The A-Team

It's a new year, and what better way to spend it then by looking at Commodore 64 tat from 1985. It's The A-Team, apparently.

If you're a fan of hilariously dated games as I am, no doubt this one has passed you by before. But for those who haven't been blessed by its presence, here I am to enlighten you.

The A-Team is, of course, a fantastic television action/comedy series from the 1980s, in which dodgy American gangs are blown up by a crack commando unit on the run from the military for a crime they didn't commit. Generally it involves car chases, hostage situations, gunfights, comic relief from Howling Mad Murdock and...

...giant moving heads of course. I mean surely this was what allowed the show to be broadcast across TV screens across the globe, spawning five seasons and ninety-eight 48-minute long episodes. Everyone knows it starred an unnamed man dressed in green who spent his days attacking the multicoloured faces of Hannibal, Face, B.A. and Murdock. And it shared a theme tune with Star Wars, obviously.

Yes, The A-Team on the Commodore 64 is one of those notoriously bad video game cash-ins which blissfully ignores the source material of which it's based on. And even if it didn't, would still stand as a very bad game. It is little more than a clone of Space Invaders, in which you simply move left and right, firing at targets while trying not to be hit yourself. Problem is, of course, that it lacks any of the fun that's usually associated with Taito's classic.

It also thrusts you into the game without a moment's notice, causing you to die before you can witness its many flaws. Quality programming from a development team that couldn't even settle on a name for themselves.

On the plus side, I'm not sure this was ever sold to anyone, and if it was, it certainly didn't sell in large numbers. But a prime example nonetheless of something truly awful.