Good 8bit games that are not on the Speccy

[spider]

Are there any good games you've played on other (8bit ideally) that were not released on the Spectrum that probably should of been ?

I'm aware of a few AGC / Ultimate titles that were on the C64 but I only tried them a few times and did not really like what I saw.

Offhand I can think of Dare Devil Dennis on the BBC Micro which is quite a fun but simple game, but repetitive though.


Please exclude anything that was ported to the Speccy that was dreadful! Its not about "this game is better on (machine x)" and anything that would not of been too practical to do either within the limitation of the Spectrum, although if say it turned out to be a 128K or disk only release that's fine.

Particularly interested in earlier games though myself, say pre 86 ones...

Any thoughts ?

[Bubu]

Nice subject,

I'm thinking of BOTANIC. Never ported to spectrum. This game, from 1983 in coin ops, was never ever ported to Spectrum, and as far as I know, to any 8 bit system.

And it's a pure vice!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEeWH2OUJn0

[Art]

Revs for the BBC Micro (1985).

[FFoulkes]

Was going to say H.E.R.O., but actually there was a port (I never saw back then):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVwr_sMLQbY

[Morkin]

Did anyone do a Speccy port of Akalabeth: World of Doom?

There's this one in the archive, it's not available to play, but it doesn't quite look like the same game as far as in-game screens are concerned - the screenshots look more like map screens and there don't seem to be any 3D line graphics.

[clebin]

No, none. Thank goodness!

[clebin]

... although Sid Meier's Pirates! would've been nice. Even the CPC got a port!

[Matt_B]

Bards Tale 2 & 3 spring to mind.

That said, the tape multiload experience of the one game in the series that was ported would give you a pretty good idea as to why. Some games don't really make a lot of sense on a system where the majority of users don't have access to a disk drive, and I'd guess that the same goes for Pirates!

None of that would present much of an issue now though. They're just big games that'd take a lot of work and someone would have to want to take that on. I'm not volunteering.

[Evil Genius]

How about Exile ?

Although it's easy to see why it wasn't

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjWjWvOwdlw

[Art]

How about Exile ?

Yes, it would be great. A two-colour version could work well.

[FFoulkes]

"Jumpman" was always a good game, that was typical Commodore/Atari.
Maybe difficult to port though, it's quite fast, makes a lot of use of hardware sprites. Those sprites are a bit bulgy and really not that beautiful, but they move very fast.
Spectrum has "Chuckie Egg" and "Manic Miner" of course. But they're of a different style, bit slower somehow.
Maybe it's not such a good idea, just to try to port games from Commodore/Atari: "Manic Miner" was originally inspired by "Miner 2094er" (Atari 800). But it wasn't just a port, it only took some concepts and created something new from that, that was more appropriate for the Spectrum. That's probably the better way to go.

[FFoulkes]

On the Atari 800XL, there was a game called "Gauntlet" (by Donald R. Lebeau), that wasn't Atari's own "Gauntlet" dungeon crawler. Instead you had to navigate a small space ship through different screens from left to right (without scrolling). You could fire "bolts", but also smart "missiles".
It seemed to be a simple game, but it actually was quite a lot of fun. The enemies' AI was quite good, some could also fire (smart) missiles at you. If you fired too many "bolts" after another they somehow could get stuck and hit you back.
That game may work on the Spectrum too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Hm2iWJ_hPM

[FFoulkes]

Oh, and speaking of the dungeon crawler. There was another version called "Dandy".
I liked it much better than the "Gauntlet" crawler. A friend of mine and me once played this for hours. (It really had to be played by two players in co-op mode, as a single player game it wasn't so much fun).
Reason it was so good, it all made sense. Especially great was the "smart bomb": You could either shoot it, so the screen was cleared from enemies. Or you could pick it up and make it explode later (by pressing a key):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z4iibYOGes

Later on the Amiga there were games like "Alien Breed Tower Assault". But although graphics (and atmosphere) may have been better there, we still prefer "Dandy" on the Atari.

[FFoulkes]

And a last one: "Gomoku" (on the Atari 800XL again).
It's just a "put five in a row" kind of game.
But unlike "Connect 4", game pieces don't drop down, you can just set them onto the playfield, wherever you want.
"Gomoku" on the Atari was played with the joystick. I liked a lot, when I wanted a sort of calmer board game:

http://www.atarimania.com/8bit/screens/gomoku_2.gif

[+3code]

Did anyone do a Speccy port of Akalabeth: World of Doom?

There's this one in the archive, it's not available to play, but it doesn't quite look like the same game as far as in-game screens are concerned - the screenshots look more like map screens and there don't seem to be any 3D line graphics.

It's all in BASIC (as the original), so really slow. The screenshots are from the "overworld", but, when you enter a dungeon, you navigate it in 3D-first person. IIRC the idea was to port/adapt the original BASIC code to Sinclair BASIC, so the game is the same.

[toot_toot]

Certainly in the early days there were loads of games that weren’t available on the Spectrum, it was made more obvious in the early days of US Gold (or Ariolasoft before US Gold) when a lot of US C64 or Atari games were released in the UK, but not converted to the Spectrum. Now, back in those early days (like pre-86 or so), the big seller was the cover art, you’d come across games without having ever read a review and some of those US games had AMAZING covers. Yet they weren’t available on the Spectrum… very annoying!

Some of those games, of the top of my head, are:

Fort Apocalypse
Raid on Bungeling Bay
Shamus
Choplifter

These should have been fairly easy to port over, I’m not sure why they weren’t.

[toot_toot]

I also remember being devastated when I couldn’t find a Spectrum version of this, one of my favourite to programs when I was young

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-SUoHmpRdM

Monkey Magic the game!

Looking at it now, it’s a strange one - the music choices are very strange, considering Monkey Magic had such an amazing theme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0G5MSBr03M

[Pegaz]

Some of these old 8bit games, would be worth having on Spectrum.
Pit Stop II, Bagitman, M.U.L.E., Frantic Freddie, Legend of Sinbad, Space Taxi, Ultima, Aztec Challenge...

[clebin]

Some games don't really make a lot of sense on a system where the majority of users don't have access to a disk drive, and I'd guess that the same goes for Pirates!

Yeah, I didn't consider that. That would apply to other big American games like Maniac Mansion and Zak McCracken from Lucasfilm.

[mention]Pegaz[/mention] I've heard so much about M.U.L.E but I've never actually played it. Is it still fun today, or more a history piece?

There must still be loads on the Japanese 8-bit keyboard computers. Girl's Garden is a really sweet little game that came out for the Sega SC-3000 (as well as Colecovision & SG-1000). The colour palette is so beautiful on this game, like a Monet. It would be different on the Speccy but still make for a nice port. It even scrolls in blocks already!

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2wJlDlbyoo[/media]

[Ralf]

Penguin Adventure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05kTZArlAtI

Metal Gear
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxS-cY4xEpw

[bluespikey]

Some of those games, of the top of my head, are:

Fort Apocalypse

I used to gaze at the advert for Fort Apocalypse in the Your Computer mags, wishing for a swoopy helicopter game that Blue Thunder and Krakatoa weren't. I was chuffed when Airwolf came along, (Though I thought it too easy, ahem). But looking at playthroughs on Youtube, Airwolf does seem to have borrowed heavily from FA, especially the vertical walls and diagonal lasers.

https://youtu.be/AWiH7yReD1I?t=100

Theres string vibes of Subterean Stryker as well.

[Pegaz]

@Pegaz I've heard so much about M.U.L.E but I've never actually played it. Is it still fun today, or more a history piece?

I played a couple of times, this game is highly praised among Atari fans and I don't think it's a coincidence.
Good sci-fi story and atmosphere, the graphics seem simplified, but M.U.L.E. is a definitely interesting strategy game.

[XTM]

Yeah, I didn't consider that. That would apply to other big American games like Maniac Mansion and Zak McCracken from Lucasfilm.

I've actually seen Zak McCracken. No, really. Very vividly - in a dream. Of course I can't track time of how long I "saw" the game, but it probably lasted a good 10 minutes or so and thankfully I woke up shortly after, as one tends to forget about dreams rather quickly. The graphics were not converted Lego pixels, but in regular Speccy resolution and in monochrome. For some reason that you'll have to ask my brain about, it was black ink on green paper.

[spider]

Some very interesting suggestions here , thanks all so far Please keep them coming if there's something relevant.

I purposely wanted to exclude 16 or 32 bit machines and consoles otherwise someone might suggest Silent Hill or similar

I do have a couple of Amiga games in mind but I've not mentioned them for the same reasoning.

[MtM]

I would have to second and third M.U.L.E. Never seen anything like it since really, played the c64 version, was just a brilliant game with 4 players too, very simple yet worked fantastically well, quirky humour, genuinely subtle and tactical gameplay, Roy Glover's Funky Bop music and of course programmed by the legend that was Danielle Bunten Berry - ahead of her time. She wrote Seven Cities of Gold too, another C64/Atari classic I think. Those early Ozark Softscape games had real character and gameplay. It is really not a history piece, still very playable and fun, real depth to it.