Game of the day...

[R-Tape]

Tried Winne the Pooh out at the weekend. There's a lot to like about it, but

Spoiler

the first object you need is inexplicably hidden in some foliage. I suppose there's a vague sense of 'why is this empty platform here?' about it, but it still felt an unfair way to start.

Maybe I've turned into a complete wuss, but I had to resort to the RZX to find it. I decided if that's how it starts then I'm only going to get frustrated.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Time Machine by Activision



Recently discovered, seems interesting.

[R-Tape]

Mr Robo is well worth a look. An action puzzler by a Russian team, (English language) from 1996.



Keys 67890. Push bombs to where they are useful and shoot to detonate. Push the other blocks to block the cannons. The goal is to collect all the missiles and go to the exit (the flying saucer thing). I've only seen levels 1 and 2 so far, but they are very well designed.

[PROSM]

Room Ten from CRL Group, by Chris Newcombe, Pete Cooke and Ian Ellery.



I have to thank [mention]Tommo[/mention] for putting me on to this one, with his post in the "Best 3d/vector games" thread. It's just the old game of Pong, but in 3D. Nevertheless, I'm hooked! It plays excellently on ZXDS in particular - the Nintendo's squishy D-Pad works brilliantly for the inertia-based controls.

[Morkin]

Nice game Room 10, remember enjoying playing it.

It always felt like playing a Pong/Breakout game, but with the bat strapped to your forehead.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Pete Cooke made many interesting games.

[R-Tape]

Shmup Saturday. A bit of Altair. It's a very playable conversion of a Spanish (I think) 1981 arcade game. There's nothing wrong with these graphics at all, but it'd be a good candidate for bicolour.

Flying Shark. This is ace. It's the first time I've properly got into it and made progress. It's not as smooth as Terra Cresta (occasional speedup and slowdown which I imagine Joffa would never have allowed), but it's got much of the charm and a better difficulty gradient.

More Tea Vicar. Nuff said.

[akeley]

I was just loading stuff from some random mag tapes and stumbled upon Impossaball. Never played it before and am rather impressed. It's a true blockbuster, from those blockbuster people @ Hewson. Superb tech and playability. It's too difficult for me to get far into, but it's a pleasant experience even when you're failing.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Today is the day to play...

[Morkin]

Thought I'd have a proper crack at Bean Brothers so was playing that a bit this evening, as I didn't get round to playing it fully at the time of the W00T Xmas tape mag thing. Nice mix of hand & brain reactions.

The final level was quite tough, quite costly too as one of the brothers seems to have left an eyeball behind

[R-Tape]

Congrats. This is great to read! And it's good training for that other alliterative platform game you're trying to complete.

The final level was quite tough, quite costly too as one of the brothers seems to have left an eyeball behind

I'll take that - much better than calling it a XOR sprite bug.

[R-Tape]

Kamikaze by Pascal Pellier.

I stumbled on it by getting a random number from 0 - 38800, which gave 27052, and if you add that on the end of this stem:

Code: Select all

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/

it give Asteroides by the same author. Asteroides is not bad, but Kamikaze is a real gem.



The screenshot suggests potential to be a crappy type-in, but it's a really polished arcade shooter. The green critters stack up from the mothership, fill the columns, and as they overflow they explode at the bottom. Other attacking ships come down and if they land you lose a life. The sprites are pixel smooth, the game is fast, and the game design fiendish. I don't know if it's an original idea or a direct port of an arcade game, either way it's brilliant. It's hard to keep on top of the stacks and landing ships, while you try to keep a good aim and avoid the inevitable torrent of aliens. The colours could be better, but the spot effects (sound and explosions) and attract screen are wayy better than the usual afterthoughts.

Recommended. Keys Capsshift/Z for L/R, and space to fire. My Hi-Score is 3690 so far.

[cmal]

Recommended. Keys Capsshift/Z for L/R, and space to fire. My Hi-Score is 3690 so far.

Nice find! Now I'm hooked to Kamikaze! A very "unknown" game but it has unique playability. My hi score is 2180 or somewhere around there.

[R-Tape]

Nice find! Now I'm hooked to Kamikaze!

It's great isn't it. The gameplay is spot on. It's rare for platespinners like this, and of this vintage, to not have lots of unfair deaths, but I haven't had any so far. Hi-Score 6600.

Does anyone know if this is a direct port of something, or a newly developed idea? Maybe [mention]Rev_Stuart_Campbell[/mention] knows?

[Evil Genius]

I've seen that 'stacked up aliens' thing before so it's either a port or an 'insprired by'

[R-Tape]

I've seen that 'stacked up aliens' thing before so it's either a port or an 'insprired by'

Aye if it's not a direct port of something, there's obvious nods to the arcade shmups of the time like Space Invaders and Pheenix. I'd love to know more about this game. Original or not, it's been done so well. I wonder how many people got to play this 1983 French shmup that would have made waves if widely available in the UK.

[Morkin]

My hi score is 2180 or somewhere around there.

My Hi-Score is 3690 so far.

(Great shout by the way, I'd also never heard of this game but it's very playable...)

[akeley]

I knew I've played it recently, so, had to find it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_Invader

It's a nice port, but I'm not sure if it'd make any impact even with more exposure. There were so many cracking games in those early years that didn't really register. This is why I play all of them one by one

I'm currently trawling thorugh year 1983, yesterday around letters "Bo" I found
-Bozy Boa: a decent snake-like
-Brad Blasts the Galactic Barbarians: : a narrative-driven (no, seriously) shoot'em up with diverse screens
-Brain Damage: very playable take on tanks-in-a-maze
-Break Out: does well what it says on the tin
-Breakaway: bizzare untangle-the-damsel puzzle
-Breakout: see above, this one is "minimalistic" type-in, but plays very well...maybe even better than Romik's take

[cmal]

I'm currently trawling thorugh year 1983, yesterday around letters "Bo" I found
-Bozy Boa: a decent snake-like
-Brad Blasts the Galactic Barbarians: : a narrative-driven (no, seriously) shoot'em up with diverse screens
-Brain Damage: very playable take on tanks-in-a-maze
-Break Out: does well what it says on the tin
-Breakaway: bizzare untangle-the-damsel puzzle
-Breakout: see above, this one is "minimalistic" type-in, but plays very well...maybe even better than Romik's take

Thanks [mention]akeley[/mention] Nice looking list. I'll be trying these out for the rest of the weekend.

[Evil Genius]

I knew I've played it recently, so, had to find it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astro_Invader

Ah yeah, knew it was familiar, there was a thread about it last year

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=2208&p=30293&hilit ... der#p30293

[cmal]

I'm currently trawling thorugh year 1983, yesterday around letters "Bo" I found
-Bozy Boa: a decent snake-like
-Brad Blasts the Galactic Barbarians: : a narrative-driven (no, seriously) shoot'em up with diverse screens
-Brain Damage: very playable take on tanks-in-a-maze
-Break Out: does well what it says on the tin
-Breakaway: bizzare untangle-the-damsel puzzle
-Breakout: see above, this one is "minimalistic" type-in, but plays very well...maybe even better than Romik's take

Thanks @akeley Nice looking list. I'll be trying these out for the rest of the weekend.

These were a very decent selection. Brain Damage stood out for me and I spent around 2.5 hours playing that. The damsel untangle game (Breakaway) is fun and frantic and the first of it's kind that I've played
Some quick ratings:
-Bozy Boa: 7/10
-Brad Blasts the Galactic Barbarians: : 5/10
-Brain Damage: 8/10
-Break Out: 6/10
-Breakaway: bizzare untangle-the-damsel puzzle - 6/10
-Breakout: 5/10

now back to Kamakize...

[Juan F. Ramirez]

E.T.X. - The Extra-Terrestrial Xargon



A curious game by David Webb, who coded Starion and also wrote some programming books published by Melbourne House.

It is inspired by the infamous ET Atari videogame, considered by many as the 'worst videogame in history'.

I didn't know that such legendary game had a Spectrum version...

[R-Tape]

I didn't know that such legendary game had a Spectrum version...

By all accounts it's an appropriate tribute to the lengendary Atari game. I prefer Lee Spoon's CGC entry.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

By all accounts it's an appropriate tribute to the lengendary Atari game. I prefer Lee Spoon's CGC entry.

I didn't know it has even been cracked!

Code: Select all

Cracked version by R-Tape (ET chases player)

[cmal]

Just stumbled into another addicting game from none other than Stonechat Productions! Looks like this one was released recently for a Summer Jam compilation.



The levels start off nice and easy but around stage 4 or so, things get hectic and stressful. So far this is the highlight of my weekend

Tardigrade. Find it here