Joe Blade

Joe Blade is a series of budget-price action-adventure platform games written by Colin Swinbourne and published by Players. Across all three titles, players guide Joe Blade through a sequence of rooms, defeating enemies and rescuing innocent people.

The first game follows Blade as a lone commando infiltrating an evil mastermind’s complex to free captured diplomats. Its depiction of warfare and enemy designs led to the game being placed on Germany’s Index, restricting its distribution and advertising there despite it remaining legally obtainable.

Series information

• Release: 1986
• Genres: Action, Adventure, Platform, Shooter
• Developers: Chris Johnson, Colin Swinbourne, Wayne Dobson
• Publishers: DigiTek Software, Players, Players Software
• Platforms: Acorn Electron, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit, Atari 800, Atari ST, Atari ST/STE, BBC Microcomputer System, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, Commodore C64/128/MAX, DOS, MSX, Sinclair ZX Spectrum, ZX Spectrum