"B-b-but, this can't be a ZX Spectrum, it just can't do that!"

[Dr beep]

In 1997 after 2 years coding on my ZX81EMULATOR I visited a meeting Mönchengladbach, Germany.

I had a ZX Spectrum with DK Tronics keyboard which was also available on the ZX81.

I loaded my emulator and loaded 3D Monster Maze on it.

I played it when a german visitor said, nice to see you with your ZX81.

I replied that it was a ZX Spectrum with a ZX81 emulator and he said "there no such thing"

I pressed 2 keys for the menu and said "Can you do this on the Zx81?" and the menu appeared.
He was stunned and called many others and they all wanted a copy.

[Dr beep]

TV game with the bats in the border.

[blucey]

In terms of games pushing the envelope then yeah, R-Type and Thanatos for me. The parallax scrolling on the latter was unbelievable.

In terms of individual effects or moments, Future Games was the first Tim Follin tune I heard. That border effect in Gutz. The loader on Moonstrike. They all seemed impossible.

[luny]

oh gawd, the running sprites when Tech Ted loads. That just seemed so awesome at the time. Animation during loading seemed wizard to me as I had little knowledge of how loading worked then.

[zup]

Extreme was... well, extreme. Big sprites. VERY big sprites, colourful and it had three different sections... all packed in a single 48k. Savage was also impressive... but I got stunned with Extreme.

[Manu128k]

When I was playing Wonder Boy in Monster Land and I pressed pause so the game then shows some big PAUSE letters ... Wait a moment, it is drawing in the b.., it can't be... it's in the border!! That's impossible