Barbarian

The first part was released around 1987 and 1988 for most of the prominent 8-bit and 16-bit platforms. In general, the games were developed by British company Palace Software Ltd. Other companies did the porting for some platforms. Superior Software was responsible for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron ports, and Designer Software did Apple II and PC conversions. Publishing was mostly done by Epyx and Palace Software themselves, depending on platform.

Barbarian is a one- or two-player fighting game. As the name suggests, the fighters are barbarians. The game offers sword combat in various locales. The game has also an one-player plot mode, where the player has to defeat several fighters to fight evil wizard Drax to rescue princess Marina. The game was greatly inspired by sword and sorcery fantasy stories like Conan the Barbarian.

The original game received critical acclaim as one of the best hand to hand fighting games for the platform, while generating controversy for the level of violence (players could decapitate one another) and depiction of women in skimpy bikinis.

Maria Whittaker was the girl on the game cover photo