Spectrum Computing

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...

Nope! Confuzion originally came out in 1985 by Incentive, then a 1987 rerelease was by Alternative. Apparently there were other rereleases - from EDOS, Ricochet and Spain's System 4. https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/zxdb/sinclair/entries/0001048/Confuzion(AlternativeSoftware).jpg Ah, ok, but that’s ...

This download will be great fun over the Xmas holidays!

Not that I think anyone would vote for it, but I think Confuzion was re-released on the Summit label, not the Alternative one.

4-way scrolling: Gunfrite and Nightshade have door frames, but no actual physical doors.. I’m not sure if that counts.

Moonlight Madness, the pseudo sequel to Booty, is a flip screen game that uses doors.

@PeteProdge based on that compilation above, another topic what would be a “Best Of” compilation? Take the top 4 or 5 results from the polls and make the ultimate “Best of” compilation, as voted by readers of Spectrum Computing!!

I have never heard of Cosmos but I must have all the others on some Covertape. This list is so good I could probably made a top 10 out of it :D Sinclair User had a couple of great cover tapes which were essentially an anthology of Costa Panayi’s work, including Collision Course. This is also one of...

I also just noticed Typhoon has the Ocean name in the menu and main screen, it’s almost like at that point the Imagine label was seen as for games that weren’t good enough for the Ocean label.

Has to be Target Renegade. Imagine does seem like a strange label, focused on Konami arcade conversions at the start, but then also weirdly MOVIE is in there which probably should have been on the Ocean label like it’s sequel Phantom Club and the likes of Nightmare Rally. Another weird one is Victor...

Alchemist is probably the best game from a technical perspective, but despite being known for churning out rubbish like Pedro, there’s some decent games in there. I went for Jumping Jack, because it’s such a great pick up and play game (despite my reflexes being nowhere near as good as when I was a ...

Lol, I just remembered another one, although I’m not sure if it counts…

One Man and His Droid (1985) and One Man and His Droid 2 (2001) which is 16 years and easily beats GTA!!!

Might have another one (need to check on the months between them!)

Bullseye (1986) and Bully’s Sporting Darts (1993) : 7 years

Not quite as long but 5 years between Chaos (1985) and Lords of Chaos (1990) Also 6 years between Full Throttle (1984) and Full Throttle 2 (1990) And another 6 years between Popeye (1985) and Popeye 2 (1991) However, I think the winner surely has to be Bugaboo The Flea (1983) and Poogaboo (1991) at ...

Manic Miner for me is the definitive game, while JSW was mind blowing at the time with its almost sandbox type of design, Manic Miner is just so tight and a great example of 80s home computer games where they took an arcade style formula (Donkey Kong) and used the extra memory and took away the “qua...

Football Manager 24 would have to be… Football Manager Revisitied (although I think the last update was for the 2022-23 season) Starfox would be … Starfox https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/zxdb/sinclair/entries/0004861/Starfox.jpg There was a rumour that Starfox was called Starwing in the UK/Europe b...

Codename Mat II is such an undervalued game. The original received lots of accolades in the the magazines, the sequel came along and although it improved on the original game, it got fairly average reviews (81% in Crash, though). It’s definitely one of the best Star Raiders type games on the Spectrum.

Spindizzy was pretty big, not sure if it was the biggest, but the walkthrough takes 2 hours 20 minutes to complete https://ia800604.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/1/items/World_of_Spectrum_June_2017_Mirror/World%20of%20Spectrum%20June%202017%20Mirror.zip&file=World%20of%20Spectrum%20Ju...

Spindizzy was pretty big, not sure if it was the biggest, but the walkthrough takes 2 hours 20 minutes to complete https://ia800604.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/1/items/World_of_Spectrum_June_2017_Mirror/World%20of%20Spectrum%20June%202017%20Mirror.zip&file=World%20of%20Spectrum%20Ju...

R-Tape wrote: ↑Wed Oct 25, 2023 8:16 am

I thought it was from Tubby Brewster’s Geordie Soccer Simulator!

MustardTiger wrote: ↑Tue Oct 24, 2023 8:13 pm It's not, really. The main character is a doctor.

Spoiler

I checked the author in the database and it seems he programmed two of the other games I've posted in this thread.

Dr Jakyll and Mr Wide?

My original Spectrum was a rubber keyed model from Xmas 1985. For Xmas 1987, I upgraded to a +2. Some of my friends moved over to a C64 and although I actually kept my original rubber keyed Speccy (not sure why, maybe compatibility), I really should have got a C64 that year and had both the Spectrum...