Game-name filter: DOS ninjas?

January 16, 2009 3:32 PM

Idle nostalgic curiosity is driving me crazy - looking for at least the name (at best, a working version) of a late 80s/early 90s DOS (not arcade) 2-d ninja game - very simple, and the most notable characteristic is that the entire game was in uber-simple orange-red-green VGA palette colors against a black background.

It's NOT any of the Ninja Gaiden games or anything else easily Googled up. The graphics were very simple but relatively detailed and professionally done and the game involved platformer-style moving through levels, climbing ladders, throwing shuriken at enemies, etc. It was not a one-on-one fighting game.

More likely than not this was free/shareware.

I know this is a longshot, but there's no better place for longshot answers than here, right?

posted by ab3 to computers & internet (13 comments total)

Bushido?
posted by kanuck at 3:55 PM on January 16, 2009

"Bruce Lee"? "the Last Ninja"?
posted by radiosilents at 4:10 PM on January 16, 2009

I believe I know the game you are talking about. Did you start out by the sea (at least that's what it said on the screen), collect idols, and moving between floors involved pressing UP beneath square holes in the ceiling?
posted by dinx2582 at 4:34 PM on January 16, 2009

My money is on Ninja. The most awesome ninja game ever if only for the inventive title.

Although The Last Ninja was awesome too.
posted by speeb at 4:38 PM on January 16, 2009

speeb, that's precisely what I was thinking of. I haven't thought about that game since I was 3 or 4 years old.

Damn you for beating me, I had just gotten back here to post that link :)
posted by dinx2582 at 4:42 PM on January 16, 2009

I need to play it. NOW.
posted by speeb at 4:50 PM on January 16, 2009

This reminds me of an old game whose name escapes me; maybe it's the same game?

You were a ninja, I think, and you were in some sort of nuclear silo. The purpose was to escape via a motorcycle at the very end, but the game seemed much larger than that, and there were likely many side tasks (since there was, actually, a giant missle in the base, but I could never figure out what for).

Same game?

Anyone have any ideas otherwise?

If not, sorry for the hijack.
posted by vernondalhart at 6:49 PM on January 16, 2009

Looked at Ninja and the screenshots on the box here and it's not that one - the graphic are much more colorful than the game I remember.

vernondalhart, I think you've got it! I totally remember the motorcycle escape and the missile silo!!! now if we could just find the name!
posted by ab3 at 8:21 PM on January 16, 2009

Yay!!! the motorcycle and missile silo clues were all we needed to shake the right answer out of the Googles!!!

The game was called Saboteur.

It seems like my memories may be a conflation of the original (1985) Saboteur and the 1987 sequel, Saboteur II, which is the one with the missile silo.

Thanks all, and especially vernon!
posted by ab3 at 8:29 PM on January 16, 2009

Is it Saboteur?
posted by iconomy at 8:35 PM on January 16, 2009

Nevermind.......
posted by iconomy at 8:35 PM on January 16, 2009

ps. - playable and downloadable here!
posted by ab3 at 8:36 PM on January 16, 2009

And that means that I win too!
posted by vernondalhart at 9:19 PM on January 16, 2009