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Moonstone Amiga 1991 Rob Anderson Original Version


Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight



Rob Anderson of Mindscape released Moonstone: A Hard Days Knight for the Amiga in 1991. Moonstone features basic turn-based strategy and real-time hack n slash combat. Uniquely, Moonstone supports single-player, 2-player simultaneous or 4-player alternating gameplay.

Amiga Moonstone was programmed by Kevin Hoare and Rob Anderson; its graphics were drawn and animated by Rob Anderson, Steve Leney and Dennis Turner; its audio was composed by Richard Joseph.

In Moonstone players assume the role of a Knight constituted by three stats: Strength, Constitution and Endurance. Stats are raised via experience-point acquisition and item-usage (scrolls and potions). Arms and armor can be purchased from merchants. Encounters include healers, taverns, merchants, villages, cities, monster lairs and wizard lairs.

Knights can execute the following attacks:

  • Throw Knife
  • Overhead Chop
  • Upward Thrust
  • Backward Thrust
  • Swing
  • Block
  • Special Defensive
  • Lunge

The object of Moonstone is to explore the realm, battle foes and loot gold and treasure while in search of four keys that grant access to the Valley of Gods, where a Moonstone is found. The Moonstone must then be taken to the Moon God in Stonehenge during a specific moon-phase.

Moonstone features 60 backdrop scenes and 1,000 frames or 2 megs of rotoscoped animation with optional gore graphics. The rotoscoped sprites are drop-shadowed, weapon swings are trail-blurred and gouts of blood arc across the battlefield two years before Mortal Kombat.

Moonstone was distributed on 3x 3.5" 880 kB diskettes and requires 1 meg of RAM. It was not hard disk drive-installable.

Being an Amiga game, Moonstone's 2D graphics and overall presentation far exceed other cRPGs of the time, but strategy and tactics depth just aren't there. Overall, 6/10.

Moonstone IBM PC MS-DOS 1992



Anthony Mack and Nicholas Snape of Images Software Ltd. converted the Amiga version of Moonstone to IBM PC MS-DOS in 1992.

The IBM PC version of Moonstone requires 620K of free conventional memory and displays in 256-color VGA 320x200.

Moonstone audio supports PC Speaker, AdLib, Roland and Sound Blaster. However, Sound Blaster samples require 400K of EMS memory via the likes of EMM386.

The IBM PC version of Moonstone was distributed on 2x 3.5" 1.44MB HD diskettes or 2x 5.25" 1.2MB HD floppy disks. Moonstone extracts and installs to floppy disk or hard disk drive via Mindscape's Moonstone Install Program v1.0 by The Software Toolworks. The install size is 2.7 megs (281 files).

Barbarian Commodore 64 1987



Palace Software released Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior for the Commodore 64 in 1987. Barbarian is a fixed-screen hack n slash versus fighter. Directly or indirectly, Barbarian was clearly influenced by Conan.

Barbarian supports single-player or 2-player simultaneous play.

Each duel in Barbarian is one-on-one and to the death. Each barbarian is armed with a sword. Barbarian moves include advance, withdraw, about-face, jump, crouch, kick, head butt, roll, defend head, defend body, neck chop, body chop, leg chop, overhead chop and the flying neck chop.

Set in the forgotten wastelands of the North, the object of Barbarian is to free princess Mariana from the evil sorcerer, Drax, by slaying six of Drax's champions in succession, followed by Drax himself.

Barbarian features four colorful backdrops and semi-realistic rotoscoped sprite animations. Barbarian was the first computer game to feature animated gouts of blood and beheadings. Each action in Barbarian has a satisfying weight and impact accompanying it. In addition, the controls and collision detection are fair and robust.

C64 Barbarian was conceived and designed by Steve Brown, programmed by Stanley Schembri, drawn by Gary Carr and composed by Richard Joseph.

Barbarian 2 Commodore 64 1988



Palace Software released Barbarian 2: The Dungeon of Drax for the Commodore 64 in 1988. Barbarian 2 is a flip-screen hack n slash adventure game.

Barbarian 2 supports single-player gameplay only, but players can choose to control an axe-wielding Conan-like Barbarian figure or a sword-wielding Red Sonya-like figure, Princess Mariana.

The object of Barbarian 2 is to save the jewelled Kingdom from the evil Sorcerer, Drax. The hero must battle through the minions of Drax in the wilderness and in dungeons beneath Drax's dark castle, before facing off against the sorcerer himself in his lair.

Barbarian 2 moves include advance, withdraw, run, about-face, jump, run-jump, kick, low chop, overhead chop and the flying neck chop.

Barbarian 2 consists of four environments to explore: Wasteland, Caverns, Dungeons of Drax and The Sanctum of Drax. The first three environments consist of approximately 28 individual screens that are navigated by moving into cave entrances and open doorways as well as by moving sideways to the edges of the screen, aided by an animated compass. Most screens are guarded by monsters, of which there are 18 kinds (not including the three special enemies).

Some monsters can be slain with one hit. For example, a monster with a long exposed neck can be beheaded with a single sword-swing or sustain several slashes to its torso before it is slain. Monsters respawn and can follow the heroes between sideways screens (not between doorways or cave entrances). Impressively, some monsters emerge from pits.

Hazards include pits, acid and projectiles.

Collectable magical objects include axe, globe, potion, key, shield and jewel. Multiple items can be collected and held in an inventory, with three slots visible at any one time. Barbarian 2 keeps track of player score and current level, but not time.

Barbarian 2 features rotoscoped sprite animations for controllable characters and articulated sprite animations for all monster types.

C64 Barbarian 2 was designed by Steve Brown, programmed by Rob Stevens, composed by Richard Joseph and drawn by Jo Walker.

Rastan Commodore 64 1988



Imagine Software of the U.K. ported Taito's Rastan coinop of 1987 to the Commodore 64 in 1988. C64 Rastan was programmed by John Meegan, composed by Martin Galway and drawn by Jane Lowe, John Palmer and Martin McDonald.

Rastan is a side-on medieval-fantasy hack and slash platform game that scrolls both vertically and horizontally. C64 Rastan bi-directional scrolling is smooth.

In Rastan players control the Conan-like Rastan, a barbarian-king. Rastan can move sideways, jump, crouch, climb up and down ropes and chains, jump from one rope/chain to another, swing from vines, slide down slopes, drop down through platforms and swing his weapon to the side and thrust his weapon upward and downward. Rastan can swing his weapon while crouching, jumping, climbing and swinging.

Rastan weapons include sword, axe and mace. Weapons can be powered-up to fire bolt-projectiles. Rastan collectables include shield, mantle, armor, medicine, poison, ram's head, jewel, ring, necklace and rod.

Rastan consists of six stages each of which culminate in an end-stage boss fight. Each stage follows the format of wilderness, castle and sanctum. Environmental hazards include lava, water, rafts and spikes.

Rastan enemies include bat, snake, fish, skeleton, wizard, gigas, chimera, winged man, serpent lady and many-armed bug.
 
Rastan audio is toggleable between music and sound effects.

cf. Chronological list of similar computer games:


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