Spectrum Computing

Jon Ritman was always someone I used to look for when I bought games. I knew that if I could find a Jon Ritman game it was going to be of high standard. In this video, we will look at all of his games with some nice music that I have on the Commodore Amiga(strange I know, but it works)

Let us know what was your favourite Jon Ritman game back in the day and if you have any fond memories.

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axe3FqV ... e=youtu.be[/media]

1983 – 1987? Poor bugger must've had a hard life.

R-Tape wrote: ↑Wed Sep 12, 2018 7:07 pm 1983 – 1987? Poor bugger must've had a hard life.

But he burned, oh, let’s see, about twenty times as bright.

The first game I bought with my new Spectrum was Match Day, so not bad for a start!

Both Match Day I & II are enjoyable games. And Batman is one of the best isometric games. A great adventure. Head Over Heels is a game that I couldn't play back in the day. It enhanced Batman's concept.

Combat Zone is another good game, a very good conversion from the arcade. I played it hours and hours. It can be very addictive.

The two Match Day releases are the only ones of his that I really played, but I did play them rather a lot and loved them. So for them alone I applaud his programming. I was aware of Head over Heels, but other than a couple of shots of a friends version I didn’t really get in to it at all. While the Caped Crusader game completely passed me by, the only Batman game I ever played was the Michael Keaton movie tie in one.

For me Head over Heals was not only one of the best Speccy games of all time, but, probably one of my favourite games on any system. From the character designs, the different zones and room design through to the puzzles, it was just a brilliant game.

As I can still remember the intro music and the tunes for each zone then this game must have really had an impact on me.

Bear Bovver was one of the first games I played on my Speccy and I was amazed by the animations

His site, last updated in 2001 (!!!), has some nice info about each game he wrote http://www.ritman.co.uk/

I really liked Match Day.

As for Batman and HoH, well I stated several times on the forums before that I generally don't like isometric games on Spectrum a a genre.
But I stiil can see strong points of Jon's isometric games - good grahpics, fluent gamerate and original ideas like hero standing on another hero in HoH.

There's a nice story about him some years ago. In WoS forums, someone asked if Match Day II were released before International Match Day. So I had a search and came across his site (provided above), where an email account were showned. So I just emailed him to ask the big question

Some time after, he kindly answered me to confirm that 'Int MD was made at least a year before MD2 was programmed'. He defined Int MD as 'simply Match Day 1 with some extra music and screen shots'.

He used to appear in WoS forum once in a while.

I haven't heard of him being associated with the Design Design games before, but he's clearly listed on the database as having a hand in authoring them. He doesn't even list them on his own website. I know of the Chris Clarke association with Crystal Computing being renamed Design Design, but that's abut all I know.

Can anyone shed any more light?

bucephalus wrote: ↑Wed Sep 26, 2018 8:34 am I haven't heard of him being associated with the Design Design games before, but he's clearly listed on the database as having a hand in authoring them. He doesn't even list them on his own website. I know of the Chris Clarke association with Crystal Computing being renamed Design Design, but that's abut all I know.

Can anyone shed any more light?

It seems as he's made the loading screens, as it says "Jon" on two of them, so that's probably his creations.

Sokurah wrote: ↑Wed Sep 26, 2018 9:25 am

bucephalus wrote: ↑Wed Sep 26, 2018 8:34 am I haven't heard of him being associated with the Design Design games before, but he's clearly listed on the database as having a hand in authoring them. He doesn't even list them on his own website. I know of the Chris Clarke association with Crystal Computing being renamed Design Design, but that's abut all I know.

Can anyone shed any more light?

It seems as he's made the loading screens, as it says "Jon" on two of them, so that's probably his creations.

What are these games that say "Jon" in loading screens?

Einar Saukas wrote: ↑Thu Sep 27, 2018 12:22 pm What are these games that say "Jon" in loading screens?

Dark Star and On The Run.