Spectrum Computing

J. Pirés wrote: ↑Sat Mar 02, 2024 7:44 pm Thank you!

About The Abbey of The Crime I highly recommend this game to anyone who hasn't played it yet. There's an English version available for those who don't understand Spanish on SC.

Is there an English hack of this on the Spectrum? I’d love to play it but never found the English version.

I loved the games that appeared like standard 48K loads, as in they didn’t have a 128K version on the B side, but if they were loaded in 128K mode, you got extra features. Off the top of my head Glider Rider, Renegade, Auf Wiedersehen Monty and Death Wish 3 did this. There were loads more games. Whe...

Space harrier was an incredible achievement and even now looking back on it, it’s possibly the second best conversion of a Sega “super scaler” arcade game (after Super Hang On). There is a 128k enhanced version of Space Harrier, but it’s one of those annoying “enhanced” games which basically consist...

Tough one… Probably Daley Thompson’s Decathlon because it’s probably the best version out of all the platforms, but I also like Mr Wimpy (if you remove the annoying Frogger type screen at the start, otherwise it’s a pretty decent Burger Time clone). The rest of the early Ocean games are similarly go...

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 ver...

I thought this was great for its time, especially considering it was a budget release. But it could definitely have done with some improvements. Something even simple like press the fire button to launch the bomb and then press it again to detonate it, which would have got round the issue of having ...

I would agree that it’s likely to be Rally Driver… BUT here’s a spanner in the works.. The following month’s SU has this in the charts page, with Rally Driver not in the charts. Unless they’ve just got it wrong and it was knocked out of the top 10, instead of “zooming chartwards”. https://spectrumco...

I just remembered that Knight Tyme was originally released as a 128k version with the cut down 48k version released afterwards. Plus it was the first original game to be released for the 128k (which makes it even less sense why Spellbound 128 has its own entry as it was released after Spellbound and...

If we’re going with a 128k version of Spellbound, then you’d also have to have separate 128k versions for Knight Tyme and Stormbringer as they also had their own dedicated 128k releases like Spellbound with extra rooms and enhancements. https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/zxdb/sinclair/entries/0002722/K...

According to the Fourth Protocol game manual, Dave Jones was only responsible for the third load section, the SAS Assault. So not the famous bit with the WIMP environment! https://ia600604.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/1/items/World_of_Spectrum_June_2017_Mirror/World%20of%20Spectrum%20Jun...

48K was considered too small by the end of the Spectrum’s original lifespan, with many games being 128K only. So why go backwards? Make the most of the extra memory and AY capabilities! In fact, seeing as I’d imagine most people play via emulation, make the game files larger. Build it around the +3 ...

They were the budget label of Software Projects and used the same cover illustrator (Roger Tissyman), although the covers for these felt a bit more rushed than the likes of Jet Set Willy! Still, probably good for a collection as all the covers followed a format. I haven’t played that many games by t...

Oh if you’re collecting Encore titles (great idea!) then I don’t know if this also counts, it was a cash in, sorry commemorative re-release of Frank Bruno’s Boxing for his fight against Mike Tyson. I think the only difference was the cover, but still called Frank Bruno’s World Championship Boxing ht...

It was originally released on the compilation Best of Elite Vol 2, which might explain why it’s down in the DB as originally published by Hit Pak (which was Elite’s brand for some of their early compilations like 6 Pack Vol 1 and Vol 2) https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/zxdb/sinclair/entries/0011212/B...

But back to the Speccy, and a mate insisted that he got a lot of Ocean games because his dad worked at the place where they printed the inlays. Even that remark made me think "oh how VERY convenient, yeah riiight". And the games he got were on blank cassettes with none of Ocean's custom l...

It's pretty much a lift of the NES game Punch Out! A popular game on that platform but I've never enjoyed it in any incarnation. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/14/Baldbull.png/220px-Baldbull.png It was indeed Punch Out!, but it was the Arcade version of Super Punch Out(which came...

Good find, I never knew that Slicks was converted to the Spectrum! It’s a weird one, the Supersports Challenge (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/12148/ZX-Spectrum/Supersports_Challenge) compilation was reviewed in 1993, but only in YS (was it the only Speccy mag at this time?) . The compilation...

It looks like this thread has inspired Rev Stu to collate various speedruns of Speccy games: https://wosland.podgamer.com/the-need-for-speed/ Some interesting games in there. I also think you have to look at the games with some sort of “game style” context when it came to “completing” them. Games t...

[quote=PeteProdge post_id=135823 time=<a href="tel:1706441517">1706441517</a> user_id=70] I'm looking for something that's the opposite of Ultimate Play The Game. In my mind, I think I can point to The Power House and TyneSoft as notorious proprietors of dismal digital garbage. Well this ...

I've heard stories. Here's one about Fantasy Software . And another one about Martech-connected developers Emerald Software . Interesting going back to that thread, because it made me think of another contender, which might be controversial. Software Projects Yes, they released the absolute classic...

I think it’s maybe too easy to go with something like The Power House or Tynesoft, because even at the time you knew the majority of their output was utter rubbish. I never bought a game by either of those publishers and my only real experience of Tynesoft was in the really terrible Dixons +2 games ...

Anything that’s 3D Isometric feels quite iconic, it’s also a style that’s used in modern games or imagery to kind of replicate an 8-bit or 16-bit era. https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/list?group_id=11004 Some off the top of my head that you don’t have Alien 8 https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/SCRtoImag...

It’s a nice reminder of the great games he made, especially after he passed away last year.

I always had a real soft spot for Molar Maul, quite a unique game!

Nightmare Rally is a really under appreciated original game, especially from the Ocean era when it was churning out lots of licensed junk. He also clearly used the engine for Enduro Racer and Out Run and it’s easily his best original game that isn’t a conversion of some description, so that’s why it...

Yeah, the Spectrum really had some awful golf games. But then in all honesty, it wasn’t until Leaderboard that golf games got kind of decent. But I think the Spectrum just struggles with a “behind the player” view, like the eventual PGA Tour games or Links (which I think came from Bruce Carver who d...