Spectrum Computing

Zaxxan A UDG version of Zaxxon which isn't actually terrible. Jerky scrolling and movement as one would expect, but considering that Zaxxon requires all the screen to scroll down, it does a reasonable job. Plinky plonk beeps. Crash pulls it up on the jerky scrolling and small aircraft sprite rather...

The Warlock Of Firetop Mountain What should be the happy intersection of my two favourite things from the early 80s : Fighting Fantasy and the greatest Spectrum game of all : Halls Of The Things. But its not quite how one would hope. Its a very empty maze game. HotT is very much about fighting the ...

As a youngster I'd always imagined gleaming towers of industry. Most of these, especially number 5, are the sort of place when you find an especially cheap bit of kit of ebay, look up the posting address, and backoff cos it looks like a dodgy untraceable address.

ODYSSEY 1 Now this is the dumpster diving I came for. Never played it, never heard of it. A long pause to begin suggests compiled basic. Again the Crash review comes to my aid by telling me the controls without having to read the instructions. Caps left, Z right, H thrust, top row to shoot. It will...

Many years ago, on the other site, there was a fun thread of replaying all the games in order of review from the first copy of Crash. I thought Id do the same and bore you all with my thoughts. First up is : Deathchase It’s a surprise that the first game reviewed is the very familiar and comfortable...

Really odd that there's minimal call back to the 8 bit era. And in the honourable mention section there is :

Sinclair User (some of the best cover designs of the era),

Which probably means Crash surely. Unless they really did like Kamikaze Bear

BiNMaN wrote: ↑Thu May 09, 2024 8:53 pm my first thought was Catch 23, and joefish beat me to it

There might also be Cholo, but no one is sure. There was a remake knocking about where the authors thought it a hidden gem.

It needs a bit of beard stroking about what an FPS is.... Theres no shooting in 3D Monster Maze, but what about Zigzag from 1984? Plus it had a great death animation when you catch up with the baddies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K7L7kevtok&ab_channel=zxspectrumgames4&t=187 And I like t...

Michael Sheard, I think his name was. Thats the one. Legend! Uboat captain in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, and Hitler himself in Last Crusade. Admiral Ozzel in Empire Strikes Back. And most of all, Mr Bronson in Grange Hill. He seems to have played a Hitler character five times in his career. Probably ...

The CCS game Vulcan was the highlight of traditional wargames on the Spectrum (Admittedly a limited field, unlike the C64). https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/SCRtoImage.php?SCR=/conv_scr/v/Vulcan.scr&border=0 But that was definitely ripped off by other games from the same publisher, none of which ...

Still an interesting read. It's always odd that Pete Cooke started with text adventures, rose to the mighty heights of Tau Ceti and Earthlight, then finished up writing stuff for Firebird and cover tapes.

Tuareg. Had to do a lot of searching to find similar looking art style, then check all the credits and see if there was a match. Wow, I only know a handful of Toposoft games from other publishers. But they sure made pretty loading screens for 1988. The COLISEUM and SURVIVOR screens are mint. https:...

Most certainly Yeti is a crap version of Exolon.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj5KXxbt081PhF4y9mi1KgGOBi076uucdXR4sSviHrbYn_Ej-bVtVRgQJq8GLSaqMRitbgDgU8ErsQSKh5n0DbWupLdYvz_Pv3JIuGip59Cv2sWjUC5jt5-1kGSEurVKxPD5XTLqywWMs/s1600/Colossus_3.5.jpg Is this a film reference? Anyway, that was a good read, thankyou. I liked m...

Theres a series of games with very similar graphics/ sprite animation, like : Enigma Force Gift From The Gods Bounces Cosmic Wartoad In each game the graphics are good, and the main sprite especially is a tall filled sprite that leans forward when moving in profile. The only name that connects them ...

Very interesting, thanks @Lee P . I didn't know this compilation existed. Its not quite the same without a watch-calculator that the Cascade included.

Klax?

Tau Ceti - 1983 version?

Nope - that is completely incorrect. As per an interview I did with Alan, it is "Some Amazing Micro" - not Son of Alan Miles or any other daft variation you may have been told :) Coupe (sorry can't do the accent bit!) is based on the car-like profile, and apparently the shape of an ice-cr...

Theres lots of games with an in-game timer, usually shown on the GUI in text, to provide a reason for the player to get a move on before the game ends at midnight, or something like that. EG JSW or Sherlock, among many others. However the otherwise unremarkable Grumpy Gumphrey Supersleuth has a neat...

For some reason I seem to remember reading in a magazine that SAM stood for S pectrum AM iga and that it was going to be this giant slaying super computer. Apparently not :( Back in the day at one of the roadshows they did, I got it straight from one of the founders (Either Alan Miles or Bruce Gord...

A day in the life?

Clive truly was ahead of his time. By 40 years no less. Even the three wheel design.

1. Ikari Warriors 2. Rasputin 3. Robocop The demo of Ikari Warriors had a tank which you could drive for half the level. Tanks were rare and not as much fun in the actual game. The demo is therefore better than the game, IMHO. Rasputin was the first playable demo that I saw. Me and my friend laughed...