Hewson

**NeoZeedeater** · 27 Apr 2003, 03:50 PM

Hewson was a publisher/developer of quality computer action games in the 1980's and early 1990's. Their name isn't well-known outside of Europe unfortunately. A few of my favorite Hewson games are:

Slayer(1988)

Quite a good shooter for its time.

Gribbly's Day Out(1985)

This game had quite a bit of personality. You fly around searching for little guys to rescue. I never did play the sequel.

Zamzara(1988)

A nicely animated run 'n gun game. Very cool.

Cybernoid series(1987/1988)

These shooters were brutally difficult, even by Euro standards. The first game was released on the NES by Acclaim.

Nebulus AKA Tower Toppler AKA Castelian(1987)

This neat little platformer came out on many non-computer formats: 7800, NES, and Game Boy.

Some other Hewson games are: Alleykat, Herobotix, Subterrania, Anarchy, Uridium, Sunburst, Netherworld, Zynaps, Firelord, Cyberdyne Warrior, Mr Wino, Paradroid, Maze Mania, Lunattack, Eagles, Exolon, 5th Gear, Ranarama, Insects in Space and Head the Ball. I have played about two thirds of these. Most of them are shooters. Any opinions on them would be appreciated.

Remember the controversy over the Genesis version of Stormlord by Razorsoft?(Such a big deal over naked fairies). Stormlord was originally a Hewson game. I don't think the game is anything special anyway.

Any fans? Any information on individual authors would be great.

**epmode** · 27 Apr 2003, 03:54 PM

this might be the first history thread that i don't know anything about. i've never even heard of hewson before.(

edit: i think i might have seen castelian at some point, but i'm probably confusing it with another title.. interesting thread, in any case.

**Ashod** · 27 Apr 2003, 04:05 PM

I have played the Gameboy version of Castelian a few times. It was a fun little game, from what I remember. I always assumed the main character in the game was a little pig, but that screenshot makes it seem like it was something else. What is that thing, a frog? An alien?

**Sqoon** · 27 Apr 2003, 04:05 PM

Castelian is probably one of my least favorite NES games. The way they handled the platforms winding around the tower was fairly impressive though.

**elbarto** · 27 Apr 2003, 04:39 PM

Good memories of:
Zynaps, Ranarama, Cybernoid 1 & 2, Uridium, Paradroid and Exolon.

Bleh memories of:
Nebulus and Stormlord.

Haven't played any of them in years, but I can definitely remember the shooters being very hard.

Wonder if I still have any of them around here?

/me goes off to check

**NeoZeedeater** · 27 Apr 2003, 05:21 PM

What's Ranarama like? It doesn't look like an action game from the screens I have seen.

**elbarto** · 27 Apr 2003, 06:35 PM

Well, I found my old trusty Atari ST and Zynaps, Nebulus and Cybernoid 2. I *know* I have Ranarama around here somewhere, so I'll post info after I find it.

Nebulus
Credited to John M Phillips.
Still don't like it, but it doesn't seem as annoying as I remember. Probably 'cause I've only been playing it for five minutes, lol.

Zynaps
Credited as being converted by "Microwish" (Howie, Pete Lyon & J. Dave Rogers)
Horizontal scrolling shooter, much harder than I remember it being

Cybernoid 2
1989, ST version by Tony Cooper (of ID2) and Mark Jones. Apparently the original Cybernoid was done by Raffaele Cecco.

Another tough shooter, but at least this one still plays as I remember it

I still love the music (typical ST/Amiga/C64 synth stuff) too.

They acknowledge this one's a toughie as well, when you die it comes up "Game Over, please stick to Cybernoid 1"

/me continues to search for Ranarama and Exolon

**NeoZeedeater** · 27 Apr 2003, 06:46 PM

Cool. Thanks for the info. I haven't played most of the upgraded 16-bit versions of Hewson's games but I remember Cybernoid being an improvement over the 8-bit one.

I forgot about Amiga stuff like Zarathrusta and Moonfall. Has anyone played them?