Spectrum Computing

Encyclopaedia Galactica. A very unusual and intriguing game that I don't think I've ever got to grips with properly. Some planets have loads going on, but overall there is a scarcity of animal life, so it feels quite exciting when you land on a planet and discover something*. I remember a similar feeling when playing Captain Blood.

*even more so when you find a sprite you designed yourself!

Reversi by Sinclair Research. Great board game. In one turn you have most pieces in your colour and next turn in a good move of the computer most are his! Thrilling game!

Nemesis [Konami, 1987]



If it wasn't for the scandalous collision detection and other minor flaws, this could have been a very good horizontal shooter.

As it is, it doesn't deserve the Sinclair User Classic it's got.
Were they "encouraged" to give it a good vote? Were they playing an infinite lives or an invincibility + all power up's version?
I don't know.

It surely makes me fantasize that some brave soul could correct its defects and make it good as it could be. It could be a new way to improve the old games, after the recolouring operations some have been subjected to.
Making old games with unexploited potential SU Classic, YS Megagame, Crash Smash worth.

Anyway, right now I'm addicted to Nemesis, because I stubbornly want to overcome the flaws, and I want it to be good as it seems in that Sinclair User review.
I want to see the good stuff I see in those pics, the graphics further in the game. I know I can do it. I did it with the sequel Salamander a couple of years ago.

Wish me good luck.

WIWC wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 2:28 pm Wish me good luck.

Buona fortuna.

I'm kind of fond of this game. It's redolent of Transmuter (but better) and Galactic Gunners (and I know Nemesis predates at least one of them!).

I don't see it in quite the same way as you—rather than being almost the finished article apart from a few defects, I see it as ever so slightly naff in all departments. Don't get me wrong though, I like it and think it's wayyy better than Salamander.

Aye the Sinclair User review is interesting. I assume the screens are mock-ups, and I can't understand why they made the player sprite look worse for the finished game.

I also tried Nemesis, after Mr. Cruel's suggestion.

Not a bad shooter, but slow when choosing options and it's got no sounds (???)

Whenever I killed a flood of ships a yellow thing appears and I avoid it because I think it's another enemy ship... until I realize it's a sort of bonus you must pick up!

On the contrary, when a sort of 'walking trousers' appears, I think it's part of a ship you must assemble (just like in Mag Max) and in this case is just another baddie!

A great fun, as you can guess...

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 7:20 am I also tried Nemesis, after Mr. Cruel's suggestion.

Not a bad shooter, but slow when choosing options and it's got no sounds (???)

Title screen beeper tune and standard (poor) sound effects aside.

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 7:20 am Whenever I killed a flood of ships a yellow thing appears and I avoid it because I think it's another enemy ship... until I realize it's a sort of bonus you must pick up!

On the contrary, when a sort of 'walking trousers' appears, I think it's part of a ship you must assemble (just like in Mag Max) and in this case is just another baddie!

You're very good at videogames, Juan.

R-Tape wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 8:44 pm I don't see it in quite the same way as you—rather than being almost the finished article apart from a few defects, I see it as ever so slightly naff in all departments. Don't get me wrong though, I like it and think it's wayyy better than Salamander.

Nemesis starts off good but most of the rest is rather rough.

I think overall I prefer Salamander, at least it's got a mix of horizontal and vertical section that adds variety. It's even tougher, though.

R-Tape wrote: ↑Thu Aug 08, 2019 8:44 pm Aye the Sinclair User review is interesting. I assume the screens are mock-ups, and I can't understand why they made the player sprite look worse for the finished game.

Unluckily, they are. What a bunch of mockers.

NEMESIS: MISSION ABORTED part I.

I've bumped by chance in some "Let's compare!" videos some days ago, comparing the 8 bit versions of Nemesis, this video by lisp equipped theshadownose and this one by ChinnyVision. So, I've started playing it again after years and in the meantime I've checked the original Spectrum reviews from the 80's mags and I've noticed the 8/10 from Your Sinclair and the mediocre review from Crash, which for, apparently, a printing error, it's missing the vote (the coloured rectangle that should contain the votes is empty).

My previous experiences with Nemesis weren't unfavorable, it seemed quite playable although not so wonderful. But it was the impression given by the introductory phase of the game, where you shoot at orderly rows of flying aliens that allow you to choose and pile up power up's to face the real game.
Now that I was really getting into it, I was puzzled by a couple of things.

The main one was that I'd die very often crashing against the background and the enemies without even touching them. Very often the collision was detected from a handful of pixels away. So, it wasn't a game for audacious trajectories, I had to keep my spaceship at a cautious distance from the rest of the animated and inanimated entities in the screen (except for the roof and the floor, luckily).



Another problem were the white bullets that could mixed up with the star field in the background, although this has been pretty much solved passing from the notebook screen to the desktop pc screen. Still, there is a certain randomness in the way the bullets are shot by the yellow robots that make the game very frustrating. But maybe it's not randomness, it's sheer callousness. A typical situation is: dodging the robot's bullet and then approaching the guy to scorch it and take the power up's thinking that it won't shoot another bullet so fast, after such a brief hiatus from the previous one. Of course it does, and you're dead, and you have to go back to the start.

Anyway, Sinclair User gave it 5/5 and declare it a classic and those pics in the review were so good. So, I had to insist.
Therefore I conceived a better strategy: just flying low like a scared animal so to avoid any accidents or unexpected events, staying FAR from the yellow robots, especially the ones walking on the roof and organize the most efficient set of power up's from the start. Initially, I used to choose the double shooting and the ground missiles. Then I've discovered the usefulness of the lasers, piercing a whole swarm of aliens with one shot. Then I've tried the "option", a pad flying with you, doubling your laser. But after that I've discovered that the "question mark" at the far right of the power up's icons would give me a horribly useful front shield.

So, that's my set up now: I choose the ground missiles and the shield in the introductory phase. And then I add the laser during the proper game.
The missiles help me destroy everything on the ground making space for my passage and even more importantly hit the sadistic yellow robots, which drop other power up's. The front shield protects me from the yellow robots random bullets and any alien that get too much near. Then I can get the laser and destroy much of the swarms with ease. Perfect.

With this set up I've made it to two erupting volcanoes, and then I've faced the first blue boss.



to be continued

NEMESIS: MISSION ABORTED part II.

To develop a winning tactic against the Blue Boss, I've started cheating, meaning that I've snapshotted the game, and fight the boss until I've learnt how to get past it. Then there was a open space sequence where I had to destroy swarms of green dandruff from the depth of the galaxy.




Afterward, I've encountered a series of space platforms guarded by red star tanks and by those wicked yellow robots that pained me in the first part of the game - plud red balls forming destroyable barriers.




At this point [mention]R-Tape[/mention] posted his observations on the game, stating that the pics in the Sinclair User review were probably mock up's.
Taking a better look at them, I've noticed that the details don't match the graphics of the real game. The first pic seems to be taken from the first part of the game but the colours are different and more varied, and there's a low wood in the lower part of the screen, true to the original arcade game.
The pads are coloured, but in the released Spectrum version they are always white. You can even see that the mock up has been signed by the "artist": in the lower right corner "stu" can be read, clearly short for Stuart J. Ruecroft.

If you look at the second pic, the screen is a little too busy, too many aliens and colours. There were no wonderful sequences to be found further in the game. So, I've ascertained that in the easiest way possible: the RZX archive video. And, yes, it's confirmed my naive delusion. Although the Big Alien Skeletons sequence is still mildy interesting, most of the rest isn't so good, in fact, it's rather disappointing. So much that my interest in insisting playing it has waned. Although, still, it's not that bad.

So, what did the Sinclair User people reviewed? A real game or just a couple of still screens? Did they play anything?
A line in the review has struck me. It says: "It was a hit in the arcades, will it be a hit on the Spectrum? Konami did a good job with Jailbreak (reviewed elsewhere this issue) [...]". Wait wait wait. Konami did a good job with WHAT? The terrible, horrible, infamous Jailbreak conversion?




So, I've looked for the Jailbreak review in the issue, and there it was with an astounding 5/5, just like Nemesis, although they didn't dare to put the SU Classic badge on the page. Now, Jail Break received 47% from Crash and 4/10 from C+VG and anyone can see how bad it is.

So, previously I've wondered if the SU people were somehow... "encouraged" to give a privilged treatment to Nemesis... Jail Break seems to have the conclusive answer to that.

Nemesis: mission aborted.

Interesting story.

Hades Nebula [Nexus Productions, 1987]

If you get past the terrible first impact and you manage to learn how to avoid the swarms of bullets shot at you since the very start, then you have a pretty decent, and challenging, vertical shoot'em up.



Great loading screen and very nice music too.

Guerrilla War, by Imagine.



A mediocre conversion of a cool arcade game in the Commando/Ikari Warriors style.

Anyway, not a bad game to play on the Spectrum. One of the few Imagine games I hadn't known so far.

Completed Kryssy the other week.



It's the first in a series that culminates in 'Sliders' (though this one doesn't have an English translation). The rough edges show in comparison, but it's still a charming little game. I managed to solve some of the puzzles by accident, and didn't really understand why (the one with the magic exit door).

More Tea Vicar!

One of my favourites from Jonathan, but probably his anti-fave because it's the least innovative. Very sexy graphics and music and, apart from the last level (128K and 48K), excellent level design.

Am I the only one that (silently) crowbars the words "more tea vicar? w-w-w-ould y-y-you like some more tea vicar?" to the music?

If it had an inlay it'd say "Excellent workout for the pollicis muscles!"

R-Tape wrote: ↑Sat Sep 21, 2019 8:25 pm Am I the only one that (silently) crowbars the words "more tea vicar? w-w-w-ould y-y-you like some more tea vicar?" to the music?

I can only think of Iron Maiden’s joke song.

Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Sat Sep 21, 2019 9:50 pm I can only think of Iron Maiden’s joke song.

I'm not familiar with it. Do you mean this?

Tsk, very unprofessional. Even when he was too drunk to see, at least Mark E Smith turned up and sang to the punters*.

*granted, he may have thrashed about the stage and vomited instead, but he tried.

R-Tape wrote: ↑Sat Sep 21, 2019 10:20 pm

Ast A. Moore wrote: ↑Sat Sep 21, 2019 9:50 pm I can only think of Iron Maiden’s joke song.

I'm not familiar with it. Do you mean this?

Heh. No, I mean this. (WARNING: A lot of silliness ensues.)

Krunel.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=30037

It's a fairly gentle hopper game, with brilliant AY that rumbles the game along nicely. It becomes hypnotic quite quickly, but sooner or later you lose it. Happens around level 11 for me.

It's nice to have a choice of icons to play with, but many of the them are naff or indistinct and don't fit the mood of the game. Robots for me every time.

The Running Man.



I didn't plan on playing it for long, in fact it was only for a bit of research for Woot. It was a piece of P?s?—I completed it in about 10 minutes. The stalkers just walked back and forth, and barely attacked. I didn't see any dogs to boot in the head. I was playing the original release as far as I can tell, and didn't use any POKEs. Is it meant to be like that?

When I played this BITD I remember quite liking it. I had a genuine sense of nervousness wondering when the stalker was going to appear. I certainly couldn't complete it.

There's a nice bit of digitised speech and an intro sequence. If it was a Joffa game, the horsey clip-clops when you run would be a quirky humorous touch, but it's not, and they're a bit naff. Not the worst game in the world, but it could have been a lot better.

Just fired it up. The dogs were there. Never was a big fan of the game, to put it mildly. The intro is very nice, and the graphics are sort of okay-ish (aside from the main character). I like the moving spotlights on the top of the screen to remind you this is a game show. Other than that, I can’t find anything else to like about it. I kept falling through the gaps and quit playing a couple of minutes into the game.

It's that time of year, and it came to mind, so I loaded up Kweepa's Advent Calendar.



I'm still not sure what everything is. Besides the obvious, I can see the Christmas zen master, Saturn and several amorphous blobs.

Snodgits by Creative Sparks.



An isometric adventure that seems cool, big graphics. You're Benton, the butler in a mansion when things dissapear. Detective & mistery-novel style.

Now I'm trying to lookk for a dissapearing teapot through the mansion, but an annoying monster is always impeding my way.

[mention]pavero[/mention] , this game needs a map!

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Thu Dec 12, 2019 7:08 am Snodgits by Creative Sparks.


@pavero , this game needs a map!

Yep, but I still waiting for RZX firstly.

Cowboy Kidz by Byte back.



An interesting find. Similar to Desperado/Gunsmoke, worse graphics but a cool feature: You always ride around a running train while baddies try to shoot you. Sometimes the train can be either a 'shield' or a problem. I like it!

I've started to play The House on the Tor, a 1990's text adventure by Zenobi Software.
It's pretty playable, with no Sudden Death Syndrome, in fact, with no death at all until now.
It's a mystery concerning a house that your uncle left you. No elfs nor trolls.