The best Speccy game by Durell: vote

[Rorthron]

1. Thanatos
2. Scuba Dive
3. Saboteur

[Nick]

1. Turbo Esprit
2. Thanatos
3. Harrier Attack

And I do often wonder what software label of the Speccy era can be considered the 'Motown' of them all? (Yeah, my head is filled with very bizarre comparisons that are often illogical.)

That could be a very good idea for a thread, comparing outputs of software labels and record labels and working out which music genre best describes which games company.

[Hank Scorpio]

1 Turbo Esprit
2 Saboteur!
3 Thanatos

[RWAC]

1 Saboteur
2 Scuba Dive
3 Saboteur 2

[clebin]

Love Durrell. I slightly prefer the setting of Saboteur 2 with the moody moonlit bits. Best to play the speeded up version though. Many happy memories of Harrier Attack. Turbo Esprit…. Nuff said.

1. Turbo Esprit
2. Saboteur 2
3. Harrier Attack

[Juan F. Ramirez]

1 Saboteur
2 Scuba Dive
3 Turbo Esprit

[Raoh_hokuto_shinken]

1 Turbo Esprit
2 Saboteur
3 Thanatos

[StooB]

Just as an aside, I’m intrigued by this also known as “Critical Mass 2” for Chain Reaction, which is something I’ve never heard of until this morning. Had this ever been confirmed? I can’t see any mention of Critical Mass in any Chain Reaction adverts or documents, there seems to be no link in the plots and the only link seems to be nuclear terms, slight overlapping of plot elements and they’re both published by the same company…so where has this Chain Reaction is the sequel to Critical Mass come from?

from The Games Machine:

[Einar Saukas]

Just as an aside, I’m intrigued by this also known as “Critical Mass 2” for Chain Reaction, which is something I’ve never heard of until this morning. Had this ever been confirmed? I can’t see any mention of Critical Mass in any Chain Reaction adverts or documents, there seems to be no link in the plots and the only link seems to be nuclear terms, slight overlapping of plot elements and they’re both published by the same company…so where has this Chain Reaction is the sequel to Critical Mass come from?

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 89&page=15

[Morkin]

Cripes, some rather good games in this poll.

1. Scuba Dive
2. Saboteur
3. Turbo Esprit

I switched (1) and (2) in my head about 10 times before voting.

[Mpk]

In light of the other thread, changing my vote to

1) Bomb Jack
2) Commando
3) Frank Bruno's Boxing

[PeteProdge]

In light of the other thread, changing my vote to

1) Bomb Jack
2) Commando
3) Frank Bruno's Boxing

Don't be so elitist.

[Einar Saukas]

1. Saboteur!
2. Saboteur II
3. Thanatos

[8BitSC]

I voted for Scuba Dive as it was the first game I bought for my brand new ZX Spectrum, back in the day.

I thoroughly enjoyed playing Turbo Esprit and Thanatos too, but I HAVE to give my vote to my first Speccy game.

(This wasn't the first game I bought; that would be 3D Monster Maze for the ZX81 but this wasn't the question, or the forum.)

[equinox]

Absolute classic software house, with a limited number of releases — thus a rather tough choice. I haven't played every one of them (yeah, I know, I know — now's my chance — but rather busy for next couple of weeks). So I won't vote probably.

I remember getting Fat Worm on a Crash cover tape circa 1990 and (being a young kid, and not aware of the '80s history or almost anything) wondering what the fuss was about. Looking at it now, it's really unique and interesting: the vector-type graphics of the twisting worm, plus the plausible 3D of the bits of circuit and processor, showing different sides as you pass, which are now curiously reminiscent of the first (aerial-view) Grand Theft Auto!

Jungle Trouble, despite being a one-screen game (perhaps underwhelming after the likes of Manic Miner? or did it come slightly earlier?), is another one that has rather excellent graphics for its time. I remember reading in some fanzine (was it ZX-Files or Classix?) about how the author got his wife to run back and forth so he could capture the leg movements. Dirty bast. And I know Saboteur is rather popular (also on the C64): who doesn't wanna be in a spy movie?

Personally I quite liked Turbo Esprit. Didn't know what I was doing, but it looked cool, felt cool, and the title screen music was astonishingly hummable. And you could run over stick-men. GTA again.

[Vampyre]

1. Turbo Esprit
2. Saboteur
3. Scuba Dive

I believe I'm also one of the few that thought Fat Worm was pretty good and Saboteur II was rubbish.

[PeteProdge]

Turbo Esprit got this with 19 votes!

That's closely followed by Saboteur! with 16 votes, being second placed.

In a distant third, we have Thanatos with, 6 votes.

Scuba Dive is fourth, with 4 votes.

Then we have Harrier Attack! and Saboteur II in joint fifth place, with 3 votes each.

2 votes go to Fat Worm Blows A Sparky, making it sixth.

Combat Lynx and Critical Mass get 1 vote each, placing it seventh.

Here are the proportional results:

Turbo Esprit 30
Saboteur! 29
Scuba Dive 15
Thanatos 14
Saboteur II 6
Critical Mass 3
Combat Lynx 2
Harrier Attack! 2
Jungle Trouble 1

[Bedazzle]

Saboteur
Saboteur 2
Sigma 7

[PeteProdge]

Saboteur
Saboteur 2
Sigma 7

*taps watch*

[Bedazzle]

*taps watch*

Anyway my voice can not change anything.