Spectrum Computing

I was crap at both. Eugene's Lair was usually the end for me in Manic Miner

But I prefer Manic Miner as it's smaller and you have this feeling of achievement when you completed some screens. In Jet Set Willy I had a walk through few locations and turned it off with feeling that I achieved nothing. It was a too hardcore game for me in the 80s and is even more hardcore for me now.

Has to be Jet Set Willy, it was probably the first exposure to truly "open world" games and provided endless fascination just wandering off to find new rooms - trying to actually complete it wasn't even part of why I played it back in the day (though I have done since). Not until the likes of Knightlore and Head Over Heels did anything else quite meet that glorious ability to just roam around.

I loved exploring in Jet Set Willy when I got it, but the problem was that once you'd seen all the screens - and the ones 'under the drive' were ridiculously hard to reach - you realised there was no way in hell you'd be able to do all that and collect the objects along the way. A few of the screens you had to get through were far, far harder than anything in Manic Miner so playing it any further just seemed like a lost cause.

Manic Miner had a much better design, with the levels getting tougher as you progress but rewarding once you master them. I can now complete it. 'The Warehouse' needs a particular path to complete it, like 'The Bank' but all in one go without stopping. Same with 'Skylab landing bay', although that has a few safe spots. 'Amoebatron's Revenge' is a tough one for hitting your head on things above, and 'Solar Power Generator' is just about flat-out speed.

Also, if you do lose all your lives and need to start again, it's not as much of your life down the drain as if you've done a load of JSW and then die.

Went for MM.

Liked the exploration side of JSW but the 'next screen!' enthusiasm in MM had me gripped.

Difficult choice though, ask me a different year and I'd probably change my mind.

Dark wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2017 10:05 am Back in the day I preferred JSW, seemed so much more to it and each game could be different, depending on where you go. Nowadays I am quite likely to play MM, as I can have a quick game and see how many screens I can complete before moving on to something else. JSW just seems a bit to open ended for my lifestyle at the moment.

I'm the same. Went for MM, but the much younger me would have chosen JSW.

Would anyone say MM 'saved' the spectrum?
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it was the first game that wasn't a bit crap, and had that long term playability.

I wouldn't say it 'saved' it - it wasn't really in any trouble from anything else. It did shift the goalposts for other game developers though, meaning they all had to try a bit harder - but mainly just in the field of platform games. Ultimate's early games like Cookie and Atic Atac were just as influential in showing a level of quality well above the norm.

Wall_Axe wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2017 2:22 pm Would anyone say MM 'saved' the spectrum?

I wouldn't. The Spectrum was already the best-selling home computer in the UK. As Joefish said, there were plenty of good games emerging (Ant Attack is another one). I think MM amd JSW's biggest influence was to give us a flood of platform clones.

Jet Set Willy. Was one of the first games I had bought for me after I got my Spectrum Plus in 1984. My Dad got it on a shopping trip to Asda - they used to sell computer cassettes in a metal rack there. The cover art must have swung it. My brother and I played it constantly. The mansion seemed alive and if you couldn't do a room, you could move on to another one or explore another part of the mansion. People would discuss it non stop at school - reports of rooms went round the playground, some real (The Bridge, The Watchtower) some false (the boat sailing away at a given time). It had it's own lore and spawned a mod scene that's still going today. I played Manic Miner some years after and while the loading screen, title screen and music are better, the gameplay where you can get stuck at a certain cave until you got better didn't appeal after the freedom of the mansion.

Wall_Axe wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2017 2:22 pm Would anyone say MM 'saved' the spectrum?

I think, if anything, time saved the Spectrum.

As time progressed, programmers found out more ways to coax performance and graphics out of the Spectrum - and games improved as a result. If the Spectrum had been replaced with a new model sooner, then the quality of the games probably wouldn't be as good.

If you look at the quality of games for the ZX81 - which had a relatively short production life, compared to the Spectrum and you'll see what I am trying to get at. As the years have passed, the ZX81 hobbyists have managed to do things that would have been thought impossible BITD.

bob_fossil wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2017 11:08 pm some false (the boat sailing away at a given time). It had it's own lore and spawned a mod scene that's still going today.

I heard that one too!

Plus that flaming trailer in Lunar Jetman. I must have spent hours looking for that!

Wasn't the island an April Fools thing in Crash?

And I think the Lunar Jetman trailer mockup appeared in that mag too.

Morkin wrote: ↑Fri Dec 01, 2017 9:07 am Wasn't the island an April Fools thing in Crash?

And I think the Lunar Jetman trailer mockup appeared in that mag too.

Next you'll be telling me Lloyd Mangram didn't exist.