Reviews
The Legendary Axe Review: The Launch Game That Won Game of the Year
Gogan, the axe called Sting, a charged strength meter and six zones of barbarian platforming that swept 1989’s awards. The Legendary Axe, reviewed.
Author: Sal Benedetto
From the Vault columnist. Grew up feeding quarters to the Ms. Pac-Man machine at his uncle's pizza place; still owns his childhood SNES and every Nintendo Power he ever begged his mother for. Writes the retrospectives and the hidden-gem hunts.
Reviews
Ninja Spirit Review: Irem’s Arcade Storm, Perfectly Ported
Seven stages, four weapons, a screen full of ninjas and one of the great arcade conversions of the era. Ninja Spirit on TurboGrafx-16 is essential — reviewed.
Reviews
Splatterhouse Review: The TurboGrafx-16’s House of Horrors
Namco’s notorious horror brawler came home almost intact: masks, meat cleavers and the West Mansion’s worth of gore. The TurboGrafx-16 Splatterhouse, reviewed.
Reviews
Air Zonk Review: Bonk Goes Cute-‘Em-Up, and It Rules
Bonk’s cyber descendant straps on the shades for a horizontal cute-’em-up of outrageous colour and confidence. Air Zonk is the TurboGrafx-16 at its most joyful — reviewed.
Reviews
Soldier Blade Review: The Soldier Series at Full Throttle
The last and finest of Hudson’s Soldier shooters on HuCard: Soldier Blade pairs a clever gunpod system with caravan scoring and some of the fastest action on the TurboGrafx-16.
Reviews
Blazing Lazers Review: Compile’s TurboGrafx Shooter Masterclass
Hudson and Compile turned a film licence into the TurboGrafx-16’s defining shooter: nine areas, a mountain of firepower and barely a flicker of slowdown. Blazing Lazers, reviewed.
Features
Apple II Hidden Gems: 10 Brilliant Games the Charts Forgot
Beyond the Oregon Trail canon lies a second Apple II library: tomb-raiding stick men, duelling swashbucklers, a mole-man arcade and a graphic adventure in the jungle. Ten deep cuts, all real, all worth your floppy time.
Features
VisiCalc: The Spreadsheet That Sold the Apple II
Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston’s 1979 ‘visible calculator’ was the first killer app — the program businesses bought computers to run. How a Harvard case-study headache changed everything.
Features
The Print Shop: How Brøderbund Turned the Apple II Into a Banner Factory
Greeting cards, signs, letterheads and ten-foot banners: David Balsam and Martin Kahn’s 1984 phenomenon made every Apple II owner a desktop publisher before the term existed.
Reviews
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Review: The Chase Begins
Brøderbund’s 1985 Apple II original turned geography into a detective game and an almanac into copy protection. Gumshoes: the world is waiting, and Carmen is already gone.