Blaster Master

A game by Sunsoft and Tokai Engineering for NES, originally released in 1988.

CONTEXT
The early days of NES gaming were a strange time for Americans. Deep and complex games were being introduced to people whose previous console experience likely included only the Atari 2600. And a whole slew of theretofore unknown Japanese developers were suddenly making the best games the world had ever seen.

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 1988, Heritage, NES, Sunsoft, Tokai Engineering

Karnov

A game by SAS Sakata and Data East for NES, originally released in 1988, and based on the Data East arcade game released in 1987.

CONTEXT
Karnov is a home console port of the Data East arcade game of the same name, which hit arcades in 1987. The port was released on a number of systems, but is probably best remembered from the NES port, which was released in the U.S. in January of 1988 (December 1987 in Japan). There was even a Tiger Electronics handheld LCD version of the game.

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 1988, Data East, Heritage, NES, SAS Sakata

Jackal

A game by Konami for NES, originally released in 1988, and based on the Top Gunner arcade game from 1986.

CONTEXT
Jackal was released in 1988 for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Konami Industry Co., Ltd. This is home console port of an arcade game called Top Gunner (a.k.a. Tokushu Butal Jackal in Japan, or Jackal in the Europe/World version), produced by Konami in 1986. Jackal is a top-down shooter in which the players controls a jeep – with an accompanying gunner – through post-war Cambodia to rescue POWs left behind during the war.

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 1988, Heritage, Konami, NES