Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
- PeteProdge
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Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
You have seven days to choose!
3D-Tanx by DK'Tronics
Benny Hill's Madcap Chase! by DK'Tronics
Dictator by DK'Tronics
Flunky by Piranha
Gregory Loses His Clock by Mastertronic Plus
Jumbly by DK'Tronics
Maziacs by DK'Tronics
Meteoroids by DK'Tronics
Minder by DK'Tronics
Popeye by DK'Tronics
Spawn Of Evil by DK'Tronics
Target by Martech
Through The Trap Door by Piranha
Trap Door, The by Piranha
Up For Grabs by Summit Software
3D-Tanx by DK'Tronics
Benny Hill's Madcap Chase! by DK'Tronics
Dictator by DK'Tronics
Flunky by Piranha
Gregory Loses His Clock by Mastertronic Plus
Jumbly by DK'Tronics
Maziacs by DK'Tronics
Meteoroids by DK'Tronics
Minder by DK'Tronics
Popeye by DK'Tronics
Spawn Of Evil by DK'Tronics
Target by Martech
Through The Trap Door by Piranha
Trap Door, The by Piranha
Up For Grabs by Summit Software
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Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
A little bit difficult as there are some great games here but I’m going with:
1) Gregory - just find it a cute game and well presented, especially the start sequence
2) Trap Door - very ingenious and like playing a cartoon
3) Maziacs - scared me silly. Lots of fun!
I also enjoyed Flunky and Popeye. Strangely I never got on with Through The Trapdoor.
1) Gregory - just find it a cute game and well presented, especially the start sequence
2) Trap Door - very ingenious and like playing a cartoon
3) Maziacs - scared me silly. Lots of fun!
I also enjoyed Flunky and Popeye. Strangely I never got on with Through The Trapdoor.
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Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
1 Trap Door
2 Maziacs
3 3D Tanx
2 Maziacs
3 3D Tanx
Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
1. Maziacs
2. Spawn of Evil
3. 3D Tanx
2. Spawn of Evil
3. 3D Tanx
Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
Perhaps controversially:
1) Popeye - this is the one I played first and it absolutely blew me away, I couldn't believe you could get graphics like that on the spectrum. It's connections to actual Popeye are probably as vague as Ritman's Batman, but it was great nevertheless.
2) The Trap Door - honestly this one might be the better of the top two, it's certainly more faithful to the source material (which I love dearly). It didn't have quite the same "wow factor" though.
3) Gregory Loses His Clock - a weirdly charming game and probably more fun for being free of license tie ins. The animation in it seems like it's pushing Don's style to the absolute limit.
1) Popeye - this is the one I played first and it absolutely blew me away, I couldn't believe you could get graphics like that on the spectrum. It's connections to actual Popeye are probably as vague as Ritman's Batman, but it was great nevertheless.
2) The Trap Door - honestly this one might be the better of the top two, it's certainly more faithful to the source material (which I love dearly). It didn't have quite the same "wow factor" though.
3) Gregory Loses His Clock - a weirdly charming game and probably more fun for being free of license tie ins. The animation in it seems like it's pushing Don's style to the absolute limit.
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Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
1. Dictator
2. Maziacs
3. 3D-Tanx
2. Maziacs
3. 3D-Tanx
Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
1 Gregory
2 Trap Door
3 Popeye
2 Trap Door
3 Popeye
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- Drutt
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Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
1. Popeye
2. Minder
2. Maziacs
2. Minder
2. Maziacs
Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
1. Through The Trapdoor
2. The Trapdoor
3. Maziacs
2. The Trapdoor
3. Maziacs
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Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
1 Maziacs
2 Popeye
3 Trap Door
2 Popeye
3 Trap Door
Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
I'd vote for loads here if i could, what a great coder.
Trapdoor - Simply awesome. Working out how to make each meal was great BITD, finding faster ways to maximise score, such fun. Loved this game, still play it today, in fact i sat and played this just the other day and completed it. Deffo number 1.
Popeye - More of the same, figuring out Blutos patterns, the bird, which keys work where, not running out of love power. Figuring out you can jump onto the space ship! Awesome. Deffo number 1. Damnit, Trapdoor is there. Okay number 2 then.
Maziacs - From Mazogs on the ZX81 which is one of the best ZX81 games i had. This is just the same but with tarted up graphics and sounds, loved the animation in the fights (even the ZX81 was good for this), the prisoners who showed the way, daring a run around some corners without a sword in hand... This is deffo number 1. Okay 2. Alright alright... 3 it is.
3D-Tanx - Honorable mention. One of my earliest games on Speccy. Good times.
I owe Priestley a pint or two...
Trapdoor - Simply awesome. Working out how to make each meal was great BITD, finding faster ways to maximise score, such fun. Loved this game, still play it today, in fact i sat and played this just the other day and completed it. Deffo number 1.
Popeye - More of the same, figuring out Blutos patterns, the bird, which keys work where, not running out of love power. Figuring out you can jump onto the space ship! Awesome. Deffo number 1. Damnit, Trapdoor is there. Okay number 2 then.
Maziacs - From Mazogs on the ZX81 which is one of the best ZX81 games i had. This is just the same but with tarted up graphics and sounds, loved the animation in the fights (even the ZX81 was good for this), the prisoners who showed the way, daring a run around some corners without a sword in hand... This is deffo number 1. Okay 2. Alright alright... 3 it is.
3D-Tanx - Honorable mention. One of my earliest games on Speccy. Good times.
I owe Priestley a pint or two...
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: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
spend ages playing Maziacs. and some fun with 3D Tanx. but i could never undestand why people find those huge-chunks-of-solid-color games so appealing. though i should confess that i had a b/w display back then. ;-)
Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
What an interesting career in games programming Don had!
A pioneer of the big cartoon graphics in his arcade adventures, starting with Popeye which really was a game-changer in its day.
Isn't it interesting though that he also had a penchant for text-based strategy games ie. Dictator and Up For Grabs. He did manage to weave the two together, albeit with questionable success, with Mnder.
Jumbly was a favourite of mine. I've always found it to be a rather anonymous member of Don's canon but was a real feat of programming back in 1983.
A pioneer of the big cartoon graphics in his arcade adventures, starting with Popeye which really was a game-changer in its day.
Isn't it interesting though that he also had a penchant for text-based strategy games ie. Dictator and Up For Grabs. He did manage to weave the two together, albeit with questionable success, with Mnder.
Jumbly was a favourite of mine. I've always found it to be a rather anonymous member of Don's canon but was a real feat of programming back in 1983.
- ParadigmShifter
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Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
He had to make the characters in Popeye that big since whoever owns the license insisted on Popeye being the correct colours. And obviously after that he reused or tweaked his code for his other games.
Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
Some cool games in that list
1. Maziacs
2. 3D Tanx
3. Trap Door
1. Maziacs
2. 3D Tanx
3. Trap Door
My Speccy site: thirdharmoniser.com
Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
btw. i recently watched Benny Hill game with Yakety Sax soundtrack… suddenly, it was fun even to watch, and prolly will be fun to play too. it's a shame that 48K didn't had AY, the music is what could make that game much, much better!
Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
1. Popeye
2. Trapdoor
3. Spawn Of Evil
I've actually quite shocked myself in that the above three were the only Don Priestley games I played BITD (which is what I base my votes on).
Popeye is one of my favourite Speccy games of all time. The amazingly colourful graphics are still pretty outstanding and it's a bigger and puzzlier game than what you first think.
Trapdoor (how the hell wasn't that a Crash Smash?) is also a brilliant game, wonderfully tied into the premise of the brilliant show, but just loses out to Popeye as it's a little too hard at times.
Spawn of Evil is there as filler. I know I played it very early on in my Speccy's life, after borrowing it for a day or two from a neighbour, but don't remember much about it, other than it being a sort of shoot-'em-up.
Any one know if Don Priestley is still around? IIRC he was the old-man of the Speccy development community back in the late 80s. Edit: Just seen the Wikipedia page - he'd be 83 if he's still live and kicking.
2. Trapdoor
3. Spawn Of Evil
I've actually quite shocked myself in that the above three were the only Don Priestley games I played BITD (which is what I base my votes on).
Popeye is one of my favourite Speccy games of all time. The amazingly colourful graphics are still pretty outstanding and it's a bigger and puzzlier game than what you first think.
Trapdoor (how the hell wasn't that a Crash Smash?) is also a brilliant game, wonderfully tied into the premise of the brilliant show, but just loses out to Popeye as it's a little too hard at times.
Spawn of Evil is there as filler. I know I played it very early on in my Speccy's life, after borrowing it for a day or two from a neighbour, but don't remember much about it, other than it being a sort of shoot-'em-up.
Any one know if Don Priestley is still around? IIRC he was the old-man of the Speccy development community back in the late 80s. Edit: Just seen the Wikipedia page - he'd be 83 if he's still live and kicking.
ZX Spectrum Reviews REST API: http://zxspectrumreviews.co.uk/
Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
Always been a bit of a fan, since Maziacs, 3D Tanx and Dictator in the early days, so read a couple of interviews. I think the gist was that he lost interest in writing games / software when it got to the point of big development teams, and became apparent he couldn't just do everything himself.
Seems a bit of a shame. Especially as there was a bit of a rise in indy / casual gaming years later, but by then he was well out of it.
Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
From this interview in 1998
https://worldofspectrum.net/interviews/PriestleyDon.htm
So it sounds like he went (back?) into teaching and retired to Ireland.What are you doing now?
Nothing. I took early retirement from teaching and I live here in Ireland in rural isolation. You know, pottering about. The old horse turned out to grass.
Maziacs was the top vote for me, it’s such a quintessential Spectrum game (although I guess it’s a souped up version of Mazogs). Everything about it is sooo Spectrum. The colour, the sound FX, the sprites and the typeface.
Don Priestley was one of the names I remember keeping an eye out for, I had Maziacs and 3D Tanx. When a friend got Popeye and it had his name on the loading screen, I knew that this was a high quality programmer and to keep an eye out for any other games by him.
I suppose it’s a bit of a shame how he faded away from the Spectrum scene at the end, but in another way Don is a great reflection of how the Spectrum could propel anyone to a “household” name amongst a generation of gamers. Here’s a guy who takes up programming in his late 30s as a hobby, begins to build up his experience during his 40s on a completely new frontier of computer games and makes some cracking games on his own, before fading away as the era of the “bedroom coder” has moved onto large teams of software developers. I think that’s a great story.
Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
Lol, I found a video of the AY enhanced version with the Yakety Sax soundtrack, you’re right, it makes such a difference!
Everyone needs to rethink what they voted for!
Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
1. Trap Door - A bit of a revelation graphically. Popeye looked good and all, but this just looked amazing, and was maybe the best representation of an license on the speccy. And it played well too, if a little on the hard side.
2. Maziacs - Kind of the opposite of Trap Door, this one looks kind of terrible, but it's good clean fun.
3. Gregory Loses His Clock. I've never played this, but it's my favourite title of anything ever. It occasionally, randomly, pops into my head, and it cheers me up every time. Maybe this is symptomatic of something, I dunno.
2. Maziacs - Kind of the opposite of Trap Door, this one looks kind of terrible, but it's good clean fun.
3. Gregory Loses His Clock. I've never played this, but it's my favourite title of anything ever. It occasionally, randomly, pops into my head, and it cheers me up every time. Maybe this is symptomatic of something, I dunno.
Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
1. Maziacs
2. The Trapdoor
3. Minder
Maziacs had some genuinely jump out of my skin moments when they suddenly appeared on the screen, while Trapdoor and Minder really catch the spirit of the TV shows they're based on.
2. The Trapdoor
3. Minder
Maziacs had some genuinely jump out of my skin moments when they suddenly appeared on the screen, while Trapdoor and Minder really catch the spirit of the TV shows they're based on.
- PeteProdge
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Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
BERK!!! GIVE ME RESULTS!!!
Aw, globbits!
Well, the Trap Door got this, with 16 votes. That'll please 'im upstairs!
Away from the 'chunky huge sprite' (CHS) efforts, the second place goes to Maziacs, with 9 votes.
The third place is part of that CHS sub-genre (ahem), it's Popeye with 6 votes.
Joint fourth place goes to 3D-Tanx and a license-free CHS game, Gregory Loses His Clock - 3 votes each.
In fifth place, we have Dictator, Minder, plus the CHS efforts Benny Hill's Madcap Chase and Through The Trap Door. 2 votes each.
Then in sixth place, one vote each going to Jumbly; Meteoroids and the CHS game Flunky.
NO, BERK!!! GIVE ME THE PROPORTIONAL RESULTS!!!
Aw, no! His Smelliness is in rage! Ooh, better hope he didn't hear that!
Right, Boni, you've worked this out haven't you?
Trap Door, The by Piranha 23
Maziacs by DK'Tronics 22
Popeye by DK'Tronics 14
Gregory Loses His Clock by Mastertronic Plus 8
3D-Tanx by DK'Tronics 5
Dictator by DK'Tronics 3
Minder by DK'Tronics 3
Spawn Of Evil by DK'Tronics 3
Through The Trap Door by Piranha 3
Aw, globbits!
Well, the Trap Door got this, with 16 votes. That'll please 'im upstairs!
Away from the 'chunky huge sprite' (CHS) efforts, the second place goes to Maziacs, with 9 votes.
The third place is part of that CHS sub-genre (ahem), it's Popeye with 6 votes.
Joint fourth place goes to 3D-Tanx and a license-free CHS game, Gregory Loses His Clock - 3 votes each.
In fifth place, we have Dictator, Minder, plus the CHS efforts Benny Hill's Madcap Chase and Through The Trap Door. 2 votes each.
Then in sixth place, one vote each going to Jumbly; Meteoroids and the CHS game Flunky.
NO, BERK!!! GIVE ME THE PROPORTIONAL RESULTS!!!
Aw, no! His Smelliness is in rage! Ooh, better hope he didn't hear that!
Right, Boni, you've worked this out haven't you?
Trap Door, The by Piranha 23
Maziacs by DK'Tronics 22
Popeye by DK'Tronics 14
Gregory Loses His Clock by Mastertronic Plus 8
3D-Tanx by DK'Tronics 5
Dictator by DK'Tronics 3
Minder by DK'Tronics 3
Spawn Of Evil by DK'Tronics 3
Through The Trap Door by Piranha 3
Reheated Pixels - a combination of retrogaming, comedy and factual musing, is here!
New video: Nine ZX Spectrum magazine controversies - How Crash, Your Sinclair and Sinclair User managed to offend the world!
New video: Nine ZX Spectrum magazine controversies - How Crash, Your Sinclair and Sinclair User managed to offend the world!
- PeteProdge
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Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
One last thing...
Reheated Pixels - a combination of retrogaming, comedy and factual musing, is here!
New video: Nine ZX Spectrum magazine controversies - How Crash, Your Sinclair and Sinclair User managed to offend the world!
New video: Nine ZX Spectrum magazine controversies - How Crash, Your Sinclair and Sinclair User managed to offend the world!
Re: Devfinitive Edition (Don Priestley): vote
Sorry if i'm being a bit thick but what is a CHS game?