Pubs in ZX Spectrum games

[toot_toot]

There were a couple games set in the town that I grew up in, Dundee, Scotland, that featured LOTS of pubs.

Pub Crawl

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=10089

This was a text adventure where (from memory) the goal was to eventually have sex with a woman while going around various pubs in Dundee. I had a pirated copy of this when I was young and unfortunately it seems to be Missing in Action, which is a real shame. As a 12 year old it seemed very raunchy and quite cool being able to walk around Dundee while getting drunk. I'd love to play it again, but there seems to be absolutely no trace of it!


Pub Crawl II

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=10088

I didn't play this until years later via emulation, but this is basically more like a "role playing game" version of it - that is it's basically the same game as Pub Crawl but you actually control your character walking around Dundee. While it's a bit more playable, it loses some of the charm by not having any descriptive text.

Thankfully this isn't MIA!

If anyone has the original Pub Crawl, then please, please, please upload it so I can revisit those memories!!

[Fahnn]

There were a couple games set in the town that I grew up in, Dundee, Scotland, that featured LOTS of pubs.

Pub Crawl...

No idea that these existed. What a find!

I went to university in Dundee from 1989-1993 and - being a feckless student - spent a lot of time in a lot of pubs. So I had to play the one that is available (Pub Crawl 2).

There's a lot in there that I remember but there's a lot missing. I used to share a flat on Meadowside immediately above Foreigners (well, three floors up), which is featured in the game. Foreigners (it's called Conroys Bar now) was a biker pub. There used to be a band that played there a lot called the Beaver Sisters, they did a lot of Wayne/Jayne County and Rocky Horror Show stuff, they were a lot of fun. But the game just stereotypes it...badly.

Across the road was an absolutely cavernous place that we'd often go to, too (looking on Google Maps, it seems to have been made into flats now). I must admit that I can't remember what it was called but it was a great place. Often we'd go in at eight or nine at night and be the only people in there (well, alongside the barman). Really quite eerie. But not included in the game.

The next year, we moved around the corner into a flat on Panmure Street above the Ladbrokes. Lots of pubs around there. Caw's (not in the game) was directly opposite but our favourite was The Old Bank which was about 50 yards diagonally away. The streets are in the game, but the pubs on them aren't. It's as though the pubs included are pretty much random.

Lots of others missing. I'm most put out by there being no West Port Bar, where I played in 1991 with my band (at the time) Valium Groove Train to universal critical acclaim (I may well be exaggerating or misremembering here for comic effect, but we had fun).

As for the game, yeah, it's not good. I'm being kind there. It's absolutely awful. REALLY poor. Pretty much any text you enter gets the same response and the "arcade" bits are similarly predictable.

This might actually be the worst game I've ever played and I've played Jack & The Beanstalk.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

The German Canteen
Somewhere in south Germany.



Sometimes is hard to be a pub reviewer. This is one example.

I don't know how, but some time ago I happened to arrive to a castle in south Germany where I discovered there was what it seemed to be an interesting pub.

First of all, the place was dirty and sinister. I waited in a queue and when it was my turn I asked for the typical german grilled knuckle and thuringian sausages, and a bottle of glühwein vine (I had always wanted to try that german delicatessen), but the chef (very dirty, by the way) stared at me in a weird way and served me some porridge and a glass of water.

Obviously I asked for the complaints book and then, a guy with a black uniform (who everybody called him the Commandant) cried to me: "COOLER!".

Now I'm in a little isolation cell, playing with a baseball ball all day.

But somebody in the next cell told me that a group of people were planning to dig a tunnel to escape...

[malczx]

Always liked spending time in the Cregley Arms in Inspector Flukeit, for the atmosphere.

https://youtu.be/Xk8RKGziJ1I?t=5557

[Lee Bee]

I found this lovely old thread and wanted to add some more content!

(1/3) First, some images of games suggested earlier in the thread which didn't have images…

180!


Target: Renegade


Pi-Eyed




Paradise Cafe

[Lee Bee]

(2/3) I also wanted to bring in some entries (and add images) from the similar older pub thread…

Minder: The Winchester Club:

The Winchester Club! Perfect place to buy blue peter presenters, tins of warts and rubber wet suits, or get found out for selling dodgy tellys.

The Bull & Bush (Tiddly Drinks):

This place purports to be a family pub, but they don't serve food and when I popped in on Christmas Eve 1987 I was appalled at the loutish behaviour. A large-nosed fellow in a cap was rather too "tiddly" and repeatedly hurled his empties into the air. One of them almost hit a dog, which I'm told was the man's own. No interest at all from the bar staff, though they were happy enough to keep serving him.

The Bull & Bush does have a rather battered juke box (left-hand end of the bar, near the portrait of Her Majesty) but don't waste your money: during my visit, there was a chap at the piano who wouldn't stop bashing out his favourites. To be fair, he played quite well in three channels, and somehow managed some percussion too.

Decor is generally rather dire, depressing and monochrome; you can tell they've tried to liven the place up for Christmas with a few balloons, but these clash horribly with everything else.

On the up side, service is extremely quick, with up to six pints served in seconds -- despite the unremitting presence of three bar-flies who barely moved from the mahogany all night. And don't get me started on that loser playing darts on his own in the corner.

1 out of 4 stars

Mindstone:

The Bar In Kranos

A lovely country pub, far from anywhere and about half way through your journey. Its so far from anywhere that we don't recognise your coinage. In fact we don't recognise any coinage. So please just ask for a drink and then ask for another. And another. Max out your strength whilst you are at it. The builders of the pub probably didn't realise their error, but its not like you care. It certainly makes the second half of your journey much easier.

Avoid the bars in Elantor and Carakot though. You have to pay in them.

[Lee Bee]

(3/3) And finally, some I found myself…

Pub Games:


Brunilda:


Mighty Final Fight:


Puzzled:


Alas, the Spectrum version of Viz didn't feature all the bonus games, such as this from the C64:

[Dr beep]

worldbar aka cafe international
Both boardgame and arcade version
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/2 ... de_version

Review:
Too popular chances on a seat are small.

[Stefan]

ZX Larry!

Great art, great conversations, toilets are a bit scummy and the upstairs, well the upstairs...

[bluespikey]

No mention of JSW, even if its an off license rather than a pub. Looks like a pub.

Eastenders apparently has a mini game of serving drinks in the Queen Vic. But I've not played it.

[clebin]

Wouldn't it be lovely to wile away a summer's afternoon crawling the many thatched, stone and Tudor framed pubs of Firelord? I bet they have some great beer gardens too. A big problem would be finding my way home again. I don't think I'll be asking these folk for directions.

[equinox]

Wouldn't it be lovely to wile away a summer's afternoon crawling the many thatched, stone and Tudor framed pubs of Firelord? I bet they have some great beer gardens too. A big problem would be finding my way home again. I don't think I'll be asking these folk for directions.

For a filling end-of-the-night snack, pick up one of the many baguettes or broccoli stalks littering the streets.

I found a quick way home through a knight's castle but he wanted loads of money. Basically the mediaeval version of a taxi.