When did Nebulus release?

Nebulus was first released on December 31, 1987.

Nebulus

Dec 31, 1987PlatformStrategyAcorn ArchimedesAtari 7800Commodore C64/128/MAXZX SpectrumWii

Nebulus — frequently asked questions

What platforms is Nebulus on?: Nebulus was released on Acorn Archimedes, Atari 7800, Commodore C64/128/MAX, ZX Spectrum, Wii, Atari ST/STE, DOS, Amiga, Amstrad CPC.
When did Nebulus release?: Nebulus was first released on December 31, 1987.

About Nebulus

You play a small green guy who needs to blow up eight towers, because their presence is somehow poisoning the water of planets which could potentially be ideal colonies. Unfortunately you need to get to the top of these towers to blow them up. You make your way up to the top of the tower via walkways around the outside of the towers. You need to jump over, kick, and run from various enemies in your journey to the top. Most vertical movement is achieved by jumping onto moving ledges at the right moment. The game was considered revolutionary in its time for its graphic technique. As the main character walked around the outside of the tower, the character was fixed in the middle of the screen while the tower itself rotated. This gave it a pseudo-3D effect. Towers are linked together via a voyage through the sea in your trusty MK.7 submarine. This plays out as a side-scrolling collect-'em-up in which bonus points can be obtained.

Summary via IGDB.

Nebulus on Wikipedia

Nebulus is a vertically scrolling platform game created by John M. Phillips and published by Hewson Consultants in the late 1980s for home computer systems. International releases and ports were known by various other names: Castelian, Kyorochan Land , Subline, and Tower Toppler. The player climbs a cylindrical tower studded with platforms. The tower rotates as the player moves horizontally, giving a 3D effect.

Source: Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0).

Game details

Platforms: Acorn Archimedes, Atari 7800, Commodore C64/128/MAX, ZX Spectrum, Wii, Atari ST/STE, DOS, Amiga, Amstrad CPC
Developer: Hewson Consultants
Publisher: Atari Corporation
Game modes: Single player, Multiplayer
Themes: Action

Details via IGDB.

Reception

IGDB rating

85/100

from 17 ratings

Every version compared

Prices, contemporary reception and the studio credited for each release

Platform	Year	Loose	Complete	Sealed	Fake risk
Atari 7800	1989	$17	$26	$35	Low (look-alike)

Release timeline

ZX Spectrum1987
Commodore C64/128/MAX1987
Amstrad CPC1988
Atari ST/STE1988
Atari 78001988
Amiga1988
DOS1988
Nintendo Entertainment System1991
Acorn Archimedes1992
WiiJun 13, 2008

First release on each platform, from IGDB’s records of this game’s ports and editions. Remakes are separate games with their own pages, so they are not listed here.

We haven’t priced or authenticated the versions without a section on this page yet.

Collector value & authenticity

Atari 7800 · PriceCharting sold data · Verified 2026-10-19

Loose

$17

Complete

$26

Sealed

$35

How often it sells

Loose: about once a week
Complete: about 2 times a month
Sealed: about 2 times a month

Sales frequency from PriceCharting's completed-sale records, as of 2026-10-19.

Price over time

Loose
Complete

A loose copy sold for about $14.00 in Jan 2010, $15.00 five years ago, and $16.54 as of Oct 2026.

Show as table

Month	Loose	Complete
Jan 2010	$14.00	—
Jan 2011	$2.99	—
Jan 2012	$6.25	—
Jan 2013	$5.00	—
Jan 2014	$4.99	$8.00
Jan 2015	$6.97	$4.00
Jan 2016	$7.48	$9.95
Jan 2017	$7.95	$8.99
Jan 2018	$9.09	$9.14
Jan 2019	$8.50	$12.77
Jan 2020	$10.00	$13.09
Jan 2021	$14.33	$14.95
Jan 2022	$14.52	$15.51
Jan 2023	$12.99	$18.47
Jan 2024	$16.01	$26
Jan 2025	$21	$26
Jan 2026	$19.96	$30
Oct 2026	$16.54	$26

Monthly price estimates from PriceCharting's completed-sale records, sampled quarterly, through Oct 2026.

Documented sales

16,582 US copies invoiced by Atari in 1989

Ranked 23 of the 39 Atari 7800 cartridges in Atari's internal reports. These count cartridges shipped to US stores, less returns, not copies sold to players.

Source: Atari Corporation's internal 7800 software sales reports (1986–1990)

Release record

Territory	Label	Catalog #	MSRP	Rarity
North America Atari	Color	CX7856	$29.99	Common

North America: Price new: Atari's own catalogue (Atari Explorer, Jan–Feb 1991), list price.

Source: Catalog numbers, label types, rarity, controllers and player counts: AtariAge 7800 software database

Region: NA+EU
Released: 1989
Controller: Pro-Line Joystick
Players: 1 - 2
Authenticity: Low

Not in Atari 50 — other compilations and reissues are not tracked hereLow look-alike risk

Atari 7800 prices, all games & how to spot a fake

Atari's 7800 take on Hewson's tower-climbing platformer: common, cheap, and a decent filler.

Tower Toppler is the 7800 release of Hewson Consultants' Nebulus, a vertically scrolling platform game. Atari Corporation published it in early 1989, and the library credits Hewson as developer, which probably names the original's studio rather than whoever did the 7800 conversion.

Little else is documented about the 7800 cartridge itself. It supports one or two players with the Pro-Line two-button stick.

How it was made

The library lists Hewson Consultants as developer and Atari Corporation as publisher; Wikipedia says only that a 7800 version was released.

How the Atari 7800 version differs

The 7800 cartridge uses the US title Tower Toppler, as the U.S. Gold release did; elsewhere the game is called Nebulus.

Also on other platforms

ZX Spectrum

Hewson (publisher)

Worth knowing

From the 7800 manual. Both console difficulty switches must be in the right position before playing.

Before you buy

Low risk. AtariAge rates the color-label cartridge Common, with the catalogue number CX 7856, and it is among the cheaper late releases. A box adds a modest premium and a sealed copy more. It uses the Pro-Line two-button stick, and a PAL release exists. Search under both titles, Tower Toppler and Nebulus, when you shop.