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Gun Fury

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

1997 Binary Emotions

Platform: Commodore Amiga

Described as a thinking man’s shoot-em-up, Gun Fury was a late Amiga release that was due from Binary Emotions, and to be published under the Guildhall Leisure label in 1997.

gun fury shot

The aim of the title was simply to repel waves of alien invaders with your tank. The aliens are in various colours, and as you shoot one, your tank turns that colour and then you can only shoot another alien of the same colour. Essentially the game was very similar to Zoop, which was released on platforms including the SEGA Mega Drive. Continue reading →

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Crystal X – Amstrad CPC games preserved

Posted: by fgasking

Although digital preservation has been happening for quite some time now, there are still many games actually released that are still very much at large. Often perhaps because some of these titles didn’t sell in great numbers in the early days, or even later days of a machine’s commercial life.

cloaker page

Back in the early 1990s, there was a software company called Crystal X that sold games by the homebrew developer Angela Swinbourne – a mixture of strategy and action games. A young David Crookes at the time had obtained these games, which he believes Angela sent to him, as he was in touch with a lot of PD people and home brewers at the time. Continue reading →

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Dwagons

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

1992 Imagitec

Platform: Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and PC

Dwagons is a game which is not too dissimilar in style to the classic Pengo, with the concept of being able to push blocks. The blocks come in various different forms, which provide tricks and traps throughout. Joystick magazine described the game as a title that combines arcade, strategy and adventure. dwagons shot5 The graphics early on looked pretty good, showcasing a 2.5D view, and blocks could stack up too, with the characters being able to jump up onto them and give an extra level of depth to the game. The two main characters if you hadn’t guessed already, are dragons – or Dwagons, as the title suggests, going by the name of Snort and Snail. Continue reading →
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Funky Monkey

Posted: , last updated: by fgasking

1993 Images Software

Platform: Commodore Amiga (+ potentially others later on)

Also known as: Monkey Business

It was recently that team member Grzegorz Antosiewicz highlighted an abandoned Amiga game which had completely passed me by last year when artist Glenn Broadway created a detailed blog post back in May 2022. The majority of information and all images have been gleaned from Glenn’s excellent post to create the entry within our archives with his permission.

Funky Monkey was the first game Glenn had worked on, which started after being invited to help with graphics for the title already in development. A friend was on a YTS placement at Images Software at the time, and this resulted in an introduction to Karl Jeffrey (the founder) and a subsequent invite.

MonkeyBusiness mockup 02
Early image from Monkey Business, which eventually would see an overhaul on its design.

At the time in early 1991, the game was being developed under the name of Monkey Business. This was already under way by a development team called DC Software, which was none other than developer Daniel Clapson. Continue reading →

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