Forgotten Worlds - Home Versions

Home Versions

Forgotten Worlds was first ported to various home computers in Europe by U.S. Gold in 1989. Versions were produced for the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and IBM-compatible PC. These versions of the game were developed by Arc Developments. All the computer versions required a joystick controller in order to be played and could not be played with the keyboard only (with the exception of the IBM PC version, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC versions). The player rotated the character in these versions by holding the fire button while pushing the joystick left or right. In the Spectrum sales charts, it was number two, behind Robocop, which was number one every month for most of the year. However, all these conversions contain only 4 levels: the first 3 levels then an abridged version of the final level, for a total of four bosses instead of the eight of the original game. Oddly, on the boxes of the conversions, is written that the player has to fight all the eight bosses.

A Sega Genesis version, produced by Sega, was released in Japan on November 18, 1989, with subsequent releases in North America and the PAL region in 1990. The Genesis version simulated the controls of the arcade version by using A and C buttons to rotate the character in either direction and the B button for shooting. Unlike in the arcade version, both players are equipped with long-ranged automatic rifles. This version provides an auto-fire feature that can be toggle on or off on the game's settings. In 2008, the Genesis version was released on the Wii Virtual Console in North America on November 17 and in Europe on November 28.

A Master System version was also released by Sega in Europe and Brazil. This version is 1-player only and due to the presence of only two buttons on the Master System's standard controller, the buttons are used solely to rotate the character, who shoots automatically. The Megacrush attack is performed in this version by pressing both buttons simultaneously.

The Turbografx-16 version, produced by NEC Avenue was released in Japan on March 27, 1992. It was released as a Super CD-ROM² title which supported a specialized 3-button controller that NEC released only in Japan. An American version for the TurboGrafx 16 was released by Turbo Technologies Inc. as well. With the 3-button controller, the player can control their character as they would in the Mega Drive version, with two buttons to rotate the character and one to shoot. With the standard TurboGrafx-16 controller, the Run button is used in the place of the third button to rotate the character to the left. The TurboGrafx-16 is one-player only, but allows the player to select between either of the two Unknown Soldiers at the start of the game (with their respective abilities from the arcade version retained).

An emulation of the original arcade version is included in the 2005 compilation Capcom Classics Collection Vol.1 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, as well as in 2006's Capcom Classics Collection: Remixed for the PlayStation Portable. Both, the PS2 and Xbox version, allows the player to use their respective controllers' right analog sticks to control the player character's aim.