The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

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PeteProdge
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The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by PeteProdge »

Going down the results of the A-Z poll of polls, the next software house is Ultimate (or Ultimate - Play The Game as many people called it).

An absolute behemoth of Spectrum gaming, with a reputation for quality that I dare say could be higher than any other software house.

Now, the purists might moan that I've included the post-Stampers games here, which were coded under US Gold control from when they acquired the brand. As always, I include any Spectrum game that officially had the right to display the software house brand. In my eyes, Bubbler is as much as an Ultimate game as Knight Lore, even though I acknowledge the rather huge chasm of quality between the two.

16 titles in all, so easily fitting in under the 127 limit by the forum's poll options. This really is going to be an interesting poll when it starts on Sunday 30th June, many of you have an opinion on Ultimate. I can expect Knight Lore, Atic Atac and Jetman to ride high here and I know some agonising decisions will have to be made. Also, will anyone vote for one of the US-Gold-ownership games?

Alien 8
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Atic Atac
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Bubbler
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Cookie
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Cyberun
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Gunfright
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JetPac
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Knight Lore
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Lunar Jetman
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Martianoids
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Nightshade
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Pentagram
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Pssst
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Sabre Wulf
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Tranz Am
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Underwurlde
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Juan F. Ramirez
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

Jet Pac, Atic Atac, Knight Lore, Alien 8, SabreWulf, Underwurlde, ... there's so much quality in them that it'll be hard to guess a winner.

My fave company, by the way. My choice will be Sabre Wulf, being Knight Lore very close.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by stupidget »

Wow, just wow, they didn't 'arf do some bloody good games!

For me it's got to be JepPac. It was one of the first games that I ever played on a Speccy, along with Arcadia and The Pyramid. Every so often we'd go round my dad's mates house, for a quintessentially 80's buffet of quiche, sausage rolls, own store cola, bowl of limp salad and some sandwiches, and I'd marvel at the petrol motored model planes he'd built and his tank of tropical fish. One visit will always stick in my memory though as their son, who was a few years older than me, had just had a Speccy for his birthday and I remember playing JesPac, Arcadia and The Pyramid for the entire evening. Understandably this got me yearning for a Speccy,as our Dragon 32 at the time just kept breaking, and the sound and graphics on those speccy games were just amazing. So, yep, got to be JetPac for me.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by Morkin »

For me the choice always seems to be between Atic Atac and Jetpac.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by PQR »

Yes, hard choice...

Knight Lore still stands as the game that made a huge impact when I played it back in the day. Unlike any other game I had played until then it was very atmospheric. Dark and mysterious. Not easy to play (especially if you forgot to turn on directional controls).

But after all those years Jetpac is still the game I enjoy most and return to regularly. It is so easy to pick up and play a few rounds on a Retropie with a wireless controller. Always enjoyable with cute colourful graphics and effective sound effects. Considering this game was made 36 years ago is baffling.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by DouglasReynholm »

The only title that I can play for longer than it takes to get my fill of nostalgia now is Atic Atac. Knight Lore was jaw dropping at the time, especially given the revelation it was ready to release before Sabre Wulf, but the filmation games after were just weak echoes, or in the case of Alien8 only a quick re-skin. Gunfright and Nightshade were dull, Cyberun's gameplay far too obtuse and by the time Bubbler and Martianoids came out they were dead to me.

Now waiting for someone to tell me to 'cheer up!'. :|

Edit: I should probably add I was an enormous fan of them at the time and like everyone else awaited each release with baited breath. The mystique surrounding them, the artwork and packaging were second to none (they were very generous with freebie posters when I wrote in) and the technical achievements were fantastic.. but after Knight Lore/Underwurlde it was very much a case of Emperors new clothes I'm afraid.

As an aside, I also slagged off Joy Division's ('classic', but really a dirge) Unknown Pleasures (40th anniversary this week) on a forum last night, again despite being a huge Joy Division/New Order fan, so obviously this sort of thing is a bugbear of mine at the moment!
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by WIWC »

Easy choice for me.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by hitm4n »

WIWC wrote: Sun Jun 23, 2019 1:01 pm Easy choice for me.
Cobra ?
I don't have anything cool to put here, so i'll just be off now to see a priest with yeast stuck between his teeth and his friend called Keith who's a hairpiece thief...
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by hitm4n »

Jetpac.

...or Atic Atac...

...But Knightlore is a marvel.

..... Then Underwurlde is a frustrating marvel too...

Even Cookie was fun...


Too hard.
I don't have anything cool to put here, so i'll just be off now to see a priest with yeast stuck between his teeth and his friend called Keith who's a hairpiece thief...
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by Ralf »

Best technically or best in playability? ;)
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by FelisSapien »

Tough one. My instant reaction is Sabrewulf. But the game that I got along with my 16k Speccy was Jet Pac. That’s a tough act to follow.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by WIWC »

hitm4n wrote: Mon Jun 24, 2019 8:12 pm
WIWC wrote: Sun Jun 23, 2019 1:01 pm Easy choice for me.
Cobra ?
Zythum.
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Morkin
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by Morkin »

WIWC wrote: Mon Jun 24, 2019 11:47 pm
hitm4n wrote: Mon Jun 24, 2019 8:12 pm Cobra ?
Zythum.
By MirRAREsoft.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by Turtle_Quality »

Played a lot of trans-am, jetpac and atic atac, but it's definitely Lunar Jetman for me. The speed, the difficulty ramp was just right, the surprises with new aliens, the futile search for a trailer...
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by beanz »

Knight Lore, though Alien 8 was more polished.

Sabrewulf was let down by the death from above and below problem, otherwise that would have been a contender.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by ZXDunny »

I can instantly rule out any of their isometric stuff - the controls were abysmal and required you to select a non-rotational system before you started. They also slowed down horribly whenever things got busy.

That leaves their 2D stuff.

Jetpac was fun to play for a few minutes, but after the second screen it just got dull with nothing new to see or do. Great gameplay, but very little to it.

Atic Atac was frantic at times, and amazing fun but too easy to get lost for the child that played it back in the day. Gorgeous to look at though, and a riot of sound. Better than Jet Pac.

Trans-Am was at first glance good fun, but soon became dull. Played it a few times and never went back.

Cookie was too hard for me, so got no pleasure from that. Ditto for Pssst. Too complex for my young mind - needing different coloured spray cans left me bewildered and quickly overrun.

Never played Jetman back in the day and when I did try it a few decades later it was ok. Nothing spectacular though, but then I was by that point somewhat jaded.

UnderWurlde. A huge map. Easy controls. Neat mechanics like bouncing around and bubbles to ride on. Ultimately(!) though, it was a lot of aimless wandering around not really getting anywhere.

And that leaves Sabre Wulf. The king of Ultimate games, the game I played and played and played. Huge map with interesting world, things to see and places to go that you could see but had to wander far out of your way to get to. Great controls (to be fair, I had to get used to them - QWERT was odd but once my fingers figured out that it was just the sinclair joystick keys I was away), fantastically good fun combat method. You learnt little tricks - keys to press to sneak down and past a Rhino without getting hit, when to switch left/right in a vertical tunnel to avoid getting nabbed by a blooming enemy, how to dodge an attack from above/below when you can only kill to the left or right. Using the natives to figure out where the amulet pieces were. Learning the map by its landmarks. Waiting in holes for the Wulf to pass. Tense stuff.

I finished it so many times and still went back for more.

So yeah. Sabre Wulf.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by Climacus »

For me, Underwurlde is the best (althought Ive played Sabre Wulf many, may times...)

Bubbler is a very good game, technicaly and playability (yes you have to learn how to move the ball properly, but it is very interesting for me)
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by Vampyre »

This is probably the toughest one we'll have to decide on! They're 1983 to (early) 1986 catalogue is simply littered with classics, it's no surprise that they're remembered so fondly.

Jetpac was the first game I ever played on my Speccy. For that reason alone it has a huge place in my heart never mind the fact that it's still a tremendously fun game to play even today. How they fit it into 16K beggars belief - I can produce a web page today, that does absolutely bugger all that dwarfs the size.

Atic Atac was the second Ultimate game I played on the same day as Jetpac, later that Xmas '83 evening. It was, and still is, an awesome arcade adventure and is better than Sabre Wulf IMO.

Tranz Am, Pssst, Lunar Jetman, Cookie I all played a year or so later. All polished games but Cookie is the stand-out and a very good arcade game. The others I never really got into, with LJ being far too difficult.

Sabre Wulf - I remember the hype at the time and never really felt that it stood up to it. It's a fine game, a very good one even, but Atic Atac is a more fun experience.

Underwurlde - never played it much, although it's a good game, due to...

Knight Lore - Ultimate's masterpiece. I will never ever forget the day the local computer shop loaded it up and within seconds there was a crowd eight-deep surrounding the Speccy with everyone's jaw hitting the floor. It is to this day one of the greatest software releases of it's time and one of the few games that simply changed everything. In hindsight it has it's flaws - it's too big and empty much of the time, the slowdown is annoying and it's a pretty difficult game to complete. But it's impact is legendary. Incidentally, I must be one of the few people who have to play it with rotational controls - every other isometric game I have to play with directional, but not KL. Weird...

Alien 8 - Much of the same as Knight Lore, but more polished. I was still playing Knight Lore too much so it passed me by a little.

Nightshade - Not a particularly good game although Filmation 2 is impressive. I did manage to complete it back in the day so I had some mileage out of it.

Gunfright - Brilliant game. Fun to play, a good use of Filmation 2, and the shoot out is classic Ultimate arcade stuff.

After that I pretty much consider that to be the end of Ultimat/Rare - isn't the jury still out as to whether the Stamper's produced Cyberun and Pentagram? Cyberun was far too obtuse a game anyway - never really got anywhere with it, and Pentagram was rubbish.

So after all that waffle - my decision? As much as I've bleated on about Knight Lore I think my vote will probably go to Jetpac, simply because it's still a fun game to play even after 36 years.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by Sokurah »

My choice would be Atic Atac. Sabre Wulf may be more popular, but I think its map is too big and samey. Atic Atac has more features and more varied gameplay, so that's a winner for me.

Runners up would be Jetpac for the superb arcade action and Knight Lore for what it represents ... even if the gameplay doesn't live up to it.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by toot_toot »

It's a tough one this, as others have said I'd discount most of the Isometric games now as they're really not aged that well (Knightlore, Pentagram, Alien8).

The really late games (Martianoids, Bubbler) weren't really all that great at the time and they've certainly not stood the test of time now (although I'm annoyed I gave away both to my cousin seeing as they're quite rare now, in saying that I got a SNES in return... :) ).

Some game are impossibly difficult and incredibly unforgiving, like Cyberrun and Lunar Jetman, making them not that much fun to play now.

Some of the early games would really benefit from tweaking or enhancing, like better controls (Cookie and Psst would be great as twin stick shooters, which I get the feeling is what they were inspired by).

Other games were simply outshone by "clones" - Sabre Wulf was outdone by Firelord, Underwurlde was outdone by Starquake.

So that leaves Jet Pac, Tranz Am and Atic Atac (which is still better than Wizard's Lair!). All three are still great to go back to now and play for half an hour or so. Jet Pac also has the really nice enhanced version.

But there's a dark horse. I've always really liked Gunfright! It's very underrated as a game and while it can be annoying and frustrating, it still plays really well today and the graphics are quite charming. It would be nice to get an enhanced version of it...(is there one?)
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by Spud »

Pretty overrated publisher/developer to be honest. One great game (Sabre Wulf), one pretty good clone of Wizard's Lair (Atic Atac), and a load of mediocre 2d rubbish followed by an endless stream of isometric crap.

So yeah, I'm with Dunny: Sabre Wulf.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by PQR »

Spud wrote: Thu Jun 27, 2019 3:12 pmPretty overrated publisher/developer to be honest. One great game (Sabre Wulf), one pretty good clone of Wizard's Lair (Atic Atac), and a load of mediocre 2d rubbish followed by an endless stream of isometric crap.
Yeah. Incredible that Ultimate never got called out for creating a clone of a 1985 game in 1983! :lol:
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by CaptainKrenon »

Here's a different answer to this question:

As I'm sure many of you know, Rare (the company founded by the Stampers after Ultimate) published in 2015 a compilation for the Xbox named Rare Replay, which includes 30 of their games.

Among those there are 7 of their Ultimate-era games: Jetpac, all 5 48K games from Lunar Jetman until Knight Lore, plus Gunfright. None of these are remakes or modified versions, as far as I can tell they are the original Spectrum games in all their glory.

Also, all 30 titles in this compilation include a thing they called "snapshots": a small segment of the game with a very simple goal, like for example in the case of Sabre Wulf, "collect 3 different flowers from 3 different locations". This adds achievable goals to each one of the games and encourages people to actually try them.

I found this quite interesting because I think it is probably the only chance we'll ever have to see a new generation of players who never even heard of the Spectrum before to actually play some classics in their original form.

You can find lots of videos on YouTube playing and reviewing the games, walkthroughs for all of them, etc., some of them are actually quite impressive (the Knight Lore ones give very detailed information about how the location of the items is generated).

So the question is: how do all these new players like the Spectrum games? My impression, after watching a few videos and reading a few reviews is that many consider them interesting for historical purposes but don't think they aged well (or even that they never were good).

But many people legitimately enjoy some of those games. I think the general consensus is that:
  • Jetpac is very good and still fun to play.
  • Most people also like Atic Atac a lot, see it as a precursor to Zelda and actually imagine that it was groundbreaking.
  • Sabre Wulf is ok but too difficult.
  • Knight Lore is not very fun to play. Some people can understand that it was innovative but are not as impressed as with Atic Atac.
  • Gunfright is too monotonous and silly (wtf the women kill you??)
  • Lunar Jetman is way too difficult.
  • Underwurlde is poorly designed, when not downright ridiculous and unplayable.
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Juan F. Ramirez
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

Surprised there will be more votes for Sabre Wulf than I thought.
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Re: The best Speccy game by Ultimate: discussion

Post by ZXDunny »

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: Fri Jun 28, 2019 1:42 pm Surprised there will be more votes for Sabre Wulf than I thought.
Why so surprised? Sabre Wulf was an excellent game - eminently playable, very few actual flaws (control layout aside, that could have been better) and the only people who complain about it are those that either never played it enough to appreciate the depth or who were unable to grasp the strategies needed to survive.
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