I expect this to be an interesting comparison, with most of the versions being on a similar level.īarbarian always struck me as an oddity in a way. The rest of the scores had to be taken from MobyGames: the Acorn versions have a score of 4.5 from 2 votes and the Apple ][ version has 3.5 from 6 votes.
On April Fools' day 2015, the game's ratings all over our favourite websites were as follows: at Lemon64, 8.2 from 275 votes (ranked #69 in the Top list) at LemonAmiga, 7.49 from 121 votes at World of Spectrum, 8.17 from 134 votes at Plus/4 World, the MB version has 8.1 from 11 votes and the SF version has 8.2 from 10 votes at CPC Game Reviews, a 9 out of 10 at CPC-POWER, 17.61 out of 20.00 at Atarimania, the 8-bit version has a score of 6.9 from 17 votes, while the 16-bit version has 7.3 from 7 votes and the DOS version at Abandonia has two scores - the editor has given it a 3.0 out of 5, and 2449 readers have rated it 2.7.
The hilarity with bad names ensued with both Barbarian games getting their own sequels, but that's something we don't need to worry about in this blog entry. Palace themselves only gave the game its subtitle to avoid the mix-up. Although "Death Sword" sounds both like a bad 1980's fantasy metal group and an even worse barbarian-themed sword fighting B-movie, at least it was never really thought of as anything else than what it is. At some point, it was decided that the game needed a different name - apparently so that it wouldn't get mixed up with Psygnosis' own Barbarian game, which was released at the same time as the one by Palace Software.
#Ultimate warrior soundtrack software
Shocking!Įpyx got the distribution rights for the North American market, and got Designer Software to do the conversion.
But for all its polish in gameplay, Barbarian offered something more: controversial cover art and pixelated gore. No wonder then, why Barbarian was so well received in July 1987. While Barbarian had less variety to offer, it did the one thing it was made for infinitely better than what Gremlin were able to produce for their clumsy counterpart. The only competition Palace's Barbarian had at any length was Gremlin's Samurai Trilogy, at least from what I remember, and both games were released at the same time.
#Ultimate warrior soundtrack series
Datasoft's earlier Conan game didn't really fit the bill, as it was just the next step in the series of platform-adventures in the vein of Bruce Lee, which would later on be followed by Zorro and The Goonies. The game was most likely born out of a need for a proper swordfighting game, which would somehow fulfill every kid's fantasies of being Conan, as cool as Arnold Schwarzenegger managed to make him in 1982. Making a comparison of Barbarian was never a suggestion, but I know many of my friends enjoyed this game back in the day, and long after that time, so this one goes for all those friends that I got around to playing Barbarian with. On April Fools' Day 2015, I had finally begun to work on this one, so you can imagine it's one of those super long ones again, so prepare yourself with plenty of coffee. Make of it what you will, but the time is now. I have been meaning to do a comparison of Palace Software's Barbarian for a long time now, but due to various reasons and excuses that I have allowed myself to make, there just hasn't been a moment so far that felt right for this one. Avalon) in 1993: Programming by Piotr Pazdzierkiewicz, Graphics by Piotr Podsiadlo, Music by Jakub Husak. SF version by Ferenc S.Ĭonversion for the Atari 8-bits released by Laboratorium Komputerowe Avalon (L.K. Unofficial conversions for the Commodore Plus/4 by Muffbusters and SF in 1990: Muffbusters version programming, graphics and sounds by Mucsi, with title screen by Jeva. Released by Epyx in the USA as "Death Sword".Ĭonverted for the Amstrad CPC by Andrew Fitter in 1987 for the ZX Spectrum by Shaun Griffiths in 1987 for the Atari ST by Gary Thomson of Seer Computer Systems in 1988 for the Acorn Electron and BBC Micro by Peter Scott of Superior Software in 1988 for the Commodore Amiga by Richard Leinfellner in 1988 for the Apple ][ and IBM-PC compatibles by Designer Software in 1988. Developed and released for the Commodore 64 by Palace Software: Programming by Stanley Schembri, Designed by Steven Brown, Music by Richard Joseph, Artistic assistance by Gary Carr.