I'm not going to name names but I bet it was JuanF.
The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote
Re: The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote
Re: The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote
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.PeteProdge wrote: ↑Thu May 03, 2018 10:51 am 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...
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?
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: The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote
Ah, so you're a huge fan of Jack And The Beanstalk.
Not sure why you're so obsessed with Molar Maul, but yeah, we'll arrange something.
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Re: The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote
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.
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.
Yeah, I'm still impressed with Rex and Hammerfist.hitm4n wrote: ↑Fri May 04, 2018 9:35 pmAnd 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.
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Re: The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote
I think it is unfair to compare the commercial classic titles to the stuff that came after because the intent and development cycle/constraints are so different.
The main thing that strikes me and causing the nostalgia rose tinted glasses to crack was seeing just how little commercial coders cared about the product. If there was any thought given to innovative game-play, 'artistic' expression, making statements whatever it rarely shows up in commercial spectrum titles and when it does its kind of in-spite of the constraints rather than because of them. The hard facts are that most of the stuff in the archive is unimaginative regurgitation of safe themes, mechanics. Things the publisher was confident was going to sale, was easy to produce, and had a fast turn around.
The reliance on licences properties towards the end of the commercial period is a logical conclusion to this approach. As you can be fairly certain that a IP with brand recognition, that is promoted on other media/has merchandising is going to have a better chance of selling whatever you can shovel up. Given that the licence is not free, publishers would be looking to get the greatest return at the lowest risk possible. So it makes sense these titles rarely innovated and were in many cases just graphics swaps. It does not make sense if you are relying on getting titles out quickly to invest time in mechanics, new code that is untested and there is little evidence it would affect the sales.
It seems with the licence games, publishers were banking on brand recognition, cross promotion to offset the cost of the licence purchase, with a software product that had the minimum of development time, that re-used tested code. From what I can see publishers looked to get multiple licences, shoot for a minimum number of units sold to fans of the IP and anything over that was a bonus that was then rolled back into the next licence rights purchase.
The downfall of this is because production cycles were tight and tied to films/cultural products that were still in development you could sink money into a property that didn't perform well in its primary domain (movie/tv series/album/book). The more I think about this the more publishers were essentially gambling the future of the company on products they had not even seen yet. As the cost of the licence was based on prior performance of that brand and predicted sales of the new offering...
In simple terms, the film everyone thought was going to be awesome because of some fad or prior products did well bombs, tanks interest in the spectrum game. All the while the publisher has paid for a licence with the expectation of a much different marketplace reality.
The main thing that strikes me and causing the nostalgia rose tinted glasses to crack was seeing just how little commercial coders cared about the product. If there was any thought given to innovative game-play, 'artistic' expression, making statements whatever it rarely shows up in commercial spectrum titles and when it does its kind of in-spite of the constraints rather than because of them. The hard facts are that most of the stuff in the archive is unimaginative regurgitation of safe themes, mechanics. Things the publisher was confident was going to sale, was easy to produce, and had a fast turn around.
The reliance on licences properties towards the end of the commercial period is a logical conclusion to this approach. As you can be fairly certain that a IP with brand recognition, that is promoted on other media/has merchandising is going to have a better chance of selling whatever you can shovel up. Given that the licence is not free, publishers would be looking to get the greatest return at the lowest risk possible. So it makes sense these titles rarely innovated and were in many cases just graphics swaps. It does not make sense if you are relying on getting titles out quickly to invest time in mechanics, new code that is untested and there is little evidence it would affect the sales.
It seems with the licence games, publishers were banking on brand recognition, cross promotion to offset the cost of the licence purchase, with a software product that had the minimum of development time, that re-used tested code. From what I can see publishers looked to get multiple licences, shoot for a minimum number of units sold to fans of the IP and anything over that was a bonus that was then rolled back into the next licence rights purchase.
The downfall of this is because production cycles were tight and tied to films/cultural products that were still in development you could sink money into a property that didn't perform well in its primary domain (movie/tv series/album/book). The more I think about this the more publishers were essentially gambling the future of the company on products they had not even seen yet. As the cost of the licence was based on prior performance of that brand and predicted sales of the new offering...
In simple terms, the film everyone thought was going to be awesome because of some fad or prior products did well bombs, tanks interest in the spectrum game. All the while the publisher has paid for a licence with the expectation of a much different marketplace reality.
Spoiler
I am amazed at the amount of management wank words that ended up in this post, will need to scrub myself clean. Sorry.
Re: The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote
I know what would be really interesting. At the end of the alphabet, when we have our 26 winners, I wonder which year was dominant?
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...
Re: The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote
Good idea.
I love this kind of voting and I can never get bored.
I love this kind of voting and I can never get bored.
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Re: The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote
27 winners. I'm gonna do a week for numeric characters.
(Mind you, that also raises the question of any game titles that credibly start with a non-alphanumeric character? 28 winners?)
But yeah - your idea is great. We could also look at genres and software houses too.
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Re: The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote
It is a ridiculous concept. And yes, I am the person who came up with it. Really, games that begin with a specific letter - what is the logic in them competing with each other? But there you go, it just sort of works, everyone knows how it is and yeah, we get travesties like Chase HQ beating Chaos, but it's been quite fun.
Sure beats a general "what is the best Spectrum game ever?" thread. (To which the answer is Chaos, no alternatives accepted at any time, ever.)
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Re: The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote
Good idea when all the letters polls are finished.
Have I said that I love these kind of polls?
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Re: The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote
Exciting poll!
A last-minute vote would change the final result!
Anyone?
A last-minute vote would change the final result!
Anyone?
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Re: The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote
And there you, JetPac wins by the skin of its teeth, narrowly beating Jet Set Willy. Two titans of the classic Speccy games scene. I'd have thought Jet Set Willy would have won and it certainly got a late surge, but JetPac reigns supreme, it seems.
In third place is Jack The Nipper II with three votes.
Then after that, a couple of games get two votes each - Joe Blade and Juggernaut.
With one vote each: Jack The Nipper; Jailbreak; Jasper!; Jet Set Willy II; Judge Dredd; Jumping Jack and Jungle Fever.
In third place is Jack The Nipper II with three votes.
Then after that, a couple of games get two votes each - Joe Blade and Juggernaut.
With one vote each: Jack The Nipper; Jailbreak; Jasper!; Jet Set Willy II; Judge Dredd; Jumping Jack and Jungle Fever.
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Re: The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote
A very respectable result, I'm pleased it was a close run thing in the end.PeteProdge wrote: ↑Mon May 07, 2018 10:06 am JetPac wins by the skin of its teeth, narrowly beating Jet Set Willy. Two titans of the classic Speccy games scene.
Re: The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote
I think it's equal... We need recount.
Re: The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote
I can't help but think this result is very reflective of contemporary tastes. I'd be very surprised if Jetpac would have been preferred to JSW back in, say, 1985.
Re: The best classic Speccy game beginning with J: vote
Yes, the world has changed. We don't have so much time, so much patience and often just want 5 minutes of quick fun. Jetpac is perfect for such cases, it's actually quite similar to all these mobile phone games that people pay on the train.I can't help but think this result is very reflective of contemporary tastes. I'd be very surprised if Jetpac would have been preferred to JSW back in, say, 1985.
Jet Set Willy is a long game that requires a lot of patience and a lot of experience to learn these enemy patterns. I'm too lazy for that now and many people probably too.