What type of game defines the Speccy?

[stupidget]

Sat in the bath (yep, TMI ) and started thinking about what type of game really defines the Speccy, as in what type of games were just perfect our beloved little slab of delights?

For me I always thought illustrated text adventures seemed better on the Speccy. The reason I say that is that my mate had a Comode64 and for me the in game illustrations just seemed drab and pretty cr@p. Platformers also seemed better on the Speccy and this was probably down to the fact that I saw Wanted:MM running on a c64 and I was shocked at how awful it looked compared to the Speccy version. Obviously the bread bin was going to win hands down when it came to games like Uridium and anything that required smooth scrolling, but having watched a few of the ChinnyVision vids I was amazed at how bad some of the driving/racing games were on the c64.

This isn’t a c64 bashing post but I’d be interested to know what you all think are quintessentially Speccy games?

[worcestersource]

I’d venture Chaos. I don’t know if it popped up elsewhere but it seems it’s a game that only Spec chums know about.

Steve

[R-Tape]

I’d be interested to know what you all think are quintessentially Speccy games?

I know I'm always banging on about it, but Manic Miner. It's a beautiful combination of a burgeoning young coder's genius with the Speccy's graphical and sound limitations. It's so quintessentially Spectrum that the C64 version knows that it needs to pretend to be the Speccy version, and versions that deviate from the Speccy just don't work, like the flat Amiga version. It's not about having rough edges either - there are plenty of naff Speccy games that I love, but Manic Miner has a pretty complicated engine that avoids pixel clash and makes colour clash minimal. Though truth be told, I probably love the music because it's a both fancy and a bit janky.

[stupidget]

MM is a good call. It’s not that it couldn’t be done on other systems it’s just that the Speccy version was, and still is, bloody brilliant.

I’ve got mates that were never into computers BITD and even they’re aware of our beloved little Miner

[equinox]

Obviously there is the big crop of surreal platformers, often with topical British references: not just Matt Smith's stuff, but Monty Mole, Chubby Gristle, Dynamite Dan, Costa Capers, etc. etc.

However, the most distinctive "type of game" might be the anti-type, i.e. the daring genre-breaking experiments: Deus Ex Machina, Fat Worm, Skool Daze, Cliff Hanger, Chaos.
Games of this kind now have to be done by indies because the only acceptable game for large studios to release is Grand Theft Duty XVIII: Modern Cry.

[stupidget]

@equinox That's pretty much spot on. The Speccy was/is just so quintessentially British. The brainchild of an eccentric bespectacled boffin, quirky looking, cheeper than the competition, not without it's problems and all done without millions of pounds of backing.

[R-Tape]

MM is a good call. It’s not that it couldn’t be done on other systems it’s just that the Speccy version was, and still is, bloody brilliant.

It certainly is, but I think it's important to note that when the other systems did it, they had to do the Speccy version.

(This is where someone demolishes my point by saying actually that the C64 version would have looked totally different but the coder had less than a week to port it or something!)

[Pegaz]

It's always a subjective view, but generally back in the day, platform/arcade adventure/3D games were better on the Spectrum.
The C64 had an edge in sports and 2D scrolling games, where the Spectrum suffered from color clash and lack of hardware sprites.
Today, the homebrew scene has progressed so much that these differences have narrowed considerably, as both machines have an exceptional coverage of quality titles in all genres.
Speaking of Spectrum, there are hardly any games that define it better, than the Manic Miner/JSW franchise.
Of course, there is something else that sets the Spectrum apart from other computers of the era.
C64 and other USA computers at the beginning, mostly relied on classic Atari style games, with colorful blocky graphics, while Spectrum had games that relied on highres graphics and a lot of RAM memory, which made them very unique at that time.
The European, especially the UK scene, brought a lot of fresh original ideas, which gave Spectrum's titles a special appeal.
The Hobbit for the Spectrum was way ahead of its time, as were many other epic titles, which were later ported to other computers.
If we only look at games from the 80s, Spectrum's titles have aged much better than any other, for some reason they are still very intriguing, they have their own charm and spirit, which is still strong today...

[berarma]

I think the ZX Spectrum had a strength in its weakness. The deceptively simple graphics made it possible to move a lot of sprites on screen at good speed with good response times. That probably made precision platformers more playable with a fast pacing and good action control. Games like Manic Miner, Jet Set Wiily, Batman and Head over Heels are some examples.

Shmups were also good with these qualities. Games like Xevious, Terra Cresta, Lifhtforce, R-Type,...

The C64 had a worse CPU and its graphics hardware was limited and harder to use. The sprites were limited in size and number. Smoother movement sometimes resulted in slower action and some games had to use combined sprites for characters.

The Amstrad had the same processor but no graphics hardware support and it had to move many more bytes in the screen to do the same.

Some games on these platforms didn't have the snappy action and sometimes they had smaller sprites. As a result they didn't feel as good. The connection with the main character failed.

[AndyC]

It certainly is, but I think it's important to note that when the other systems did it, they had to do the Speccy version.

(This is where someone demolishes my point by saying actually that the C64 version would have looked totally different but the coder had less than a week to port it or something!)

Honestly, the C64 should have been able to pull off JSW and Manic Miner without any difficulty at all. And yet the versions on the machine are just lacking, presumably because a coder was just given it as an assignment whereas Matt Smith was doing it because he wanted to.

[Pegaz]

The C64 had a worse CPU and its graphics hardware was limited and harder to use. The sprites were limited in size and number. Smoother movement sometimes resulted in slower action and some games had to use combined sprites for characters.

Simply, C64 has not been used to its full potential for at least 3-4 years.
From then until today, most of those weaknesses have been overcome, slow cpu runs Ultimate 3d games, graphics in new titles have reached unprecedented quality.
If you compare the games from the early 80s with those from the period 86-92 until today, the difference is incredible.
Spectrum was conceived differently, it was unique, perfect in its imperfection, challenging to explore and offered a lot for less money, at least in those first 4-5 years.
Later, its flaws became more and more visible, new computers arrived, but the legendary games remained forever and we still love them today.

[Mousey]

Some of this has been touched on already, but I strongly associate Skool Daze and Back to Skool (and even Contact Sam Cruise) with the Speccy. Just something about the graphic style combined with the unique gameplay.

I also think arcade adventures - the Wally Week, Magic Knight, and Dizzy series of games - have a natural home on the Speccy. Although these can be found on other platforms they don’t seem quite right. It’s hard to explain!

[Pegaz]

Definitely Skool Daze and Back to Skool and there's also Contact Sam Cruise, with a similar engine.
I would also add Mugsy, a very original game at the time, I think it remains a Spectrum exclusive to this day.
Philip Mitchell is one of the authors and we can notice a similar way of drawing the screen as in The Hobbit.

[Joefish]

I think there are three 'looks' that define the typical Speccy game. One is a single or flip-screen level where the scenery is in different distinct colours and the sprites are each their own single colour, but everything is on a black background, and there's no background detail at all; the sprites can only move in the empty black spaces. That may be Manic Miner or Sabre Wulf or Cybernoid.

And then there's the opposite, where all the scenery and sprites are drawn in black but with blocks of pale PAPER colour to try and liven up the scenery. The sprites can be drawn over the background details, and there may be a bit of scrolling, though typically jerky character-based jump scrolling. These are games like Renegade, Skool Daze and (showing better scrolling) Green Beret.

And finally, there's just monochrome everything. No attempt at colour at all, except maybe a change from one level to the next.

Obviously there are exceptions, games such as Zynaps that have scrolling scenery in rows of colour so it doesn't clash. But it's still an all-black background with individually coloured single-colour sprites. All-black background or all-black sprites & scenery. That's how you spot a Speccy game.

[MtM]

I can't really disagree with many if any of the suggestions here they are all excellent, but I guess to pick one MM would probably be it.
Maybe Wheelie though? Don't think it ever was converted to any other platform, and in terms of, along with MM & JSW
too for that matter, it's single paragraph story on the tape inlay card remains a near work of art, instructions, story
and imagination superbly combined, no attempt at some naff back story. MM the same, JSW has minimal back story
but it follows on at least. For that matter maybe JSW would be the game? It had everything, both good (gameplay) and
back (code card / in game tune if you didn't like it), was a sequel, it had quality of life features such as a brilliant pause mode and you
could turn the tune on and off. It was if not the first then very early non-linear platform game, where you could just explore.
Let's face it, no JSW, no Skyrim

[equinox]

I think there are three 'looks' that define the typical Speccy game. [...]

Speaking of visuals: I think one of the most distinctive "Speccy looks" is actually the Probe stuff, like Dan Dare III and Savage, where they managed to cram lots of colour into the games... albeit blocky colour. They weren't ashamed of the attribute cell as a unit for scrolling. See also the Speccy Golden Axe port, which managed to give the characters little coloured boots and stuff. I don't know whom to credit for this style, but Nick Bruty seems to have been involved a lot of the time.

I would hesitate to say that this "defines" the Speccy, because it was just one team; but it really is distinctive, and ties in with the platform limitations. (And of course there were colourful games made by others, like those "Euro" Speccy games that Crash wrote about once. But meanwhile Ocean was churning out monochrome by the black-and-white bucketful.)

[equinox]

quality of life features

found the game developer


P.S. Back then the "sky rim" was when you were on a branch above the Drive.

[Joefish]

There were later attempts at more colour, relying on thick masking. Karnov is probably the clearest example, though that left plenty of clash around the edges anyway. And Altered Beast the worst. But I don't think it was very successful. Golden Axe would look a lot better if the sprites had actually been competently designed for the Spectrum, instead of being munged together and rescaled from another platform, with the attributes slapped on afterwards. I didn't really consider it myself as it seemed to me more an indication that the Speccy was on its way out and unable to handle these conversions, rather than being any sort of advance in design!

[equinox]

There were later attempts at more colour, relying on thick masking. Karnov is probably the clearest example, though that left plenty of clash around the edges anyway. ...

Yeah, Midnight Resistance for example covered everything in so much chunky black. I would have preferred more resistance and less midnight. And I never understood why the later Hi-Tec platformers like Scrappy Doo surrounded the sprites with a black layer and then an additional 'white' outline layer. What's going on there?

Forgot Don Priestley, didn't I? Those huge, slow, chunkin', stompin' mega-colour games like Popeye. Those are pretty cool.

(Priestley should know what games define the Speccy, since he did not only those ones, but the classic "typein++" text management things Dictator and Up for Grabs, and the "lost in a blocky maze" ZX81 upgrade Maziacs. And (and! and! -- Ed.) the totally unknown Target by Martech, which is yet another genre. Impressive guy.)

[oO cozy Oo]

For me Its the Ulitmate games Jetpac a classic speccy game

[Joefish]

Midnight Resistance is an interesting one, as it starts out looking a bit like Renegade, with all black pixels and PAPER coloured backgrounds (and some static enemies like gun emplacements), but later goes the other way with coloured sprites on mainly black backgrounds. It's impressive that it maintains the same look despite the different styles it needs to employ for the increasingly weird bosses, and switching between solid coloured and completely black backgrounds.

One thing it does use to pull off both is that double-outline thing, which looks a bit ugly, but you're right, it's completely unnecessary in Scrappy Doo and the like, and there looks hideous.

[equinox]

Another derail: the original post remarked on the C64 as the "obvious enemy" for comparison purposes, but there's probably more to be said about the CPC, which shared the AY sound chip and suffered (sorry) from a lot of crappy monochrome ZX ports. On the other hand, CPC had a nice big colour palette but maybe didn't have the engine/performance to drive it. The person who wrote earlier in this thread that the Speccy was good at high-speed sprite movement, I don't know what they had been taking... we only wish we had sprites at all...

Reminded me of the BBC Micro though. If you asked "what game defines the BBC Micro?" surely it would be: yet another clone of Space Invaders or Asteroids, done by the kid of the privileged bourgeois. And that's why the BBC didn't win. Despite the telly series. It really is hard to find anything on the Beeb that isn't a direct arcade rip though. Allegedly, Tim Tyler came up with Repton semi-independently, and not based on Boulder Dash. Yes okay Mr Tyler, that sounds very likely, you can tell it to the judge.

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PeterJ I'm drunk again, ban me

P.S. Here are great BBC games: Exile, Imogen, Magic Mushrooms, and 4000 space invaders. You're welcome.

[AndyC]

Reminded me of the BBC Micro though. If you asked "what game defines the BBC Micro?" surely it would be: yet another clone of Space Invaders or Asteroids, done by the kid of the privileged bourgeois. And that's why the BBC didn't win.
.

Frak!, Exile, Chuckie Egg, Elite and Granny's Garden obviously.

[equinox]

Frak!, Exile, Chuckie Egg, Elite and Granny's Garden obviously.

I am genuinely porting Dread Dragon Droom to the Speccy but it might take a while. I converted all the graphics and recorded a bunch of video to see how it worked. I'm sure I'll have it done by 2027 or so.

Where is my spellbook hiding?
https://ibb.co/Rjfyg3G

[toot_toot]

For me, it’s the colours.

Even looking at screenshots of certain spectrum games just makes me think of it being clearly a spectrum. Magenta, Cyan (who had heard of them before getting a Speccy?), the really bright Yellow. It’s all very distinctive, none of the other 8-bits had such vibrant colours.
I found an old 90s Spectrum emulation CD (Speccy 2 fact fans) and just looking at the little thumbnail screenshots on the back instantly made me think of the Spectrum and nothing else.

Graphics like this











I mean where else do you get a pink, sorry, Magenta rhino or a cyan dustbin lorry??