Reviews

Gameplay: Collect the objects requested by the cauldron in the center of the game world, and drop them in the cauldron when in human form (you periodically turn into a werewolf).


This is a game I never 'got' back in the 1980's and it is only through emulation decades later that I have discovered what an excellent game it is. When I tried to play this as a child I would make Sabreman walk around a bit and visit some rooms but did not have a clue what I was supposed to be doing.

I came back to it in 2007 and was determined to work out what you had to do in this game by looking it up on WOS and Wikipedia. By doing this I found much to my surprise that it wasn't a mind boggling difficult game at all, it was actually a fairly simple and compulsive game in a similar mold to Atic Atac, but with the 3d twist. Once I understood this I could not stop playing it until I eventually managed to complete it for the first time, using infinite lives poke. I am still playing it on-and-off now to try and do it without the poke.

Using an infinite lives poke does not ruin this game because you are up against the clock and so you need to lose as few lives as possible to get it all done in time. So, if you still don't 'get' this wonderful game I recommend you read up on some instructions, load it up in an emulator and enter the infinite lives poke to get you started.

Gameplay: Search the castle for the 3 parts of the ACG key and then return to the start room and exit with the assembled key.

This is another simple but addictive and highly polished game from Ultimate Play the Game. The graphics were near arcade quality at the time of release and they still look slick through todays retro tinted glasses and there are lots of nice sounds too. The castle is very well designed with all sorts of shortcuts and special monsters as well as the random ones popping up all over the place.

One of the things I like most about this game is that it isn't too difficult to complete, but is still a challenge and a little bit of luck helps too.

Gameplay: Fly around the screen collecting bombs and avoiding monsters, get power-ups, and go through the bombs in the order they are lit to receive a bonus score.

This and the Gameboy mono version of Bomb Jack are arguably the finest versions around of this Capcom classic. The game is colourful, plays smoothly, is fast, and has the gradually increasing difficulty tuned just right.

I think this is one of the few Spectrum games that still stands up strong today and could be introduced to a child today who would enjoy it as much as I did back in the 80's.

This is a terrible version of Donkey Kong in every respect. It looks, sounds and plays badly - if you can get as far as the actual game.

Gameplay: Dive into the sea and collect oysters and bring them back to your boat. Avoid being killed by fish or running out of air.

I wanted to like this game but found it too fiddly. Has there ever been a computer game where swimming was good? In Mario 64 and Zelda: Ocarina Of Time it was the swimming levels and water temple that were the most awkward.

The best thing about Scuba Dive is the way the sharks turn around in the water.

Gameplay: Walk and jump around the mansion collecting flashing objects and avoiding death from falls and enemies.

A highly polished game which was hugely popular at the time but in retrospect it lacks the focus of Manic Miner, the game which this is a sequel of.

The game does have some great ideas though , and still retains the humour of Manic Miner. The game cannot be completed but you did pretty well if you managed to get past some of the more notorious sections, such as the Banyan Tree.

I prefer to play the Andrew Broads 'Manic Miner - Jet Set Willy'. This takes the Manic Miner engine and game structure but uses screens from Jet Set Willy. Give it a try yourself: http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0017540

Gameplay: Collect the items on the screen then head to the exit while avoiding enemies or falls

This game is the Manic Miner gameplay but with individual Jet Set Willy screens used as levels. It works excellently, and gives you a chance to really give those JSW screens a proper try at completing.

For me this is the best of all the JSW/MM fan made games and I think it is even better than JSW itself.

Gameplay: Collect all the keys on the screen avoiding enemies, spikes and platform jumping death falls.

Egghead is a game clearly inspired by Matthew Smith's Manic Miner, from the basic gameplay elements to the brickwork level design.

Egghead does have enough original ideas to differentiate itself from being merely a MM clone. The main addition to the formula being that it is essentially to work out which key must be collected last in order to complete each level.

It's all good fun and in today's world of emulators it is pretty much essential to do a save state at the beginning of each stage.

The keys are QW (left/right) and . (jump).

(note: I wrote this without using a single 'egg' pun)

Gameplay: Solve various pun related puzzles involving carry or dropping an object at a specific location, while avoid enemies and terrain dangers.

This is probably the best of the Wally Week games (although 'Everyone's A Wally' may fit this title for many) with great graphics and sound and an interesting map to explore.

However, these games have not aged so well as the puzzles are fairly torturous to solve, involving remembering where everything is and walking around for ages. Most people will need to check a hints guide at some point if they try to play through this to completion as the puzzles are really not very intuitive due to their 'humourous' nature.

Fun in it's day but too slow and long and requiring incredible feats of memory to get through.

Gameplay: push a block around a 3D environment to the goal

This is a puzzle challenge type game which is one of the finest games on the Spectrum. It's difficult level is at a sweet spot where the game does gradually challenges you more and more but it never feels unfair or impossible.

Graphics, sound, presentation, controls, etc are all top notch too.