The best re-released full price game on a YS/Crash/SU covertape: shortlist votes for K-Z

[PeteProdge]

Right then, this is not the proper poll - not just yet. There have been 190 re-released full price games on the YS/Crash/SU covertapes, but phpBB polls can only run to a maximum of 127 options. I need to do some elimination, so, from 26th May to 2nd Jun, I'm presenting all these games in two simultaneous polls - splitting them in half, alphabetically

Here are half of the games from the later part of the alphabet (K-Z) - 95 of them!

You have up to five votes. Use these votes to indicate GAMES YOU LIKE. The aim is to reduce the list of 190 games to 127 (or fewer), by taking out the vote-less games (or, if necessary, the ones with lowest votes), then on Sun 2nd Jun, we run the whole poll on that shortened list. Hope that makes sense!

There is a LOT to get through and it's taken me hours to compile the links and screenshots. Pick carefully!

(The shortlisting poll for the #/A-J games is here)

Karyssia: Queen Of Diamonds by Incentive


Kat Trap by Streetwise


Knight Driver by Hewson


Knightmare by Activision


Krakout by Gremlin


Legend Of Apache Gold, The by Incentive


Light Corridor, The by Infogrames


Lightforce by Faster Than Light


Lone Wolf - The Mirror Of Death by Audiogenic


Lords Of Midnight, The by Beyond


Mach 3 by Loriciels


Mailstrom by Ocean


Mantronix by Probe Software


Marsport by Gargoyle Games


Maze Mania by Hewson


Mean Streak by Mirrorsoft


Metabolis by Gremlin


Micronaut One by Nexus Productions


Mined-Out by Quicksilva


Mission Omega by Mind Games


Moon Cresta by Incentive Software


Moonlight Madness by Bubble Bus


Mountains Of Ket by Incentive


Movie by Imagine


Mutants by Ocean


N.E.X.O.R. by Design Design


N.O.M.A.D. by Ocean


Nigel Mansell's Grand Prix by Martech Games


Nightmare Rally by Ocean


Ninja Hamster by CRL Group


On The Run by Design Design


Orbix The Terrorball by Streetwise


Phantom Club by Ocean


Pi-R Squared by Mind Games


Piggy Tales (AKA Oink!) by CRL


Pogo by Ocean


Pool by CDS Microsystems


Premier League by E&J Software


Quazatron by Hewson


Quest Adventure by Hewson


Rampage by Activision


Rebel by Virgin Games


Return Of The Things by Design Design


Revolution by US Gold


Robot Messiah by Alphabatim


Roller Coaster by Elite


Rommel's Revenge by Crystal Computing


Rygar by US Gold


Sam Stoat Safebreaker by Gremlin


Samurai by CRL


Scuba Dive by Durell


Shockway Rider by Faster Than Light


Side Arms by Go!


Silent Shadow by Topo Soft


Solomon's Key by US Gold


Sophistry by CRL


Southern Belle by Hewson


Spectral Panic by Hewson


Spindizzy by Electric Dreams


Split Personalities by Domark


Spy vs Spy II: The Island Caper by Databyte


Spy vs Spy III: Arctic Antics by Databyte


Spy vs Spy by Beyond Software


Star Raiders II by Electric Dreams


Stardust by Topo Soft


Super Soccer by Imagine


Super Sprint by Electric Dreams


Survivor by Topo Soft


Sweevo's World by Gargoyle Games


T.L.L. by Vortex Software


Tai-Pan by Ocean


Tank by Ocean


Tau Ceti by CRL


Technician Ted by Hewson


Tempest by Electric Dreams


Temple Of Terror by US Gold


Temple Of Vran by Incentive


Terra Cresta by Imagine


Terror Of The Deep by Mirrorsoft


Test Cricket by Bug-Byte


Tir Na Nog by Gargoyle Games


Total Eclipse 2: Spinx Jinx, The by Incentive


Tour de Force by Gremlin


Trantor: The Last Stormtrooper by Go!


Very Big Cave Adventure, The by St Bride's/CRL


Virus by Firebird


Wanted: Monty Mole by Gremlin


Warlord by Interceptor Software


Winter Wonderland by Incentive


Wizard Warz by Go!


Wizard's Lair by Bubble Bus


Wonderboy by Activision


Xeno by A'n'F Software


Z-Man by DJL Software


Zythum by Mirrorsoft

[PeteProdge]

My personal shortlist came to eleven games, but of course, by my own rules, I can only favour five of them!

Micronaut One. One of Peter Cooke's best. He's knocked it out of the park here.

Pool. Primitive in terms of presentation, graphics and sound but works so well. I love the real life game (despite being so poor at it), this is a decent approximation of that.

Rampage. It's a really stupid coin-op that you can't truly master (cf Gauntlet), but it's just great fun destroying cities and devouring innocent civilians. I probably spent a month on this. I introduced this to a young nephew recently and he was absolutely thrilled by the premise. Also, last week I picked up a cheap second-hand Windows laptop to run MAME on and hook up arcade-style joystick consoles to, via USB. I scanned every game title on the MAME romset I had, and Rampage made the cut for the 'favorites' shortlist, it's so unashamedly daft.

Robot Messiah. I can't quite figure out why, but this arcade adventure really hooked me when I got this on the Crash Power Tape. Like a lot of Crash's covertape items, it's quite dated but carries a particular charm.

T.L.L.. I voted for Cyclone in the accompanying #-J poll, so it makes sense to pick its 'twin brother' game here. I honestly find it very hard to determine which is better, even though they do have some significant differences. Another great open world game I could spend days playing.

What didn't make the cut:

On The Run. Probably Design Design's best, with a nice bit of input from Jon Ritman. A human astronaut in a Starquake style setting.

Samurai. A linear strategy game I truly enjoyed. It's rare I say that about anything in that genre that's not authored by Julian Gollop.

Solomon's Key. Well, harking back to what I said about Rampage - my recent acquisition of a laptop purely for (almost) portable emulation had me going through MAME to make a quick and dirty 'best of arcade' list of favourites. (If you show casual gamers a complete romset, the enormity of choice - especially with so many minor variations of the same game, masses of obscurities, etc - they'll be turned off by it, so get yer 'greatest hits' in there and throw in a few personal faves to wow them over.) I was a fan of this Speccy game but hadn't really fully played the coin-op, certainly not a real physical version. I gave it a go on MAME and I really don't like it. I much prefer the Speccy version! That's bizarre, isn't it?

Southern Belle. What can I say about this slow calm game? It's certainly different and very British. I think there's a personal connection as going south on a train from Victoria is something I did a lot as a child and teenager, with a relative living near Croydon. Sometimes we'd stay with him and occasionally take a day trip over to Brighton, so I know that route.

Wizard's Lair. The better Atic Atac. Yes, I said it.

Wonder Boy. I have a huge love of the coin-op, it would be in my all-time top ten arcade games. The Speccy doesn't and can't have a version that accurately matches the gameplay, but considering the technical limitations, Activision's attempt does punch above its weight and you'd have to have a heart of stone to pour scorn over it. Sure, it might have been faster if they just kept the background fairly limited, or do what that recent homebrew Mario/Sonic-inspired weird game demo did with rapid 4-pixel chunky colour scrolling. It's great, YS scored highly for giving this away as a full tape (along with another covertape!) at Christmas.

[firelord]

From mag tapes I remeber :

Chaos (on other topic)
Mutants
Micronaut One
Moon Cresta

I didn't vote
Wanted Monty Mole
and
Dizzy Christmas Special
They were nice but the 4 I voted impressed me more at that time.

[ParadigmShifter]

Only one vote for Lords of Midnight, the best game that was released on the Speccy so far?

I knew Pete would try and rig the vote so Chaos wins (even if it may never have been released as a cover tape? I dunno)!!!! Joking of course

[Matt_B]

I've gone for the five following classics:
Lords of Midnight
Micronaut One
Quazatron
Tau Ceti
Tir Na Nog

If I could stretch to six, I'd probably add TLL, but I reckon that it will get enough votes from other people to see it through.

[Lee P]

Solomon's Key. I spent hours on this. Platformers with a puzzle element are right up my street.
Rampage. As Pete says, just good stupid fun.
Moon Cresta. Simple but decent arcade conversion.
Pogo. Addictive Q*Bert clone.
The Light Corridor. Just after my time so I've only ever played this under emulation but it's great (if difficult)

Most of the others I either haven't spent enough time on or they're just not my cup of tea (I would love to sit down and properly read the instructions to Lords of Midnight, Quazatron etc but until I retire it's not going to happen). Honourable mentions to Roller Coaster, Split Personalities, Sweevo's World, Terra Cresta, and Wanted: Monty Mole.

[worcestersource]

Again, a strong set to choose from. My first and second choices came from YS. The other games I already had but would have played a lot if they’d been on a cover tape.

1 Quazatron
2 Star Raiders II
3 Pi R Squared
4 Krakout
5 Split Personalities

[PeteProdge]

Only one vote for Lords of Midnight, the best game that was released on the Speccy so far?

One of the greatest games ever made for the Spectrum (even if I still can't get my head round it - not a hater, just confused), but your description confuses it with Chaos.

And yeah, your observation does expose a flaw with these kind of polls. Through loyalty, we vote for our own personal favourites, that's our default position I guess. But we can't let Lords Of Midnight slip through the cracks, that'd be insane. I recognise the love it gets, it's in every commendable top 100.

Still, I leave on the option for people to change their minds. You can 'distribute' your votes to other games if you think your chosen ones are well supported, but there's also the jeopardy that others may do the same and your big favourites might end up unsupported!

I knew Pete would try and rig the vote so Chaos wins (even if it may never have been released as a cover tape? I dunno)!!!! Joking of course

Hey, it was so good that it was released twice on covertapes! Mind you, that also applies to 10th Frame; 2112 AD; Astroclone; Cyclone; Dark Star; Doomdark's Revenge; Double Take (how apt!); Dun Darach; Dynamite Dan; Gutz; Hydrofool; Lightforce; Lords Of Midnight (see!); Marsport; Mutants; On The Run; Quest Adventure; Shockway Rider; Star Raiders II; Super Soccer; Survivor; Sweevo's World; Temple Of Terror; Tir Na Nog and Trantor: The Last Stormtrooper.

Still, I think it was YS that never repeated a covertape item (unlike SU which did that quite a bit) with the exception of Chaos. That goes to show how very good it is.

[Mpk]

This one's a lot tougher than the other one!

My choice cuts :

Scuba Dive : Literally and figuratively immersive, there aren't many speccy games that have this much ( figurative) atmosphere. A classic.

Split Personalities : Maybe my favourite puzzler. Great presentation, perfect interface.

Rollercoaster: There are a lot of platformers on the Spectrum, but not many like this. The speed and variety of levels make this stand out. Looks great as well.

Mission Omega : I don't think this was terribly popular, and the cover tape might have helped it find an audience. Another one dripping with atmosphere, if that makes any sense. I spent ages designing robots.

Tau Ceti : Technically this seemed amazing to me, and it's a great time as well.

[Hank Scorpio]

Voted for Lightforce, Lords Of Midnight, Movie, Rampage, Rollercoaster

[Nick]

My five votes in this section went to:

Mined-Out, Mountains Of Ket, Movie, Shockway Rider, Wonderboy.

[Timmy]

For this set I've decided on the bold ones, the non bold ones didn't made my cut, unfortunately.

• Solomon's Key, one of the games that I find is better on the Spectrum than the arcade or the NES version.
• Sweevo / Quazatron / MOVIE, isometric adventures
• Spindizzy / Lords of Midnight / Quazatron, this category is about exploration, probably. Or something else.
• Shockway Rider / Tir Na Nog / Lone Wolf / Marsport, Shockway Rider because it's basically the inspiration for Subway Surfers.
• Tau-Ceti, another probably classic game, even if it's too hard.

Text Adventures that didn't made the list: The Very Big Cave Adventure / Karyssia / Temple of Terror, I should have included one of the adventures here but I'm probably the only person on these games anyway.

[Pobulous]

These got my vote:

Quazatron by Hewson
Roller Coaster by Elite
Spy vs Spy by Beyond Software
Technician Ted by Hewson
Xeno by A'n'F Software

Also rans included Scuba Dive, Solomon's Key, Split Personalities, TLL, Tau Ceti, Wanted Monty Mole, Wizard's Lair