The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

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The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Poll ended at Sun Apr 28, 2019 9:32 pm

Atic Atac by Ultimate
1
2%
Bomb Jack by Elite
1
2%
Chase HQ by Ocean
1
2%
Deathchase by Micromega
1
2%
Exolon by Hewson
1
2%
Fairlight by The Edge
0
No votes
Great Escape, The by Ocean
5
10%
Hobbit, The by Melbourne House
1
2%
Into The Eagle's Nest by Pandora
0
No votes
Jetpac by Ultimate
0
No votes
Knight Lore by Ultimate
6
12%
Lords Of Midnight, The by Beyond
0
No votes
Manic Miner by Bug Byte/Software Projects
10
20%
Nebulus by Hewson
0
No votes
Operation Wolf by Ocean
1
2%
Pyjamarama by Mikro-Gen
2
4%
Quazatron by Hewson
3
6%
R-Type by Electric Dreams
3
6%
Skool Daze by Microsphere
7
14%
Target Renegade by Imagine
5
10%
Underwurlde by Ultimate
1
2%
Valhalla by Legend
0
No votes
Where Time Stood Still by Ocean
0
No votes
Xeno by A 'n' F Software
0
No votes
Yie Ar Kung-Fu by Imagine
0
No votes
Zynaps by Hewson
1
2%
180 by Mastertronic
1
2%
 
Total votes: 51

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The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by PeteProdge »

Pheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-ew.

We're at the end of this, this... this thing.

(Um, until we tackle the post-commercial era and take on the homebrew submissions that have kept the ZX Spectrum platform alive since then.)

So, all 26 letters of the Roman alphabet (plus the '#' to represent numerics) are here ready to be voted on for the next seven days. What a line-up. None of these games are crap. None of these games are 'meh'. None of the games are mediocre. And yes, as someone opined when we were halfway through this, this would make an absolutely stunning compilation. And yeah, some of the runner-ups really do deserve to be here, but, hey, the nature of the poll is that each letter gets one representation and that has to be the most popular.

Anyway, I haven't an utter clue which game will win this poll and I doubt you know either. Obviously a few games listed here ain't gonna get near the top spot, but as to which one does... *shrugs shoulders* ...it's gonna be a surprise.

Atic Atac by Ultimate
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Bomb Jack by Elite
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Chase HQ by Ocean
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Deathchase by Micromega
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Exolon by Hewson
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Fairlight by The Edge
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Great Escape, The by Ocean
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Hobbit, The by Melbourne House
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Into The Eagle's Nest by Pandora
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Jetpac by Ultimate
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Knight Lore by Ultimate
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Lords Of Midnight, The by Beyond
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Manic Miner by Bug Byte/Software Projects
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Nebulus by Hewson
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Operation Wolf by Ocean
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Pyjamarama by Mikro-Gen
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Quazatron by Hewson
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R-Type by Electric Dreams
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Skool Daze by Microsphere
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Target Renegade by Imagine
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Underwurlde by Ultimate
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Valhalla by Legend
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Where Time Stood Still by Ocean
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Xeno by A 'n' F Software
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Yie Ar Kung-Fu by Imagine
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Zynaps by Hewson
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180 by Mastertronic
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by PeteProdge »

I've gone for Target Renegade. (Would have picked Chaos, my all-time favourite game on any platform, but hey, Chase HQ beat it in the C poll.)

Interesting to note, of all the 27 games, two of them are 16K (Deathchase and Jetpac), one is 128K only (Where Time Stood Still) and the remaining 24 fit into 48K or more.

Going by software publisher label...
4 are from Ultimate
4 are from Ocean
4 are from Hewson
2 are from Imagine

The rest are unique, just one each from...
Elite
Micromega
The Edge
Melbourne House
Pandora
Beyond
Bug Byte/Software Projects
Mikro-Gen
Electric Dreams
Microsphere
Legend
A 'n' F Software
Mastertronic

All of them are full-priced software with the exception of the # winner, 180.
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by PeteProdge »

Also, on years...

1982: 1 game
1983: 5 games
1984: 5 games
1985: 2 games
1986: 5 games
1987: 4 games
1988: 4 games
1989: 1 game
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by Ast A. Moore »

I don’t understand why we need any more silly polls. The best game is clearly Zythum (by Mirrorsoft).
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by R-Tape »

Oh wow. This is huge, and fascinating stats too (more please everyone!).

I won't vote MM immeditately, there are still a few things to consider...

It's a great list, and to my eyes, there's only a handful that would be a bit weird to win overall.
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

A deserved list of superb games. Really hard to decide, but my vote went to Knight Lore.

It's probably one of the best games of the 8-bit years. And it's by Ultimate...
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by hitm4n »

What a great list of games. Tough choice, my two faves are Quazatron and Exolon, but i wanna vote for both, and Manic Miner, and Jetpac, and Skool Daze.

Which one would i emulate and play more than any other. Quazatron. There we have it.
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by Fahnn »

If was a completely free choice, I think I'd have gone for Starquake. It's stood the test of time really well and I still play it quite regularly today.

Fortunately there's an equally good alternative choice available for me in Skool Daze, which is also still extremely playable despite being nearly 35 years old. Plus it was pretty much a totally original game concept, seemingly influenced by nothing that came before, which makes it even more impressive (to me, anyway).
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by djnzx48 »

I wonder why text adventures haven't done very well in these polls. The Hobbit is the only one that seems to have got more than two votes going for it, and even the well-rated Worm in Paradise only got a measly one vote.

It's a genre that I want to appreciate more, but it's all too easy to come up against an impossible-looking puzzle and just give up. I spent most of my time playing The Hobbit just messing around and trying random things, and the game does better than most at presenting you with an environment for doing that. Do text adventures just require too much dedication and effort put into them (such as the whole 'making a map' thing)?

Well, I'm probably not the person to talk about this as I haven't finished even a single Speccy text adventure. Just thought I'd mention it.

EDIT: Just remembered that I did complete Quest for the Yellow Spheroid last year. But I couldn't even do that without hints!
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by stupidget »

Wow this is a toughie. There are so many games on the list that I still class as some of my all time favourites. The Hobbit was the first graphic text adventure I played and even though I never finished it I still enjoyed the many hours I spent playing it. Manic Miner, knightlore and deathchase were some of the first games I played on my speccy and will always be up there with my top games of all time. R-type was just a master stroke of programming and is probably one of the best conversions done as was chase HQ. Never really got to understand the love for Lord of Midnight to be honest.

Looking through the list again the screen that gives me that warm fuzzy feeling has to be Fairlight. My mate and I spent hours and hours playing it and eventually, with a little help from Crash, managed to complete to only be presented with that immortal line ‘your quest continues in a trail of darkness’. Amazing game.
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by Daren »

...
Last edited by Daren on Mon Apr 22, 2019 9:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by uglifruit »

A lot of stone cold classics there. The "if they was a free vote..." question a is always going to be there at the bank of your mind. The limited pool of answers at least focuses the mind. I'd definitely choose Back2Skool over Skooldaze (my pick here) if I had the choice. But if Chuckie Egg was also in the mix... Or Dynamite Dan... Or The Biz... (The ones I play most now) then the choice would be harder.
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Post by Metalbrain »

PeteProdge wrote: Sun Apr 21, 2019 9:44 pm I've gone for Target Renegade. (Would have picked Chaos, my all-time favourite game on any platform, but hey, Chase HQ beat it in the C poll.)
I've gone for Target Renegade. (Would have picked Green Beret, my all-time Spectrum favourite, but hey, Great Escape beat it in the G poll.)

Other games I love and could have gone for would be Chase HQ, Nebulus and Exolon.
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by Jodo »

It's got to be Target Renegade for me too. The great memories of collaborating with a friend BITD are just too strong! (VERY closely followed by Manic Miner which I still play a bit today)
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by WIWC »

The Great Zythum.
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by PeteProdge »

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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by AndyC »

ImageImageImageImageImage

But since he has been criminally over-looked, it'll probably have to be Quazatron. Or Chase HQ. Or R-Type. Dammit...
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by Ivanzx »

I am one of those who thinks that the early classic are overestimated and I really think there are many games from the late era (1988 onwards) better then them, playability and technically-wise, that is why I chose Chase HQ, one of the best if not the best driving games for the Spectrum ;)
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

Ivanzx wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 1:12 pm I am one of those who thinks that the early classic are overestimated
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by Vampyre »

Went for Knight Lore, even though it's not the most playable game in that list. I just think of it as one of the most important videogame releases in history, nevermind just Speccy history, and to this day remains one of two truly jaw-dropping games I've seen on release (Mario 64 the other).

And rather than overestimation I think Crash under-rated it. It really should have been one of the Crash 97% club and I think would have been if not for the ridiculous average-of-the-other-scores nonsense they had for about 18 months. Given how it completely destroyed every other game graphically at the time 97% for Graphics seems too low (should have been 99 or 100).
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by PeteProdge »

AndyC wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 12:39 pm ImageImageImageImageImage

But since he has been criminally over-looked, it'll probably have to be Quazatron. Or Chase HQ. Or R-Type. Dammit...
Surely Skool Daze or Pyjamarama are closer to Dizzy? (Yeah, they're not Dizzy-like at all, but out of the 27 games, those two are least in sight of the ballpark.)
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by Fahnn »

PeteProdge wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 5:12 pm
AndyC wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 12:39 pm ImageImageImageImageImage

But since he has been criminally over-looked, it'll probably have to be Quazatron. Or Chase HQ. Or R-Type. Dammit...
Surely Skool Daze or Pyjamarama are closer to Dizzy? (Yeah, they're not Dizzy-like at all, but out of the 27 games, those two are least in sight of the ballpark.)
I never really got the fuss. Far better, bigger, cleverer, more involved (any criterion really) arcade adventures were released before the flickery mess that was Dizzy. What was the deal with that, incidentally? I hadn't seen flicker that bad since Schizoids.
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by PeteProdge »

Incidentally, here is a list of each poll's first/second/third placings and the number of votes the titles received...

A
7 Atic Atac
6 Ant Attack
2 Auf Wiedersehen Monty

B
7 Bomb Jack
4 Back To Skool
2 Barbarian/Batty/Biggles/Bobby Bearing/Boulder Dash/Bruce Lee/Bubble Bobble

C
7 Chase HQ
6 Chaos
4 Chuckie Egg/Commando

D
8 Deathchase
3 Daley Thompson's Decathlon/Dan Dare/Dizzy
2 Deflektor/Dragontorc

E
8 Exolon (won tie-breaker vote - 15)
8 Elite (lost tie-breaker vote - 10)
7 Everyone's A Wally

F
12 Fairlight
5 Formula One
2 Feud/Firefly/Frank N Stein

G
11 Great Escape, The
6 Green Beret
5 Grand Prix Simulator

H
11 Hobbit, The
7 Highway Encounter
6 Head Over Heels

I
6 Into The Eagle's Nest
4 IK+
3 Ikari Warriors

J
13 JetPac
12 Jet Set Willy
3 Jack The Nipper II

K
15 Knight Lore
5 Kokotoni Wilf
4 Kikstart II

L
8 Lords Of Midnight, The
6 Lunar Jetman
4 Lode Runner

M
20 Manic Miner
4 Mercenary
3 Match Point/Myth

N
14 Nebulus
6 Nodes Of Yesod
2 New Zealand Story, The/Nick Faldo Plays The Open/Nightmare Rally/Nosferatu The Vampyre

O
6 Operation Wolf
5 Olli And Lissa
4 Oracle's Cave/Out Run

P
7 Pyjamarama
6 Popeye
5 Ping Pong

Q
21 Quazatron
5 Quackshot!
1 Quartet/Quasar/Quann Tulla/Quick Draw McGraw

R
7 R-Type
4 Renegade/Robin Of The Wood
3 Rebelstar/Rex/Roller Coaster

S
11 Skool Daze
5 Sabre Wulf
3 Split Personalities

T
6 Target Renegade
4 Trap Door, The
3 Three Weeks In Paradise/Trashman/Treasure Island Dizzy/Turbo Esprit

U
11 Underwurlde
9 Uridium
3 Universal Hero/Untouchables, The

V
6 Valhalla
4 Vectron
3 Viking Raiders/Virus

W
9 Where Time Stood Still (won 2nd tie-breaker vote - 29)
9 Way Of The Exploding Fist, The (lost 2nd tie-breaker vote - 27)
6 Wheelie

X
14 Xeno
4 Xevious
3 Xecutor/Xenon

Y
19 Yie Ar Kung Fu
5 Yes, Prime Minister
2 YS Capers/Young Ones, The

Z
15 Zynaps
8 Zub
4 Zorro/Zythum/Zzoom

#
15 180
6 1942
3 3D Monster Maze/3D-Tanx

Not that this is even a slightly reliable indicator as to how this poll's gonna go, but for the fun of it, here are the titles listed in order of how many votes they got in their respective polls...

21 Quazatron
20 Manic Miner
19 Yie Ar Kung Fu
15 Knight Lore/Zynaps/180
14 Nebulus/Xeno
13 JetPac
12 Fairlight
11 Great Escape, The/Hobbit, The/Skool Daze/Underwurlde
9 Where Time Stood Still
8 Deathchase/Exolon/Lords Of Midnight, The
7 Atic Atac/Bomb Jack/Chase HQ/Pyjamarama/R-Type
6 Into The Eagle's Nest/Operation Wolf/Target Renegade/Valhalla

And now the same, but with percentages from their respective poll...

70% Quazatron
59% Yie Ar Kung fu
50% Manic Miner
43% Knight Lore
42% 180
41% Underwurlde/Xeno
39% Great Escape, The/Nebulus
37% Zynaps
35% Fairlight
33% Atic Atac/Jetpac
29% Hobbit, The
27% Skool Daze
24% Deathchase/Lords Of Midnight, The
23% Bomb Jack
22% Chase HQ/Exolon/Operation Wolf
21% Into The Eagle's Nest/R-Type/Valhalla
19% Pyjamarama/Where Time Stood Still
16% Target Renegade
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by Morkin »

Unsurprisingly a difficult decision but I've gone for Atic Atac.

Great to play, a small enough map to gradually find your way around, and nice smooth gameplay. Also has decent re-playability with the choice of the three characters each with different characteristics. Not too hard as well.

Was going to list my 'shortlist' but it wasn't that short...
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Re: The best classic Speccy game A-Z POLL OF POLLS

Post by AndyC »

PeteProdge wrote: Mon Apr 22, 2019 5:12 pm Surely Skool Daze or Pyjamarama are closer to Dizzy? (Yeah, they're not Dizzy-like at all, but out of the 27 games, those two are least in sight of the ballpark.)
While they're certainly good games and I can appreciate them in their own way, both just leave me cold and I've never really been able to get into them. There was just something else about the Dizzy titles (and yes I'll admit the first one has some issues) that very little else ever quite managed to replicate. I don't think I can really put a finger on it: maybe it was the graphical style, the feeling of a cohesive world or just that "I can definitely get further next time" sensation. Even the various clones that came later (excepting Slightly Magic and the Seymour adventures, which felt like a continuation of sorts) somehow just didn't quite get the right feel and just felt poor in comparison.
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