The game you loved that everyone else hated?

[71owl]

Just a bit of fun here.

Was there a game you played to death back in the day? Loved it, mapped it, obsessed about it and maybe even completed... but it was rubbish?

I remember playing A Day In The Life over and over. I knew there were better games to play but just couldn't stay away from the quirky little Uncle Clive icon, trying to get him to make pixel perfect moves around the screen to get to the next one. It was panned by the critics and rightly so. Basic graphics and sound, jerky controls... and yet I couldn't get enough.

Did we all have a game like this, that captured our hearts but its difficult to understand why?

Another one was the graphic adventure Eureka. I think it was one of the few adventures out there that combined text, graphics, animation and sound/music. I found it gave all 5 adventures so much atmosphere. Another game the critics hated and was much criticised.

I loved a crappy little tennis game by Atlantis called Superbrat. Match Point was far superior, but I played Superbrat more. Why? Teenage rebellion?

Can anyone relate to this?

[PeteProdge]

There's Naanas by Mikro-Gen, a 16K game that can be best described as an inverted Space Invaders.


While everyone else bangs on about Rock Star Ate My Hamster, I'm very much a fan of the earliest pop management game on the Speccy, It's Only Rock N Roll by K-Tel. Written entirely in BASIC.

[Mpk]

Eureka.

Eureka has that terrible action maze game before you can play the adventure though, doesn't it? I remember getting well into the Roman part of the adventure, but not being able to play because I couldn't get past the action bit.
It reviewed okay, but was maybe a victim of its own hype due to the large cash prize.

Its_Only_Rock_n_Roll by K-Tel. Written entirely in BASIC.

Wait until you see my machine code version! ( And I do mean 'wait'. ) The Biz was better, though.

Mission Omega was one that I always liked, that was guaranteed to make anyone else in the vicinity wander off, rolling their eyes. Possibly because I spend most of the time designing my robots.

Also Brewery, but I can't justify that at all.

[71owl]

Firebird budget game The Wild Bunch was another favourite. Another game written in basic, but I spent SO MANY HOURS on it trying to capture the killer and bring him to justice! I only ever finished the game many years later on an emulator when I could save the game!

[RWAC]

The Wild Bunch is one of my favourite games too.

Lords of Chaos is one that's just as good as Laser Squad but doesn't seem to get much love.

[Daveysloan]

Oh absolutely loads, I have dreadful taste.

Mrs Mopp springs to mind, I spent hours on that when I was a kid trying to beat my sister's high score.

[Nitrowing]

Firebird budget game The Wild Bunch was another favourite. Another game written in basic, but I spent SO MANY HOURS on it trying to capture the killer and bring him to justice! I only ever finished the game many years later on an emulator when I could save the game!

I loved Wild Bunch

[71owl]

Doesn't this sort of highlight the magic of the Spectrum? How it captured the imagination of so many young and old minds. Also, how the programmers that created the games were geniuses.

It didn't need fancy detailed graphics. Just plain old playability and that x-factor that kept you coming back for more. Sometimes you just couldn't quite put your finger on why you loved a game so much. You just did!

[AndyC]

Firebird budget game The Wild Bunch was another favourite. Another game written in basic, but I spent SO MANY HOURS on it trying to capture the killer and bring him to justice! I only ever finished the game many years later on an emulator when I could save the game!

I loved Wild Bunch

Agreed, it was a cracking game.

[AndyC]

I remember putting in countless hours into Spooked. A weird platformer/hangman combo that, in hindsight, was probably a bit crap. There was something appealing about chasing after bugs to create spells that somehow captivated me at the time though.

Don't think I ever actually beat it though.

[RWAC]

Not sure if anyone else hated this, but I have an indefensible soft spot for it.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1 ... um/Venture

I've just downloaded and played it and yes I hate it.

[Joefish]

Don't know it's exactly hated, but I don't understand why everyone isn't just playing Chronos all day.
(Though the 48K version. I can see {though mainly hear} why no-one would want to try the 128K version twice).

[Morkin]

Games I played quite a bit that didn't seem to be particularly well-liked:

Kung Fu Master - although YS seemed to like it (8/10)

Bump Set Spike - although SU seemed to like it (4/5)

[71owl]

I think CLIFFHANGER and ZORRO also get honourable mentions from my playing days. Reviews were mixed for both of these. I remember Cliffhanger being so much fun, so funny.

[RWAC]

Didn't Cliffhanger have a bug on the 13th screen making it impossible to complete? Luckily I could never get that far

[catmeows]

I like Cliffhanger too, big backdrops and "physics simulation" give it charm unseen in typical speccy game.
Also I don't understand why nobody praise SimCity and Lemmings. Downscaling these titles to speccy was quite achievment and they are probably better than one could hope for.

[DouglasReynholm]

Erm.....


...... I actually quite enjoyed Kosmic Kanga.

[stupidget]

Erm.....


...... I actually quite enjoyed Kosmic Kanga.

You sir, are a man who needs help. I'd say those God Damn Electric Sex Pants of yours have caused some sort of brain damage.

[Lee Bee]

Dunno about "hated", but one of my most-played games as a teenager was the seemingly rubbish Run Baby Run. I never took my Speccy anywhere without it!



Would love to know if others had an opinion on this game?

[p13z]

Quite a few. "Run Baby Run" was one I only discovered a few years back - and is outright one of my favourite games.
Back in the day:
Double Dragon and Top Gun - had a lot of fun as two player games.
Kung Fu Master.
And a game that gets universally panned as being unplayably hard - Oriental Hero. Can't have been that hard, as I completed it aged 8. It was mostly a memory / reaction test with OK graphics, but a lot of game back then just were.

[ianace]

Millionaire really bad game, but it was addictive, could you move up to next level, or buy some dodgy tapes from honest Harry! Terrible but addictive game!

[llewelyn]

The two games I played the most were TIR NA NOG and MARBLE MADNESS, I cannot vouch for their unpopularity though!

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Another vote for Zorro (if we supossed most people hate it)

Also Sorcery.

[AndyC]

Quite a few. "Run Baby Run" was one I only discovered a few years back - and is outright one of my favourite games.
Back in the day:
Double Dragon and Top Gun - had a lot of fun as two player games.
Kung Fu Master.
And a game that gets universally panned as being unplayably hard - Oriental Hero. Can't have been that hard, as I completed it aged 8. It was mostly a memory / reaction test with OK graphics, but a lot of game back then just were.

Run baby run is great, very simple but very addictive and surprisingly strategic. A mate of mine had it and for a while it was our go to game when we played on his Speccy, alas he got bored of it though so I didn't get to play it again until emulation came along.

Double Dragon was another favourite, that me and my sister played for hours. To this day I still don't get the hate some people have for it, the graphical style is a bit off from the arcade but it's still a pretty fun beat em up.

Top gun, however, is crap.

[stupidget]

I used to play Shia Ka of Ashia back in the day even though it was reviewed pretty badly and most people though it was cr@p.

Another one my mate and I used to play was Transformers even thought it scored pretty low. I think it was simply down to the fact that we could control Transformers on our Speccy.