The best top 10 best spectrum games ever list ever.

[deanysoft]

Me too - that's a new one on me. An interesting twist. I prefer the colourful old graphics though

[sn3j]

[deanysoft]

oh wow! How many years have gone by without me seeing that. So, was that a cheat or played for real I wonder...

[Juan F. Ramirez]

I suppose it is fake, isn't it?

[sn3j]

I suppose it is fake, isn't it?

Yes it's a fake. I dithered the Bangles with ZX Paintbrush and clipped it into the score screen.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Phew! For a moment a myth had knocked down!

[blucey]

My top 10 from the other thread.

1. Rebelstar 2. My favourite strategy game of all time. Some might say the only good Aliens game too. I can still play it today and enjoy it as much as I ever did. No game conjures such big feelings. When you nail a long range shot and it takes out an enemy. What beats that? When a stray bullet takes out one of your Photon guys? ARGH! Best game.

2. Quazatron. As with RS2, it's playable today and still great. It's let down a little by the jerky scrolling, and by not having a proper ending, but it's still brilliant.

3. Renegade. The only game in the series that I really like (Rene 3 is my most hated game, Target is good but too easy and the co-op/weapons don't really improve anything). The most satisfying combat you'll see in a game from the '80s.

4. Green Bert. A true classic and a game that I've played many hundreds of times and still cannot get to stage 4 more than 1% of the time. It still plays great and is much better than the coin op.

5. Megabucks. There were a lot of graphic adventure games on the system and I didn't like many of them but Megabucks kept me entertained all the way to the end. Okay, the ending was crap. But until then it was good. Definitely tricky but less reliant on other games of its type that had very obscure puzzle solutions (I'm looking at you Universal Hero).

6. Chaos. Super playable. A great intro to strategy games. I dislike the randomness of it at times and matches can descend into stand offs (and ultimately become a draw) but the concept is great and Gollop did well to make it so enjoyable.

7. Bruce Lee. A game I didn't care for much at the time but one that is very playable and fun these days. Usually the first thing I test when trying out emulators. Objectively, it's not brilliant but it's a game that is quite timeless and one that I go back to. Gaming comfort food.

8. Bomb Jack. I almost didn't include this because I prefer the arcade version. But I do really like this version. I'd normally put it higher but I just got a good arcade stick.

9. Rebelstar. The gameplay is great and it's very similar in many ways to my #1 game. I just don't like the level layout that much. And the reliance on having a droid to get into the inner sanctum of the enemy annoys me.

10. Myth. Okay, the controls are a mess but you get five levels of graphical brilliance. A better puzzle game than it is an action game but it's good at both. One of those games that I could reliably complete as well, which I liked. I was 11, I didn't need a challenge, I needed fun. That said, I don't really play it much these days.


Bubbling under: Hypersports, Ranarama, Ant Attack, WOTEF, Batman The Movie, Thanatos.

[deanysoft]

Yes it's a fake. I dithered the Bangles with ZX Paintbrush and clipped it into the score screen.

bad form! haha!

And I know the Bangles video too. Pfft!

[worcestersource]

Here’s my Top Ten:

1. Chaos
2. Laser Squad
3. Head Over Heels
4. R-Type
5. Quazatron
6. Lords of Chaos
7. Wizball
8. Project Future
9. Elite
10. Chase HQ
11. Rainbow Islands
12. Target Renegade

Top 12 then!

[Vampyre]

I suppose it is fake, isn't it?

Being as Fred predates the Bangles song by two years I would guess so

[worcestersource]

Here’s my Top Ten:

1. Chaos
2. Laser Squad
3. Head Over Heels
4. R-Type
5. Quazatron
6. Lords of Chaos
7. Wizball
8. Project Future
9. Elite
10. Chase HQ
11. Rainbow Islands
12. Target Renegade

Top 12 then!

Actually, I want to sneak Boulder Dash on there too.

[hitm4n]

I know why top 10's become top 50's (even top 100's), because there are simply too many great Speccy games to limit it to 10.
So here you go, breaking the mould (has anyone gone over 12 in this thread yet?)...

Shortest list i can do, while being happy i haven't forgotten some goodies is 78.
Many of these games as yet unmentioned in this thread. Who is kicking themselves looking at this list then

4D Time-Gate
A Day In The Life
Alchemist
Android 2
Astroclone
Automania
Batty
Booty
Bruce Lee
Bugaboo
Chronos
Chuckie Egg
Cookie
Cyberun
Cybernoid
Dynamite Dan II
Earth Shaker
Equinox
Exolon
Finders Keepers
Frank N Stein
Frankie Goes To Hollywood
Fred
Ghostbusters
Gyroscope
Highway Encounter
Hypersports
Jasons Gem
Jetpac
Journeys End
Juggernaut
Jumping Jack
Knight Lore
Mad Mix
Manic Miner
Maziacs
MegaBuck$
Minder
Nebulus
Nodes Of Yesod
On The Run
Pippo
Popeye
Project Future
Pyjamarama
Quazatron
Rebelstar
Rex
Ringo
Robin Of The Wood
Robot Messiah
Rockman
Rocky Horror Show
Sceptre Of Bagdad
Scuba Dive
Skool Daze
Split Personalities
Starion
Starquake
Stop The Express
Strangeloop
Target Renegade
Tau Ceti
The Empire Fights Back
Three Weeks In Paradise
Transversion
Trapdoor
Trashman
Tribble Trubble
Uridium
W.A.R.
West Bank
Wheelie
Wizards Lair
Wizball
Wriggler
Zub
Zynaps

[Vampyre]

Problem is, when you start going over 10 or 15, it just becomes a list of good games.

[WIWC]

Manic Miner
Fred
Knight Lore
Skool Daze
Cyclone
Highway Encounter
Panzadrome
Cobra
Conquestador / Las Tres Luces De Glaurung
Movie
The Great Escape
Head Over Heels
Nebulus
WEC Le Mans
Rick Dangerous
Stack Up

I have problems cutting this list down to 10.

[hitm4n]

Problem is, when you start going over 10 or 15, it just becomes a list of good games.

Quite true, but with over 10,000 to choose from, 100 is just the cream of the crop 1%. I feel my list (IMO) the games are all superb, widely loved great games that still stand up today. Rose tinted specs not included, these games are ALL ones i can still play today and enjoy very very much. My personal sorted collection of the entire TOSEC, includes my personal top 300 folder. Even cutting that to the 78 i listed was difficult.

[Rorthron]

You're all wrong. The correct answer is (in chronological order):

The Hobbit
Scuba Dive
Jetpac
Cookie
Manic Miner
Atic Atac
Way of the Exploding Fist
Starquake
Bomb Jack
Quazatron

I excluded modern releases.*

* I.e. 1988 onwards.

[berarma]

I agree there were so many games, it's hard to pick only 10 as the greatest. Many great games have been mentioned, there's a few more that would be in at least some of the top ten lists I could come up with.

Trailblazer
Xecutor
Masterblaster
Lightforce
Master of Magic
Triple Commando

And probably more if I could remember them all. Maybe not considered classics but great games.

[kingius]

I take your lists and RPG and strategize them to the max. Don't forget about these massive gems which pushed the Spectrum to its limits back in the day and were very cleverly programmed to provide many, many hours of gameplay in their amazing little worlds...

Chaos (8 player game, so simple but so much replayability.... come on!)
Rebelstar and Rebelstar 2 (complex strategy games with a HUGE map, your solider graphics change according to the type of item held!)
Lords of Chaos (5 scenarios to beat, even puzzles, an RPG element to advance your wizard as well as strategy in game)
The Bards Tale (masterful, very difficult, the only game where you can fight 396 Berserkers at once... and win!!!!!!)
Bloodwych (perhaps suffers from using a keyboard instead of a mouse, but the pinnacle of first person dungeon master type RPGs on the Spectrum)
Elite (brilliant universe to explore, learn to dock first!)
Carrier Command (how did they manage to even port this to Spectrum; take over islands, fly/drive planes and tanks and shoot from the carrier all in 3d!)

I'd also add R Type and Rex to this list, but I think some may have already said these, but both games are wonderful examples of their kind.

[stupidget]

Apparently this vid shows The 10 Best Speccy games EVER:



A bold claim indeed.

[Vampyre]

I excluded modern releases.*

* I.e. 1988 onwards.

Ha ha! This reminds me of going to Shrewsbury Rocks Festival in 2021 and OMD were doing their set. The lead singer says something like:

"We're going to do something different now and most of the time it doesn't work. We're going to do one of our recent hits."

"From 1991"

Never a group I'd followed before - knew their stuff and liked some of it, just never followed them. But they are a superb live act - by a mile the best group of the day. They were obviously so happy to be touring again after Covid.

[Robbeasy]

Ooooh - top ten you say?... can't resist. As always, personal favourites, ones I spent my time playing, and still do... tried for a little different to the usuals..

10) - Loco-Motion - a Mastertronic special, sliding block puzzle that is as hard as nails, but so neatly done. For me, this type of puzzle game has never been done better.

9) - Quazatron - ignore the janky scrolling, revel in the gameplay. I absolutely loved this one to death

8) - 3D Starstrike - Star Wars clone done better than the original, all squeezed into a speccy. I remember my jaw dropping first time I played this..

7) - Match Point - I've played Tennis games on and off since Match Point was released, up to the present day, and have yet to find one that simulates the game with the style and panache that this game does...

6) - Trashman - only on the speccy would you get a game about collecting other peoples rubbish, and that game be as good as this.

5) - Highway Encounter - the graphics will always stand out as neat , I remember getting closer and closer to 001 each time i played, and getting more and more nervous and sad that i had nearly come to the end. Sequel never quite had the same grab factor for me, sadly.

4) - Tau Ceti- world building, atmospheric, superb gameplay - extended version just tripled that.

3) - Splat! - another game with a simple premise, but flawless execution makes for replayability and greatness. Keep coming back to this one even today..

2) - Marauder - I will always say - and no-one can argue with me, because you would be wrong - that the two tunes in this game are right up there with the finest chiptunes ever created - never mind just on the speccy, but anywhere, ever. Unbelievably awesome, but loved the gameplay on this as well

1) - Jumping Jack - A simple idea, never bettered. Gameplay oozing out of every pore. Just 8 bit perfection

Honourable mentions for The Birds and the Bees, Armageddon, Manic Miner, Wheelie, Turmoil, Automania, The Trap Door, StrangeLoop, Halls of the Things. .i could go on forever...

[PeteProdge]

A bold claim indeed.

And wrong, because it doesn't have Chaos.

[Jbizzel]

WEC Le Mans

I have never been able to get this to load, not back in the day, not now!

[Jbizzel]

6) - Trashman - only on the speccy would you get a game about collecting other peoples rubbish, and that game be as good as this.

This sums up trashman perfectly

Nice list @Robbeasy

Trying to pic 10 games is proving to be an interesting constraint, as you will inevitably have to leave out some corkers, and it perhaps becomes more personal as a result.