Blades of Steel

DOS - 1990

Also available on: Amiga - Arcade - Commodore 64

Alt names	コナミックアイスホッケー, Konamic Ice Hockey
Year	1990
Platform	DOS
Released in	United States
Genre	Sports
Theme	Hockey
Publisher	Konami Industry Co. Ltd.
Developer	Konami Industry Co. Ltd.
Perspective	Diagonal-down
Dosbox support	Fully supported on 0.73

4.71 / 5 - 41 votes

Download 325 KB

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Description of Blades of Steel

Excellent PC port of arguably the best action-oriented hockey game ever made for the NES, Konami's Blades of Steel offers full-out, white-knuckled action at its blistering best.

Gameplay is hockey at its rawest, action-packed level. Although there are stoppages of play-- e.g. roughing and icing, the referee is quite lenient, so you can typically play as aggressively as you want to get the puck. The only penalty comes after a fight, where the loser gets sent to the penalty box.

Blades of Steel has a great fighting interface that resembles arcade fighting games, and is a great mini-game in and of itself. Gameplay in the rink has been simplified to basic pass and shoot function-- the only way to direct a shot is to follow the arrow that constantly moves up and down, and even that is only available for penalty shots. You control one player at a time, either on offense or defense, with the ability to switch to the goalie at any time. Controls, both via keyboard and joystick, are excellent, although naturally the joystick is far superior and allows for a quicker response time. Player graphics are somewhat blocky and too small, but the animations, especially puck movement, are very smooth.

The bottom line is simple: anyone looking for a realistic, statistics-galore simulation will be very disappointed, but the game is simply a must-have for everyone else who's a hockey fan. Two thumbs up!

Note: Unfortunately, none of the sequels of the game was ever ported to the PC, perhaps owing to lackluster sales of this PC version. After a decade, Konami ported the NES version to Gameboy color in 2000, a great move that brings the game to millions of new gamers. Unfortunately, its earlier Nintendo 64 version was a failure due to the fact that it strayed too far from the action-packed formula, and ended up as a mediocre hockey sim that is neither realistic nor fun.

Review By HOTUD

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Comments and reviews

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Floppy Disk Dude 2024-02-15 0 point Commodore 64 version

Aside from NHL '96 on the Sega Blades of Steel was objectively, the greatest NHL game ever made. It still holds up today. Its simplicity is its shining feature. It's all about hockey and fighting is a part of hockey. This game nails fighting gameplay - it's arcade style, equal health, equal chance to win. I love this game

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Sam 2021-07-11 0 point DOS version

I love this game

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get the pass! 2021-05-03 0 point

Can you play this online against a friend who has a windows pc and the internet?

Or is this strictly download & play offline on your own pc?

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urbi 2017-01-02 0 point

Btw , the DOS version don't need the codes

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urbi 2017-01-02 0 point

in the DOS version all you need to do for start the game is press "v" and not press enter to select 1 player

(sorry for my poor english)

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Tumurgo 2015-08-06 2 points DOS version

From
http://www.c64copyprotection.com/blades-of-steel-code-sheet/

Blades of Steel – Code Sheet :

Blades of Steel was released in 1990 by Konami for the Commodore 64. Most people will remember this great game from their old Nintendo NES days. This was also a fun game for the Commodore 64.

The disk do not have any copy protection on it, but instead the game used a “Code Sheet”.

BOS 2 - Game ScreenYou needed to enter a four digita password code before being able to play the game.

Again Thanks to: Craig A. Ernster we now have that code sheet online.

Here it is in PDF:

http://www.c64copyprotection.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Blades-of-Steel-Password-Book.pdf

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Jegas 2014-01-02 0 point DOS version

DosBox 0.74 + Win7 (64bit) - Unable to Play without COPY PROTECTION CODES

The game goes into robot mode (computer vs. computer) when I enter the wrong passcode. I googles some - found manuals - didn't find the codes to allow the game to run properly.

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