The best classic Speccy game beginning with X: discussion

[namco]

Not much on this list so my choices are:
Xeno and Xenon

[Turtle_Quality]

Wikipedia lists these, but I'm sure there are more out there.

X-Out - Rainbow Arts Arc Developments 1990
Xadom -Quicksilva Mike Moscoff 1983
Xarax - Firebird Software Robert Spahl, Thomas Gittelbauer 1988
Xecutor - ACE Software Cybadyne (Christian F. Urquhart, Mike Smith) 1987
Xenon - Melbourne House Jason Cowling, Tiny Williams, David Whittaker Bitmap Brothers 1988
Xenophobe - Micro Style Visage, Mick Hanrahan, Martin Hooley, Barry Leitch Bally Midway 1989
Xevious - U.S. Gold Probe Software (Nick Bruty) Namco 1987
XOR - Logotron Stuart Gregg 1987
Xybots - Domark Teque Software Development, Matt Furniss, Barry Costas, Dave Colledge Tengen/Atari 1989

I think I only played Xevious and Xenon at the time and they were ok shoot-em-ups, but I might have to try XOR

[R-Tape]

Hell's bells—X! Nearly there!

Is Xcel any good? It's distribution denied, and I couldn't find it anywhere. In the end I bought a tape of ebay but it didn't bloody work.

[stupidget]

I don't think I've played any of these games

Probably need to get an idea if any of them are any good.

[Ast A. Moore]

X-Out is a graphically impressive horizontal SHMUP.
Xadom—not too shabby for a mostly BASIC game.
Xanthuis is pretty good.
Xarax—your average vertical SHMUP.
Xark. You could call it a Defender clone, but it’s just an average horizontal SHMUP from 1983. Can be quite fun for a few minutes.
Xarq. I seriously have no idea what’s going on here, but it’s fast-paced and colorful. (Too colorful, if you ask me.)
Xavior—a not particularly engaging maze game.
Xcel—an okay vertical SHMUP. Very smooth for an almost full-screen scroller.
Xecutor—another vertical SHMUP. Excellent graphics, but the movement is too jerky.
Xen. Guess what. Another vertical SHMUP. Not too great. Jerky, character-based movement. Graphics aren’t great, either.
Xeno—a bloody brilliant futuristic ball game for two players. Could easily be the winner.
Xeno II. Ugh.
Xenon needs no introduction, although I personally never had the patience for it.
Xenophobe. It’s a run-and-gun loosely based on the movie Aliens. Fairly enjoyable, if you can endure the endless loading times.
Xevious—a vertical scrolling SHMUP (of course). I liked it back in the day.
XOR—a maze-puzzle sort of affair. Could use some sound. Not my cup of tea.
Xybots. You know what? Not too bad for a sorta 3D-ish action shooter.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

No need to say more (in fact I presume every X game in the archive will be included in the poll! )

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Besides, I've played three or four only, most decent/good games, except for Xadom... I have a special 'animosity' towards it. I don't know why, but I hate it, sorry (someday I'll open a 'games you hate most' thread!)

[Vampyre]

Didn't play many of these back in the day - only Xeno and Xecutor ring any bells.

Xecutor was a pretty decent shmup - very colourful and lovely, smooth scrolling. Reminded me a lot of the ASO arcade game. I'll be hugely surprised if Xeno doesn't romp this though.

[Turtle_Quality]

There's more...

Xirious
Xonix
X-Maze
Xinit
Xword
Xword!
X & O
X & 0
X = Y = Z
Xanagrams
XMas
Xmas Ludo
XTree
XTroth
Xo-word
Xog4
Xreversy
Xenon Ranger
Xilen War

Xyzolog is from 2010, not sure what cutoff point you have for "classic"

I reckon "X" is a good candidate to try out some obscure games and see if hidden pearl here.

[Morkin]

Xecutor was a pretty decent shmup - very colourful and lovely, smooth scrolling. Reminded me a lot of the ASO arcade game. I'll be hugely surprised if Xeno doesn't romp this though.

Aye, I'm pretty sure I'll be voting for Xeno.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Aye, I'm pretty sure I'll be voting for Xeno.

Another vote here!

[Mort]

I liked Rainbow Arts X Out on the Spectrum, Monochrome graphics , side scrolling and fast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGgGxNnR7Lg

Xcel, not a bad overhead view shooter, sort of a cross between I Ball, Splat and Xevious as you could get boxed in very easily with the ground defences as it scrolled vertically.

sorry could only find a video of the Amstrad version (though identical to the speccy)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiJRNlOmnIs&t=1s

[WIWC]

My vote will go to XOR.

[stupidget]

Just had a go on Xevious, X-out, Xenon and Xeno and out of those I'd have to say that Xeno is probably the best and most unique.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

My problem from Xevious is that the day I got it (from a friend), he lent me both this and Terra Cresta. Two vertical spaceship shooters but with a [irony]slightly diferent[/irony] quality...

Not a bad game, anyway.

[CaptainKrenon]

I think Xybots is actually pretty good:

1. Lots of levels. Around 50 on the Spectrum version, more than 3 hours of continuous gameplay.
2. Ok difficulty level: it's very hard to finish the game but it's very easy to make progress and complete many levels before you run out of lives, so it's challenging but not frustrating.
3. Many different power-ups (a dozen or so). You have to buy them with the coins that you collect, so choosing how to spend your money carefully adds to the fun and allows for different playing strategies.
4. Secret doors and weapons.
5. 4 or 5 types of enemies with very different behaviors.
6. Cooperative multiplayer
7. Decent graphics and a quite successful 3D perspective.
8. Ok sound. Basic but sufficient.
9. Unique gameplay: unlike many other Spectrum games that have a dozen clones, I can't think of anything similar to this one. Xenon, Xevious, X-Out, ... there's a thousand like those, some better, some worse, but Xybots there's only Xybots.

I wouldn't say it's one of the top 10 Spectrum games or anything, but at least in my collection I consider it a must.

The only bad thing about this game is that the original arcade is even better

[zedex82]

My vote is for Xcel. I still play it.

[hitm4n]

Xarq. Although it was bloody hard.

[namco]

I'll sort the voting out tomorrow.

Meantime, what to do with the tiebreaker on W....?

[R-Tape]

Meantime, what to do with the tiebreaker on W....?

Tricky!

Howsabout this: we all post a score out of 10 for each game, and after a week we average them. If still it's a draw after that - namco decides?!

[8BitAG]

I'll sort the voting out tomorrow.

Meantime, what to do with the tiebreaker on W....?

Assign each game to a AI top-level wizard in Chaos and see who wins.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Why not declare both as the winners and forget this thread?

Forget it forever!

[Pegaz]

Xeno and Xevious are my favorites here.
Both are very playable, Xevious has great loader too, but overall, still prefer Xeno...

[Morkin]

Assign each game to a AI top-level wizard in Chaos and see who wins.

Great idea..!