ZX Spectrum Top 100 games collection (feat. 274 titles)

[akeley]

This is a little something I made to have a fun break from my more long-term archival projects. From the description:

This collection contains games from 5 different Top 100 ZX Spectrum games lists. Overall it features 274 games altogether (full list below), plus some additional media (scans, instructions, loading screens, and .ay music files). These were sourced mostly from the excellent ZXDB database and files hosted on the SpectrumComputing.co.uk website. It should be usable on the original hardware, emulators, and FPGA devices.

It's worth noting that even the "official" YS list is rather subjective, and there are great variations between these rankings, which makes perusing them even more fun (eg compare the YS readers list from 1993 with more modern WoS list).

Also, this is by no means an exhaustive collection of ZX Spectrum's best games - while the most popular "classics" are well represented, there are still some which are missing, and so are hundreds of other really good games equally worthy a place on a Top 100 list, depending on personal taste. Still, it's meant as a quick and accessible look at some of the the best titles from this extraordinary microcomputer's library.

The next update will also add the Top 100 Text Adventure list, and perhaps some other Top 100s. If you spot any bugs/mistakes in the meantime, please let me know.

TOP 100 LISTS
1) "The Official Game Top 100 Of All Time" - according to Your Sinclair journalist Stuart Campbell and published in issues 70 (October 1991) through 74 (February 1992),
https://worldofspectrum.net/archive/top-100/
2) "Readers Top 100", which was voted for by the Your Sinclair readers and published in issue 93 (September 1993).
https://worldofspectrum.net/archive/top-100/
3) "Visitor Voted Top 100 Best Games" - from the website World Of Spectrum
https://worldofspectrum.net/archive/best-games/
4) "The 100 Best Spectrum Games" - from the website Retro Sanctuary
https://retro-sanctuary.com/Top-100-Spe ... age-1.html
5) "Top 100 Spectrum Games" - from the website Wizwords
http://www.wizwords.net/top-100-spectrum-games

FILE STRUCTURE
There are 3 main archives to download

-ZXSpectrumTop100.zip - the entire collection (games + media). ~500MB size. It's organised by game subdirectories, each of which contains games in various formats (tap/tzx/z80/sna/dsk/trd) and a "Doc" directory with media files.
-ZXSpectrumTop100-noDoc.zip - as above, only without the media files featured in "Doc" directories, resulting in much smaller size (27MB)
-ZXSpectrumTop100-HDD.zip - the collection adapted to a HDD image, usable on FPGA devices and possibly Next too. It features most of the aforementioned files, minus /png/jpg/pdf/tzx/dsk.

You can find it on that big ol' archive site, search for "ZX Spectrum Top 100". Suggestions for some other Top 100 lists I might've missed are welcome, I might include them in the next update.

[PeteProdge]

There's also this very website: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/rating.php <--use the filters to ensure you're picking only the games.

[akeley]

I see this list has matured a lot since I've seen it last. It's pretty good now, though it still has some weird outliers - thanks to regional voting perhaps - but then so do other ones too. I might put it in the next update.

I did have a look at SCORES tab on the main page and thought I will find it there...but was kinda in a rush and didn't look further. Shouldn't it be up there too, @PeterJ ? WoS scores are featured after all.

[PeterJ]

Good suggestion @akeley,

I will add.

[Bolton80]

Has anyone compiled a Worst 100 game set? I'm tempted, just for the amusement of having them all ready to play.

Does this site allow you to identify the 100 lowest rated games (from the commercial era), English language only?

The only equivalent I've found is the old archived bottom 100 on WOS.

[PeteProdge]

Has anyone compiled a Worst 100 game set? I'm tempted, just for the amusement of having them all ready to play.
Does this site allow you to identify the 100 lowest rated games (from the commercial era), English language only?

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/worst5plus.php

[PeterJ]

Thanks to @PeteProdge for mentioning this. The full list of reports is here:

app.php/scores

Just a reminder for new users, every software page has a voting section. You need to logged into the forum to vote, and your username is stored in the database against each vote.

[toot_toot]

This download will be great fun over the Xmas holidays!

[rog]

Great work and thanks for sharing! I've been working on and off on a "top" archive collection using the Crash, YS, SU scores plus several other spec websites and books that collate this stuff. It's a lot of fun.

[akeley]

A new release - v1.1 - is available now. This update adds the Top 100 Text Adventure list/games from WoS , and SpectrumComputing's Top 100 list (plus 9 new game files).

The hdd image has also been updated, though given that some of the games refuse to work this way (because it's limited to tap/snapshot files) its status should be considered as "experimental". I do aim to test these files thoroughly and seek better .taps or make snapshots wherever they are broken, but that will take some time - so for now please use the "normal" loading method and files (tzx/dsk/etc) in such cases.

I'd also appreciate any reports of these games not working.

It was fun tweaking the SpectrumComputing's list - I have started with "min 5" votes filter, but then bumped it to 15, due to some interesting outliers. Not quite sure it was a "fair" move but, hey, here goes

[Einar Saukas]

I did have a look at SCORES tab on the main page and thought I will find it there...but was kinda in a rush and didn't look further. Shouldn't it be up there too, @PeterJ ? WoS scores are featured after all.

This site has 2 score menus. One accessible from the main page (showing scores based on magazines) and another accessible from the forum (showing scores based on user votes).

Perhaps they should be merged?

[akeley]

I look at Crash's Top 100 list, but it's only 50-1. Am I missing something here or is it really only top 50? Well the article says "the ultimate chart of your all-time fave 50 Speccy games" so I guess it is...just wonder why they called it that, or is there a real Crash Top 100 out there somewhere?

https://www.crashonline.org.uk/94/top100.htm

[StooB]

I look at Crash's Top 100 list, but it's only 50-1. Am I missing something here or is it really only top 50? Well the article says "the ultimate chart of your all-time fave 50 Speccy games" so I guess it is...just wonder why they called it that, or is there a real Crash Top 100 out there somewhere?

https://www.crashonline.org.uk/94/top100.htm

100-76
https://www.crashonline.org.uk/91/top100.htm

75-51
https://www.crashonline.org.uk/92/top100.htm

[akeley]

Thank you. I actually did look at the index pages of these issues but somehow managed to miss the lists. I blame the Nineties web design

I must say that Crash list is even more WTF than Stu's YS one. If you look at the top 30 it's all about action games and Dizzy, with some rare outliers such as Sim City & Elite thrown into the mix.

[Wizwords]

Has anyone compiled a Worst 100 game set? I'm tempted, just for the amusement of having them all ready to play.

Does this site allow you to identify the 100 lowest rated games (from the commercial era), English language only?

The only equivalent I've found is the old archived bottom 100 on WOS.

[blucey]

And my list.

1. Rebelstar 2

2-100. Whatever, man.

[akeley]

Looking closer at the Crash list generates another "what were they smoking?" question, this time of a more editorial nature. Both Renegades and SWIV seem to have double entries...how on Earth can you miss an error like that? It's a top 100 list, not 1000

Or is it me, missing something obvious again?

EDIT: wait, there's more...CJ's Elephants, Trapdoor, Kwik Snax, Pang... @@

[StooB]

Looking closer at the Crash list generates another "what were they smoking?" question, this time of a more editorial nature. Both Renegades and SWIV seem to have double entries...how on Earth can you miss an error like that? It's a top 100 list, not 1000

Or is it me, missing something obvious again?

EDIT: wait, there's more...CJ's Elephants, Trapdoor, Kwik Snax, Pang... @@

In the 100-76 listing in issue 91 they ask for readers top 25's which they say will be compiled into "the final part of the the top 100 - 50-1". But by issue 94 (which is the first Europress published issue), perhaps realising their plan made no sense, they've just printed a top 50 based on reader's votes.

So, positions 100-51 are the bottom half of their Top 100 and the rest were never printed.

[akeley]

So, positions 100-51 are the bottom half of their Top 100 and the rest were never printed.

Messy Thanks for clearing this up.

[akeley]

V1.2 is up....most likely the "final" one. This update adds Crash Top 100 list plus additional games from it (10). It's a bit weird list - see above - but it's Crash, so I guess we need it too for posterity. But it also shows that Your Sinclair readers were a much more refined bunch, har har.

This release also features a bigger vhd with better versions of some of the previously not working games. I spent way too much time tinkering with this vhd and making sure everything works (atm only 3 games fail totally), seeing as you can just load the files the normal way, from the OSD (in MiSTer), but I really like using it like that, with bob_fossil's browser as a proto-OS.