Spectrum Computing

A nearly impossible choice. So many that would probably be in contention for a top ten all time best list. I went for Head Over Heels in the end, it's an all time favourite of mine. It took me years to finish it, but it's still fun to revisit even if I can no longer get as far. If I were picking a top three it would probably be:

1. Head over Heels
2. Rainbow Islands
3. RoboCop

Although in all likelihood that list would be different every time I scrolled through those images. Ocean really were a power house back in the day.

1 - Operation Wolf
2 - Chase H.Q.
3 - Robocop

Honorable mentions: Rainbow Islands, Puzznic, Batman: The Movie

1. Nightmare Rally
2. Knight Rider
3. Pud Pud

Pegaz wrote: ↑Mon Jul 15, 2019 4:59 pm 1. Nightmare Rally

Great game. Spent hours playing it.

1 :: Firefly – probably Joffa’s finest hour
2 :: Head over Heels – cute graphics and immensely enjoyable gameplay
3 :: Robocop – first enjoyed it on 48K, then blown away when I bought a 128K some time later

Runners up: The Great Escape, Daley Thompsons’s Super-Test, Chase HQ

The strange thing is, that if this was carried out on the sales of games, then Robocop would be the runaway winner. (It's either Robocop or Activision's Ghostbusters which became the best selling ZX Spectrum game of all time.) As it is, Robocop only has one vote.

Currently way out in front is Head Over Heels, which is an original creation from Jon Ritman, no licenses involved. The History Of Ocean Software book reveals that Jon's isometric 3D take on Batman sold more than Head Over Heels. Which goes to show the commercial power of a license. Depressing, but true.

When I first saw the topic, I honestly thought RoboCop was going to be the clear winner. Indeed I was convinced I'd vote for it myself. It was only scrolling through the list of images that I began to realise just how many contenders there were and, great as it is, I really couldn't put it first.

It really does show the power of a licence though, that's for sure.

With some many great hits it's difficult to have a clear winner, the votes will be very dispersed.

I'm looking forward to seeing the results...

1) The Great Escape
2) Cobra
3) Head Over Heels

4) Robocop
5) Wizball
6) Where Time Stood Still
7) Match Day II
8) N.O.M.A.D.
9) Gift from the Gods
10) Match Day / International Match Day

err... why is Power Drift in the list?

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Mon Jul 15, 2019 7:32 pm

Pegaz wrote: ↑Mon Jul 15, 2019 4:59 pm 1. Nightmare Rally

Great game. Spent hours playing it.

Pegaz wrote: ↑Mon Jul 15, 2019 4:59 pm 2. Knight Rider

Spent seconds playing it. They felt like hours.

1. Daley Thompson's Decathlon
2. Chase HQ
3. Head Over Heels

stupidget wrote: ↑Sun Jul 14, 2019 2:44 pm Head over Heels for me as it's the one game in the list that I spent the most time playing. It's also the first game I played originally on the 48 and then a 128 when I upgraded. I still remember being amazed by the menu tune and the different tunes for each zone. Great stuff indeed.

1 - Head over Heels
2 - Rainbow Islands
3 - Wizball

I'd probably put Nightmare Rally in 4th as my mate and me spent ages playing that, but, never seemed to get anywhere.

I loved Wizball too, I've never quite got the hate for it since I started on Speccy forums. Would probably have come 4th in my vote.

WIWC wrote: ↑Tue Jul 16, 2019 10:08 amerr... why is Power Drift in the list?

Pure human error, votes won't count for it. An explanation on page 1, here.

Ocean were never my favourite software house but it's absolutely undeniable that over their long history, they released some very high quality games. Sure, there was some rubbish, but when they got it right they tended to get it very right.

1. Daley Thompson's Decathlon
2. Firefly
3. Gilligan's Gold

Honourable mentions to Armageddon, Moon Alert, Match Day, Cavelon and especially Wizball. It's painful to exclude Wizball here, as it's probably one of my top ten games of all time, but the Spectrum version just isn't as good as the C64 original and it's really noticeable if you play them one after another. I know saying things like that is tantamount to heresy around these parts, but it's true.

Well I’m sure their use of marketing and licences worked on me as there was a lot of Ocean games that I had to go out and purchase when they came out. Whereas a lot of my games collection from other software houses were more done on a whim in the shop based on price, artwork and graphics, or because I’d played them at a friends.

To be fair I wasn’t disappointed with the games they produced, lot of great stuff in their catalogue. I’ve gone with Combat School as my favourite, remember playing it loads, had great graphics, gameplay, was just hard enough but not impossible and it had great music on the 128k version.

1. Combat School
2. Match Day II
3. Daley Thomson’s Olympic Challenge

4. Operation Wolf
5. Run the Gauntlet

Very difficult decision, vote could easily change day by day. I played a lot of those games to death.

Ultimately I asked myself which game I'd most like to load up from the list and play now if I had to pick one. The winner for me is Daley Thompson's Decathlon.

Top 3:

1. Daley Thompson's Decathlon
2. Robocop
3. Cobra

Oh this is HARD. So many great games here.

1 - The Great Escape Such a great idea, done so well.
2 - Robocop Arcade conversion that punches wayyy above its weight
3 - Daley Thompson's Decathlon It's hard to enjoy it in the same way these days, but I think that's just because of our age, and its genre.

A few to mention:

Cavelon. I have a soft spot for this, but it's mainly nostalgia.
Batman The Movie. Done really nicely. Not as good as the Miggy tho (where I was at the time)
Gilligan's Gold. So close to being great fun, if it had difficulty levels and a control mechanism appropriate for humans.
New Zealand Story. Very nicely done, and at a time when it'd be easy for the coder to be demoralised by the fact that most households were getting used to 16bit.
Rainbow Islands. As above. This could have easily been a howler, but it's rather good.
Red Heat. A terrible, pisstake of a game, but at least equal to the other platforms! This film needs revisiting sometime...
The Untouchables. In contrast to Red Heat, this is a good game that actually attempts to tell the story of the film in different ways.
Where Time Stood Still: really slick. It's not fair, but if The Great Escape didn't get a vote then this would.

Agree with Cavelon, a really enjoyable maze game.

1. Cobra
2. Daley Thompson's Decathlon
3. Batman the Movie

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Thu Jul 18, 2019 7:35 am Agree with Cavelon, a really enjoyable maze game.

Pretty good for its time, has some nice touches, like the horse skidding to a halt in the intro sequence, and the fact that you have a build a door to leave the level..

Only issues I found was that you can easily get caught out with the enemy respawns/starting positions and the scrolling screen. Also not much of a difficulty curve, it suffers from "Manic Miner syndrome" in that the first level is quite hard.

Phew! Knackered after spending an age at Digitiser Live yesterday evening. Anyway, now for the results of what might have been the biggest poll created here...

Head Over Heels is the clear winner, with 9 votes.

The Great Escape comes second, with 6 votes.

Third place goes jointly to Chase Hq; Daley Thompson's Decathlon and Rainbow Islands with 5 votes each.

Fourth place, with 2 votes each: Firefly; Robocop; Where Time Stood Still

Fifth place, 1 vote each: Cabel; Cobra; Combat School; Frankie Goes To Hollywood; Match Day; Moon Alert; The New Zealand Story; Nightmare Rally; Operation Wolf; Rambo III; Royal Birkdale: Championship Golf

The proportional voting results are quite different...

18 Daley Thompson's Decathlon
12 Great Escape, The
11 Head Over Heels; Rainbow Islands
7 Robocop
6 Cobra
5 Firefly; New Zealand Story, The
4 Chase HQ
3 Combat School; Nightmare Rally; Operation Wolf
2 Knight Rider; Match Day; Match Day II
1 Batman The Movie; Daley Thompson's Olympic Challenge; Gilligan's Gold; Gryzor; Pud Pud; Wizball