The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

General software. From trouble with the Banyan Tree to OCP Art Studio, post any general software chat here. Could include game challenges...
Post Reply
User avatar
PeteProdge
Bugaboo
Posts: 3521
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 9:03 am

The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by PeteProdge »

That's what Mr Biffo is musing on in his recent blog entry...
https://www.digitiser2000.com/main-page ... games-ever

It covers...
  • Urban Upstart
  • Soho Sex Quest
  • Super Trolley
  • Trashman
  • EastEnders
  • Andy Capp
  • Grange Hill
  • The Archers
  • A Day In The Life
  • Flunky
Reheated Pixels - a combination of retrogaming, comedy and factual musing, is here!
New video: Nine ZX Spectrum magazine controversies - How Crash, Your Sinclair and Sinclair User managed to offend the world!
Nomad
Manic Miner
Posts: 600
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2017 12:38 pm

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by Nomad »

Nah, I once got a +3 disk game from a charity shop. It was 1 pound. :lol: I spent the whole journey back home imagining how great the experience of having another disk game for my spectrum was going to be. How fast it was going to load and wondered how strong a chess game I was going to get out of this program..

Imagine my disappointment as I loaded the disk only to find it was blank. :lol:

I figured 'I am still ok - I got myself a spectrum disk I can use..' Nope.. the disk became unreadable a few days later.

Now that is depressing.
Ralf
Rick Dangerous
Posts: 2279
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:59 am
Location: Poland

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by Ralf »

It's a good, deeper read that you don't have often these days. It's almost educational, I actually learnt a few things from it.
But...

Are these games really "depressing"? Did you ever consider "Trashman", "Flunky" or "Andy Capp" depressing?
I would say they are rather funny.

And you know what all these games have in common?

They are all set in Britain in the 80s. Not in America, not in some fantasy land or on some remote planet but in more or less realistic UK.

Maybe it's just me but I have impression that the writer simply doesn't like UK or maybe doesn't like 80's UK so he finds everything about it
depressing.

Well, I suppose he didn't live in the 80s in Eastern Block ;)
User avatar
Joefish
Rick Dangerous
Posts: 2042
Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2017 10:26 am

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by Joefish »

I would have suggested Adrian Mole, a miserable text adventure adaptation of a desperately miserable 'funny' book.

Although the standards of proofreading evident in that article aren't exactly inspiring either...
User avatar
R-Tape
Site Admin
Posts: 6353
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:46 am

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by R-Tape »

Ralf wrote: Wed Mar 14, 2018 3:22 pm Well, I suppose he didn't live in the 80s in Eastern Block ;)
They were busy making things like Galactic Gunners...
User avatar
Joefish
Rick Dangerous
Posts: 2042
Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2017 10:26 am

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by Joefish »

Advanced Political Dissident Extermination Simulator.
User avatar
Kweepa
Manic Miner
Posts: 311
Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2018 6:14 pm
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by Kweepa »

Dark! Definitely crap games comp material!
Interesting that the blogger wrote for EastEnders...
I'd say he's looking at them as black comedy, and not as actually depressing, given the somewhat tongue in cheek writing style.
User avatar
R-Tape
Site Admin
Posts: 6353
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:46 am

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by R-Tape »

PeteProdge wrote: Wed Mar 14, 2018 2:37 pm [*]The Archers
Did anyone actually buy this?
Nomad
Manic Miner
Posts: 600
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2017 12:38 pm

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by Nomad »

Depends where you grew up in the UK during the 80s. :lol: There was an image that was pushed to the outside world but when you looked closely there were lots of 'not quite right' stuff going on. I think this was reflected in the games at the time as well as the culture. You see it in books/comics also.

For example. I would often be told by my father 'Why do you want to stay in a POW camp? You know how many died their?' When I would ask my parents 'Lets stay in Butlins/Pontins this year.' :lol: Unbelievably - this was actually true. The sea side holiday resorts were for the most part former POW camps that were converted after the prisoners either died or were sent home (mid to late 1950s I think).

So you had members of local population taking their vacations in former POW camps. I think that points to how grim the 80s were for many normal people.. :lol:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/trainsand ... 772566059/

Not to knock the country, it just there were many things like that. You had all these buildings and land that had just fallen into decay. Much of the industry had been closed and the sites were just left in ruins. Steel works, coal mines, manufacturing sites. I spent my childhood playing in the ruins of these places (I used to collect the machinery parts I found interesting, you could find stuff like drill bits, blasting caps, all kinds of bits and bobs just discarded.)

Why would kids be playing in abandoned industrial sites? Because there were no structured activities that didn't cost money or didn't have creepy guys running them. (I often am very thankful my parents didn't think it was worth paying for me to join the boys club :lol: )

Ok it is not quite so bleak as Poland would have been during the 80s (I would imagine) But to compare, the rural places outside of Lodz are very very similar to what you will find in the South west of the UK. I was shocked.

Much of the music of that period reflected the landscape - especially stuff like sinth pop.
User avatar
Alessandro
Dynamite Dan
Posts: 1908
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 11:10 am
Location: Messina, Italy
Contact:

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by Alessandro »

Trashman, Andy Capp, Flunky, A Day In The Life are quite funny games in their own right - heck , in the last one, you even get to play as Uncle Clive himself! :lol: On the other hand, I never watched East Enders (it was never broadcast down here), but if it was as bad as the game, then it would not have been exactly an uplifting experience, I think.

Image

That said, I wouldn't want to enter "shameless plug" mode, honest, but I believe the most depressing Spectrum game ever is that short text adventure I created for the CSSCGC 2015, The Trunk, based on Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun movie. What I put at the beginning explains it all: This game is bleak, painful and unpleasant - just like war itself. Don't say you weren't warned.

You take the role of a hospitalized American WWI soldier who, after having been hit by artillery fire, lost his limbs and is blind, deaf and dumb, and so heavily sedated that he suffers from religious-themed hallucinations (there is a short cutscene in the middle of the game reflecting this).

I put some touches of black humor here and there (e.g. the doctors' dialogue at the beginning), but I think the final result is altogether very sad and depressing. Again, just like war itself.
Spoiler
The game does not end, or better said, it freezes when you are finally aware that no one will put you out of your misery and you will spend the rest of your life lying in a hospital bed as a human trunk, hence the title.
User avatar
R-Tape
Site Admin
Posts: 6353
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:46 am

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by R-Tape »

Alessandro wrote: Thu Mar 15, 2018 8:56 am Image

That said, I wouldn't want to enter "shameless plug" mode, honest, but I believe the most depressing Spectrum game ever is that short text adventure I created for the CSSCGC 2015, The Trunk, based on Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun movie. What I put at the beginning explains it all: This game is bleak, painful and unpleasant - just like war itself. Don't say you weren't warned.

You take the role of a hospitalized American WWI soldier who, after having been hit by artillery fire, lost his limbs and is blind, deaf and dumb, and so heavily sedated that he suffers from religious-themed hallucinations (there is a short cutscene in the middle of the game reflecting this).

I put some touches of black humor here and there (e.g. the doctors' dialogue at the beginning), but I think the final result is altogether very sad and depressing. Again, just like war itself.
Spoiler
The game does not end, or better said, it freezes when you are finally aware that no one will put you out of your misery and you will spend the rest of your life lying in a hospital bed as a human trunk, hence the title.


The Trunk isn't depressing - it's harrowing!
User avatar
Alessandro
Dynamite Dan
Posts: 1908
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 11:10 am
Location: Messina, Italy
Contact:

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by Alessandro »

R-Tape wrote: Thu Mar 15, 2018 9:11 am The Trunk isn't depressing - it's harrowing!
Sorry Dave, could you please explain the difference? Do have patience, I am not a native speaker and such nuances could be lost on me :)
User avatar
R-Tape
Site Admin
Posts: 6353
Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:46 am

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by R-Tape »

Sorry Ale - I take harrowing as distressing and shocked, depressing as subdued, can't summon the energy to get out of bed.

The Trunk manages to cover both bases though, initially distressing the player, then leaving them in a depressed state :mrgreen:
Nomad
Manic Miner
Posts: 600
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2017 12:38 pm

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by Nomad »

I think the term does not translate well into Italian. It depends on context.

Harrowing can be thought of as either...

Heart-breaking - straziante
Spoiler
In Afrikaans its the same .. hartverskeurende :lol:
Desperate - alla disperata

Tragic - alla tragica

I don't think there is a real way to explain harrowing as all of these translations mean different things. There has to be a German world for it that explains much better :lol:

I think of it as an experience that happens to someone that is difficult/changeling but that has a positive effect on the character after.

You would not want it to happen to you but afterwards you are a stronger person for it.

Depressing there is no growth after. I guess that is why its better to have a harrowing experience rather than it just being depressing.
User avatar
Vampyre
Manic Miner
Posts: 833
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:51 pm
Contact:

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by Vampyre »

Ah, the vagaries of the English language. The late, great Dave Allen explains it best (NSFW: swearing).

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IfoUM6a4bA[/media]
ZX Spectrum Reviews REST API: http://zxspectrumreviews.co.uk/
Ralf
Rick Dangerous
Posts: 2279
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:59 am
Location: Poland

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by Ralf »

Depends where you grew up in the UK during the 80s
Okay, now when I think more, growing up in a small postindustrial town may be depressing, even if you live
in one of (theoretically) richest and most influencial countries in the world like UK.

That's what the first mentioned game - Urban Upstart talks about, I guess.

And you have this rainy, misty, cold wheather most of the time ;)

I wonder if it's the same all around the world or there are countries more happy than others. We should ask Einar how it is in Brazil ;)
Do some people find their live depressing there or is it sun, samba, carnival and dancing in the streets all the time ;)
User avatar
Einar Saukas
Bugaboo
Posts: 3070
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:48 pm

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by Einar Saukas »

Ralf wrote: Thu Mar 15, 2018 11:04 am
Depends where you grew up in the UK during the 80s
[...]
We should ask Einar how it is in Brazil ;)
In Brazil, 1980s was the last decade of a long military dictatorship, and the first decade of a hyperinflation so high it peaked over 4100% per year in 1990. Money at the time was loosing value so fast, the government had to replace tons of money with a new currency every few years. Now 1 real (our current currency) literally corresponds to 2,750,000,000,000 cruzeiros (our currency in early 1980s) or 2,750,000,000,000,000,000 reis (our currency until 1942).
User avatar
Morkin
Bugaboo
Posts: 3251
Joined: Mon Nov 13, 2017 8:50 am
Location: Bristol, UK

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by Morkin »

Alessandro wrote: Thu Mar 15, 2018 8:56 amI believe the most depressing Spectrum game ever is that short text adventure I created for the CSSCGC 2015, The Trunk, based on Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun movie. What I put at the beginning explains it all: This game is bleak, painful and unpleasant - just like war itself. Don't say you weren't warned.

You take the role of a hospitalized American WWI soldier who, after having been hit by artillery fire, lost his limbs and is blind, deaf and dumb, and so heavily sedated that he suffers from religious-themed hallucinations (there is a short cutscene in the middle of the game reflecting this).
I've been meaning to watch that film for years, as I think it featured in Metallica's 'One' video..?

Do you have to know morse code to 'solve' the adventure by any chance? ;)
My Speccy site: thirdharmoniser.com
User avatar
Alessandro
Dynamite Dan
Posts: 1908
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2017 11:10 am
Location: Messina, Italy
Contact:

Re: The most depressing ZX Spectrum games ever?

Post by Alessandro »

Morkin wrote: Thu Mar 22, 2018 11:08 am Do you have to know morse code to 'solve' the adventure by any chance? ;)
No. (The solution is included with the game file anyway.)
Post Reply