The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote

[Spud]

Is Jet Pac one of those games where you had to have been there at the time to appreciate it? I didn't play it until much later and didn't think much of it.

Ditto here.

Although there is probably an element of that in all games of this era.

[Ast A. Moore]

Ditto here.

Although there is probably an element of that in all games of this era.

Sure, but most early Spectrum games can’t hold a candle to many later titles. Since the poll is about best games and not games that are dearest to you, I try to be objective when I vote. Grouping them by the first letter is a bizarre idea, but it’s fun.

[djnzx48]

I never played Jetpac till decades later and it still holds up fine to me. It has its flaws, and the underlying concept is very simple, but it's still fast-paced and addictive. Just avoiding the aliens and getting into the completed rocket at the end of each stage is a great feeling. IMO, some of the best 16K games on the Spectrum hold up today because the limitations they were working with, forcing them to distill the basic game concept into something fun to play and not just adding unnecessary features.

[Ralf]

Yet another vote for Jetpac from me.

I feel obliged to say why Jetpac and not Jet Set Willy

I would say Jet Set Willy is bigger "cult" game. Everybody has heard about it. If you ask some guy who has barely heard about Spectum to mention some Spectrum games he will probably mention Jet Set Willy.

In previous polls I voted for Fairlight and Hobbit even if didn't play them that much and never achieved anything significant in them. Because I just had a feeling that they are great classics.

I don''t have such feeling with Jet Set Willy. For me it aged quite badly. It has simplistic graphics, lacks loading screen, is quite hard, requires pixel perfect jumps, lot of pattern learning to get correct timing, has bugs and so on. I never actually enjoyed it.

On the other hand I spent quite a lot of time with Jetpac and it gave me a great fun of blasting aliens and building rockets. It has very good playability, great graphics for 1983 (think of this rainbow laser) and this special feeling of a real game from arcade salooon. If I had to insert coins somewhere to play it, I certainly would

[Ast A. Moore]

I never played Jetpac till decades later and it still holds up fine to me.

Sure, it’s a fine game. Is it ten times better than—well, looks like every other title in this poll, though? Put it another way, if someone who’s never seen a Spectrum game before asked you to make a case for it by showing him “the best game beginning with J,” would you really go for Jetpac?

[djnzx48]

Well, it might not have the technical features of the other games, but it's right up there in terms of playability. Someone who's never seen a Spectrum game before could learn the basic premise in a few minutes, while more 'advanced' games usually require at least reading instructions before you even know exactly what you're supposed to do.

[Ast A. Moore]

Someone who's never seen a Spectrum game before could learn the basic premise in a few minutes.

Right. I was going more for the “hey, check this out” (as in, “look at it”), rather than “have a go at this.” But, yeah, I see your point.

[Ersh]

I went with Melbourne House's Judge Dredd, cause it deserves at least one vote. It's almost as good as the criminally underrated c64 game, a fair deal easier though, you can pretty much play forever.

[Morkin]

Jetpac FTW..!

Just stands out of the crowd for me, don't think I could vote for anything else. Close to arcade perfection when it was released, and still great to play now.

[Uto]

Choosing between Jet Pac and Jack the Nipper II (which in my opinion is much better than JTN I) was difficult. JTN2 it's an awesome videoadventure game that allows you to explore a lot and so have a lot of fun and enjoy the game a lot without even complete the game. On the other hand, Jet Pac is an awesome arcade that I played a lot and it's incredibly good for an early game.

Finally my vote went to Jack the Nipper II.

[hitm4n]

Don't forget the title is "best CLASSIC Speccy game". This for me, means an earlier title, something between 1982 and 1987 or so and i think if a limit was set on the year, this would have been a more definitive list of CLASSIC games and more tightly run in many cases with fewer candidates for sure.

Jetpac for me.

[PeteProdge]

Don't forget the title is "best CLASSIC Speccy game". This for me, means an earlier title, something between 1982 and 1987 or so and i think if a limit was set on the year, this would have been a more definitive list of CLASSIC games and more tightly run in many cases with fewer candidates for sure.

Jetpac for me.

I came up with 'classic' to label the Spectrum's commercial era - when you could go into high street shops and find new games. Distinguishing it from the homebrew/hobbyist era we're in now. Roughly speaking, classic is 1982-1993. Homebrew would be post-1993.

I don't think classic Spectrum games vanished after 1987. Robocop, one of the biggest selling games of all time, came out in 1988, as did the highly celebrated Chase HQ; Where Time Stood Still and Target Renegade. And I'm not just going to cherry pick that following year...

Batman; Rick Dangerous and Kwik Snax from 1989. Lords Of Chaos; Turrican and Total Recall from 1990. Lemmings and CJ's Elephant Antics from 1991. Um... the cupboard is really bare from 1992, I'll grant you, but Space Crusade and Crystal Kingdom Dizzy are there. 1993 spits out Dr Who Dalek Attack as what is probably the ZX Spectrum's last commercial release seen in a physical shop (in Western Europe at least), and we see the demise of the last two Spectrum magazines.

A hypothetical (and ridiculous) scenario - if you were to be given everything released for the ZX Spectrum BUT ONLY FROM ONE YEAR OF YOUR CHOOSING (you are not allowed anything outside of that year), I think I'd pick 1987. That's definitely the peak of Spectrum gaming quality (and the magazines were on top form). Of course, what came after is certainly not at all shabby, and you got bigger playing areas and more lovely 128 AY music.

With that all said, I find it nice that a 16K game is topping this week's poll! I think there would not be an argument were Jetpac to be declared the best 16K ZX Spectrum game ever.

[Pegaz]

With that all said, I find it nice that a 16K game is topping this week's poll! I think there would not be an argument were Jetpac to be declared the best 16K ZX Spectrum game ever.

Not for me, I prefer Pssst.
Jet Pac is a great arcade, but always too fast and frustrating for me.
I voted for Jet Set Willy because it's a game I've always enjoyed, although graphics are not at the level of some other games.
A game with an incredible atmosphere, which completely brings the player into this twisted imaginary world, created by Matthew Smith.
JSW, like MM, are cult games that define Spectrum, timeless classics..

[WIWC]

I've voted Jasper!, for some reason.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

By the way...


WHO VOTED FOR JUNGLE FEVER?






.... For those who don't get it, it's just an old WoS story I prefer to forget...

[WIWC]

And what about the vote for Jailbreak. It's one of the worst conversions ever.

[R-Tape]

And what about the vote for Jailbreak. It's one of the worst conversions ever.

And which lunatic voted for Jasper?!

Actually I quite like Jasper but it's too hard and has unforgiving collision detection (like 3/4 of Spectrum games then). I'm fond of it but personally would give it a vote for 'Spirit of the Spectrum' rather than best of the year.

[R-Tape]

Don't forget the title is "best CLASSIC Speccy game". This for me, means an earlier title, something between 1982 and 1987 or so and i think if a limit was set on the year, this would have been a more definitive list of CLASSIC games and more tightly run in many cases with fewer candidates for sure.

There is only one title after 1987 here - Jahangir Khan's World Championship Squash and it doesn't have any votes.

Having said that I think we should redo "J" and classify the classic era as 1984 - 1984 for a few letters, then maybe change to 1983 - 1983 for "M"...

[Rorthron]

Having said that I think we should redo "J" and classify the classic era as 1984 - 1984 for a few letters, then maybe change to 1983 - 1983 for "M"...

Seconded.

[WIWC]

And what about the vote for Jailbreak. It's one of the worst conversions ever.

And which lunatic voted for Jasper?!

I have no idea.

[R-Tape]

I have no idea.

I'm not going to name names but I bet it was JuanF.

[hitm4n]

I came up with 'classic' to label the Spectrum's commercial era - when you could go into high street shops and find new games. Distinguishing it from the homebrew/hobbyist era we're in now. Roughly speaking, classic is 1982-1993. Homebrew would be post-1993. I don't think classic Spectrum games vanished after 1987. Robocop, one of the biggest selling games of all time, came out in 1988, as did the highly celebrated Chase HQ; Where Time Stood Still and Target Renegade. And I'm not just going to cherry pick that following year...

It's all good. I wouldn't count the hobbyist era either, but then while only considering the commercial era (up to 1993) what is the classic part of that? I would say the first half or so, which puts it around 87-88. The first 5-6 years? Thats what i mean, games that came after 1987 (or 88), are fantastic, but i can't consider them classic under my thinking.

And don't get me wrong, the latter years produced some of the most awesome games as you've clearly listed. Coders were producing effects no-one had seen before, we heard music we didn't know possible and expansive games that boggled the mind on how they fit into 48k. But i will always class an earlier great as more of a classic.

I'm not having a pop, these votes are fun and its one of the ones i seek out each week, i think the lists are little long sometimes, some of the so called "classics" are a bit dubious to me.

I mean, whoever put Elite into the E round?

[Juan F. Ramirez]

I have no idea.

I'm not going to name names but I bet it was JuanF.

Jasper??? Who's Jasper?

[PeteProdge]

I think we should redo "J" and classify the classic era as 1984 - 1984 for a few letters

Ah, so you're a huge fan of Jack And The Beanstalk.

then maybe change to 1983 - 1983 for "M"...

Not sure why you're so obsessed with Molar Maul, but yeah, we'll arrange something.

[PeteProdge]

It's all good. I wouldn't count the hobbyist era either, but then while only considering the commercial era (up to 1993) what is the classic part of that? I would say the first half or so, which puts it around 87-88. The first 5-6 years?

While the early years of the Speccy brought forth solid classics like Manic Miner; Ant Attack; Jet Set Willy; Chuckie Egg and the Ultimate Play The Game range, there were still a load of utter landfill games that were piddling around with UDG visuals, long BEEPs and slothlike gameplay.

I wasn't a computer owner until 1987 so missed out on these early years, but a visit to a friend who had a Speccy from the off, showed he had a vast collection. I'd pick out a game to load on the basis of a weird and wonderful title, then see it was absolute dregs. Terrible Old Games You've Probably Never Heard Of covers it beautifully.

As a latecomer to the scene, I was pleased with the Imagine games I had been given as a bundle with my +2, some decent arcade conversions there. When I came round to picking out the Imagine efforts from their pre-Ocean days, I was gobsmacked at how awful they were. Even more astounded when I learnt of their high status at the time and how profligate they were.

You can give a huge amount of thanks to the Stampers, Matthew Smith, etc, they really pioneered gameplay and everyone else had to up their game. By around 1987, you'd have budget titles with such quality that they would reasonably have been full price if they were created 2-3 years earlier.

Thats what i mean, games that came after 1987 (or 88), are fantastic, but i can't consider them classic under my thinking.

I've given the early years a bit of a bashing, but yeah, post-1987, with all the hindsight we have now, we can see everything was headed to being arcade or movie licenses. You couldn't really survive as a full price software house putting out entirely original creations. Hewson clung on and delivered some outstanding original titles, but to be a major player, you had to shell out for a recognisable license.

And don't get me wrong, the latter years produced some of the most awesome games as you've clearly listed. Coders were producing effects no-one had seen before, we heard music we didn't know possible and expansive games that boggled the mind on how they fit into 48k.

Yeah, I'm still impressed with Rex and Hammerfist.