Cronosoft is a publishing brand created and run by Jonathan Cauldwell, who may have first come to your attention with the Egg Head games on Crash Power Tapes, submitted as reader games. A long-time stalwart of the ZX Spectrum's homebrew scene, Jonathan Cauldwell has given the world Arcade Game Designer, which started out as a games creator for the Speccy, but then expanded to the SAM Coupe, the Amstrad CPC and then, ten billion more...
Anyway, these are the games I believe to be first published on the Cronosoft label, not all of them are by Jonathan as you'll see. You have seven days to pick your favourite(s)...
I'm a sucker for an adrenaline fuelled blaster with a good tune, so that covers #1 and 2. Slubber easily edges it for wrapping it in a Cybernoid and Thrust shaped envelope. I suppose I shouldn't, but I play More Tea Vicar for the music at least as much as the game. Telly Heroes is great fun to play - it's worth it for the caricatures and fake programs alone.
The Cronosoft catalogue is a good solid reliable one. You could give honourable shout-outs to any of them really. The only one I haven't played is Star Warrior 2022, and I can tell from the video that it wouldn't trouble my top 3 but it looks worth playing.
PeteProdge wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02, 2023 10:15 am
Cronosoft is a publishing brand created and run by Jonathan Cauldwell, who may have first come to your attention with the Egg Head games on Crash Power Tapes, submitted as reader games.
No it's not, it's a multi-platform tape publisher run by Simon Ullyatt.
Joefish wrote: ↑Sun Apr 02, 2023 8:14 pm
No it's not, it's a multi-platform tape publisher run by Simon Ullyatt.
Oops! Well, I concede that one. My excuse is that it's always felt like a label founded by Jonathan Cauldwell, as it's got a lot of his content, but yes, you are indeed correct. There's something I've learnt.
I'm giving my top vote to Gamex. I know it's a load of tiny games all mashed together under the umbrella of "buying and selling shares based on your score", but the fact that there are so many of these tiny games all crammed into 48K and a mechanic that nobody else thought of seals the deal for me, out of all those that have been posted.
Quantum Gardening for number two because it's also got an innovative feature that nobody else thought of in the 1980s.
And third... Shape Shifter, because why should Jonathan have all the fun?
Honourable mention to Dominetris, though no more than an HM because that one got the vote in the Bob's Stuff poll.
Also - @R-Tape and @Hank Scorpio - presumably you've got a lot further in Telly Heroes than I ever have? It's probably a good job I'm not running a real TV station with no budget. It'd be even worse than L!VE TV without Eva Bjertnes, the News Bunny and Topless Darts.
GameX is a tremendous idea & a lot of fun. I'm just a bit gutted that when I went to pay it again after a couple of years the other week my tape had warped a wee bit & wouldn't load. Grrr
TMD2003 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 06, 2023 3:28 pm
I'm giving my top vote to Gamex. I know it's a load of tiny games all mashed together under the umbrella of "buying and selling shares based on your score", but the fact that there are so many of these tiny games all crammed into 48K and a mechanic that nobody else thought of seals the deal for me, out of all those that have been posted.
As fond of Gamex (and Gamex 2) as I am, I still can't get into the trading aspect of it. I'm starting to think it's my failing more than the game!
Also - @R-Tape and @Hank Scorpio - presumably you've got a lot further in Telly Heroes than I ever have?
I don't know about that - I've played it a fair bit but never 'properly'. I focussed more on having fun with the creative stuff* than trying to get the best viewing figures. So while I've seen features like Mary Whitehouse getting on your case, I do wonder how much I've missed out on.
*I spent far too long trying to plough Des Lennis a new furrow in adult film.
For me Telly Heroes is just a bit of silly fun, it's a sort of spiritual successor to Rockstar Ate My Hamster, which just happens to be a favourite game of mine.
Well, the curiously-named More Tea, Vicar? has got this, with 6 votes.
In second place, it's Gamex, with 4 votes.
Slubberdegullion takes third place with 3 votes.
Fun Park and Stranded 2.5 are joint fourth with 2 votes each.
Corcale, A Cracking Day Out, The Iron Wolves, Loco Bingo and Ninja Carnage come joint fifth with 1 vote each.
Things are a bit different on the proportional results:
Cracking Day Out, A - Starring Egghead 5
More Tea, Vicar? 4
Gamex 3
Loco Bingo 3
Slubberdegullion 3
Quantum Gardening 2
Telly Heroes 2
Fun Park 1
Shapeshifter 1
