The best Speccy game by Alternative Software: discussion

[PeteProdge]

Ah, Alternative. By far, the bulk of its output was re-released games from other labels, some of it really ancient and poor, but undoubtedly some gems here and there. I guess it's the Channel 5 of Spectrum software houses. But that's not the concern for these kind of polls because I only count their first-run-published stuff (unless otherwise stated, of course).

Quite a lot of their licensed stuff was sourced from the kind of kids' TV shows aimed at young children. If it was the first or second programme in the CBBC/CITV afternoon strand, Alternative probably threw a bit of cash at it to become a Speccy game!

The MIA-until-very-recently game Sooty & Sweep II is not included as it wasn't actually published in the end.

Aftermath
BMX Ninja
Bangers & Mash
Bully's Sporting Darts
Classic Invaders
Combat Zone
Confuzion
Count Duckula
Count Duckula 2
Crazy Er*Bert
Dead Or Alive
Death Before Dishonour
Double Dare
Druids Moon
Eliminator
End Zone
Excalibur: Sword Of Kings
Fallen Angel
Fireman Sam
Football Frenzy
For Gold Or Glory
Grebit
Grid Iron 2
Henry's Hoard
Hideous
Huxley Pig
Kentucky Racing
Life-Term
Metalyx
Microball
Mystery Of The Indus Valley
N.E.I.L. Android
Official Father Christmas Game, The
Pentomania
Popeye 2
Popeye 3: Wrestle Crazy
Postman Pat
Postman Pat 2
Postman Pat 3: To The Rescue
Pro Mountain Bike Simulator
Punch & Judy
Ready Steady Go
Real Stunt Experts, The
Reckless Rufus
Revolver
Rik The Roadie
Rugby Boss
S.M.A.S.H.E.D.
Slug
Soccer Challenge
Sooty & Sweep
Star Wreck
Superted: The Search For Spotty
Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends
Wiz-Biz
Wombles, The

Let me know if I've got this list right or wrong, and 7 days from now, I'll start the poll properly.

[StooB]

Confuzion is an Incentive re-release. Druids Moon is an error in the database as it was only ever released on a Top Ten compilation, there's no evidence of any release from Alternative and it's not in the complete list of Alternative releases that YS printed in January 1993.

Apart from those two, the rest seem correct.

[PeteProdge]

Thank you, @StooB !

[Nick]

Looking at this list has made me realises how few of their games I own, even though they're quite a well known software house. There are a couple of real classics listed there as well, namely Rik The Roadie and Count Duckula 2.

I'm a little bit curious as to the reasoning behind Alternative launching a full price label (Admiral) on which to release the Dr Who game, at a time when life-support machine of the Speccy's commercial life was about to be turned off.

[DAV83]

Oof yeah I had a few of these back in the day plus a couple of their 4 Most compilations. I found Microball to be a pleasent wee game, which I had via the Classic Arcadia 3 compilation. Probably not the most fanciest game as it's a pinball game that doesn't really offer much as say Advanced Pinball Simulator, but it's playable and quite enjoyable for what it is and I've certainly come across worse pinball games on the Speccy compared to it. Also, look what it's up against. Postman Pat 2 is one I quite liked as well.

[clebin]

Surprisingly slim pickings from Alternative once you take away the re-releases. I had Metalyx which was an ok version of meteors with knobs on.

I had S*M*A*S*H*E*D too, which was a text adventure parody of M*A*S*H. I can't remember much about the game, except that I bought it from Antley's in the Porthcawl, affectionately known as "Time-warp Tellies" on account of the huge array of old wooden TVs in the shop and an ancient till where they would write out the receipt by hand and wind it on. The Spectrum games were on the wall in the window getting slowly bleached, and some of them had been there so long you could barely read the labels.

[DAV83]

I had S*M*A*S*H*E*D too, which was a text adventure parody of M*A*S*H. I can't remember much about the game, except that I bought it from Antley's in the Porthcawl, affectionately known as "Time-warp Tellies" on account of the huge array of old wooden TVs in the shop and an ancient till where they would write out the receipt by hand and wind it on. The Spectrum games were on the wall in the window getting slowly bleached, and some of them had been there so long you could barely read the labels.

That was in one of the 4 Most compilations I had, 4 Most Adventures, which is ironic as text-adventures are not my forté at all. But I do remember S*M*A*S*H*E*D being quite a humourous title though I never really got far into it like all text-adventures.

[hitm4n]

Until i see pics, i'm not sure i recall a single one of these...

[merman]

Grid Iron 2 and BMX Ninja are absolutely horrible, not even worth 9p let alone £1.99.

Best for me in there is Reckless Rufus.

[DAV83]

Grid Iron 2 and BMX Ninja are absolutely horrible, not even worth 9p let alone £1.99.

Best for me in there is Reckless Rufus.

Grid Iron 2 was another game I had via a 4 Most compilation, 4 Most World Sport, and yeah it was pretty rubbish. It had the same issue the majority of American Football management games had where they used soccer elements in them, 11 player squads, transfer market, three points for a win etc etc.

[toot_toot]

Fallen Angel was a rerelease of a full price Screen 7 game (plus I think it wasn’t on Alternative, but Summit)

Alternative was a strange one, I don’t remember playing any original games by them…. But they had some great covers for the rereleases, which I think were sometimes better than the originals.

[merman]

Fallen Angel was a rerelease of a full price Screen 7 game (plus I think it wasn’t on Alternative, but Summit)

Alternative was a strange one, I don’t remember playing any original games by them…. But they had some great covers for the rereleases, which I think were sometimes better than the originals.

Summit was Alternative’s re-release label, for titles like The Last Ninja and The Trap Door (they bought up the rights to the Piranha games)

[Nick]

Summit did release a few original games such as Cannibals From Outer Space. Why Alternative opted to release them on the Summit label rather than their own is anyone's guess.

[spider]

I had no idea they actually had any releases of their own (I don't mean that in a bad way) , I had assumed it was all re-releases.

The 'Most' is confusing as I have that for adventure games but not that one by that house, my mistake "Four Most" (Global Software) vs "4 Most" (Alternative Software)

There is a fair bit then to work through it seems.

As posted higher up, I think once we see a list and pics it will be a bit easier.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

One good thing of this company is some quality inlays of their rerelease games, even better in some cases than the original inlays

[jdanddiet]

Technically Henry's Hoard was a re-release