Andrew Newton on the video games we were playing back in April 1990…

April 1990 was a cold and wet month but the inclement weather provided an excellent excuse for staying indoors and playing on the good old home computers that all good gaming households had. Whether it was the trusty 8-bit computer (Spectrum 128+2 (+2A if you fancied the old Speccy in black and not Amstrad grey), Amstrad CPC464, Commodore 64) or one of the 2 main 16-bit computers (Atari ST, Amiga) there were a plethora of great games available to brighten up an otherwise dismal month.

Beverly Hills Cop – Tynesoft

Games based on hit films were all over the place, there had been games released based on Alien, Predator and even Red Heat, but the odd thing about the Beverly Hills Cop game was that unlike other movie game conversions, this was released so long after the film. However, what it did have in common with the majority of movie tie-in games was that it wasn’t that good.

Players took the role of the films hero Axel Foley and would guide him through a story loosely based on that of the first film. The action would take place throughout 4 different sub games with the first being a sideways scrolling shooter with an incredibly slow moving Axel shooting identically dressed enemies. This was followed by a 3D polygon driving game set in an environment that didn’t resemble Beverly Hills and certainly didn’t look like Detroit, a overhead shooter set in the mansion grounds (again with a slow moving Axel) and finally a first person shooter/maze crawler game.

The game wasn’t much cop (pun intended) and Sinclair User gave it a mere 48%.

Zombi – Ubisoft

Back in 1986, long before Ubisoft came up with ZombiU, the renowned developer released their first ever title Zombi on the Amstrad CPC464. Four years later they re-released it on the Amstrad but also ported it over to the Spectrum, Commodore 64, Atari St and Amiga.

Zombi is a point and click adventure with a theme familiar with fans of the zombie genre, a group of four survivors have escaped the apocalypse in a helicopter and landed upon the roof of a shopping mall. Players will need to guide the survivors around the mall looking for fuel for the chopper to get them to a sun-drenched zombie free island. There’s plenty of areas to explore, items to discover and use and lots of zombies to fight. Players would at first fight zombies using fisticuffs but be able to find weapons as they explored.

There were 4 levels of the mall to search for fuel with a roof, 2 floors and a basement level that was pitch black but survive this area and you could near enough survive anything else the game had to offer.

Zombi did very well in the magazine reviews with ACE awarding it 860/1000, Computer & Video Games giving the PC version 92% and Sinclair User giving it 87%.

Rainbow Islands – Ocean

This sequel to the absolutely brilliant Bubble Bobble started life in the arcades in 1987 and was ported to nearly every major home computer in the UK in 1990. In Bubble Bobble our cute heroes Bub and Bob defeated the terrible Baron Von Blubba and returned to their human form but in Rainbow Islands the Baron has returned and kidnapped all the inhabitants of the seven titular islands and it is up to Bub and Bob to defeat him once again.

Players started at the bottom of each level and had to work their way up using their ability to create rainbows, these served as both a means to get up to higher platforms and defeat the various enemies that flew around or hopped on the platforms. As with Bubble Bobble enemies could be trapped but this enraged them making it essential to either take them out quick or get higher up than them. If you think it sounds simple enough then add in a rapidly rising sea level that would threaten to drown Bub and Bob if they dawdled.

Rainbow Islands was a huge success on every platform with Crash giving it a Crash Smash of 94%, C&VG awarding it 96% on the C64 and Amiga Format giving it 95%.

The game has proved so popular that it has been released many times since on different platforms. To see what this great game looks like on the PS2 watch Steve Benway’s video below.

Sailing – Mastertronic (re-release)

Not all games back in the day were side-scrolling shooters, racers and platforming romps, some games were aimed at the more serious gamer. One such game was Sailing by budget label Mastertronic. It may be stating the obvious but this simulator game is about sailing, not just any old sailing though but sailing in the Americas Cup.

This was a very cleverly designed game but not at all straightforward to the casual gamer. I remember buying this title from my local newsagent (as was the fashion at the time) as it was the only game available that I hadn’t already got and was completely puzzled on all the nautical jargon. I had no idea what winching the sail or raising the spinnaker meant.

Putting lack of knowledge aside, Sailing was a very well thought through game with players having to tweak the design of their yacht, taking into account the weather and checking out the opponent’s yachts.

Crash awarded the game 52% while Your Sinclair gave it 63% although I have a sneaking suspicion these average scores may have been awarded due to lack of nautical knowledge and the poor instructions included.

Pipe Mania – The Assembly Line

Pipe Mania was a fantastic little puzzle game that saw players having to connect pipes to allow the yellow fluid to get from point A to B. The game would take place on a 7×10 grid and column of different shaped pipes would be on the left of the screen.

In order to get the fluid to the exit point, players would have to move their cursor around the screen to determine where to drop the pipe piece at the bottom of the column. This sounds easy enough until you add in the time limit with which to build the pipeline, run out of time and the fluid starts oozing along the pipe regardless of whether the pipeline is completed or not. As players progressed through the levels they would begin to encounter obstacles that would hinder the construction of the perfect pipe.

Fortunately, Pipe Mania featured a password system that allowed players to load back in to the level they left off at. Very handy for avoiding having to leave the computer on while you had dinner and incur the wrath of angry parents.

Pipe Mania was entertaining and addictive, gained huge popularity and was a hit with the magazine reviewers with ACE awarding it 910/1000 on Atari ST, Amiga Format gifting 81% and Zzap! giving the Commodore 64 version 94%.

The game was released on nearly every platform going from the Acorn Electron to the Acorn Archimedes, you can see Steve Benway play this excellent puzzler on the Archimedes in the video below.

April 1990 was a great month for gamers and these few games are a very small selection of the games that were available. Other games that were dominating the market included the likes of Sim City, Stunt Car Racer and North and South (an American civil war game based on the comics Les Tuniques Bleues).

Thanks again to Steve Benway for the videos, be sure to check out his channel consisting of more than 1000 retro gaming videos.

Stay safe and look out for more 90s games coming in May.

Andrew Newton