Different Games that are almost the same

[SteveSmith]

I don't know if this will make an interesting thread, but it's just occurred to me that Chaos and Viking Raiders are very similar games in terms of mechanics. Both games are multiplayer against AI or humans, and in both you buy/create troops, control them one-by-one and send them off to fight a battle across a map. Some can shoot, and if your central base of power gets destroyed, it's game over. If you were to replace the vikings in Viking Raiders with random fantasy creatures, it would almost be a cut-down Chaos.

Are there any others?

[DouglasReynholm]

Alien 8 is essentially a re-skinned Knight Lore if that counts (same developer though).

[SteveSmith]

Alien 8 is essentially a re-skinned Knight Lore if that counts (same developer though).

To be fair I was thinking more of games that look quite different, but it turns out they have very similar (relatively complex) mechanics (i.e. not just "JSW" and "Technician Ted"). I'm trying to think of another pairing...

[clebin]

Colour Clash by Romik, mentioned in another thread recently. I never twigged that it's basically just another Pacman game. You have to draw around the squares so the middle gets coloured in, but that's exactly the same as picking up power pills, just with an extra graphical effect. My young brain never picked up on that.

[Tommo]

Tapper and Tempest, maybe?

[Ralf]

Do Horace games count?

Hungry Horace is a clone of Pacman
Horace Goes Skiing first part is a clone of Frogger
Horace and the Spiders it a clone of ...something else

And yet they always seemed an unique, classic Spectrum originals for me.

[bluespikey]

Scuba Dive and Cyberrun? Descend from the surface and down twisty tunnels in search of treasure while avoiding swimming/floating baddies.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Pyjamarama and Wally games inspired some games like Sceptre of Bagdad, where the mechanics is pick up/use objects.

[akeley]

Every sports game

[Dr beep]

Automania and Turmoil

[RWAC]

R-Tape's Mole Rat was similar to a crap game I wrote several years later. I'm not saying he stole it but...

Also anything by Harry S Price.

[toot_toot]

Colour Clash by Romik, mentioned in another thread recently. I never twigged that it's basically just another Pacman game. You have to draw around the squares so the middle gets coloured in, but that's exactly the same as picking up power pills, just with an extra graphical effect. My young brain never picked up on that.

Get ready to have your mind blown... it’s a rip off of an arcade game called Amidar!

https://youtu.be/2f9f3cQV5yQ

[TMD2003]

Talking of Harry S. Price, Odd Job Eddie was essentially a rip-off of a rip-off. The middleman in that instance, Pyramania, owed far too much to Jet Set Willy - not least the shape of Spaceman Fred's sprites and the death sequence.

[Morkin]

Tapper and Tempest, maybe?

Not a bad shout... I don't know if there was a Game & Watch version of (or precursor to) Tapper, seems like it'd fit that format nicely.

How about Pssst! and Orc Attack?

In both games you're defending something (flower/castle) which are being attacked. Depending on the on-screen situation, you have to move to the right/left of the screen to switch to different weapons to use to counter the different attack scenarios.

[Turrican]

I know that Ikari Warriors and Commando have very similar games but I can't remember the names...

[toot_toot]

Tapper and Tempest, maybe?

Not a bad shout... I don't know if there was a Game & Watch version of (or precursor to) Tapper, seems like it'd fit that format nicely.

How about Pssst! and Orc Attack?

In both games you're defending something (flower/castle) which are being attacked. Depending on the on-screen situation, you have to move to the right/left of the screen to switch to different weapons to use to counter the different attack scenarios.

Talking of Ultimate games, I always thought Cookie took a lot of inspiration from Robotron 2084.

[bluespikey]

Sacred Armour Of Antiriad and Red Moon. In both games you collect items as you venture through Wilderness then ruins, underground caverns and finally ascend the inside of a volcano. In Red Moon it is suggested, and certainly in Antiriad, that you are in the remains of a more advanced civilization.

[zup]

Colour Clash by Romik, mentioned in another thread recently. I never twigged that it's basically just another Pacman game. You have to draw around the squares so the middle gets coloured in, but that's exactly the same as picking up power pills, just with an extra graphical effect. My young brain never picked up on that.

Get ready to have your mind blown... it’s a rip off of an arcade game called Amidar!

The very first game I played on my ZX Spectrum + was Maze Chase, that was included on the companion cassette. Another Amidar clone.

Also, the first thing my brother said when he saw Rock'n'roller was "it is another Mad Mix Game" (because both were done by Topo Soft). Although Rock'n'roller is a clone/inspired by/enhacement of Rally X, the concept of collecting things on an overview 2D maze is the same.

[RWAC]

How about Pssst! and Orc Attack?

In both games you're defending something (flower/castle) which are being attacked. Depending on the on-screen situation, you have to move to the right/left of the screen to switch to different weapons to use to counter the different attack scenarios.

Pssst! is reminiscent of the Game & Watch game Greenhouse.

[SteveSmith]

Sodov the Sorcerer and Cabal are very similar gameplay. Maybe even Taito got the inspiration for Operation Wolf from Sodov?

[Juan F. Ramirez]

I've always seen a similarity in the concept of Skool Daze and The Great Escape: try a mission (open the safe/scape) while you follow a routine.

[Ashley Pomeroy]

The first time I played Colony I remember thinking that it felt like a science fiction update of the ancient Imagine game Pedro. In both titles you have to stop endless waves of creatures from eating your plants by putting up walls, but Colony is far more elaborate. They even have a similar not-quite isometric style of 3D.

Oblique. That's it. Oblique. Along similar lines Pipe-Mania always struck me as an update of Mastertronic's Loco-Motion, but I realise now that Loco-Motion is actually a conversion of a 1982 Konami arcade game, so they're really just different entries in a loose genre rather than accidental copies.

Plexar and Trailblazer have a similar look although the former is obviously a budget clone of the latter. It doesn't play as well. I was also going to say that Kobyashi Naru and Shard of Inovar are very much alike - there was a short-lived fad for icon-driven text adventures - but I've just realised they were written by the same team, so I suppose they're part of a series.

[SteveSmith]

Maze Death Rally and Androids seem to be virtually the same game, but Androids has shooting.

[SteveSmith]

Bugaboo and Underwurlde are basically the same game. Except one is fun to play and the other is incredibly frustrating.