Spectrum Computing

Now, who0's voted for Realm of Impossibility? That's surely a great person.

Incredible number of great games here. But I'll remain a faithful fan of Renegade

You know, back in the 80s like many boys I loved anything connected to martial fighting. Karate films, beatemup arcade games...
Now when I wonder, I actually always loved hand fighting games more than shooting games. interesting if there is any deeper psychology behing it

And Renegade is simply the best beatemup game on Spectrum which used to give the same intense emotions as games at arcade salloon, just without inserting any coins.

And maybe we could make another poll with R letter where you don't choose just one game but can give some number of points to many games???

I don't know how it's technically possible with the forum engine but have a feeling that such number of great games deserves some special treatment

Bloody hell this is tricky. With perhaps one exception these games range from well above average to top tier. The coincidence of R words and high quality arcade games is an English language dissertation waiting to happen!

Well, I said it was tricky, and it was a lie, because I was always going to — and did — vote for R-Type. Renegade would be a close second choice, followed by Robocop, Rick Dangerous and Rainbow Islands.

Many of my reasons for voting R-Type (looks great, plays great, best version of the 8bits) could go for some of the others, but it just goes that extra mile. Clever coding allowed a large scrolling background, the brave design decision to use character movement allowed large colourful graphics, and thankfully the pixel artist took full advantage of this. It seems quite inspired.

Looks like Renegade is steaming ahead though! They should have called it Q-Type.

Wow, R appears to be an embarrassment of riches.

I played a bunch of these games a lot. Highlights for me are:

Rampage
Rana Rama
Rebelstar
Rebelstar II
Renegade
Robocop
Rock Star Ate My Hamster
Roller Coaster


I also think this letter has the largest number of nominations for games that I've managed to finish without cheating (like Robocop, Rebelstar, Renegade, Rogue Trooper).

Anyway, my vote goes to Rebelstar. Outstanding game, that I played loads both one or two players. Once you get to know the computer AI you can toy with it a bit, but you can always ramp up the difficulty, like mowing the lawn..

Morkin wrote: ↑Tue Sep 11, 2018 10:56 pm
Anyway, my vote goes to Rebelstar. Outstanding game, that I played loads both one or two players. Once you get to know the computer AI you can toy with it a bit, but you can always ramp up the difficulty, like mowing the lawn..

Yay!!

Rebelstar is the one game that I never get bored with. Tension, strategy and a whole lot of fun. Just set aside a few hours, power up the photon lasers, select the medi-kit and use those light sabres to slice through the airlocks.
Trying to win on top level without losing a member of the team is a toughie, but it can be done.
Just make sure that the flybot doesn't start outside the moonbase (top right hand corner) otherwise it'll be a long long game!
Great fun with 2 players.

This poll will be an interesting fight between Renegade and R-Type.

This has to be the most difficult one yet!

As much as I think R-Type is a masterpiece I never really enjoyed playing it all that much (too hard) - but I was really spoilt by playing the PC Engine version at the same time (which was nigh-on arcade-perfect).

Loved Roller Coaster, Robin Of The Wood, Renegade, Robocop and Raid Over Moscow. Never played Rainbow Islands back in the day, but it is a marvellous conversion.

Decisions... Decisions... Gone for Roller Coaster.

I’m still swaying, but I decided to exclude conversions, even though, by Clive, the Spectrum version of Renegade is arguably better than the original arcade. Recast my vote for Rex.

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Wed Sep 12, 2018 8:31 am This poll will be an interesting fight between Renegade and R-Type.

I reckon so, two classics.

I enjoyed Renegade but am one of those (possibly few) people who preferred the sequel.

As for R-Type, I thought it was fantastic to play but I got frustrated with the way you could lose your power ups when you die. I guess it's a bit unfair of me to criticise considering it's an arcade conversion, but because of that I probably didn't enjoy it as much as I might have done.

As much as I think R-Type is a masterpiece I never really enjoyed playing it all that much

I have the same feelings. Technically R-Type is very impressive, colourful and with a lot of action and of varied, interesting content.
So what if I can't complete the 1st level? If not recordings made by others I would never see it at all.

Renagade is easier but still challenging. Just like other good games from Ocean - Robocop, Rainbow Islands, Chase H.Q.

I have a feeling that the programmers in Ocean were from a different league than all the rest. They were doing fast, smooth games. But they didn't care only for framerates and number of sprites on screen. They could take the gamer's perspective, not only coder's perspective. And make easier games that would be enjotyable not only for some master of joystick but for an average joe as well.

Now, after 30 years, we can see that it was the winning trend. Computer games became much easier so stuff like Renegade and Robocop was jsut ahead of its time

As much as I like Renegade, isn't the gameplay fundamentally flawed by the fact that there isn't much incentive to use moves other than the flying kick? If a good beatemup is about crafty use of moves then Renegade is very limited. It's a good and satisfying kick, but if the player is unrealistically hovering in mid air for half the game then it removes them from the gritty scenarios.

This is a good reason to vote R-Type: no over-reliance on the flying kick.

R-Tape wrote: ↑Wed Sep 12, 2018 2:53 pm If a good beatemup is about crafty use of moves then Renegade is very limited.

On this note, I'm glad Red Heat didn't make the shortlist! (and for about a hundred other reasons...)

sn't the gameplay fundamentally flawed by the fact that there isn't much incentive to use moves other than the flying kick?

Yes, that can be some problem. That is a general problems of some beatemups that you can discover some trick and finish the game using one move all along. At least in Renegade bosses are resistant to flying kick.

Actually when you become better at the game you start to use different techniques - back kick, finishing enemies on the ground, or throw over your shoulder (128 kB version only). But when you're not that experienced you will probably stick to flying kick.

The authors must have realised that and in Target Renegade flying kick is not so useful. Especially at later levels where enemies become resistant to it.

You can also play my mod of Renegade where I made some enemies invlunerable to flying kicks

Wow, this is a toughie.

As i put in the discussion I loved Rambo as we used to go round my mates for lunch every day when at school and play that, but, it's not really that good a game. I really liked R-Type and obviously it looked stunning, but, I could never really get past the second level. Runestone was another favourite of mine but out of all the games I think the best game, for me, would be Roadblasters. I loved the arcade game so when the Speccy version was released it was a day one purchase for me. However the 48k version was painfully slow and almost unplayable so when I got a 128 and ran it on that it was a completely different game. Obviously the music and sound was better, but, the speed was increased and the graphics were actually different as horizontal lines were added to the side of the road so that you got a good feeling of the speed. Great game.

Yoyo [mention]PeteProdge[/mention], are you too busy to keep going with this? It'd be a shame to stop with 8 letters to go...

(no stress btw, drop me a PM if you can't )

R-Type for me as well, brilliant game.

Is anyone in touch with prodge? Does he want someone else to cover this A-Z malarky for a while?

I think these threads should be already restarted. They're cool and a good excuse to speak about games.

I don't think Pete cares...

Bring on the 'S' thread!

Hello. Guess who's back. Back again. Prodge's back. Tell a friend.

Anyway, that's R-Type narrowly winning the R vote and even though I didn't vote for it, it's a worthy win. I've read the book about its conversion and it's simply an astonishing piece of work that the ZX Spectrum is lucky to have.

Right, onto S...