"Very British" games

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dfzx
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"Very British" games

Post by dfzx »

The BBC are running an article on the Spectrum Next which, referring to the original machine, includes the comment "A lot of the games were very British, which you don’t really get nowadays."

There's a thought. What games are "very British" and why? Contributions from our friends outside the UK might be quite illuminating here. :)
Derek Fountain, author of the ZX Spectrum C Programmer's Getting Started Guide and various open source games, hardware and other projects, including an IF1 and ZX Microdrive emulator.
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by dfzx »

I grew up on a long, straight residential road, where the men used to run around behind a bin lorry coming into the houses and gardens to pick up bins which they emptied into the truck. Despite the clearly incorrect name, "Trashman" still rings very British to me. :lol:
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DouglasReynholm
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by DouglasReynholm »

First one that springs to mind is Melbourne Houses 'Terrormolinos', an adventure about Brits on the P?s? in Spain. Doesn't get much more British than that. I remember the advertisement strap line years on without looking it up. 'Wish you were here in Torremolinos - instead of me!'
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ianace
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by ianace »

Very obvious one manic Miner /Jet set willy. All the Monty Python humour in it.
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by XTM »

Skool Daze and Back to Skool, an interesting "insight" into what a British school looked like for people not from the U.K., back then before you could inform yourself over the internet. I don't think I ever saw footage of a British school on German TV in the 80s, not that it possibly wasn't ever shown, just that I personally never had seen anything.

How to be a complete Bas**rd
... I don't think any other country would have come up with a game like this. Slightly in the same vein albeit a lot less naughty was Jack the Nipper which I absolutely loved, great humour, also with the funny shop names ("Gummo's Chomping Molars" etc.).
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by 5MinuteRetro »

I'd say that Everyone's a Wally has to be high on this list.

It has a cloth-capped northerner, a chavvy missus before the term chav was even coined, a spiky-haired punk, an away-with-the-fairies hippy, a cowboy builder, all variously named after that most British of phrases "(every) Tom, Dick and Harry" -- and with a very British novelty pop single on the B-side of the cassette!
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by Ralf »

Flunky
a game about the British royal Family

Andy Capp
based on comic strip, a lot of local folklore and stereotypes

Yes, Prime Minister
a political simulation with lots of local humour

I'll try to think of more later. Maybe being not British I spot "Britishness" more clearly ;)
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Juan F. Ramirez
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

Any cricket game...
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TMD2003
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by TMD2003 »

Advanced Tea Drinking Simulator, a lesser-known title from Codemasters that recently changed hands for £1,329,063 on eBay. Even The Great Giana Sisters can't match that!

"AMAZING ACTION! TEN varieties of TEA! FIVE TEAPOTS! Even the chance of DROPPING THE CUP so it SMASHES ON THE FLOOR!"
- David Darling, getting excited as usual.
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by Vampyre »

dfzx wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 2:53 pm I grew up on a long, straight residential road, where the men used to run around behind a bin lorry coming into the houses and gardens to pick up bins which they emptied into the truck. Despite the clearly incorrect name, "Trashman" still rings very British to me. :lol:
I always found it quite amusing in that it's ultra-British in every respect except for the name. Does anyone in the UK refer to them as anything other than the "binmen"? Can't say I blame New Generation "Trashman" sounds so much better than "Binman".

Could I say Pi-Eye'd? It about getting bladdered at the pub which is about as British as it gets (pre-Covid of course!). Oh, Pub Games as well.
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by TMD2003 »

Also, serious suggestion: Big Ben Strikes Again, given that it starred Maggie, some government "vegetables", and the object of the game was to chase them up for some scandalous story or another. Chances are, it's the News Of The World involved.

I've been trying to identify all the "celebs" in the game. From the Screen Kit:

Image

Top left is Thatch (obviously, even at this resolution).
Top middle is most likely Douglas Hurd (I thought possibly John Major, but it doesn't look like he was in a high-ranking cabinet position in 1985).
Top right: no idea.
Bottom left is probably Norman Tebbit.
Bottom middle is Nigel Lawson (and the object you need to bring him is a red briefcase with "NL" on it!)
Bottom right is... a chimpanzee dressed as a policeman, for some unfathomable reason.
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by Pegaz »

The Plot, of course.

The object of the game is to help Guy Fawkes to blow up the Houses of
Parliament.


Apparently a modified Heartland engine, but still very nice game...
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by bob_fossil »

Hampstead is an obvious choice. I'd also say Frankie with it's terraced house setting and having to solve a whodunnit during the game.
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by Nick »

Games based on the English Civil War such as: War Of The Roses, Cromwell At War, Roundheads etc.

There's also The Beast by Marlin Games, which is a text adventure based on a big cat sighting in a sleepy English rural community.
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by akeley »

Urban Upstart - can't get more British than that.
Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole
Chubby Gristle - not sure about this one
Turbo Esprit - Bond-esque action in...Romford :D
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by Ralf »

Do games about Robin Hood count as British?
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by hitm4n »

Everyones a Wally sprang to mind immediately for me.

Then having a think, what about games based on british tv shows, Supergran, Minder, Grange Hill, Blockbusters, erm....
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: "Very British" games

Post by uglifruit »

New Wheels John (automata)
The Biz (virgin)

..both strike me as very "British".

A dodgy second hand car dealer simulator
And
Music Business simulator where you'll make £8 from playing a gig at a girl scouts' hut.
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by Rorthron »

TMD2003 wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 5:24 pm
Top middle is most likely Douglas Hurd (I thought possibly John Major, but it doesn't look like he was in a high-ranking cabinet position in 1985).
Top right: no idea.
Top middle could also be Geoffrey Howe.

Don't know the other one.
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by clebin »

Rorthron wrote: Sat Aug 15, 2020 9:41 am
TMD2003 wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 5:24 pm
Top middle is most likely Douglas Hurd (I thought possibly John Major, but it doesn't look like he was in a high-ranking cabinet position in 1985).
Top right: no idea.
Top middle could also be Geoffrey Howe.

Don't know the other one.
I’d guess at Michael Heseltine purely from the long hair.
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by akeley »

Auf Wiedersehen Pet
1984
Harrier Attack (ouch)
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by toot_toot »

I love the references to games with British themes, but for me I always think of the 8-bit home micro scene, especially the Spectrum, producing games that were very European (I guess mostly British for the speccy) in style which were never really seen again when consoles became popular.

Trashman is an obvious one, not just in the gameplay being a binman, but it's the sort of game you just don't see after the 8-bit home micro days. A single flick screen game with your character plodding slowly about while avoiding cars.

While the single screen platformer collectathon originated from Miner 2049 made in the States, it seemed the British designers really went with that one with the genre producing games like Jack the Nipper II which really disappeared after the 8-bit micros had their heyday. I guess people just wanted scrolling platformers after Super Mario Bros came out.

I also think British developers were great at taking concepts from arcade games and turning them into games that had a very unique feel, games like Ranarama and Chuckie Egg were clearly influenced by Gauntlet and Donkey Kong, but they turned them into something very different which again seemed to die off after the home consoles and official licensing became popular.
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by dfzx »

Stefan wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 10:02 pm [*]Samantha Fox Strip Poker
That was my second call after Trashman, I guessed someone would think of it!
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Re: "Very British" games

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

Is there something more 'British' than the weird habit of appearing naked at a football ground?

Image
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