Barbarian (1988)

Barbarian was released in 1988 for the ZX Spectrum 48K. The game was published by Melbourne House and developed by Paul Murray and Ed Knight, with Roger Dean providing the inlay and poster art.

This arcade action title supports a single player. It utilizes 2D side-view graphics and features an icon-driven menu system for control. Players can navigate the game using a Kempston joystick or an Interface 2 controller.

The original price for the cassette version was £9.99. Barbarian was also made available on several other platforms, including Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MSX, Amiga, Atari ST, and PC/DOS.

The game holds an average magazine score of 78.80% based on five reviews. It received 92% from Sinclair User, 81% from both Crash and The Games Machine, and a 7/10 rating from C&VG and Your Sinclair.

The game became a major hit in the Soviet Union and Russia. It saw dozens of TR-DOS adaptations and a Russian translation by Sovok Software. The game was frequently featured in local magazines like ZX Light with POKE codes, and numerous cracked cassette versions were widely circulated.