If you could turn any 1-player game into a 2-player (simultaneous) game

[PeteProdge]

So yeah, a hypothetical wizard/genie/whatever pops up and offers you the opportunity to have ONE ZX Spectrum game turned into a 2-simultaneous-player version. Obviously, one that isn't already in that format.

Which one do you pick?

I mean, Chuckie Egg would be mint like that...

[worcestersource]

Rainbow Islands

[Morkin]

Do both players need to be looking at one screen?

If you could do multi-screen/split screen, then Elite would be awesome (assuming both players had to pick the same planet system).

Also games involving multi-characters like Head Over Heels, Pyracurse or Everyone's a Wally would be quite cool.

[SteveSmith]

I mean, Chuckie Egg would be mint like that...

Please excuse my self-promotion: https://stephensmith.itch.io/chuckie-egg-online

[ParadigmShifter]

Definitely Stonkers? Maybe Shadowfire as well (was that what it was called the Beyond icon driven thingio that had Enigma Force as a sequel?)

Although it's not simultaneous Lords of Midnight would be good.

Obvs I wanted to say Hide the Sausage but that's not a Spectrum game.

[RWAC]

I think Deathchase could make a good split screen game. One player is the hunter, the other the hunted.

[Oloturia]

Stonkers for me too. Nether Earth would be fine, but maybe the screen could be too crammed.

Also Turbo Esprit but I can't really imagine how to split the screen. Just think of the chases in the traffic.

[XTM]

Action Force 2. With more enemies, where one player actually controls Gary Bracey (Quick Kick) and has a bunch of attacks but there are also enemies he can't reach and that will shoot him, that's where the 2nd player comes in with the crosshairs.

[Mousey]

Back to Skool, with one player controlling Eric and the other could be the Swot, trying to foil him.

[PeteProdge]

Back to Skool, with one player controlling Eric and the other could be the Swot, trying to foil him.

Wow.

I thought 2-player Rainbow Islands (which not even the coin-op original had, IIRC) was the best suggestion, but yours... that's the one I really want to exist!

[Nitrowing]

i could go for OutRun, top/bottom split

[SteveSmith]

The Great Escape - one player controlling the prisoner, the other the commandent, who has to try and identify the player based on their movements.

[XTM]

The Great Escape - one player controlling the prisoner, the other the commandent, who has to try and identify the player based on their movements.

How would that work when both are on the same screen? That would only work in a LAN/Online setup where people are not looking at the same screen.

[spider]

Knight Lore ?

With one player playing each 'transformation' character ?

Sort of "Head Over Heels" style.

[WhatHoSnorkers]

Feud, split screen somehow?

Or via a multiface and 2 Spectrums?

[spider]

Feud, split screen somehow?

Or via a multiface and 2 Spectrums?

Wonder if they both had an Interface 1 the network ability (or the serial) could be used for this. I don't think it would be fast enough but I could be wrong.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Commando, a sort of "Gauntlet goes to Vietnam"

[Stefan]

Wonder if they both had an Interface 1 the network ability (or the serial) could be used for this. I don't think it would be fast enough but I could be wrong.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/list?group_id=1017 If TT Racer can do it, Feud definitely can.

[Hank Scorpio]

Feud, split screen somehow?

Spy vs Spy is a good example of a split screen, simultaneous 2-player game, so Feud would probably have worked.

[SteveSmith]

How would that work when both are on the same screen? That would only work in a LAN/Online setup where people are not looking at the same screen.

I'm guessing the genie would also have the ability to network two Spectrums together. Or what @spider said.

[uglifruit]

If I can have two Speccys interface 1'd together ... I'd like The Sentinel. Both players on the same landscape. With options for shared energy (co-op), or PvP with either the ability to suck energy from the other player or not.

On one spectrum...

Pete Cooke's Brainstorm - with both players controlling their own 'line' trying to manoeuvre the ball to their own goal, or co-op.

Splat with two zippys

Trashman, with two dustbin men working together

[Wall_Axe]

Another vote for commando

[stupidget]

Chase HQ Split Screen. P1 are the Coppers and P2 is the Bad fecker

[Morkin]

Pete Cooke's Brainstorm - with both players controlling their own 'line' trying to manoeuvre the ball to their own goal, or co-op.

Splat with two zippys

These two would be great..!

I think Brainstorm would have to be a co-op, as the score is increased/decreased whenever a ball moves into a coloured square, so it's not really attributable to any player. But I reckon it'd work well as you could work together to trap it.

Splat could work a bit like a lot of 2D top-down racers (like Micro Machines) where if a player goes off the screen they lose a life.

[PeteProdge]

i could go for OutRun, top/bottom split

See, the problem here is that the OG OutRun was already as slow as a brick swimming in a reservoir in superglue. To manage two displays (and yes, I know they're a 50/50 split) is going to slow down it even further, with the CPU really straining to manage two players, two landscapes, two scores, representing traffic in each screen (and keeping it consistent when both cars are near each other), etc.

The genie/wizard/fairy/whatever has been nice in his/her wish to us, but it's all software-based, there can be no hardware enhancements, it's all for vanilla Spectrum models.

That said, I like the discussion of networked Interface 1s. And then I guess there'd be lots of opportunities from the set-up @Joefish did for his multi-player Gnash Man Party where two live screens can be output from a Spectrum +2. That's witchcraft, that is.