, Se-Kaa of Assiah, Skyjet, Speed King, Starforce Nova, Storm, Zzzzz

Mastertronic Plus

Rescue on Fractalus and Tetris

M.A.D.

Con-Quest, Raw Recruit, Sport of Kings and Voidrunner

Ricochet

Crazy Comets, Eddie Kidd Jump Challenge, Hacker, Tau Ceti and X-15 Alpha Mission

Entertainment USA

Los Angeles S.W.A.T.

In addition to that massive bundle, another small packet arrived with four games purchased from Ebay – they were 75p each plus an incredibly specific £1.46 for postage.

This lot consisted of Finders Keepers, The Last V8, Speed Zone and City Fighter. I’m now edging close to 100 games in total!

Total Games: 97

Average Cost: £0.80

The Story So Far

At the time of writing I have not officially started building my collection, but I do already have some Mastertronic games for the C64 as part of my general games collection:

My collection thus far consists of 17 games, which span all of the different types of branding…

From the early wave of Mastertronic releases with the signature grid-style packaging I have Action Biker, Challenger and Hunter Patrol, while the in the later packaging style there is Video Meanies, P.O.D. and the brilliant Kikstart II. Also under the regular branding is Pipeline 2, which reverts to the grid-style design for some reason despite being a much later release.

In the M.A.D. (Mastertronic Added Dimension) packaging comes a mixed bag, including shooters Kromazone and Motos, action adventures in the form of Flash Gordon and Droids, and a re-release of Activision’s classic Pastfinder.

Also in the collection to date are two classic games re-released on the Ricochet label – Ghostbusters and Way of the Exploding Fist, while on the Entertainment USA brand there is isometric shooter Panther and Street Surfer, which is inexplicably one of my all-time favourite C64 games! Last but not least is split-screen helicopter shooter Protector from the Mastertronic Plus range.

So that’s not a bad starting point, with some of the best games Mastertronic had to offer already in the bag. None of these games cost me more than £2 to purchase and the majority came in a job lot purchase from the Retro Gamer forum a couple of years ago, which means my average price per game at this point is under a quid!

Total Games: 17

Average Cost: £0.85