Brilliant games that didn't make it to the top (Hijack, anyone???)

[kokkiklhs]

My idea as I'm writing these, is to have a thread about ill-fated Speccy games of the classic 80s era (not the later releases with modern programming tricks and techniques), that didn't make it even half to the top like other titles, even though they deserved it. I am not talking about "I liked this unknown silly/crappy game because I played it a lot for some reason", but about "I know this old game which seems to me exceptionally good for xyz reasons but it's never become remarkably famous or popular"... There must be a lot of them and it also depends to the point of view and personal taste of everyone in here...
This thread could be a good chance for Speccy friends to find more classic interesting and unique games that did not happen to attract their attention in the past...

I am starting with my own all-time favourite of this division:

Since I was a kid, I knew Hijack, a weird game from Paradise Software - Electric Dreams, which appeared to me exceptionally nice and interesting but always incomprehensible (you bet I had it on a copy without instructions, right!!!)
Looking at it now (and having meanwhile found the instructions thanks to various web sources), 35 years after its 1986 release, I can tell it's a unique and quite impressive piece of software, extremely underrated, and least known and popular among the Speccy community...
It surprises me that there aren't any videos with gameplay/walkthrough on YT, not even for the Amstrad CPC version and of course this game is one of the big absent titles in the RZX archive...
Why so?
The idea/concept are quite original, interesting and overall brilliant! It's obviously a hard one (haven't managed to finish it yet), but I am enjoying it every time I play! Programming-wise the game "shouts out loud" that there has been an excellent work done! Superb graphics and animation, windows, icons and pointer-driven menus, nice 1-bit starting and ending tunes... And all these performed in 1986 by a humble, plain 48k Speccy... What else to say?
I dare classifying this one among other, well-known masterpieces, like Elite, Lords of Midnight, Heavy on the Magick or Fairlight, for its originality and top-notch programming for 1986 standards...

[toot_toot]

Good shout! I remember the glowing Hijack review in Sinclair User where it was awarded a Classic, but I also remember it being released by Electric Dreams, who at this point weren't exactly known for their high quality releases (Mermaid Madness had been released the same month and it wasn't long after Back to the Future). I do remember seeing it in my local John Menzies when I had enough money to buy a full price game, thanks to having some birthday money, but there were a couple things that put me off it.

First the price, it was £9.95 and that would have taken almost all of my birthday money! So I ended up buying Jack the Nipper and Knight Tyme.

The other thing was the cover. Unless Electric Dreams were using the film poster, at this time they had (what I thought at the time) quite boring airbrushed type covers. It just didn't sell it to me.



But check out the re-release cover from Summit, that's much more appealing!



Anyway, it was one of those games that I didn't get to play until emulation came about in the mid 90s and I regret not picking it up at the time.

Here's another game suggestion for a brilliant game that didn't make it to the top.

They Stole a Million

I remember my friend having a copy of this (which I later bought off him when he was upgrading to an Amiga) and we spent hours planning the various heists and then executing them. It was a really clever game and quite highly reviewed, yet there's no walkthrough videos for the Spectrum version on YouTube, in fact the only videos are a Crack intro and a Spanish play through where the guy clearly doesn't know what he's doing - which is easy to understand because it's one of those games where it's easy to not really understand the gameplay.

It was never re-released, maybe because it was originally published by an Ariolasoft sub-label and I'm not sure they got any re-releases (see another classic - Deactivators - although that seems to be more remembered!).

Another game by an Ariolasoft sub label is Star Fox by Reaktor. It was written by the same guys who made 3D Star Strike and Star Strike II and I suppose could be thought of as a spiritual sequel, yet similarly there are practically no videos about it on YouTube, except for a couple of quick play videos and referencing it was "Star Fox" before Nintendo's Star Fox.

[kokkiklhs]

First the price, it was £9.95 and that would have taken almost all of my birthday money! So I ended up buying Jack the Nipper and Knight Tyme.

The other thing was the cover. Unless Electric Dreams were using the film poster, at this time they had (what I thought at the time) quite boring airbrushed type covers. It just didn't sell it to me.

Another thing is that its was released exclusively for the Spectrum and Amstrad, no other platforms... It could have been e.g. a hit for the C64, especially with its "American" scenario...

I will look at both your own suggestions, I know neither of them!!


EDIT: STARFOX is not my cup of tea, as a gender of game, generally... But I can say it's very well done and surely all people attracted to such stuff will appreciate it, if they don't already know it...
But hey, THEY STOLE A MILLION looks super-cool, I will surely give it a good go in the near future!!!

[SteveSmith]

Since I was a kid, I knew Hijack, a weird game from Paradise Software - Electric Dreams, which appeared to me exceptionally nice and interesting but always incomprehensible (you bet I had it on a copy without instructions, right!!!)

Damn, you could have chosen a game that wasn't denied! It's one I always wanted to try but never got round to it.

Also to say, if I had a pound for every time I read the phrase "I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing" (or words to that effect) on these forums, I'd be a rich man. It's a shame there are probably so many amazing games out there that are lost due to their overcomplexity and/or vague instructions.

[AndyC]

Hijack was a great game, I had it from the YS covertape (so there were instructions but a bit scant). I'm not sure if I ever actually "beat" it as such (I can't remember if you even really can) but I did successfully stop the hijack once or twice. Can't remember if it then went on to more complex scenarios or something.

It was a very unusual game though and I did find myself strangely drawn into it, even though I'm not entirely sure it ever quite lived up to the expectations it set.

[kokkiklhs]

I am very happy to read that there were also other people around the globe who share the same experience and opinion with me, about the fantastic HIJACK game!!

So, [mention]AndyC[/mention] and [mention]SteveSmith[/mention] please give your own suggestions of underrated and less known good games, if you remember any...

[GreenCard]

I've always loved Hijack, probably one of my favourite covertape games. Never did manage to finish it either, but always had fun trying. Haven't sat down to play it properly in ages. Must do that soon.

[Morkin]

#
But hey, THEY STOLE A MILLION looks super-cool, I will surely give it a good go in the near future!!!

They Stole a Million is a cool game. It's in two parts - the first part you plan your heist by picking your team, buying plans and info etc. and then plan your precise steps through your target building. The next part, your team basically enacts your orders, you don't have much control, apart from to abort your mission, if you set an alarm off or something. I used to find it quite tense watching my team try to nick all the stuff, urging them to hurry up..!

The only thing is that you may find it difficult to play on emulation using snapshots to save progress - in the game you save your team/progress etc., For the next heist you basically have to load the entire game in again (we were so patient back then ), and load your saved game. Discussion is here if needed.

[jdanddiet]

I've just submitted a feature on They Stole a Million for RG. Also got an interview for Hijack so might do that one soon as well.

Both ace games, well ahead of their time.

[AndyC]

I am very happy to read that there were also other people around the globe who share the same experience and opinion with me, about the fantastic HIJACK game!!

So, @AndyC and @SteveSmith please give your own suggestions of underrated and less known good games, if you remember any...

I'm not sure there are that many, but I'll give a shout out to the Shaw Brother's Heartbroken. A cheap budget title that basically got panned in the magazine's, but I really enjoyed it back in the day. Looking at it now it's kind of flawed in that the objectives aren't entirely clear and it's too easy to get lost, even on the relatively small map, but I still think it's pretty solid for a budget game.

[kokkiklhs]

...but I'll give a shout out to the Shaw Brother's Heartbroken. A cheap budget title that basically got panned in the magazine's, but I really enjoyed it back in the day. Looking at it now it's kind of flawed in that the objectives aren't entirely clear and it's too easy to get lost, even on the relatively small map, but I still think it's pretty solid for a budget game.

Wow, I didn't know this one, cute little game!!! Looks like Ghosts 'n' Goblins meet Sir Fred!!!
Very nice, just saw the walkthrough video and I liked it very much!

[jdanddiet]

The Shaws did some great little games. Was playing Aqua Squad the other day, nice little shooter

[jdanddiet]

BTW I've mused on putting together a feature about Spectrum / 8bit games and terrorism as there seemed to be a few.
You've got Embassy Assault and SAS Operation Thunderflash which both seemed to be based on the Iranian Embassy siege and also games such as Strike Force Cobra. Must be a few others.

[Mort]

For terrorist Games you could say Saboteur where you are the terrorist, Glider Rider (industrial espionage) oh and The Fourth protocol where you are stopping a terrorist groups nuclear attack

[akeley]

For terrorist Games you could say Saboteur where you are the terrorist, Glider Rider (industrial espionage) oh and The Fourth protocol where you are stopping a terrorist groups nuclear attack

Pedant writes: "But sabotage & espionage =/= terrorism"

[jdanddiet]

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter anyway

[akeley]

Oh, totally. But still not a spy or saboteur

[Ashley Pomeroy]

It's no fun, but I've always felt that PSS' Swords and Sorcery (1985) deserved more publicity than it got. Development seems to have predated The Bard's Tale, although it was apparently delayed for ages, which in any case didn't come out of the Spectrum until 1988.

It came in a big box as well. It was obviously supposed to be a prestige product, but there's almost nothing about it on the internet, and I don't recall any of the games magazines writing about it in the late-80s, early-90s. The biggest piece of sustained writing I can find it about is this article about a proposed C64 conversion that never came to be. And this blog post from someone who tried to finish it. Perhaps the first person on the internet to do that. It seems that the author spent ages developing a decent engine and then had no time left to finesse the gameplay. Not the last game with that problem.

Did any of Julian Gollop's earlier games sell well? Chaos and the Rebelstar games are classics, but I don't remember them being chart-toppers. Chaos seems to have been released at a time when Games Workshop was giving up on publishing games, and it was then shoved out on budget - I always assumed it was a budget game, but no, it was originally £7.95 - and then it wasn't revived until the age of magazine covertapes.

I've always had the impression that some of the good games that came out late in the Spectrum's life - specifically Turrican and Switchblade - didn't sell well because original full-price games were being squeezed out by budget games, budget re-releases, covertapes, movie licences etc. But then again they may well have charted highly without selling in huge numbers. I'm literally just making this up because I can't find any ZX Spectrum sales charts from the early 1990s.

[Morkin]

It's no fun, but I've always felt that PSS' Swords and Sorcery (1985) deserved more publicity than it got. Development seems to have predated The Bard's Tale, although it was apparently delayed for ages, which in any case didn't come out of the Spectrum until 1988.

It came in a big box as well. It was obviously supposed to be a prestige product, but there's almost nothing about it on the internet, and I don't recall any of the games magazines writing about it in the late-80s, early-90s. The biggest piece of sustained writing I can find it about is this article about a proposed C64 conversion that never came to be. And this blog post from someone who tried to finish it. Perhaps the first person on the internet to do that. It seems that the author spent ages developing a decent engine and then had no time left to finesse the gameplay. Not the last game with that problem.

Did any of Julian Gollop's earlier games sell well? Chaos and the Rebelstar games are classics, but I don't remember them being chart-toppers. Chaos seems to have been released at a time when Games Workshop was giving up on publishing games, and it was then shoved out on budget - I always assumed it was a budget game, but no, it was originally £7.95 - and then it wasn't revived until the age of magazine covertapes.

Yeah, good shout I reckon.

I was a big fan of Swords & Sorcery when it was released. I was willing to play it over and over despite it's bugs/flaws, controls that took some getting used to, and gameplay that could be unforgiving at times. I recall managing to at least get out of the first quadrant, but I don't know if you can actually finish the thing..?

It was nicely presented and the game has a bit of depth to it. It might have even started my interest in dungeon crawler games. The magazine reviews all seemed fairly low-key with uninspiring monochrome screenshots though.

I wonder if, like Chaos, the game might have got a little bit more interest if Crash in particular, who even gave it a smash, and/or the other mags had done a big two page spread with colour screenshots, rather than tucking it away in their adventure section.

[bluespikey]

Swords and Sorcery had a dedicated fan section in the letters of the adventure bit of Crash for a while, and Chaos had a brief revival in the strategy bit after a couple of years. So people were playing it during the original release and the more famous yellow YS cover tape.

[toot_toot]

It's no fun, but I've always felt that PSS' Swords and Sorcery (1985) deserved more publicity than it got. Development seems to have predated The Bard's Tale, although it was apparently delayed for ages, which in any case didn't come out of the Spectrum until 1988.

It came in a big box as well. It was obviously supposed to be a prestige product, but there's almost nothing about it on the internet, and I don't recall any of the games magazines writing about it in the late-80s, early-90s. The biggest piece of sustained writing I can find it about is this article about a proposed C64 conversion that never came to be. And this blog post from someone who tried to finish it. Perhaps the first person on the internet to do that. It seems that the author spent ages developing a decent engine and then had no time left to finesse the gameplay. Not the last game with that problem.

I've mentioned Swords and Sorcery a few times, I think it's really advanced for its time. Dungeon Master came along on the 16-bits a few years afterwards, but Swords and Sorcery had some incredible depth to it and it's amazing to think it was crammed into 48K of memory! In a way it reminded me of a 3D version of another forgotten gem - The Oracle's Cave.

There was supposed to be a sequel to Swords and Sorcery, called Heroquest, but it was never released. It was even advertised and sounded like they had improved the "MIDAS system" quite a bit and you could import your saved character from the first game. Maybe they tried to do "too much" with the sequel, especially in 48K of memory!

The cover image was eventually used in a C64 game, but it's a real pity it wasn't released.

It's no fun, but I've always felt that PSS' Swords and Sorcery (1985) deserved more publicity than it got. Development seems to have predated The Bard's Tale, although it was apparently delayed for ages, which in any case didn't come out of the Spectrum until 1988.

It came in a big box as well. It was obviously supposed to be a prestige product, but there's almost nothing about it on the internet, and I don't recall any of the games magazines writing about it in the late-80s, early-90s. The biggest piece of sustained writing I can find it about is this article about a proposed C64 conversion that never came to be. And this blog post from someone who tried to finish it. Perhaps the first person on the internet to do that. It seems that the author spent ages developing a decent engine and then had no time left to finesse the gameplay. Not the last game with that problem.

Did any of Julian Gollop's earlier games sell well? Chaos and the Rebelstar games are classics, but I don't remember them being chart-toppers. Chaos seems to have been released at a time when Games Workshop was giving up on publishing games, and it was then shoved out on budget - I always assumed it was a budget game, but no, it was originally £7.95 - and then it wasn't revived until the age of magazine covertapes.

I've always had the impression that some of the good games that came out late in the Spectrum's life - specifically Turrican and Switchblade - didn't sell well because original full-price games were being squeezed out by budget games, budget re-releases, covertapes, movie licences etc. But then again they may well have charted highly without selling in huge numbers. I'm literally just making this up because I can't find any ZX Spectrum sales charts from the early 1990s.

I think Julian Gollop's games got a big resurgence from initially the budget releases - Chaos was re-released by Firebird, but Rebelstar and Rebelstar II were new games released on Firebird's £1.99 range. I remember my friend getting Rebelstar and we spent hours on it.

But, yes, as it's been pointed out Chaos got a lot more recognition from the YS cover-tape re-release. Plus Lords of Chaos and Laser Squad got massive coverage in the games press (well it felt like that), with YS really promoting how good they were. I think this also helped raise the profile of the earlier games. The Rebelstar Collection was recently selling on eBay, but I didn't fancy spending £49.99 as the starting bid (which it got). Should have picked it up when it was originally released....

[StooB]

The cover image was eventually used in a C64 game.

Sorcerer Lord was released on the Spectrum too!



Swords and Sorcery had plenty of magazine coverage. The main problem was that it didn't turn up until December 1985 when it was scehduled for release in October 1984.

[+3code]

The cover image was eventually used in a C64 game, but it's a real pity it wasn't released.

Here too:

[Einar Saukas]

Colony

[blucey]

Colony

Colony seems to get a lot of love. I've seen it mentioned on this forum and WoS and with good reason, it was a fab game. If it had a proper end goal, it might have done even better.