Spectrum Computing

Wow, what a coincidence that we look to homebrew games beginning with H, at this point in the retrogaming scene, as five of these games are based on Horace - the weird alien-type character that arrived on the ZX Spectrum early on in its life in a trilogy of games. As some of you know, a chap claiming to own the IP for the Horace games, seems to be behind the take-down of some videos from a popular retrogaming YouTuber. It's questionable whether his claims - he doesn't like the sexualisation of the Horace character - are legitimate, as I've yet to see any legal proof he has such rights to the character, and also, yesterday, he endorsed another YouTuber having videos that compare one of the characters in the game to a famous sex pest and also has commentary on a very graphic sexual level. This is a family forum, so I can't really give details on that, suffice to say I think this supposed IP owner, who runs some companies selling retrogaming products/services, has alienated a big chunk of potential customers through his heavy-handed and questionable actions.

Anyway, enough about the Gerald Ratner of retrogaming, here we are looking at the H games you suggested. This poll runs for seven days, so concludes around 11am (or probably an hour out, what with daylight savings time about to hit next weekend) on Sunday 27th October 2019.

Harbinger: Convergence by APSIS


Harbinger 2: The Void by APSIS


Heart Stealer by Timmy


Heart Stealer 2


Hedgehogs by kas29


Heritage by Rafal Miazga


Heroes Rescue by Defecto Digital Studios


Hibernated 1: This Place Is Death by Pond Software Ltd


Higgledy Piggledy by Cronosoft


Higgy 2: The Wrath of McMania by Beebush Games


Hobbit 128


Hobbit, El (Vah-Ka's Cut) by the Mojon Twins


El Hobbit by Alejandro Valero


Hombre Que Susurraba A Las Balas, El by Radastan


Homebrew by Jonathan Cauldwell


Homer Simpson in Russia by MG & Co


Homer Simpson 2: In Russia Again by MG & Co


Horace And The Robots


Horace Goes To The Tower by The Mojon Twins


Horace In The Mystic Woods by Bob Smith


Horace Miner


Horace Miner 2


House on the Other Side of the Storm, The by Pablo Martinez Merino


Hunt on Sparrows by Green Bit


Husband Chores


Hyperkill

The drama didn't affect my vote, I would've picked Horace in the Mystic Woods regardless. A great platformer, although the inertia takes some getting used to.

Hardly played any of these. Gotta give ’em a try when I have some spare time.

Aye there's been some discussion of this nastiness on this forum here and here.

I've gone for:

1 - Hibernated - 1
2 - Higgledy Piggledy
3 - Horace and the Mystic Woods

Higgledy Piggledy came close to top spot. It's very enjoyable, but a large part of its allure is the originality. Hibernated, on the other hand, is (forgive the word) merely a very well made text adventure. This isn't my favourite genre and yet it really drew me in. Horace came third. It's a very decent Horace tribute.

I feel bad for not including The Hobbit reload. I saw the blood, sweat and tears that went into it. The development threads alone were a treat—I remember laughing my cock off at the "valley scene" one, in which after much wrangling, Dunny rather bluntly pointed out 'the elephant in the room' (the screen looked a bit rude). However, given that it's not an original game, I would be voting for what it represents, rather than the game itself.

R-Tape wrote: ↑Sun Oct 20, 2019 5:51 pm Horace came third. It's a very decent Horace tribute.

Thanks for the vote

I don’t consider HITMW a tribute though - it’s a conversion to the Speccy of the actual fourth published title in the series, which was produced in the mid-90s for the Psion series 3 palmtop. It was written with the support of the author of the original, and I referenced the C source-code of that title in order that the conversion be as faithful as possible. Some changes had to be made to accommodate the smaller screen, but the movement, jumping, and inertia were scaled according. (I even purchased the game and required hardware just to be able to play test it!)

Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Sun Oct 20, 2019 12:29 pm Hardly played any of these. Gotta give ’em a try when I have some spare time.

Yeah, me too. Got a few days before the vote closes at least. Will try to give a few of them a go.

1. Husband Chores
2. The Hobbit 128
3. Hibernated 1

1. El Hobbit (Vah kas cut)
2. Horace In The Mystic Wood
3. House On The Other Side Of The Storm

Well, the winner of this is the ABSOLUTELY NON-SEXUALISED AND TOTALLY FAMILY FRIENDLY Horace In The Mystic Woods, with 4 votes.

Second place jointly has Harbinger: Convergence and Hibernated 1 - 3 votes each.

Third place jointly has Hobbit 128 and El Hobbit (Vah-Ka's Cut) - 2 votes each.

Fourth place, with 1 vote each: Heart Stealer 2; Heritage; Homebrew and Husband Chores.

The proportional top-three voting results are a bit different...

Hibernated 1 4
Horace And The Mystic Woods 3
Husband Chores 3
Hobbit El (Vah-Ka's Cut) 3
Higgledy Piggledy 2
Hobbit 128 2
House On The Other Side Of The Storm 1