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...

Heartland?

Actually.. I think John Smyth DID do some of the Atlantis covers, but he’s not credited as a contributor on some of them, like Skatin USA! Definitely a publisher who had a different feel, depending on the era the game was released. From this https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/zxdb/sinclair/entries/0001...

Atlantis were indeed a strange label, although they started off as a definite sub standard budget label, by the end of the 80s their output was quite quirky. The Shaw brothers made some really good games, albeit they were very “samey”. And to be honest, I haven’t really played a huge amount of their...

Here’s a question, who’s actually responsible for deciding the DB Structure and the individual entries?!?!?

No, because Martech's name, address and copyright statement are on the back of the cover. Unlike Chain Reaction, where it is Elite's name, address and copyright statement that are on the back. So you’re basing it on an address from the 1980s, not 2023 user experience? So what should Revolution and ...

Here’s another one to throw in the mix Martech v Electronic Arts In 1987 Martech announced EA were going to take over manufacturing distribution rights for Martech games as in this news piece in YS https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.php?issue_id=247&page=7 So when The Fury was released in 1988...

This is an argument for having the legal-entity approach. This sort of thing cannot be settled by looking at logos. Absolutely, but currently Chain Reaction is listed as originally published by Elite, meaning it’s been distribution denied which I’d presume was a mass update on the originally publis...

Getting back to the original Chain Reaction “issue” and the reason why this is so important. Elite systems games are not allowed for distribution on this site, which from memory was down to issues with Steve Wilcox and there was a general consensus not to have Elite games available. Which is fine, e...

Microprose is a good example of US Gold’s business model. US Gold had the rights to “Manufacture in the UK under licence from Microprose”, yet all the adverts and packaging are designed as a Microprose published game. https://ia800604.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/1/items/World_of_Spectru...

That entry is completely consistent with Chain Reaction. If you're going to change the guidelines to list the logo on the front cover as the publisher then half of US Gold games will need changing. https://zx.computerhits.org/jpg150/bountybobstrikesback.jpg https://zx.computerhits.org/jpg150/superc...