Popular games for platform FM Towns

21.05.1990

Ten years ago, Wizardry set the standards in Fantasy Role-Playing (FRP). Now after two million copies have been sold and dozens of awards have been won, Bane of the Cosmic Forge raises and redefines those standards. This new Wizardry , the truest simulation ever of Fantasy Role Playing, will push your computer, your mind, and your sense of adventure to their very limits. Only through the power of the latest computer technology could the full dimensions of this new genre in FRP be possible.

31.12.1990

The year is 275 B.C. Through conquest and careful diplomacy, the Roman republic has brought the petty kingdoms and city-states of Italia under its control. This is the moment at which the heirs of Romulus and Remus step onto the world stage. This is the humble beginning of an empire that will one day cover most of Europe, Asia Minor, and North Africa. As an ambitious young officer, you duty is to defend Rome. Your hope is to become Caesar. Your fate - to rule the world.

31.12.1993

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos takes you on an adventure: save the dying king and stop the evil sorceress Scotia’s Dark Army. Your band of heroes will travel through a vast fantasy word full of mysterious places, dangerous monsters, and hidden treasures in a quest to find a way to defeat the immortal evil enchantress and save the world.

15.06.1991

4-D Boxing leaves behind any pretences of being a pure arcade game based on boxing, and aims to recreate the sport in full detail. The graphics engine allows for multiple camera angles and viewpoints, and considerably detailed visuals. These required more advanced hardware than was common at the time, but a stick-figure mode was included as a compromise. The moves on offer include all the uppercuts and hooks of a real fight, and the players are designed to move realistically to implement them. You progress through the game by taking on a succession of increasingly difficult fighters, and get to train your boxer in between. Advanced action replays are included as well, so you can review all that happened.

31.12.1990

You play the part of the head of a railroad company, with the aim of creating your own railroad empire, providing a successful mass transit system that will be an inspiration to the rest of the world. Another goal is to provide the impetus for your chosen city to develop. There are a number of different places to set up business each with different layouts and existing houses and businesses. The main money earners are passenger trains, that can be scheduled to pick up passengers at the times of day when the demand is high. However, in the long term you need the city to develop. This requires setting up trains that transport resources to where they are needed. These resources are used to build houses, and other buildings, increasing the number of passengers for your commuter trains. As the city develops, new businesses will spring up, such as stadiums, high rise office blocks, and ski resorts. You can also build your own businesses, the success of which will depend on the local population, the presence of competing businesses, and even the changes of the seasons, among other factors.

01.11.1985

Following the defeat of the evil triad in the previous three Ultima games, the world of Sosaria changed beyond recognition: continents rose and sank, and new cities were built, heralding the advent of a different civilization. Unified by the reign of the benevolent monarch Lord British, the new world was renamed Britannia. Lord British wished to base people's well-being on the ethical principles of Truth, Love, and Courage, proclaiming the Eight Virtues (Honesty, Compassion, Valor, Justice, Sacrifice, Honor, Spirituality, and Humility) as the ideal everyone should strive for. The person who could accomplish full understanding and realization of these virtues would serve as a spiritual leader and a moral example for the inhabitants of Britannia; he alone would be able to obtain holy artifacts, descend into the Stygian Abyss, and access the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom. This person is the Avatar. The fourth game in the Ultima series features an improved game engine, with color graphics and enhanced character interaction: the player can have conversations with non-playable characters by typing names of various topics. However, the main difference between Ultima IV and its predecessors in the series (as well as other role-playing games) lies in the game's objectives and the ways to fulfill them. Instead of building up a character by any means possible in order to face a villain in the end of the game, in Ultima IV the player is trying to become the Avatar, a role model for people. This means upholding the Eight Virtues, basically trying to become a better person. Making morally conscious decisions and helping other people is not done expecting a material reward, but because it is the actual goal of the game and the main focus of its gameplay. The game frowns on behavior typical of most other RPGs, such as backstabbing fleeing enemies or picking up everything that isn't nailed down even if it does not belong to the protagonist. This different approach established the game's reputation as the first "true" Ultima, influencing the design philosophy of later installments and the overall spirit of the series. Character creation is done by choosing responses to morally ambiguous questions. Each of the Eight Virtues corresponds to a character class; by determining the player's personal priorities in the virtues, the game assigns a class and a starting location for the Avatar. After emerging in Britannia, the player is free to explore it in various ways (on foot, moongate teleportation, on horseback, by ship, etc.). Certain items must be collected in any order to enter the Stygian Abyss and complete the game. The Avatar also has to reach the highest level in all virtues. This is achieved by various means: donating blood increases Sacrifice, not fleeing from combat increases Valor, etc. The process, however, is not irreversible: should the Avatar overpay a blind seller, he gains Compassion points; should he, on the other hand, cheat the seller by underpaying, his level in several virtues would decrease. These unorthodox features of the game co-exist with plenty of traditional RPG elements, such as dungeons to explore and hostile monsters to kill. Enemies are encountered on the world map as well as in dungeons; combat takes place on separate top-down screens, allowing player-controlled and enemy parties freely move on them. Characters accumulate experience points and level up, gaining higher amount of hit points and access to stronger magic spells. Like in the previous installments of the series, world map, town exploration and combat are presented from a top-down view, while the dungeons are pseudo-3D and are explored from first-person perspective. Ultima IV also introduces several new gameplay features to the series and role-playing games in general. A number of initially non-playable characters living in various areas of the game world are able to to join the party and fight alongside the hero, replacing traditional player-generated characters or mercenaries and adventurers available only in special locations. Additional new elements include buying and combining reagents in order to cast spells, puzzle rooms in dungeons, and others. The FM Towns version, while identical to the others in gameplay, introduces upgraded graphics similar to those used in next installment of the series.

12.12.1991

Eye of the beholder II: The legend of Darkmoon is an all-3D leisure series computer role-playing adventure based on the popular AD&D 2nd edition game rules and on an original story created for this game. THe action takes place in and around the dreaded temple Darkmoon located in TSR's Forgotten Realms gameworld. Everything in Eye of the Beholder II is from your point of view. Watch the trees pass by as you move through the forest around the temple. Pick up items and take them with you. Open door with keys, by pressing buttons or by pulling release levers. See monsters draw nearer to you and close in for battle. Attack with the weapons your characters have in their hands. Cas spells with your Cleric's or Paladin's hoily symbols and your mages' spell books. Those in the front of the party may attack with weapons such as swords and maces, while characters in the rear ranks may attack with spells or ranged weapons such as bows and slings.

01.10.1990

I cursed my luck again as I slid down the monkey's throat. Have my dreams of guzzling grog and plundering galleons been reduced to this? "Three small trials and you're a pirate like us," they said. Fair enough. If only I could stomach the foul brew these scurvy seadogs swilled, the rest would be easy. How could I have known I'd meet a powerful and beautiful woman with a jealous suitor too stupid to realize he'd been dead for years? And how can I crawl through this great stone monkey to find a man who walks three inches above the ground and sets fire to his beard every morning? Do business with quaint and humble shopkeepers. Participate in complex and meaningful dialogues. Visit interesting places and steal stuff. Experience the never-ending nightlife of Melee Island.

15.12.1987

Dungeon Master established several new standards for role playing and computer games in general. Dungeon Master was a realtime game instead of the traditional turn-based approach that was prevalent until then. Instead of using text-based commands to interact with the environment, players directly manipulated objects and the environment by clicking the mouse in the enlarged first-person view. Abstract Dungeons and Dragons style experience points and levels were eschewed in favor of a system where the characters' skills were improved directly via using them. It also introduced some novel control methods including the spell casting system, which involved learning sequences of runes which represented the form and function of a spell's effect. For example, a fireball spell was created by mixing the fire symbol with the wing symbol. This kind of attention to detail and focus on the user interface was typical of the game and helped create an often captivating sense of craft and ingenuity. Other factors in immersiveness were the then-revolutionary use of sound effects to indicate when a creature was nearby, and (primitive) dynamic lighting.

03.10.1989

SimCity, later renamed SimCity Classic, is a city-building simulation video game, first released on February 2, 1989, and designed by Will Wright for the Macintosh computer. SimCity was Maxis's second product, which has since been ported into various personal computers and game consoles, and spawned several sequels including SimCity 2000 in 1993, SimCity 3000 in 1999, SimCity 4 in 2003, SimCity DS, SimCity Societies in 2007, and SimCity in 2013. Until the release of The Sims in 2000, the SimCity series was the best-selling line of computer games made by Maxis.

11.03.1992

The Isle of the Avatar was discovered during the Fourth Age (as related in Quest of the Avatar), at the climax of the Avatar’s quest. The Stranger from Another World, who came to Britannia in answer to Lord British’s summons, completed the Test of the Eight Virtues and became the Avatar — the embodiment of the pure axiom of life. It was during his journeys that the Avatar unearthed a chilling artifact: the skull of Mondain the Wicked, the first of the Triad of Evil. There were those who claimed that the artifact held the power to destroy all life on our world. Fortunately, it was the Stranger who discovered it, and not someone of lesser Virtue. Upon completing the Path of the Eight Virtues, the Avatar embarked on a search for the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom. Legend linked this ancient tome with the subterranean maze known as the Great Stygian Abyss. “Truly, no one has ever plumbed its depths,” wrote Shamino, who arranged by magic to obtain a map of its corridors. “I cannot imagine the horrors that await the first to venture into the Stygian depths.”

31.12.1990

Stunts (also known as 4D Sports Driving) is an early 3D racing video game developed by Distinctive Software, Inc.. The game places emphasis on racing on stunt tracks and features a track editor, it is clearly influenced by the earlier arcade game Hard Drivin' and has many similar elements to the game Stunt Driver which was released around the same time. In Stunts, players race a lap around the circuit, with the aim of completing the lap as quickly as possible without crashing. However, these laps often feature special track areas such as loops, jumps (including over tall buildings), slalom roads and corkscrews. The game area is restricted by a large fixed size square area defined and surrounded by a fence which the game is designed to prevent the player from leaving. Players can either race against the clock or choose between six different opponents; there is no support for real-time multiplayer. Stunts features 11 different drivable cars, with either automatic or manual transmission. Replays of races can be saved and reviewed. There are four camera views available during replay and actual driving, and the dashboard is an optional overlay on all views. It is also possible to continue the race from any point in the replay, however the time for that race will not be recorded. Another major feature of the game is the built-in track and terrain editor which allows the user to design arbitrary new tracks or modifications of existing tracks.[2] The cars can drive on paved roads, gravel roads, icy/snow roads, and grass if driving off the track — which all offer different levels of grip. The game has a relatively advanced pseudo-physics engine for its time which can simulate oversteer and understeer, grip is also proportional to the banking of a curve. The game features a 3D engine with flat shading and no textures, it uses polygonal graphics for most objects, including trees and road signs, there are few sprites. The resolution is 320×200 with 256 colors. There is an option to select high and low detail. The game is written for DOS and executes in real mode.[3] Stunts includes a form of copy protection. Each time after running the program, players must complete a specific phrase found in the game manual before being allowed to race. If the player fails to complete the phrase three times, the next race will still load. However, approximately four seconds into the race, the player is informed that he or she did not deactivate the car's security system, the car crashes, and the player is returned to the main menu.

01.06.1990

Ultima VI sees the player return to Britannia, at war with a race of gargoyles from another land, struggling to stop a prophecy from ending their race. The player must help defend Britannia against these gargoyles, and ultimately discover the secrets about both lands and its peoples.

01.07.1989

Europe, 1938. The Lost Ark was just a warm up! Now Adolph Hitler is after the most powerful talisman of all- the Holy Grail. A few brave men stand in his way. Fortunately, one of them is Indiana Jones. And this time, he has his dad with him. The bad guys are in your face all the way- Nazis, mercenaries, traitors, spies. Not to mention everything the Luftwaffe can throw at you.. Can you handle the heat? If you can, you just might earn a higher I.Q. (Indy Quotient) than the man with the whip and the hat. Puzzles, action, adventure.

06.06.1993

The aim of the game is to spread the dark stain of your syndicates colour across the entire surface of the globe. The world map is divided into various territories. From your home base in europe you invade adjacent territories and, through the violent subterfuge of your agents, wrestle them from rival syndicates. Having done so, raise taxes on the locals to increase your profits and punish them for serving the wrong syndicate. But raising taxes can make you very unpopular.and furious natives leading popular rebellions can eat into syndicate profits. So keep an eye on foreign interests and pick off troublemakers with your teams of agents. And while you're busy expanding your syndicates empire abroad, rival agents are working in your own back yard to de-stabilise your syndicate. Ensure agents are briefed to weed out traitors whose actions might bring about your downfall. By meeting all challenges, destroying all targets and gaining control of all the territories, your syndicate triumphs.

31.12.1989

Once in the game, using the arrow keys you can move the 'Scanner' ship around the 'Shield Line' at the parameter of the playing area. While moving around this edge the ship is protected from the aliens by a shield indicated by a glowing circle around the ship. This shield is not infinite and care should be taken to complete each level as quickly as possible. A counter indicates the level of shield that you have: when it reaches zero then any contact with an alien is deadly whether you are on the 'Shield Line' or not. The idea of the game is to cut areas out of the screen without touching any of the aliens. This is done by pressing the SPACE key which initiates the 'Laser Cutter' and moving off the 'Shield Line' and rejoining it somewhere else. While you are in the process of drawing a line, your shield is inactive and touching an alien is fatal. Similarly, if one of the aliens touches the line then it will send a charge down the line towards you and you must quickly return to the safety of the edge before it reaches you. When you rejoin the 'Shield Line' the area that does not contain the 'Boss' alien will be filled (points are gained by trapping the other aliens) and the 'Shield Line' will be adjusted to surround the area that is left. The level is completed when a certain percentage of the total area has been filled in. This percentage starts at 80% but may increase in the later levels.

01.01.1990

Gameplay consists of completing successive missions and overall cockpit performance affects gameplay: going above and beyond the call of duty results in medals, promotions in rank are awarded at regular intervals, and success or failure on certain critical missions decides the player's plot progress, "winning" or "losing".

29.09.1997

In Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny you enter a world of intense beauty and mortal danger where your slightest move can trigger cataclysmic events, miraculous escapes, or lethal battles. See magical cities rise out of great oceans. Enter the musty caverns of Dracoid ruins. Discover gruesome altars and witness secret ceremonies never before seen by humans.

01.03.1988

After a century of relative peace, the Avatar of Virtue is summoned back to the medieval kingdom of Britannia to deal with a new threat: the usurper Lord Blackthorn, a formerly honorable nobleman who has been corrupted by strange new creatures called the Shadowlords. After the recent disappearance of the true king, Lord British, the realm has fallen under martial law. Blackthorn now rules the land by brutally enforcing the eight Virtues upon the people of Britannia - corrupting their meaning in the process. The Avatar must gather together his former companions, now made outlaws by Blackthorn's regime, and venture forth to defeat the vile Shadowlords and recover the true king from the shadowy depths of the Underworld.

10.09.1993

A new challenge awaits. For two years, they have reigned supreme. Twelve of the most gifted fighters from across the world have battled each other in the World Warrior Tournament. But the time has come for them to step aside – now is the time of the New Challengers! Cammy, Dee Jay, T. Hawk, and Fei Long have earned the right to enter the World Warrior Tournament. Each of them possesses a lethal combination of martial arts skills that they believe can destroy M. Bison. But can they survive the original Street Fighters and their new abilities? Only the true Street Fighters among you will find out!

31.12.1991

First you choose one out of four different characters to represent you, Scarlet (red army), Oberon (yellow army), Caesar (green army), or Madcap (blue army). The game is split into 10 levels - the first 9 are groups of 3 territories which can be completed in any order, while the final 'Mother of All Battles' has its own surprises. Land is mostly of sand, grass or ice. You start with 100 men and you can use whatever quantity you find necessary on each island. The rest men left will go to another level with another new 100. In the second half of the game you can freeze men to save them for the Mother of All Battles. Once you select your island and place for your HQ, you must do some research for better weapons and defences. On the roof of your buildings you can put protectors like archers, gunmen, boiling oil men, and later on even laser turrets. If you send a team of unarmed men into an unoccupied square, they will build an additional base there, with larger armies completing this more quickly. Later on higher levels, you'll also build mines and factories, as you'll need to dig a certain material for higher level weapons, depending on whether the area you're on is rich with a certain material or not. With each next level, you'll start from a higher technology level and be able to progress to one higher level up than at the previous level

01.09.1990

Raiden consists of eight vertical scrolling missions where the player maneuvers the Raiden craft dodging and destroying enemy robots, buildings, ground targets, and aircraft. There are bombs and missile powerups as well as collectable medals which add to the score. When player dies, the fighter's fragments become projectiles that damage enemies. After defeating the Stage 8 boss, the mission is completed, and player receives 1 million points for each completed loop. Afterwards, it will start back to Stage 1. This time around, enemies shoot faster and at a more rapid rate.

01.08.1988

Tiki, a sneaker-wearing kiwi who must save his lover Phee Phee and several of his other kiwi chick friends who have been kiwi-napped by a large blue leopard seal. The player has to navigate a scrolling maze-like level, at the end of which they release one of Tiki's kiwi chick friends trapped in a cage.

16.06.1986

In the game, each player controls one of the two Bubble Dragons, Bub and Bob. The player can move along platforms, as well as jump to those above and to the side, similar to most platform games. The player can also blow bubbles. These can trap enemies, who are defeated if the bubble is then burst by the player's spiny back. Bubbles that contain enemies can be popped at the same time resulting in different foods being projected around the level. Each enemy trapped in a bubble equates to a different food. Food is consumed and transferred to points (an increasing scale of 1000 points is awarded for each enemy burst in tandem with another meaning: one enemy burst equals one food item worth 1000 points, two enemies burst equals two food items worth 1000 and 2000 points, three enemies burst equals three food items worth 1000, 2000 and 4000 points, and so on), which results in earning lives. These same bubbles also float for a time before bursting, and can be jumped on, allowing access to otherwise inaccessible areas. Players progress to the next level once all enemies on the current level are defeated. Enemies turn "angry" — becoming pink-colored and moving faster — if they are the last enemy remaining, escape from a bubble after being left too long or a certain amount of time has been spent on the current level. A monster will also become angry if either player collects a skull (the only negative item in the game), and the monster is hit by the resulting comet crossing the screen (however, this is a rare occurrence). After a further time limit expires, an additional invincible enemy appears for each player, actively chasing them using only vertical and horizontal movements. These do not need to be defeated to complete the level, and disappear once a player's life is lost. Contact with enemies and their projectiles (rocks, lasers, fireballs, etc.) results in death.