The best Speccy game by Software Projects: discussion

[PeteProdge]

The label that launched Jet Set Willy (and its somewhat 'sequel', which was a bug fix and a slight expansion). Will the upcoming poll be another annihilation by Matthew Smith?

Oh, and Software Projects also put out Manic Miner but as mentioned in the Bug Byte discussion, this is effectively a re-release, so won't be considered for this poll.

What are we going to consider? Well, here's Spectrum Computing's own listing of games from Software Projects. I'm not counting games from their subsidiary label - the very-much-a-budget-line Software Super Savers. I'm also not counting games that weren't released, the most famous being Attack Of The Mutant Zombie Flesh-Eating Chickens From Mars (it did kind of see the light of day, having evolved into Star Paws). Hunchback At The Olympics is outright MIA.

Which makes me wonder about Anaconda. Never released back in the day, but surfacing up here in the retrogaming era, the game is available to download as a TZX file from this very site (and others). Does it really count for this poll though? It's a tricky question.

Learning With Leeper is a contentious one, as it falls into the educational section. It is a compendium of four games though, and as these polls are about actual games, I guess it counts. I doubt it'll pick up points though!

As the amount of titles for Software Projects is in a comfortable two figures, the poll can include all of the games..

Astronut


BC's Quest For Tires


Dragon's Lair


Dragon's Lair II : Escape From Singe's Castle


Hysteria


Jet Set Willy


Jet Set Willy II


Learning With Leeper


Lode Runner


McKensie


Ometron


Orion


Push Off


Star Paws


Thrusta


Tribble Trubble


The one thing I'm still pondering... am I right to exclude Anaconda?

Any other concerns, raise them here... and then we'll start the poll a week from now - Sunday 2nd June 2019.

[djnzx48]

Not sure if I'll go with the obvious choice here.

JSW II is technically superior to JSW in some ways but it lacks some of the charm of the original. They also changed the movement, so Willy jumps differently and ledge behaviour is different IIRC. The new space levels are kind of interesting though.

Hysteria is a polished game graphically with nice scrolling (if you look at the corners of the screen you can even see the rollers it's moving on). The gameplay is slightly weaker than Cobra, and mostly consists of running left and right and shooting stuff. One feature I do really like is the high score table with the animated vector-based letters - very impressive.

Lode Runner has some pretty basic UDG-style graphics but it's still quite fun to play. And it has a lot of levels (150).

Haven't really played Star Paws but it has some interesting parallax scrolling. I wonder how much is left of the original Matthew Smith design.

[WIWC]

Jet Set Willy is too difficult. I tried to like it, but I was never able to. I'll probably vote for Ometron.

Astronut and Thrusta are original takes on the single screen platformer concept. Although not as good as Lode Runner.

Tribble Trubble is a pain the glass. Those stupid little creatures can all die, as far as I'm concerned.

Dragon's Lair is an exercise in masochism. Dragon's Lair II is at least playable.

Star Paws is okaysh, but too carnivorous for my taste.

Hysteria is a minor Jonathan Smith, using a Cobra-like scrolling with a less engaging gameplay.

So:

3) Astronut / Thrusta
2) Lode Runner
1) Ometron

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Lode Runner is great in spite of its simple graphics.

And Hysteria is another game to take into account.

[DouglasReynholm]

The Bug Byte poll surprised me with how many releases they had in total, this poll surprises me with how few Software Projects put out.

[Nick]

I'm undecided as to whether to vote for JSW or Lode Runner, they are probably the best two on the list.

[StooB]

The Bug Byte poll surprised me with how many releases they had in total, this poll surprises me with how few Software Projects put out.

If you ignore the titles put out with Bug Byte being used as a label for Argus Press and Grandslam, then the original Bug Byte company had around the same number of releases as Software Projects.

[Fahnn]

This is going to be very easy for me, as one of these is absolutely miles ahead of the rest in every way. OK, not in every way (much as I love it, not even I could claim that its graphics and sound are spectacular, although they are perfectly suited to the game). But it's miles ahead in every way that matters: gameplay, addictiveness, depth and longevity, so much so that it's one of the few Spectrum games that I still play today. I am of course talking about Lode Runner. Would definitely feature as one of my top ten Speccy games of all time.

I sort of also have a soft spot for BC's Quest For Tires, but that's possibly because I won a copy of it as a runners-up prize in a CRASH competition. Not a lot to it, admittedly, but quite fun to play.

Jet Set Willy third (never really got into Jet Set Willy II).

Looking at some of their releases that I didn't know, I noticed that Ometron was written by a Simon Munnery. That's quite an unusual name but I thought, nah, it can't be the same one, must just be coincidence. But it is the same one! I used to love some of the stuff he did on Radio 1 in the 1990s, and especially "Attention Scum" when that was briefly on BBC2 (although I admit that it something of an acquired taste). Amongst others, it also featured Johnny Vegas, Catherine Tate and The Actor Kevin Eldon. Here's an interesting article from the time that it was shown (written by Stewart Lee, who was co-creator and director) recounting how badly the BBC mishandled the show.

[Pegaz]

I like Speccy Bc Quest for tires, very much.
Slick animation, clear and bright graphics, much better execution than Atari/C64 port.

[toot_toot]

The cover artwork (by Roger Tissyman) for Software Projects games' were really excellent. Although I do wonder how much Software Projects relied on the quality of the artwork and the "brand recognition" with the label also having Manic Miner/Jet Set Willy, because the sad thing is that most of the games were pretty crap!

I remember buying McKensie, because it was from the same label as Jet Set Willy and Thrusta (another favourite of mine) and the cover made it look like you were a Scotsman in space, shooting some kind of aliens. Or something.





Even the inlay text made it sound exciting!

Imagine how disappointed I was when it turned out to be a text only adventure!

[Morkin]

A few quite nice games released there. I'm struggling to find one that I enjoyed as much as <the obvious choice>, so the difficult decision for me will probably be what to place second and third.

Like probably quite a lot of people here, I was a bit disappointed with the Dragons Lair arcade conversions (not sure what I expected really), but I agree with [mention]WIWC[/mention] that the second one was at least half decent to play.

Even the inlay text made it sound exciting!

Imagine how disappointed I was when it turned out to be a text only adventure!

A BASIC one too, by the sounds of it..?