Spectrum Computing

Forgive me, as my knowledge of the SAM is not great. But as I understand it, as supplied, it did not have a copy of the ZX Spectrum ROM. If this is the case, then any code which required or used any part of the ZX Spectrum ROM directly (thinking of machine code mainly) could never have been compati...

Mpk wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 11:16 am This seems like a FAST sting.

Judging what I pirated on the Speccy, ST, PC, SNES, Megadrive, PSX and Wii over the years... I'd be screwed.

I was incredibly lucky the day I got my 48K (Xmas Day 1983) in that my dad worked with a young bloke who was a videogame nut. I had a few originals that my parents bought that day (Jetpac, Gobbleman, 3D Quadracube amongst a good ten or so) but this lad supplied me with a big cassette case full of (p...

I wouldn't say that. Switch is on its way to be the best selling console of all time and Nintendo's main games are still bestsellers, with the likes of Breath of The Wild getting 10/10s all round to boot. I thought that was a bit of an odd thing to say too. I don't think it will catch up to the PS2...

Pyracurse
Everyone's A Wally

I thought I'd finally create a ChatGPT account and see if I could replicate that article somewhat. The results aren't exactly a million miles away. The request was "Write a short essay on how the Sinclair ZX Spectrum affected the UK gaming industry and list it's most notable games." Result...

It's an article spoilt by very dodgy assertions about the Spectrum's games library. Robocop: "While that [action-focused] genre was never really the platform’s bread and butter (that would probably be strategy and role-playing games)" WTF? The software charts for the Speccy were loaded wi...

1. Starquake
2. Firelord
3. Wizard's Lair

Stefan wrote: ↑Thu Mar 21, 2024 9:19 am Oh wow, if I had known he was such a celebrity around these parts I would have used another screen.

Pretty much every Brit of a certain age will know who Geoff Capes is. World's Strongest Man was a staple of ours once a year on our whopping four channels back then!

Geoff Capes Strong Man.

Anyone feel free to jump in for my go.

1. Turbo Esprit
2. Scuba Dive
3. Thanatos

1. Commando
2. Ghosts n Goblins
3. Space Harrier

Back to the Future II?

I used to live just down the road from there, and the thing is - Cadbury World *used to be* ace. When it first opened up it involved a good tour around - when Bournville was still producing all of the chocolate, some fun little exhibits, and they kept chucking phenomenal amounts of free chocolate a...

That Wonka Experience feels pretty much like I felt after going to Cadbury World with my kids in about 2010. Okay, it's nowhere near as bad as that, but it's probably the most disappointing day out I've ever had. I/we had been wanting to go for years and I wasn't expecting Willy Wonka's Chocolate Fa...

Golden Axe?

A strong softography that one. Commando and GnG are fantastic conversions but I always felt that Space Harrier was somewhat underrated by Crash (I'd have Smashed it). Considering what it had to convert it's quite incredible really. It retains all the playability of the original and that 78% for Grap...

1. Spellbound
2. Finders Keepers
3. Knight Tyme

Special mention to the unbelievable tune in Stormbringer 128K. Right up there with C64's Monty On The Run as one of the best 8-bit chip tunes of all-time IMO.

You wouldn't have this one in your list as 1. It's C+VG and 2. C+VG didn't have an Overall rating at the time, but it's possibly the only Speccy review of a game that goes into (averaged) negative marks territory: https://archive.org/details/ComputerAndVideoGamesIssue061Nov86/page/n23/mode/1up?view=...

bluespikey wrote: ↑Fri Feb 23, 2024 12:18 pm He revised Nightshade to be 27%. And the problem is.... ?

Thought someone might pick up on that one 27% puts it in the absolutely-bloody-awful territory.

I can't get over the 65% for HoH and 22% for Ant Attack.

I think most of the mags went through a "if it's old it must be sh*t" phase. There was an isometric Run It Again article in Crash where the reviewer absolutely mullered some classics. In fairness the reviewer, Will, came on here and admitted to butchering them to get noticed as it was very...

Did I imagine this? In the 128K version I'm sure if you took the Supabomb to the fence surrounding the area and fired it into the fence it would kill the queen.

The guy in the video is right about the mopping up of the flies after killing the queen. Super-boring.

The following all scored 78% Overall in SU. The number at the start is the ZXDB ID. I'm still none the wiser from that list. 968 Cisco Heat #119, January 1992 (pg 28) 11619 Count and Add #128, October 1992 (pg 20) 1266 Darkman #117, November 1991 (pg 26,27) 1387 Dick Tracy #109, March 1991 (pg 24,25...

Is that Daniella Westbrook as the sister? Made the mistake of Googling her name... Jesus! She should be a Faces Of Meth poster child.

Just re-read LB's original post: NES Super Mario Bros = 32k 32K!! Which is the entire thing - code base, graphics, sound etc. That's some supremely efficient coding. My poster child for code efficiency has always been Ultimate fitting Jetpac into 16K. But this is another level. Edit: Been doing some...