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The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 10:13 am
by PeteProdge
Andrew Hewson. Thank you for bringing some of the greatest games to the ZX Spectrum, maintaining a full price software house into the late 1980s and garnering a strong reputation, all without resorting to buying an arcade/movie/TV/sports license.
A lot to choose from here, and I'll be honest, some of the earlier titles are a bit ropey, but hey, we have the genius of Cecco's output, there's Nebulus, Quazatron, Technician Ted, Zynaps... so many fantastic titles. And by this time, the visual impact of Hewson was truly outstanding. They've really pushed for graphical excellence in every area.
Right, you lot have seven days starting from... 10:15am here on Sunday 28th July...
3D Lunattack
3D Seiddab Attack
3D Space-Wars
Astroclone
Avalon
Backgammon
City Slicker
Cybernoid
Cybernoid II: The Revenge
Di-Lithium Lift
Dragontorc
Eliminator
Evening Star
Exolon
Fantasia Diamond
Firelord
Gunrunner
Heathrow Air Traffic Control
Heathrow International Air Traffic Control
Impossaball
Knight Driver
Kraal
Marauder
Maze Chase
Maze Mania
Nebulus
Netherworld
Nightflite
Nightflite II
Pyracurse
Quazatron
Quest Adventure
Ranarama
Southern Belle
Spectral Panic
Specvaders
Stormlord
Stormlord II: Deliverance
Super Cup Football
Technician Ted
Technician Ted: The Megamix
Uridium
Uridium Plus
Zynaps
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 10:50 am
by Vampyre
Hewson didn't half have some quality titles. So many great games but I've gone for Quazatron. One of the all-time great 8-bit games on any format.
1. Quazatron
2. Exolon
3. Nebulus
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 10:51 am
by WIWC
Lots of good stuff, of course, but my vote goes to Nebulus.
1 - Nebulus
2 - Zynaps
3 - Firelord
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 1:16 pm
by Ast A. Moore
Nebulus is an obvious choice for me. Spent many a day trying to help the little blighter get to the top of the tower.
The only time I played
Exolon extensively was when I was testing
my bug fix for it.
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 2:13 pm
by Lee P
Tough decision as I love so many of their games, but I've gone for Cybernoid. Great graphics, just the right level of difficulty, and probably my favourite AY tune of any Speccy game.
Exolon, Firelord, Nebulus and Rana Rama would probably be the next five. And if Anarchy (budget Rack-It release) had been on the list I might well have voted for it.
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 2:32 pm
by PeteProdge
Lee Spoons wrote: ↑Sun Jul 28, 2019 2:13 pm
...if Anarchy (budget Rack-It release) had been on the list I might well have voted for it.
It's actually in
the Rack-It poll. At time of writing, nobody has voted, so go for it!
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 2:40 pm
by Pegaz
Tough choice between Cybernoid, Nebulus and Ranarama.
Still, I voted for Cybernoid, the game that impressed me most at that time.
I also have to mention Nightflighte, my first contact with flight simulators.
Although fully written in BASIC, I spent many hours with him and always bring me a great dose of nostalgia...
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 3:13 pm
by Juan F. Ramirez
Decisions, decisions!
Exolon got my vote. Excellent game by R. Cecco. An example of how linear games can't be boring.
1 - Exolon
2 - Firelord
3 - Avalon
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 4:41 pm
by Nick
I voted for TT 128k in the end. As much as I like the 48k version it's too hard to complete if you don't know the order of tasks, whereas the tasks are numbered instead of just guesswork on the Megamix version.
1. Technician Ted - The Megamix
2. Exolon
3. Firelord
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 6:09 pm
by ZXDunny
Cybernoid
Exolon
Marauder
...And eff YOU for making me choose.
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 7:24 pm
by Hank Scorpio
1. Firelord
2. Zynaps
3. Exolon
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Sun Jul 28, 2019 9:05 pm
by PeteProdge
ZXDunny wrote: ↑Sun Jul 28, 2019 6:09 pm
...And eff YOU for making me choose.
Always the way, isn't it? If there was a clear outright winner (like
the Electric Dreams poll, come on, let's be honest), it wouldn't be as interesting.
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 8:25 am
by Metalbrain
1 - Nebulus
2 - Exolon
3 - Ranarama
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 8:53 am
by PQR
1 :: Quazatron
2 :: Ranarama
3 :: Zynaps
Special mention: Cybernoid, Exolon, Firelord
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2019 10:55 am
by stupidget
1 - zynaps
2 - Exolon
3 - Tech Ted
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2019 3:06 pm
by Fahnn
Although my vote for the best game was quite easy, it was extremely difficult to come up with a top three. I better post it now before I change my mind again:
1. Quazatron
2. Nebulus
3. Ranarama
I reckon if I added up the time I spent playing those three, it would run into weeks rather than days and all of them are still extremely playable today. As I said in the discussion thread, Quazatron is possibly as good as an 8-bit game can get, it's an absolute masterpiece. Nebulus is a fantastically original concept, beautifully realised and tremendous fun and I'm putting Ranarama third because it was just so absorbing.
But it's a shame to leave others out. I spent a lot of time with Zynaps and Exolon and going back further, I always preferred Technician Ted to JSW. Netherworld and Uridium are great, but the C64 versions were the definitive ones. Similarly, I think Eliminator was a bit of a stretch for the Spectrum and really needed a 16-bit computer to make the concept work (I played it loads on the Amiga). The Cybernoids were a bit after my time but I've played them since; they look lovely but I find them a bit brutal in their difficulty level.
Finally, there was a game that I can't quite believe that I missed at the time, which is Firelord. I was and still am a massive fan of Starquake so it's a bit weird that I didn't play this when it came out, I would have thought that I'd have been all over it. Anyway, I've spent a few hours on it the last couple of days and whilst it looks fantastic (some of the best graphics I've seen on a Spectrum), it just has too many similarities in gameplay to Starquake and suffers in comparison, because almost everything it does, Starquake does better. Maybe I'm rushing to judgement here and I'll almost certainly be playing it again, but that's my impression right now.
Anyway, yeah, Hewson put out some great stuff. Their tenth-best game was better than anything that most other software houses ever released.
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 1:13 pm
by Vampyre
Fahnn wrote: ↑Wed Jul 31, 2019 3:06 pmAnyway, yeah, Hewson put out some great stuff. Their tenth-best game was better than anything that most other software houses ever released.
Couldn't agree more. Just look at some of the games that haven't even got a vote yet: Avalon, Impossaball, Pyracurse, Stormlord and even Uridium. All of them scored highly in the mags of the day. Impossaball is a great game and concept.
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 3:22 pm
by DouglasReynholm
Genuinely can't pick one after 20 minutes of ruminating, just doesn't seem right. Will sit this one out. What a great software company they were - not to say there's no rubbish in there but that's not what we're voting on this week
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Sun Aug 04, 2019 12:51 pm
by PeteProdge
Wow. Really astonished that someone voted for Maze Chase. SRSLY!?
Nebulus wins this one, with 9 votes.
Closely followed by Quazatron, with 7 votes.
Cybernoid has 5 votes, putting it in third place.
Exolon is fourth, with 4 votes.
Zynaps is fifth, with 3 votes.
Joint sixth place, 2 votes each: Dragontorc; Firelord and Technician Ted.
Joint seventh place, 1 vote each: Maze Chase; Ranarama; Stormlord II and Technician Ted The Megamix.
Proportionately, there is a different winner!
14 Exolon
9 Nebulus
9 Quazatron
8 Zynaps
7 Firelord
4 Ranarama
3 Cybernoid
3 Technician Ted: The Megamix
1 Avalon
1 Marauder
1 Technician Ted
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Sun Aug 04, 2019 2:13 pm
by Juan F. Ramirez
Surprised neither Avalon nor Uridium gets any vote.
Anyway, it's been a hard choice this time as Hewson is one of the great companies!
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Sun Aug 04, 2019 5:00 pm
by PeteProdge
Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2019 2:13 pm
Surprised neither Avalon nor Uridium gets any vote.
Anyway, it's been a hard choice this time as Hewson is one of the great companies!
Very stunned at Cybernoid II getting utterly nothing in both voting systems. Come on, it was ace!
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Sun Aug 04, 2019 7:56 pm
by ZXDunny
PeteProdge wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2019 5:00 pm
Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2019 2:13 pm
Surprised neither Avalon nor Uridium gets any vote.
Anyway, it's been a hard choice this time as Hewson is one of the great companies!
Very stunned at Cybernoid II getting utterly nothing in both voting systems. Come on, it was ace!
This is the real problem here though, innit? There were soooooo many fantastic games (Cybernoid 1+2 being amongst my favourites) from Hewson that even with a personal top 3 you couldn't choose between them all.
Would have been better off with a poll for the worst, tbh. You could narrow that down more easily.
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2019 12:47 pm
by Vampyre
PeteProdge wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2019 5:00 pm
Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2019 2:13 pm
Surprised neither Avalon nor Uridium gets any vote.
Anyway, it's been a hard choice this time as Hewson is one of the great companies!
Very stunned at Cybernoid II getting utterly nothing in both voting systems. Come on, it was ace!
If it's any consolation its programmer came out equal first when tallying the points for their games:
Raffaele Cecco: 10 points (5 Cybernoid, 4 Exolon, 1 Stormlord 2)
Steve Turner: 10 points (2 Dragontorc, 7 Quazatron, 1 Ranarama)
John M Phillips: 9 points (9 Nebulus)
Dominic Robinson: 3 points (Zynaps)
Steve Marsden/Dave Cooke: 3 points (2 Technician Ted), (1 Technician Ted Remix)
Stephen Crowe: 2 points (2 Firelord)
John Hardman: 1 point (1 Maze Chase)
That's a list of some mighty Speccy developers! Maybe an idea for another type of poll?
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2019 7:05 pm
by WIWC
Nebulus deserved the victory.
Re: The best Speccy game by Hewson: vote
Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2019 8:45 pm
by hitm4n
WIWC wrote: ↑Mon Aug 05, 2019 7:05 pm
Quazatron deserved the victory.
Quite right