• Tag Archives Solomon’s Key

  • Solomon’s Key (Amstrad)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Source: Amstrad Computer User – October 1987

    Solomon’s Key was originally an arcade puzzle game released by Tecmo. In 1987 and 1988, a number of home ports were released. In addition to the NES version, there were ports for the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, Sega Master System (Japan only) and others. There are also a couple of other games related to Solomon’s Key. The Game Boy Color game, Monster Rancher Explorer is an updated port of Solomon’s Key. Also, one of the latest NES releases, Fire and Ice, was a prequel to Solomon’s Key. The NES version of Solomon’s Key was released for the Wii Virtual Console in 2006 and in 2013 on both the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U Virtual Consoles. It was also released for the PS4 in 2015.


    This particular review features a version that few U.S. players would probably be familiar with. It runs on the Amstrad CPC computer which was a U.K. based line of computers that were popular in Europe in the mid 1980s. The Amstrad CPC 464 was probably the most popular model and was also the first. It was an 8-bit computer with a Z-80 processor and built-in casette drive (which remained more popular than disks throughout the 1980s in Europe becuase of their lower cost).

    This review comes from the October 1987 issue of Amstrad Computer User.


    📂This entry was posted in Computer Arcana Retro Games 📎and tagged

  • Mighty Bomb Jack / Solomon’s Key (NES)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    030

    Source: Nintendo Fun Club News – Issue Number 5 – February/March 1988

    This is an ad for two early releases by Tecmo for the NES, Mighty Bomb Jack and Solomon’s Key. This advertisement is from the February/March 1988 issue of Nintendo Fun Club news which was an official Nintendo publication that was the precursor to Nintendo Power.

    Mighty Bomb Jack was released by Tecmo for the NES in 1987. I always though it looked like an interesting game but reviews were generally poor. It seems to be a pretty generic platform game and it was apparently fairly repetitive and without much depth. Despite this, it has seen numerous re-releases. It was released for the Wii Virtual Console in 2007, for the 3DS Virtual Console in 2012 and for the Wii U Virtual Console in 2014. Those also got rather poor reviews. More contemporary releases include ports for the Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST and Game Boy.

    Solomon’s Key was originally an arcade puzzle game released by Tecmo. In 1987 and 1988, a number of home ports were released. In addition to the NES version, there were ports for the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, Sega Master System (Japan only) and others. There are also a couple of other games related to Solomon’s Key. The Game Boy Color game, Monster Rancher Explorer is an updated port of Solomon’s Key. Also, one of the latest NES releases, Fire and Ice, was a prequel to Solomon’s Key. The NES version of Solomon’s Key was released for the Wii Virtual Console in 2006 and in 2013 on both the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U Virtual Consoles. It was also released for the PS4 in 2015.

    These games aren’t really the ones that made Tecmo famous on the NES. That would come later with the release of Tecmo Bowl.


    📂This entry was posted in Nintendo (NES) Retro Games 📎and tagged