BUCCANEERS
Author: Big Bang Games Released: 2021 IS
Yarrrr! Who’s up for a pirate-themed beat-emup? Well Ahoy! Buccaneers have arrived in port, and it has quite an interesting tale to tell. So gather around landlubbers; this crusty old sea dog is a long lost buried Amstrad treasure, finally dug up!
In 1989 a Spanish coin-op manufacturer and bunch of scallywags Duintronic liked to take existing popular arcade games, plunder the data, then release it under a new name after changing the graphics and music.
Popular coin-op Vigilante was one such game, becoming Buccaneers. Now that
a true pirate! Then, a young swashbuckling coder named Juan Carlos was asked to convert it to the Amstrad.
Two levels were completed before his company was scuttled and sank down into Davy Jones’ Locker. Thirty years later, the lost treasure was discovered at his parent’s house, and
he was convinced to finish the game by homebrew publisher Big Bang Games. Buccaneers is very much a clone of
Vigilante and Karate
Champ before that. You scroll from left to right on a fixed plane, punching, kicking, jumping and ducking enemy corsairs, rats, barrels, and cannonballs fired from ships! Waiting for you at the end of most levels is a boss
to defeat. Unlike Vigilante, you tackle a section of enemies at a time before being told to move on. Now and then, a heart flies by that can replenish your energy, with the end goal being to rescue your friends and take back your stolen treasure.