Reviews
Reviews by p13z (218)
Amazing game. Typical of a whole genre of side scrolling action games of the time, yet done so well and smoothly that it stands out as being unique. Must have been a very addictive game, as I remember completing it despite the extreme difficulty of the later levels and bosses, and the inability to save a game.
Fantastic maze game. The first game I played after upgrading from a 16k to 48k Spectrum. Despite the very simple and repetative nature of the game, it could keep you playing for hours, and always seemed to get the pulse going if you ended up with a maziac on your tail. If I was rating from nostlagia alone, this would definately be a 5. However, having re-played it recently I think it is probably a bit simple for top marks. One of the first titles on the Spectrum from Don Priestly, who, in my opinion, was single handedly responsible for raising the bar for 8 bit entertainment many times.
Out in the earlier days of the Spectrum, and remained the best martial arts game. Single player was very good, and two player is awesome. Personally, I returned again and again to this game right up until IKplus came out for the ST and AMIGA.
R-Type, 26 Sep 2009 (Rating: 5)
Seminal spaceship shooter, across all platforms. The Spectrum conversion went above and beyond the necessary, bringing the game in colour, with colour attribute clashes virtually eliminated. The gameplay was also smoothly and faithfully reproduced. This was released at a time when similar coin-op conversions were simply monochromed for the Spectrum due to the old colour map situation.
In my opinion, the effort put into converting this game helped the humble Speccy continue to be seen as a viable gaming machine, in an era becoming dominated by 16 bit machines.
Two player shoot-em-up gaming that seemed to continue for weeks, with add on tapes available. Simple, yet compelling and strangely atmospheric gameplay. We used to keep a roll of sticky-tape permanently by the computer, just for sticking the symbolshift key down on this game (wall cheat). Absolute classic.
Good for its time, with compelling gameplay. The action is split into three stages, the first two of which just serve as a buildup to the spiderweb platform level. This is strangely satisfying to play, getting to jump up and down repeatedly on big spiders.
Marvelous. Two games in one, a bit of a frogger clone followed by a bit of slalom action. Fun for a while, but its not going to keep anyone busy for months.
An ace art package. Was great for making graphics for games. I suppose 'the artist' was good with a mouse, but if you had no mouse - this was easier to use in my opinion. I remember that on my 48k version - if you wanted to use the 'fill' function, you would lose all your sprite / animation data. There were a couple of other little niggles like this, but it managed to keep me occupied for many hours of my youth.
Loved this program. Allowed you to make your own music on the 48k Spectrum, and even compiled it so you could use it for your own programs. Could produce twin channel sound or drum sounds on the 48k, and gave decent control over the 128k sound aswell. The interface could have been slightly better maybe, but thats a very small complaint about a brilliant program.
Just about as simple as a game can possibly get, and written in basic, yet the gameplay is utterly addictive. Just drop bombs to level the city, allowing you to land, no more, no less.
This is not going to keep you entertained for weeks at a time, but its great for killing half an hour.
Fairly standard centipede type game. Runs fairly smoothly, and on 16k machines. Response can be very slightly sluggish compared to some games, which can get a bit annoying.
One of the best Spectrum games ever written. How has this managed to evade the list of top games so far?
If you haven't played the game before, its a driving sim, and the most useful thing I can tell you about it is: Play it now.
This 'imitation' of the classic coin-op racing game is one of the best games of its type for the Spectrum, and very nicely presented.
Just not quite enough substance or feel to the game to keep you coming back, or warrant a 5 star rating.
Probably my favorite Christmas themed bit of gaming on the Spectrum, or at least that I can remember. Not quite as good as the other Monty Mole games, but its a good slice of great Monty style platform and ladders action.
Merry Christmas.
I wanted to like this wrestling game, I really did. The cover artwork and screen shots promised "a fast paced intergalactic wrestling match", it was enough to part me with my hard-sponged pocket money at the time.
What I had actually bought was instant disappointment, and one of the worst games I have ever played. I came back to it a few times, thinking that maybe I was missing something, but it never disappointed in disappointing. The game seems to have all the right elements; large, bold graphics, two player combat and crazy alien opponents, its just that it had no playability at all. Whatever moves you do, whatever strategy you think you might try, the outcome of the matches appears to be almost entirely random.
A quick blast again in the emulator (I never learn), confirmed my memories of this game. I considered giving this 2, on the merits of its OK graphics, but then the hate came flooding back :]
Excellent sideways scrolling shooter. Admittedly it is a relatively simple game, and the graphics are somewhat monochromatic, but the game is satisfyingly playable, thanks, in part, to the simplicity.
I always remember this game as being the pinnacle of music on the 48k Spectrum. Tim Follin's title tune blends chords, drum sounds and melody simultaneously on a single 1 bit channel, and it is a good tune in its own right.
There is not much to set Chronos apart from any other side scrolling shooter of the era. It is not as pretty as R-Type or Zynaps, and certainly does not fair well in the originality stakes. That said, however, I feel it deserves a 5 for its supreme playability, and being a £1.99 budget release. The one thing that does set this game apart, Tim Follin's music, is a virtuoso technical and artistic achievement worthy of top marks in itself.
A software speech synthesiser for the 48k Spectrum. I was fascinated by this as a young kid.
There was a simple demonstration program with it, to allow you to input text, and hear it spoken back. It allowed you to add speech to your own basic programs, by loading the code file and using a simple 'Randomize USR' and 'REM' statement.
Obviously, the quality of speech achieved on the 48k is somewhat distorted, and not up to the standards expected today, but heck, you could understand it, I could make my Spectrum speak. All text had to be entered phonetically, but this just added to the fun of it.
I think I spent many more hours using this than a lot of games I had. Possibly a large percentage of that time was devoted to producing long winded scatological sibling abuse. Fantastic.
A nice simple western shooter game, its good - for a budget title.
Gunfighter is appealing to begin with, with plenty of locations to explore, and nice smooth gameplay. This game has atmosphere, and some nice touches, but after playing for a while the gameplay just becomes a bit too repetitive.
I think I got my £1.99 worth out of this game. Its definitely worth a quick look if you haven't played it before.
As far as I am aware, this was the best art package for the Spectrum at the time. It had the same look as the art packages on 16 bit machines, like Degas and Deluxe Paint, and even had support for mouse. It works very nicely with a mouse, and is also good with keyboard control. It has all the functions you could expect from an art package on the Spectrum, and they work quickly and smoothly.
As good as any 'button bashing' sports sim on the Spectrum, and a lot better than some.
I have really fond memories of this one. The graphics, animation and sound on this game were quality. Every event has its own bit of skill or timing involved, but good old button bashing (or joystick waggling) remains the theme throughout.
This game was solely responsible for the purchase of two additional keyboard membranes for our Spectrum, be warned.
Escape, 09 Jul 2010 (Rating: 4)
One of the best games around at the time for the 16k Spectrum.
The game is simple. Find a hidden axe in a simple maze, so you can get to the exit door and chop your way out. The only complication is the dinosaurs, who do their best to track you down and eat you along the way.
A demo that is really worth a watch. Astonishing use of the spectrum hardware.
A version of 'connect 4' published as a type-in. A smart bit of code which produces a playable game. Very efficient and smartly presented, you couldn't ask for more from a magazine basic listing.
I have only given this one a 3, as being a type-in program it is obviously a bit simple. However, it is a five star example of a basic type-in, and is definitely worth a quick play.
This game comes with a double dose of nostalgia, for the great old arcade game and for the brilliant conversion to the spectrum. It looks and sounds good, and playability is somewhere between sweet and perfect.
It is a space shooter in the same vein as galaxians and space invaders, and one of the best examples of the genre.
Excellent conversion to the Spectrum of the classic arcade space shooter. It looks and sounds the part, and the game-play is smooth and compulsive. Shooting aliens doesn't get much more satisfying than this. Always good to come back to for a quick game, even after doing so for 30 years.
Aliens, 29 Aug 2011 (Rating: 4)
This was the official 'Aliens' movie tie-in.
It is a kind of a role-playing shooter with good, large graphics, and captures the tension and atmosphere of the film perfectly. Fond memories of playing this game with a friend as a kid, for hours in a darkened room. Encountering the aliens in the game would get the heart racing as you prepare to defend your ambling adventure characters with some arcade reflexes.
I've shied away from giving this game a rating of 5, as from memory - the adventure / strategy element of the game was a bit sparse. Well worth a play though.
This was a free game I had from a Sinclair User cover tape in '89. It is a space harrier type game, using 'digitised' sprites of the sinclair user staff.
The game certainly looks impressive for a free spectrum game, but the game play was just dull. Worth a quick look, but not a game that will have you coming back for more.
This was a free game I had from a Sinclair User cover tape in '89. It is a sideways scroller, with a nod to the Robocop game - which was the big game at the time.
Unfortunately, this is no where near as good as Robocop. Its ok/good for a free game, the cartoon style graphics are very nice and clear. However, the game play is very monotonous, despite being broken up by a rather baffling and frustrating sub game between each scrolling level. There are platforms / steps to distinguish between levels, but as your character is sporting a helicopter backpack, they are of little consequence. It has all the structure and polish of a great game, it just appears no one bothered to give it any engaging game play.
A pretty nice conversion of the classic irem coin-op game.
Sideways scrolling beat-em-up, with the same limited gameplay as the arcade. The graphics are big and bold, if a little plain, but the game has a very 'just one more go to get further' addictive quality. Certainly not the best example of the genre, but worth a play, and shouldn't disappoint any fans of the arcade original.
An ace conversion of the epic Data-East beat-em-up arcade game.
Its a sideways scrolling game, with platform type levels. Its about as good a rendition of the game as you could hope for on a spectrum. The only things lacking that would make the game perfect, is a bit of colour and the two player mode.
A friend of mine bought this for his +3, shortly after we had completed the arcade game with our saturday-job money. The speccy version was just as much fun to play through, albeit taking it in turns.
A game that topped the spectrum game charts for ages, and with very good reason.
A sideways scrolling / platform shooter, based loosely on the coin-op and film, it is one of the best examples of this genre. The graphics are excellent, the 'playing area' is monochrome, but looks just fine. The audio / music for the 128k version is some of the finest for any spectrum title. The game-play and difficulty of this game seem to the subject of much debate, but in my mind at least, it is just about perfect.
If you happened to have been in a coma during the late eighties, and have not played this game, then I thoroughly recommend that you try it.
An early version of chess for the spectrum. The graphics look quite plain, and the ability of the computer player is somewhat limited, as is only to be expected in a game for the 16k machine.
Good points about the game are the relatively speedy decision time of the computer opponent, and the 'no nonsense' - straight to the game approach. It also has a, slightly tedious, run through of the rules of chess, which you can select from the main menu. This, combined with the option of letting the computer help with moves during a game, give credence to the 'tutor' suffix in the game's title.
Good for the time in 1983, and good for a 16k game, but much better chess games were to follow.
The eagerly awaited spectrum conversion of the huge arcade hit, this game was never going to be able to live up to expectations.
The two player mode helped give this game a bit of appeal, but overall it just lacked the feel of the arcade. Sound was woeful, and the overly colourful background determined the colour of the characters, adding to the confusion of tangled, ill defined sprites. Better beat-em ups came before and after this on the speccy. There were many worse games out there, but considering the high profile and hype surrounding this release, there were some far better alternatives to spend your money on.
A sideways scrolling beat-em-up, that tries to make up for the overly simple game-play by making it fast and difficult.
The graphics are good, and, if you can put up with repeatedly dying to learn the levels, the game-play can keep you coming back - just to get that bit further.
This game was widely slated, with one of the major criticisms being the speed and difficulty of it. As someone who persevered with, and ( I think ) completed this game as a kid, I am not ashamed to say that I quite liked it. Its not a great game, but it looks good, and if you have the patience to learn the levels it can be mildly rewarding to play.
Strange shooter, involving floating around in a bubble, in a giant pyramid, zapping aliens.
The game boasted '120 chambers, inhabited by 60 weird and exotic alien types'. What the cover failed to mention is that much of it was all mind numbingly similar and repetitive. The game has a good sense of progressing up the pyramid, with the difficulty increasing accordingly, but it all gets a bit boring after a while.
This is a collection of poor games, written - not very well - in basic. The games accompanied, and loosely followed, a fairly poor children's sci-fi book.
To be fair, it did spark my imagination as a kid, but that was 1983, and just about anything involving space and computers did. Having just returned to play it before writing this, it has proven itself to be far worse than my memories. The games are of the standard of the more disappointing basic type-ins. One of the games, a little turn based strategy game, has just enough charm to save this from a 1 rating.
I enjoyed having a (very) quick blast for memories and nostalgia. But if you have no memories of these games, it is probably best to keep it that way.
Sums, 04 Sep 2011 (Rating: 3)
A very simple basic game for teaching arithmetic to young children, which came bundled with our spectrum.
I was about the target age for this at the time, and did spend some time playing it. The player could choose a difficulty level, and was then given some simple sums to complete. If enough sums were answered correctly, then the player got a chance to shoot a ufo as it flew over - providing motivation / reward for the task.
Having played this at such an impressionable age, I have no doubt that it helped me get comfortable doing basic arithmetic. It also provided a great education, in the same way as all of the Collins starter programs, by giving my 4 year old self the chance to nose around and modify the basic listing of the program. Great stuff. It is a shame that young children are rarely presented with such things these days, the assumption being that 'computer code' would be something to learn later in life. Learning a computer language is a task that can, and was, done virtually by accident by many of our generation. It is readily accepted that young children will master their amazingly complicated native language, yet concepts like programming, which are far simpler, are deemed unsuitable.
Chequered Flag was the early F1 'simulator' released by Psion for the spectrum.
The graphics for the game stand up very well against anything seen at the time, in 1983. It is very smoothly updated and clear during gameplay, if a little sparse. The odd thing about this 'racing' game, which clearly shows cars racing on the cassette inlay, is that no other cars are present. It does, however, provide most of the other things that you could reasonably expect from an F1 game of the era. There are three cars to choose from, representing three levels of difficulty, and a bunch of real and fictional F1 circuits to choose from.
The controls are quite fiddly, but very involving once you get the hang of them. The game is all about mastering the controls and circuits to beat the clock. Not a game for someone looking for a quick fun arcade race'n'chase.
This game is the sequel to the excellent arcade adventure, 'Skool Daze'.
It has a lot to live up to, and it doesn't disappoint, being 'bigger and better' in most respects. Set mainly in the hero, Eric's, school again, you embark upon the convoluted quest to return your forged school report to the school safe. The game is easy to get started, but very involving as you progress further in. The settings to explore in the game are detailed, and just perfect to spark the imagination. A little microcosm inhabited by comic characters.
One of the finest games for the spectrum.
Hunt down criminals and watch out for retaliation from the mafia 'hit cars', in your turbo esprit. You drive around your city of choice, complete with '3d' buildings, pedestrians and traffic. Wait for a call to come in from hq, giving the location on your map of a crime in progress, then catch and arrest the bad guys.
This game was ahead of its time, with elements of chase hq and arguably even grand theft auto, years before they were conceived. It gave the feeling of free roaming in a large city, yet still included great little details, like traffic lights, roadworks and even indicators on the car.
Turbo Esprit was a minor landmark game at the time it was released, and is still fun to play today.
Ocean's 1988 movie tie-in.
One of my favourite spectrum games from the later years of the machine, and technically impressive. The game is a shoot'em-up, with each level as a different sub-game, giving you the opportunity to shoot the enemy from a variety of angles. The '3d' and first person shooter bits are extremely well done, and appear to push the limits of the spectrum.
Playing the game again recently, it struck me that it seems to be entirely unsuitable for a tie-in to the hard-hitting anti war film. But it is a great game.
I only discovered this game on the Spectrum recently, over 20 years too late. I used to love this game back then on the Atari ST, and the spectrum version retains most of the appeal of the 16 bit version.
Action, strategy and a good bit of shooting make up this 'SAS embassy storming' game. The action is split into sub-games, which all come together nicely to build tension and atmosphere. Sneak your guys into position, snipe some terrorists and abseil into the besieged embassy. Then blast the remaining terrorists (and not too many hostages) in a great first-person finale.
Graphics are nice, smooth, well defined and atmospheric. Sound on the 128k is also rather good, with some fine music and sampled effects. Difficulty level can be selected, allowing new players chance to see the whole game, while giving you a challenge to keep returning to. If you haven't tried this on your speccy yet, then I urge you to at least take a quick look.
There are only a handful of arcade conversions, over the entire history of the Spectrum, which could come close to being described as 'arcade perfect'. 30 years on, Simon Owen delivers a perfect rendition of one of the greatest and most iconic coin-op games ever.
As the name suggests, this game works by interpreting the original Namco ROM from the arcade cab. So it is effectively using the Spectrum ( +2a / +3 only ) as an arcade cab emulator. You have the option of running in monochrome or colour, where there is slight, but ignorable, attribute clash. The audio is spot on, and the speed / feel of the game is indistinguishable from the arcade machine.
An epic technical and artistic achievement, which shares the superb playability of the Namco classic. This can only be awarded a 5.
This game holds immense nostalgia for me, being one of the first games we had for the Speccy in the early years.
It is very nicely and neatly presented, for a 1983 release. I would have awarded this game a rating of four, from my nostalgic memories alone. Having re-played it, in the cold light of the 21st century, its charm doesn't appear to stretch so far.
It is a good rendition of the board game; monopoly, allowing 2 to 5 players to compete. It goes further than needed to achieve this, with scrolling displays, and smart graphics - but it doesn't really go as far as it could, especially when comparing it (slightly unfairly) to later releases for the Spectrum. Notably, the use of sound is extremely sparse, and you don't get any 'full view' of the board - beyond a couple of squares at a time.
Good, but not great.
Bozxle, 01 Jun 2012 (Rating: 5)
This is a variation on the Boxxle/Sokoban puzzle game.
Sokoban is compulsive, and is presented beautifully in this version for the Spectrum. The game is displayed in splendid attribute beating 8x1 rainbow colour, and control is satisfyingly instant. All wrapped up with nice title screens and music.
Levels are based on the smaller boards from Boxxle, making it a distillation of interesting layouts and snappy gameplay. This 'just works' as a spectrum game for me, holding my attention for a lot longer than most.
A very ambitious coin-op conversion from the twilight years of the spectrum, and it would be fair to say that they 'pulled it off' (fnar?).
The graphics and game engine really appear to be pushing the limits of the speccy. Overall the game is presented beautifully, and is worth checking out for the presentation alone. Also, aiming and shooting at the aliens, blasting heads and limbs off is very entertaining for a while.
Not worthy of a 5, it is all a bit repetitive as games go, but that is purely down to the design of the arcade original.
Light corridor is a game I discovered recently, from the later years of the Speccy. The presentation of the game is extremely impressive for a Spectrum, exploiting techniques rarely seen in early / earlier titles.
The gameplay is a bit like playing 3D breakout, with no bricks, while travelling down a corridor, or mobile single-player Shufflepuck. Having to resort to such bizarre descriptions is a reflection of the originality of this title.
To add to the game, there is a (turn based) two player option. Also, there is the option to create and save your own levels, which works very nicely.
The graphics and overall look are are brilliant, appearing to be very close to the limits of what is possible on a Speccy. The audio deserves a special mention, especially on the 128k version. There is a mix of 1bit music, in-game AY music, and digitised sound effects, all of very high quality.
There is much more to this game than I describe here, I highly recommend checking it out for yourself, it is far more entertaining than reading my opinion of it.
Spectrum version of the excellent Prince of Persia.
Graphics and gameplay are as good as anyone could reasonably expect from the speccy. Brilliant.
Thrust, 01 Sep 2012 (Rating: 5)
Ace game. It has very simple controls, graphics and objective, but amounts to so much more. Piloting your little spaceship around and collecting pods soon becomes fiendishly engaging and addictive. The minimal graphics and black backgrounds just seem to add to the atmosphere of this classic little game.
Many happy hours could be lost to this, it is a good title by any standards, but possibly one of the greatest ever £1.99 budget titles.
This game initially looks older than it is. This sideways scrolling space shooter was released in 1990, but is very much from the mould of early arcade classics defender and stargate.
The game plays very smoothly, very quickly, and there are enough extras to keep things interesting for a while. This is one of the best examples of the genre on the Speccy, but has conspicuously basic presentation compared to games like rtype, zynaps or cybernoid of the same era.
Laughably simple and very rough. Guide Frank the flea through the house, without bashing into the furniture.
Despite, and to a certain extent because of, the simple nature of this game, it is very cute and playable. Not a classic, but brings a smile to my normally grumpy face.
A poor film tie-in, and a poor example of a scrolling beat-em-up.
The graphics are smooth and polished, and there is enough of a game to keep you playing for a while, to see how far you can progress. Ultimately, gameplay becomes really repetitive, and is somewhat bugged and exploitable.
Certainly not worth the £9.99 I paid for this in '87
I loaded this up with low expectations, fully appreciating that it was going to be a single-key 'bomb the city' game. Still it managed to disappoint.
If this sounds at all appealing, then try playing something like ground force zero, don't try this 'game'.
I can only imagine this was intended as some kind of 'imagine Blitz with nuclear bombs' type of joke. Which, face it, just isn't funny.
IK+, 08 May 2013 (Rating: 5)
Originally, I only knew this beat-em-up from the fantastic 16 bit versions. It is a shock to see how well the Speccy version plays.
Gameplay, graphics, and the 128k sound are all top drawer stuff. Spectrum games do not get much better than this.
Buzzsaw+ is a 'cute' game of the Tetris / Columns type, very reminiscent of the Cosmo Gang puzzle game.
Gameplay is spot-on. Smooth, enjoyable and compulsive enough to merit a 5 rating, without even considering the presentation.
And the implementation / presentation is, for a 48k Spectrum, stunning. The game has great looking and smoothly animated 8x1 (fancy multicolour) graphics. An artistic and technical triumph with humour and attention to detail.
Thrust 2 is even harder than the original classic. Starting with 10 shields is not as generous as you might think.
As with all good sequels, the original game style has been kept, added to, and given a bit of a makeover. Once again you pilot your spaceship precariously through caverns, collecting and towing your objectives around. This time you have android guards to contend with. The guards can be dispatched by finding the right chemical agent to attack them with, adding a good puzzle element to the game.
The graphics are good enough, with smooth animation and rotation of the ship - but - when scrolling, the player sprite flickers in a very off-putting way. Sound, besides an interesting phased beeper effect on the title screen, is very basic.
It is a good game, overly difficult, but rewarding to learn. Some of the charm and simplicity that helped make Thrust such a classic is missing in this sequel.
Not as good as the original, but it offered something new. For a £1.99 release it was well worth the money.
Side scrolling All Terrain Vehicle 'simulator', similar in ways to Kickstart. Jump and avoid obstacles to get to the end of each themed track, against the clock. Fun with one player, but much more fun with two.
The game is slickly presented, you can see some effort has gone into its production. Some of the 'obstacles' become increasingly bizarre through the game, adding a bit of humour.
The graphics look good, work well, and there is some great animation. The beeper music between levels is just right, adding to the feel of the game. Game-play can be frustrating if you get tangled up with some of the moving obstacles, repeatedly falling off your vehicle, and trying to re-mount. After learning how to negotiate the courses and avoid trouble, however, it can start to feel a little bit too easy in single player mode.
This game received some stinky reviews, but I remember loving it, and still play through a few levels occasionally. It is a bit short of levels, and would benefit from more, or even better, a Kickstart style track editor. Still, especially for a budget £1.99 game, I consider it a classic.
The disappointing sequel to Full Throttle. It is a fast running, smoothly animated, rear view motorbike racer, like the original. It does not, unfortunately, share the great playability of its predecessor.
I can't get a feel for the bike, at all. This is a bike that can slide across the track, at zero mph, wheels not turning. It is also capable, occasionally, of suspending itself leant over at 45 degrees, while totally stationary and not cornering. Contact with any other bikes, or running wide, seems to result in the bike slowly decelerating to a stop, after getting back on track or clearing the other bike, before allowing you to accelerate again. This must be about the most annoying and pointless 'punishment' in a racing game.
There is a really good graphics engine used in this game, which is about all that saves it from a 1 rating. Compared to the original, this really fails to deliver. They even mis-spell Donington.
A very strange film tie in.
It is a collection of pretty awful sections, strung together in a way that hardly even works as a real game. That said, it is somehow much greater than the sum of its parts. It sparked my imagination as a kid, and is simply fun to play.
A flawed classic with real heart, so perfectly suited to Spectrum.
First person biker/shooter game, from 1983.
Great fun to play, with quite a feeling of speed as you dodge between the trees of some seemingly endless forest. There are bad guys to chase and shoot, all nice and simple, but enough to make a satisfying game.
A real Spectrum classic, and very impressive for a 16k game from 1983.
A classic comic style action adventure game from 1986.
The graphics for the game are perfect. Clear, comical, smooth and well animated. The audio is also clear and comical. This arcade adventure also holds some platform game style challenges, cleverly and seamlessly working over the perspective 3d style comic backgrounds. The game graphics are mostly monochrome. Variation of colours for each screen, and the occasional splash of colour, strategically placed to avoid colour clash, prevent it from looking dull.
Some of the puzzles and consequences in the game are hilarious. Everything about this game has real charm. The exploring, puzzles, and arcade elements all work together to make a game that can keep you smiling.
Xenon, 19 May 2013 (Rating: 5)
The Spectrum version of this iconic vertical scrolling shooter was a top notch conversion, very well made and presented.
The graphics in the play area of screen are monochrome, but very smooth, stylish and clear. Switching between the banking air vehicle, and the rotational movement of the land vehicle to negotiate different situations, stops this feeling as repetitive as some shooters.
Game-play is satisfying, well paced and the difficulty curve works well.
The great audio for the 128k versions is just the icing on the cake.
The not-so-fantastic spin off game from the fantastic TV series.
This is a somewhat limited arcade adventure style game. You to control the characters of the show, situated in their student house, with the aim of collecting their belongings and getting evicted. While you control one character, the others continue their business around the house autonomously, often complicating your tasks.
Graphics, sound and presentation are somewhere between acceptable and mediocre.
Some of the puzzles and situations are humorous, and the character graphics are just about recognisable, but beyond this, it fails to recreate any of the brilliance of the TV show.
Zybex, 20 May 2013 (Rating: 5)
A horizontally scrolling space shoot-em-up, slightly reminiscent of R-Type.
This game is all about the weapons, and more weapons. So much so, that you don't even have to worry with a fire button. Your guns are constantly auto-fired for you, with the fire button becoming the weapon select button. Attack waves of enemies keep arriving, thicker and faster, as do the weapons upgrades.
The play area is monochrome, with only the player sprite being of another colour. The graphics is clear, and the scrolling and animation is very smooth. Sound is as good as you could hope for on the 48k beeper, quite an achievement, really, considering how smoothly the game runs.
So, is it as good as R-Type? Possibly not, but Zybex was just a budget £2.99 release. The graphics are less colourful, but smoother than R-Type.
Where R-Type can not compete with Zybex, however, is simultaneous two player mode. As a two player game, this really shines, even today.
A very early (1982) text dungeons game. It plays black on white, with the standard font and is written in BASIC. It looks more like some of the less exciting ZX81 games than later Spectrum titles.
Generating the dungeon takes over two and a half minutes each time you start a game, a cruel trick to play on someone who has already waited for a game to load from tape.
'The Quest' is simple, but has a couple of nice touches. It evokes a nostalgia for the early days, when simple small games inspired huge imaginations. Beyond that, there is little point to playing this aged adventure in the 21st century.
The spin-off game from the great British comic.
Some of the graphics and audio in this game are great, and some of the look and humour of Viz has been captured well. Unfortunately, the humour wears thin fairly quickly, and as a game, it isn't that great. A combination of very simple joystick/keyboard mashing levels, and 'race' levels with frustrating controls.
Worth a look if you are fan of Viz, or puerile childish humour in general, but nothing to hold your attention for very long.
One of the better examples of the budget Mastertronic arcade adventures.
Jetpac around, solving puzzles and avoiding nasties on a quest to find spare parts for your spaceship, as you do.
The presentation is a little clunky in places, but it plays at a nice pace, has some nice details and oozes atmosphere.
I'd heard the legend of The Great Space Race, something for the Spectrum akin to ET for the Atari. I only recently got round to seeing why for myself.
This is a strange space strategy 'racer' game from 1984, with splashes of big graphics and clunky animation. Interaction is, very slowly, via menus only. It is almost impossible to feel any enthusiasm for the proceedings at all.
Had this been a free cover-tape game, then I would have considered giving it a 2. But as a £15 release, this lashed together excuse for a game is inexcusably sub-standard. The 'battle scenes' look like something straight from the pages of a BASIC listing.
Some reviews from the time cite the graphics as a redeeming feature, I guess they have aged badly.
Isometric arcade adventure game, where you play a prisoner of war, attempting to do as the title suggests.
You must play along with the routine of the prison camp, and ensure the guards don't rumble any of your escape preparations, like a severe version of SkoolDaze. The 'play area' is monochrome, but beautifully drawn and smoothly scrolled. It is atmospheric, and draws you in as it plays out like a story.
Spent many happy hours playing this with a friend at the time, a great game.
Fine little arcade game involving rolling and bouncing your ball through high speed pseudo 3d levels. Once you get the hang of the controls, it becomes utterly addictive.
The graphics are monochrome, which makes this game slightly more difficult than it is on other platforms in colour. The graphics are, however, very smart, smooth and quick. The sound is ok, but can start to grate after a while, as can the music on the 128k version.
This is frustrating, annoying sometimes, but really fun to play.
A 2 player combat flight 'simulator', that I only knew (and loved) back then on the Commodore 64.
Much of what I loved from the C64 version, unfortunately, doesn't hold up so well in the Spectrum version. The fast, smooth graphics are gone, and the Speccy could never compete with the C64 for jet fighting sound effects. Even the fantastic 'dangerzone-ripoff' title music seems a pale shadow of the C64 rendition.
As a two player game it is still good fun, but not something that will keep you coming back for years. It offers little more than similar titles like Top-Gun.
Ace of Aces was an ace(!) flight simulator game, where you carry out an epic bombing mission, defending yourself from enemy fighters along the way. On some machines, notably the Commodore 64, this game was classic, with a great feeling of adventure and atmosphere. However, the Speccy version appears to be one of the worst. Not a bad game in itself, just poor in comparison.
The graphics are worth a look. Watching the clouds roll below you from your chosen camera angle is certainly more interesting than the average Speccy flight simulator view. But, it ends up being slightly too slow, even with the forward view size being cut down on the Speccy. As with other flight games, the sound effects and engine noises, that draw you in on the C64, become slightly annoying and simple on the Spectrum.
The wealth of little details and features that made this game a total classic on other platforms have all been squeezed into the Speccy version, but somehow it just doesn't recreate the atmosphere.
Worth a look, and worth a 4 rating for the interesting, if somewhat jerky, graphics, and for fitting so much into a 48k Spectrum game.
The Spectrum conversion of the coin-op game licensed from the film, not a promising pretext for a game, but this is actually rather good.
Empire Strikes Back is one of the better examples of a wireframe / vector shooter on the Speccy. Controls are good, with aiming, banking and turning all working together. There is a bit of variation to the game, with different levels biased for shooting or flying, but this is a pure action game with little depth or strategy. The sound and music is pleasing enough on the 128k, and overall presentation is very nice.
This game is very close to being a 5/5 classic. It falls just short due to a bit of slowdown when there is too much on screen, and being too easy to play through to pose any lasting challenge.
The third Speccy coin-op conversion from the third film licensed game.
The isometric scrolling shooter is reproduced faithfully on the Spectrum, and looks as good as you could reasonably expect.
As with all of the Speccy Starwars games, this is well presented and fun to play, but eventually a bit too repetitive and shallow to be 5/5.
Uridium is an excellent sideways scrolling, top down space shooter. Left and right movement accelerates your ship, allowing you to change direction and take evasive action. The game and controls take a short while to get used to. It can be infuriatingly difficult to start with, but it is well worth persevering.
The game and graphics are smooth and fluid, nicely animated, but mostly monochrome. This game was one of my favourites at the time, and still gets a play, even today.
Updated version of Uridium:
"
Uridium is an excellent sideways scrolling, top down space shooter. Left and right movement accelerates your ship, allowing you to change direction and take evasive action. The game and controls take a short while to get used to. It can be infuriatingly difficult to start with, but it is well worth persevering.
The game and graphics are smooth and fluid, nicely animated, but mostly monochrome. This game was one of my favourites at the time, and still gets a play, even today.
"
This is essentially the same great game, with new levels and some little updates. Possibly even better than the original.
A driving and shooting game, undoubtedly inspired by Roadblasters, which was released at the same time as the official Roadblasters arcade conversion.
It is pretty fun to play. In some ways better than Roadblasters, in others worse. The speed and hideous colour contrast have a hypnotic quality, giving a feeling of speed that keeps your eyes focused away from the sparse background.
It certainly gives Roadblasters a run for its money.
Conversion of the iconic Atari coin-op driving and shooting game.
Most of the features of the game, as such, are present in the Spectrum version. The graphics are mostly spot on. This has all the elements of a top game, it just falls a bit short due to lacking a good feeling of speed at times, and being a bit too easy.
Jawz, 09 Jun 2013 (Rating: 3)
A simple 16k arcade game that I remember fondly from the early days of the Spectrum.
Shoot the sharks (fish) and avoid the 'poison pellets' being dropped by the jellyfish. Simple but smart, and still good for a quick blast. It was a good game for its time.
I bought this budget combat flight simulator when it was released, and I wanted to like it. It should be the kind of game I love.
Aspirations to realism, 6 missions to fly, aerial combat, and neat wireframe graphics. What you end up with is not good as a simulator or an action game. There is little feeling of speed or control and it ends up being a bit boring most of the time.
A late 128k only shooter from Ocean, which is rather good.
The game is split into two parts, which on the one hand makes for good variety and value, but on the other, makes it a bit disjointed. The first part is platform based, and the second is more of a sideways scroller with perspective play area. Graphics are good and large, and the use of colour is tasteful and well handled for a Speccy. The sounds and music are top quality.
Overall, a great game, better than most of this type on the Speccy.
Follow-up to the classic golfing game, Leaderboard (and Leaderboard Tournament). All round, an improvement on the original(s).
The playability and graphics are as good as you could hope for in a Speccy golf game, providing you don't mind a lot of green and blue, and blue and green. There are four courses and three skill levels to choose from, keeping things varied.
I think this is best enjoyed as a multiplayer game, but even with one player it is a good relaxing way to kill a bit of time.
Great golf sim.
Overshadowed by its successor, World Class Leaderboard. Given any time or chance, it is probably best to just play the sequel. At the time, though, this was impressive stuff.
Don (genius) Priestley's tie-in arcade adventure.
Trapdoor is a demonstration of Priestley's mastery of the Spectrum hardware. Trapdoor, and other games in what came to be his trademark 'mahoosive graphics' style, were quite jaw-dropping for some of us when they were released. Not just technically impressive, it captures the humour, look and charm of the claymation cartoon perfectly. The huge sprites, beautifully animated backgrounds and little details all fit together and draw you right in.
Carrying out the tasks and puzzles in the game is reward in itself, like interacting with a well scripted and genuinely funny cartoon. There really isn't much bad to say about this game at all, yes it has a relatively slow pace, but it feels like the appropriate pace.
Don Priestley's sequel to his amazing, and graphically impressive, Trapdoor arcade adventure tie-in.
Like any great sequel, it reproduces the original, with some additions and new challenges. You now have the option of switching control to 'Drut', Berk's frog/thing/friend. This is for tasks that might require reaching high places, or generally bouncing around, which adds a small touch of extra 'arcade' gameplay to the adventure.
Possibly even greater than the original, possibly.
Conversion of the original platform shooter coin-op.
The game is quite faithfully reproduced, with all the enemies, gun upgrades and most of the levels intact, albeit with slightly less colour and no groovy music.
This is very playable, but hard. Movement and controls feel, only slightly, sluggish compared to the coin-op, which results in fast reflexes and anticipation being required to stay alive. Losing a life is all too easy, and can result in starting from a frustratingly long way back.
A good game, worth a look.
Prequel to the epic Tir Na Nog, and one of the greatest graphic adventures on the Speccy.
The graphics work perfectly, with large, very well animated characters, and interesting scrolling backgrounds. Moving around can get slightly disorientating, so having or making a map can be very useful. Once you get into the game, it gets very atmospheric and absorbing. The character interaction and puzzles all meshing into a well told story.
Very impressive for a 1985 game.
Carrier Command was a big deal when it came out on the 16 bit computers, combining 3d vehicle combat simulations into a war strategy game. A credible Speccy version seemed unlikely, but somehow they did it, albeit only for 128k machines.
The 3d graphics are notably good. Only a slight reduction in resolution, speed and obviously a large loss of colour sets this apart from the 16 bit versions. Almost all aspects of the game remain intact, even the sound is pretty good.
Set out for a 'quick blast' and end up engrossed in capturing the islands from the enemy 'robotic aircraft carrier'.
The sequel to what was already one of the finest beat-em-ups on the Speccy, and this is even better.
The look and feel of the game, and just about everything that made the original so good, are here in the sequel. But we now have more variety, and the addition of cooperative two player mode, which is awesome.
Snoopy, 15 Jun 2013 (Rating: 4)
Graphic arcade adventure game based on the Peanuts/Snoopy comics.
The graphics really make this game. Big, well drawn characters and backgrounds are a perfect recreation of the old comics and cartoons. The stark monochrome presentation can be forgiven, as it is so reminiscent of the original comic strips.
There is a perfectly acceptable 'adventure' game going on, but some of the tasks/puzzles seem a bit straight forward and unimaginative.
Great looking game with a bit of substance, though it can end up feeling a little slow and twee after a while.
Graphic arcade adventure game based on the Garfield comics.
Graphics are big, and capture the look and animation of the Garfield cartoons perfectly, though colour is lacking. There is plenty to do, and humour is present throughout the game.
An all round great example of the genre.
A brave and ambitious attempt to convert the classic '3d' jet-fighter coin-op to the Speccy. And they just about get away with it.
Graphics are monochrome, but smart and fast. Sound is a choice of decent sound effects or music on the 128k machines. They have retained an impressive amount from the original arcade game. Unfortunately, that includes the shallow, and at times confusing, gameplay, which often leaves you wondering what unseen peril just caused you to lose a life.
Good for a quick blast, and in some ways quite impressive to see on the Speccy, but it won't keep you coming back.
Speccy version of the iconic top-down multi-player racing game.
This game is fun on all platforms, especially playing with friends. The Spectrum version is not one of the best, though still a good game. Graphics and sound are adequate. Control of the car is a tad clumsy compared to other versions, and even feels slightly glitchy when a collision occurs at a 45 degree angle.
To this day, this is fun to play, and a good way to kill a few minutes racing with a mate. Admittedly, there are better Sprint clones available for the Speccy, but this one is 'the classic'.
Freebie shooter / puzzler / vertically scrolling game from a Crash covertape.
The look of this game is striking, and the animation of your ship is excellent. There is a bit of shooting and avoiding action, and it looks like there could be a reasonably interesting puzzle game involved. If only I could get past the controls and disorientation. Always travelling vertically up or down regardless of actual direction, combined with the speed of your craft inexplicably correlating to its altitude, leaves little mental agility for addressing the shooting and puzzles in the game.
Worth a look for its visual appeal, and in fairness, very good for a freebie.
Vixen, 16 Jun 2013 (Rating: 3)
A side scrolling whip-em-up(?!).
The artwork, graphics and promotion for this game all have two strong assets going for them, fnar.
The game is playable and well presented, indeed your character is very nicely drawn and animated. There just isn't much to the game once you're done perving at a few well placed monochrome pixels.
Visually appealing but ultimately shallow game.
Conversion of the Atari driving simulator style coin-op, which received top reviews in all the Spectrum magazines. The coin-op combined smooth high-res graphics with realistic feeling driving physics and good force feedback steering wheel, in a way unseen before. So converting this to the Spectrum was ambitious to say the least. To be fair, the result is possibly about as good as you could hope for, it certainly could have been much worse.
At first this game is virtually unplayable. it takes some practice to be able to drive in anything approaching a straight line, let alone make a corner. There is no self centring of the steering for some reason, which means you need to pay attention to the 'steering indicator bar thingy', and/or keep jabbing the spacebar to centre your steering wheel. Once you get the hang of it, it can become quite engaging, even 'realistic' feeling, but always infuriatingly hard. I suppose the clue was in the name.
The graphics are impressive, but animation is too jerky to allow you smooth control or a convincing feeling of speed. Also, the road has an annoying habit of breaking up or flickering in front of you. The action replays of crashes are nicely done, and often more fun to watch than trying to control the car. 'Engine noise' on the 128k version is quite good compared to the average Speccy effort, but there is not much in the way of crash sound effects, considering how often it happens.
If a rating was to be awarded for pure nostalgic value, or on the merit of how much of 1983 and 1984 was spent playing this game, it would be 5 out of 5 for sure.
Many of us spent untold hours teaching our fingers level upon level of pixel perfect jumping and timing to progress through this very difficult platformer game. Were we all intrinsically addicted to and in love with this game, with its wacky humour? Hypnotised by the looping brainworm music? Or was it that there was quite a limited choice of other good games at the time? I suspect all of the above.
Spectrum conversion of the cutesy cartoon beat-em-bomb-em-bash-em-up coin-op.
Graphics are good, fairly smooth and faithful to the original, but monochrome. Sound is adequate on the 128k Speccy. The gameplay has also been nicely reproduced, so this is quite playable. Lack of variation, and any multiplayer option, though, mean there is not much to keep you coming back to this game.
Xybots, 16 Jun 2013 (Rating: 4)
Spectrum conversion of the 3d perspective coin-op shooter.
The Spectrum version looks pretty bleak in contrast to the original, with plain monochrome graphics. But it is very playable, especially as a two player game, and the clear graphics do help. Many an hour can be lost running through corridors and blasting at robots.
With a couple of minor tweaks, and a bit more work on the graphics, this could be a perfect 5/5. As it is, your character walks unnervingly like someone shimmying across the dance-floor at the annual speed-walkers club disco.
Always good when in need of a quick two player game.
Zarjas, 16 Jun 2013 (Rating: 2)
Vertically scrolling space shooter / avoider, given away free on a Sinclair User cover-tape.
There is smooth parallax scrolling going on, and your ship is big and slightly strangely animated. However, it is awkward to distinguish the poor monochrome background from the wobbling baddies, asteroids and explosions. It also feels a little sluggish.
Play, play for as long as you can, you won't see anything new. It starts as it goes on, over and over, just becoming faster. High score is all there is.
Fair enough for a cover-tape freebie.
T-Bird, 22 Jun 2013 (Rating: 3)
Fly your T-Bird space-ship rocket-car thing into the screen, avoiding and blasting alien hoards and obstacles.
The graphics are impressively done. It looks like a better, smoother mix of Space Harrier and Deathchase. It has all the elements for a great game; waves of enemies, power-ups and variation. It just isn't engaging enough to play. Judging the distance of everything in the z-axis is a bit tricky, and leaves you feeling a little detached from the action. This has so much more than something like Deathchase, but isn't as fun.
One of those games that is really worth seeing, but not worth playing for long.
A dinghy sailing simulator from 1985.
If you like this kind of thing, this is actually pretty good.
You can practice or race, and choose how much control you want of your boat. You can, if you wish, control the rudder, sail and balance, it is even a little educational.
Graphics are good for their time, but the presentation of this game hasn't really aged that well. It is a bit clunky and slow, though maintains its charm.
Re-released as 'Ocean Racer'.
A dinghy sailing simulator from 1985.
If you like this kind of thing, this is actually pretty good.
You can practice or race, and choose how much control you want of your boat. You can, if you wish, control the rudder, sail and balance, it is even a little educational.
Graphics are good for their time, but the presentation of this game hasn't really aged that well. It is a bit clunky and slow, though maintains its charm.
Originally released as 'Yacht Race'.
Another Garfield game, from the same people who bought us the fantastic 'Garfield - Big Fat Hairy Deal'. Should be great? Bit of a disappointment.
This is three sub-games, cobbled together to cash in on the cartoon license. The player graphics are cute and quite faithful to the comics, but predictably monochrome in the Spectrum version. The 'chocolate factory' game has some substance to it. The other two, skating and skiing, sub-games feel distinctly like fillers.
Cute and mildly entertaining for a bit, but this game is not a Big Fat Hairy Deal.
Rex, 25 Jun 2013 (Rating: 5)
Rex is a damn good game. Well presented and very playable, with a mix of 'platforming', adventuring and shooting.
Level design is very good and there is plenty of variety and power-ups to keep things interesting. It all comes together to make an atmospheric game, that feels like the love-child of Monty Mole and Cybernoid.
Getting to be the alien, and wiping out the humans, for a change, is the icing on the cake.
I'm not sure if this was the best Monty game, but it was the one I spent by far the most time playing. One of the great, quintessential Spectrum platformers, being smooth, infuriatingly difficult in places, and with humorous puzzles.
Graphics are not fancy, but nice, neat and very smooth. Audio is also quite good. Level designs are challenging, but fun. This game draws you in, and evokes the feeling of exploring a cosy little 8-bit world.
The original and official version of Scrabble for the Spectrum from 1983. Giving this a rating is tricky.
On one hand:
It is a perfect Speccy nostalgia hit, having the look and feel of all the Sinclair/Psion classics. It includes just about everything you could want or need from a game of computer Scrabble. They managed to fit a 10,000+ word dictionary into a 48k game, which for the time seemed very impressive. And I still play the occasional game against the wife and computer to this day, 30 years since I first played.
On the other hand:
10,000+ words is impressive, though is not quite enough to make a fully competent game. The interface is perfectly functional, but not as well thought out as it could have been. Good for 1983, but not aged well.
It is a 5/5 to me, but I'll need to knock a point off to counter my personal nostalgia. And maybe I'm still being generous?
Arcade adventure licensed from the cartoon.
It does have substance to it, your mission is to build your house, and woo Wilma to come and live with you. It feels aimed, fairly enough, at younger players.
The graphics are a bit simple, and some of the animation, for a cartoon tie-in, is woeful. You have to walk diagonally off the edge of screens to navigate, which can feel a bit fiddly. Strangely compulsive, then gets tedious after a while.
It does have a certain charm, but whiffs a bit of mediocrity and tie-in-cash-in. Yabba dabba don't. Just like puns, the old ones aren't always the best.
Zombi, 28 Jun 2013 (Rating: 4)
A first-person graphic adventure. More than inspired by the 'Dawn of the Dead' zombie film.
There is a good balance of exploring and action. There are all the elements you would expect from a basic RPG, and a good story to play through. The graphics are a little plain, though enough to set an atmosphere and occasionally give you a fright.
Icon control for joystick or keyboard, without shortcut keys, can get annoying, but this game carries it better than some.
Worth a look, a good game, very impressive for 48k, nearly a great game.
A game, licensed from possibly the UK's most popular TV show at the time, and retailing for £9.95. You might expect there to be some kind of quality. You'd be wrong.
It begins with a hideous reproduction of the theme tune, and then everything goes rapidly even further down hill. A cringe inducing collection of CGC / Cassette 50 quality mini-games, all seemingly lacking any fun.
Just save yourself the disappointment and annoyance.
Steer your 'car' around a track, top down, but using the x and y axis for control. It is an interesting idea, and for a minute I thought this could pose a fun challenge. How wrong I was.
Very BASIC, slow, and a possible contender for the worst sounding game ever. If I could be bothered to struggle on at the snails pace of this frustrating game, my ears wouldn't allow it.
Interesting to see what passed as a game in 1982.
Rastan, 29 Jun 2013 (Rating: 4)
Conversion of Taito's side-scrolling platform slash-em-up.
The controls feel good, level design is good and slashing the enemy feels satisfying. If you hang around too long, the enemy just keep piling in, so you have to keep up a good pace to get through levels.
The graphics are very nice. Smooth parallax scrolling, big sprites, and non-offensive use of colour. The detailed monochrome sprites can be hard to see against some of the busier backgrounds, making it needlessly difficult in parts.
Worth playing, and playing for a while. With slightly clearer graphics, and/or more adventurous use of colour to make it a bit easier on the eyes, this could be a 5/5 game.
A game title unofficially cashing in on the inexplicable popularity of the kids trials-bike TV show, 'Kickstart', from the era.
This is a good side-scrolling game. Get your bike across the obstacles as quickly as possible. Control can get tricky. Even after practice, falling off your bike can be hard to avoid. Stringing together a good time after learning a course can feel very satisfying. Graphics are smooth, clear and attractive, if slightly plain.
What makes this great is the addition of a course designer and two player mode. As a two player game this is a real classic. Designing a course with a friend, then battling for the best time on it was just fun. For times alone, and Billy Nomates, there is a computer friend to race against.
This game has its flaws, but it deserves a 5 from me, for the amount of enjoyment given as a two player game over the years, especially as a budget £1.99 title.
I approached this hoping it would be a better game than the previous, mediocre Flintstones arcade adventure cash-in, 'Yabba Dabba Doo'. It certainly *looks* a better game. The presentation and graphics are very good, especially in comparison to its predecessor.
The game itself comprises of four disjointed feeling sub-games, of varying degrees of tediousness. The levels all look very nice, and you can see effort has gone into this game. It just isn't overly fun to play.
Worth a look for the graphics, if you like that sort of thing. Not much here to keep you interested though.
This is a great one-on-one martial arts game. Worth a look for any fan of the genre, and even better as a two player game.
The format will be instantly familiar to anyone who has played any eighties karate games. There is nothing terribly original here, but it is done very well. There are a good selection of moves and counter moves, and contacts feel fair.
The presentation, past the early eighties looking menu screen, is very nice. Backgrounds are attractive and colourful, and the sound really adds something to the game. With a funky title tune, crunchy fighting sounds, and clear speech from the judge.
However, it was eclipsed from the start by the greater 'Way of the Exploding Fist', and later by its own sequel, 'IK+'. These two games leave International Karate feeling a bit redundant.
Jigsaw, 29 Jun 2013 (Rating: 2)
This is good, for a 1983 16k compilation filler.
Unscramble a couple of nice, for the time, pictures, using just cursor keys. There is some fun to be had for a few minutes. But there are only two pictures, and with the options set to hardest it poses little challenge.
Value as a nostalgic curiosity, but not aged so well. There were many better variations on this theme to follow.
An average one-on-one beat-em-up. It isn't bad as a single or two player game, but offers nothing original or outstanding.
The sprites are sizeable and well drawn, with the cute, comic animal characters being the USP. The rest of the presentation is a bit lacking, with titles and backgrounds left lazily monochrome. Sound is passable.
Fun if you like seeing little animals fighting. Is that bee the size of a dog? Or is that dog the size of bee? Neither, they are both the size of a hamster, obviously.
Who could be tougher than a ninja, and tougher than a commando? A Ninja Commando, naturally.
And this guy is tough. He can kill the enemy SuperMario style, by just jumping on them, while waiting for some weapons to collect. The game itself, though, is also very tough. Side scrolling platform action, with plenty of weapons and bad guys. If you hang around, the enemy keep piling in, so it pays to keep up a good pace to progress though levels. Then it becomes all too easy to misjudge a jump and fall to your doom.
The graphics are quite detailed and moody, and look impressive at first. After enough monotonous repetition though, they start to look a bit monochrome and boring.
If you like very challenging games, or maybe don't mind POKEing infinite lives, this is worth a look. I resorted to cheating, and it took a lot of lives to learn and get past some parts. Pretty good for a £2.99 budget game, but ultimately too hard and too repetitive.
The Street Hawk TV spin-off has a good premise, slick smooth graphics, and all the elements to make a great game.
Jumping and leaning the bike to turn all feels good in the vertically scrolling levels. The representation of speed, though, is a bit of a let-down. The alleged 285mph moves barely quicker than 50mph. And strangely, 285mph scrolls along at 20mph if you use turbo from a stand-still. This mis-match of expected, reported and portrayed speeds leaves me feeling a bit detached, from what is otherwise close to being serious fun. You reach your destination on bike, to foil robberies, in very simple first person shooting-gallery levels.
It is presented nicely, and fun to play for a short while, but this is too simple, flawed and repetitive to hold much lasting appeal.
A 1985 maze/platform type game, with the premise of being a maggot competing in a four stage maggot marathon. Indeed.
The animation of the characters in the game is very good. It has a classic early Spectrum look, with big, bold areas of primary colours. The audio is also quintessential Spectrum nostalgia, consisting of little bleeps, and stolen melodies rendered in monotonous BEEPs.
With plenty to explore and interact with, this is a great little game, but a bit simple and slow.
A brave attempt to represent the revolutionary laser disc coin-op game on the Speccy.
The arcade game shoe-horned simple game-play into some graphically stunning (for the time) animated set pieces. The Spectrum version retained the substandard playability, and didn't do a great job with the graphics. The graphics are, in fairness, good compared to the average Speccy title, but nowhere near good enough to carry the game.
They could have, at least, had a first level that wasn't such an annoying fiddle to get through. After sitting through the un-skip-able death animation twice, it loses any appeal, after fifty times it starts to become infuriating.
Too difficult, not much fun to play, and no truly great presentation to compensate.
This incarnation of Dragon's Lair is quite an improvement over the original Dragon's Lair Spectrum conversion, though this isn't saying much.
Game-play, as you might expect, is simple, but a bit of fun for a while. The graphics and animation are very good for a Speccy, though obviously not a patch on the coin-op originals.
Worth a look, and worth playing for a bit. A very well presented, but very shallow game.
A disconcerting mix of 3d space shooter and puzzle game, an anagram'em-up.
Fly around, shooting bad guys, to collect letters, to solve historical puzzle based anagrams. The shooting gets you straight in for some arcade fun, and the puzzle element builds up to give it some longevity.
Somehow this appealed to me in a way that Elite never did, despite it looking suspiciously similar at a quick glance. It feels like they squeezed a remarkable amount into, and out of the the little Spectrum. It is more than impressive for a 48k title released in 1985. The speed and quality of the vector graphics and display is about as good as it gets on a Speccy, and just for good measure they threw in some ace border effects and a 'tuition' option - presented in a way to rival many scene demos. Even defining the keys is something like a minigame in itself, no corners were cut when making this.
It is a strange game, and seems a bit odd at first, but soon becomes compulsive.
A very basic looking top-down car chase game.
Steer your car around the 'streets', and a line of cop cars take chase. The aim is to avoid capture, while causing the police to crash into each other. If you manage to get 6 cars to crash, the police get peeved and send a car out with some serious weaponry. With no cars left to block your exit, this is where you attempt your final escape.
Far too simple, and arguably far too frustrating and difficult, but it is fun and very addictive to play.
I get sucked into playing 'Run Baby Run' for ages. I couldn't fairly give a game that is this simple looking and frustrating 5/5. But it is a 16k game, from 1983, and maybe the simplicity is part of its appeal.
Not as bad as I was expecting from a game licensed from the kids soap opera, but that isn't saying too much.
Isometric race game, where you, as Scott Robinson, race your skateboard against other characters from the show on their 'wacky' modes of transport, and avoid various themed obstacles. It looks and feels a bit like a multi-directional version of Paperboy, but isn't quite as fun. Levels are themed on the locations from the show, and provide a little bit of variety. It is playable, and fun for a while.
Not terrible, but feels more like an earlier budget release than a full price game from 1992.
Vatman, 27 Jul 2013 (Rating: 2)
Free game on a 1989 YS covertape.
A nice bit of code and graphics, providing smooth scrolling and fluid sprites. There just isn't anything to the game-play.
Move to the right, punching every man you see. If a man walks though you, or you punch a woman - you lose energy, which can be replenished by pickups along the way. You can duck, and jump onto the scenery, with nice smooth control, pointless though, as it does nothing to vary the action.
Very repetitive half-game. Classic covertape filler.
Guide Micro Mouse on his to quest to debug BASIC listings. Pick up and place the missing letters and numbers into the listing, as you dash about, killing bugs with your can of 'datakill' bug-spray. When the listing is complete you get to see it run, then move on to the next level.
This was a semi-educational game that was actually fun, and deserves some credit for it. It is nicely presented, original, and has character.
It is a little sparse and flickery, but cute, and good considering it is a 16k game from 1983.
A classic, not to be confused with the forgettable 1989 game with the same name.
A game with the same name as a real classic from 1983.
In the 1983 game, you fixed bugs in BASIC listings. In this, Micro Mouse has turned his attention to the hardware, and your job is to run around circuit boards, avoiding, errr, things, and fixing broken tracks.
It is an interesting idea for a game, and nicely presented, but I just didn't find it much fun. It lacks the character and charm of its 1983 namesake, and starts to feel a bit tedious after playing for a while.
Drive to crime scenes in a Lamborghini with a rocket launcher on its roof, Roadblasters style. Once there, bust the bad guys in some platform shooter action. The enemy can be shot or 'netted' as appropriate, and take care not to injure the innocent.
The game is presented, and plays, very nicely. Alternating between the driving and platform levels, and introducing power ups, keeps things interesting.
Maybe with a bit more colour and slightly better level designs, this could have been a 5/5 classic.
A 2012 game that recreates the feel of the best early eighties platformers.
The twist is that you are the 'bouncing bomb' of the title. So controls are simply left, right and un-jump(?).
It plays smoothly, and is presented nicely. The levels are well thought out. There is a continue option, so you can progress, and learn the game without resorting to cheating, albeit with a wimpy score. I found it pretty addictive.
A fine example of modern Spectrum software.
One of the best things released by Tynesoft, would be about the kindest way to describe this 1990 game licensed from the 1984 film. Six years late, not a great start, though parts of the game do look a bit more 84 than 90.
Things start well, with a brave and fairly successful attempt at a colourful digitised loading screen. Then 128k users get a reasonable rendition of the expected Axel-F theme music, while you decide what level to play, or play the game in sequence, a nice touch. The levels are each a different sub-game:
1) The warehouse
Passable side-scrolling shooter, that isn't much fun.
2) Car chase
Somewhere between Roadblasters and ChaseHQ, but nowhere near as good as either. Far too easy.
3) Storm mansion
Amble about, and plug all the security guards in the grounds of the mansion. Some of the graphics are top-down, some side-on, and some oblique. Control and interaction is frustrating. Not great.
4) Inside the mansion
First person view, not badly done, but very repetitive and a bit tedious after 2 minutes.
There is some good, but much bad in this. Some of the graphics, for a 1990 game, don't cut it. It is worth persevering a bit to be rewarded with the comically bad 'level won' screen. I sincerely hope Eddie Murphy has never seen that screenshot. 3/5 is possibly a bit generous, maybe the title music swayed me a bit.
A very nice Spanish arcade adventure from 1990.
The game is beautifully presented. The background details and animation add to a dream like atmosphere. Challenging and absorbing, it hooks you into exploring ever further.
I had quite a bit of fun playing this for a while. You play the sheepdog, and have to herd your flock into their pen, keeping them safe from the river and the wolves.
The game is from 1984, and looks its age, in a good way. The game graphics are very crude, with occasional nasty colour clash. There are some nice touches to the overall presentation, and the simple tiny sprites have real character. Those few pixels really do look like a collie dog.
I was tempted to give this 4/5, I would if the game graphics were a bit tidier, or the choice of key controls wasn't so terrible. Worth checking out for its classic nostalgia appeal, also for the style of gameplay.
The later of the two Spectrum squash games of note. This is a 128k only release from 1991, and is suitably well presented.
It is infuriatingly difficult to start with, until you get a feel for the timing, then it becomes quite playable. Playing against the computer is good, but two player is better.
Overall, this is challenging fun, a high quality game, but a bit simple.
A beautifully presented strategic wargame and epic graphic adventure in one. To say this was ahead of its time in 1984 would be something of an understatement. Fitting this much game into 48k is almost mind boggling.
A little complicated and daunting to begin with, but soon immerses you into the fantasy. One of the all time Spectrum classics.
A sequel to the epic war / strategy / graphic adventure game, Lords of Midnight.
Lords of Midnight is a fantastic game, and Doomdark's Revenge is even bigger and better in most respects. It differs from the original enough to feel like a new game, a new challenge, and avoid making the original game redundant.
The ideal sequel to a real classic, and a classic itself.
A great Boulderdash style game.
All that you might want from a Boulderdash clone, and a few additions. As well as the obligatory soil, boulders and gems, you get fire, bubbles, forcefields, anti-gravity and teleporting to play with. The conveniently passworded levels are well laid out, and become increasingly fiendish as the game progresses.
Graphics are very nicely done, and the audio is notably good for a 48k game.
This is a joy to play, and seen much use on my old Spectrum.
A vertically scrolling shooter, a bit like Zynaps or R-Type turned sideways.
The graphics and presentation are also up to R-Type or Zynaps standard. Xecutor also goes one better, and has a two player option, which really adds to the game.
The one thing that lets it down is the insane difficulty curve, getting past the first level is quite a task. There is not much in the way of a slow start or gentle introduction. Avoiding the alien hoards and getting trapped by the backgrounds, while trying to spot stray bullets amongst the scrolling stars is far from easy. Add the very unforgiving collision detection, and it is difficult to the point where some less skilled (ahem) players may want to resort to a couple of POKEs to progress. Once you get the hang of it, and collect some brutal power-ups, things do get a little bit easier.
The game is not very long, the levels just loop round, and all feature the same 'boss'. This may be a classic case of compensating for lack of content by increasing the difficulty. Understandable though, and forgiveable, for a 48k game that looks so good.
Take control of two superbly animated characters, and solve Boulderdash/Sokoban style puzzles cooperatively.
Levels in the game become progressively more fiendish, new elements of gameplay and beautifully drawn background graphics are thrown in along the way. The game is engaging and atmospheric.
I think this game is worth a look for anyone. If you like these kind of puzzle games, like I do, you should really love this game. This is an easy 5/5 for me.
This is a relatively crude defender/scramble type game, with the setting shamelessly stolen from Starwars.
Not completely terrible, this was just poor for £6 in 1985. It feels more like a compilation game from 1983, which, perversely, is one of the things I like about it.
Impact, 28 Dec 2013 (Rating: 4)
Impact is (yet)a(nother) game of Breakout. Released as a full price game for the Spectrum in 1988, you might expect this to be of outstanding quality, or full of original new features. Sadly, this is not quite so.
It is smooth, slick, and has all the various power-ups that had come to be expected from a game like this by 1988. You can edit your own levels, which is one thing that sets this apart from similar games. It is compulsive and addictive to play, as are most competent Breakout games, but I feel there just wasn't enough new here to make this game stand out.
Worth a play if you like this sort of game. If you are already bored from Arkanoid, Batty, Thro'the Wall, Breakout, etc. you will not find much new here, beyond a bit of fun designing levels.
This game isn't terrible, just a poor to typical early 16k semi-BASIC game. The '3D' in the title is an optimistic description of the graphics, which are probably better described as pseudo first-person.
The aim of the game is to guide your tank back to the road. The direction of the road is unknown, and is figured out using the compass and an indication of the distance to the road. You must drive around minefields and destroy any enemy tanks you encounter along the way. Movement can feel a bit sluggish, with a complete rotation of your tank taking a full minute.
I did play this game through a few times as a child, and it evoked a bit of atmosphere. But, even with the limited competition back in 1983 this had fairly limited appeal.
ATF, 11 Jan 2014 (Rating: 5)
Advanced Tactical Fighter is an impressive war'plane shooter, with some strategy thrown in for good measure.
Some of the nicest wireframe landscapes seen on a Spectrum fly past smoothly as you battle with enemy in the air, land and sea. There is loads more control and depth than your average arcade shooter, but none of the tedium of a simulator. Game-play is fast, involving and rewarding. The presentation and graphics are very good and sound effects on the 128k are great.
This is the game Afterburner wants to be when it grows up.
For what this is; an easy to read, non-trick BASIC type in, this is fantastic. Worth a look for anyone who appreciates such things.
It is a simple platform puzzle game. The little UDG graphics and beeper sounds have immense charm. The levels are well designed and it is genuinely fun and challenging to play for a short while.
I love this, but if you remove the nostalgia and the 'for what it is' factor, it would be unfair to rate it higher than 2/5.
A poor game cashing in on the poor cartoon that cashed in on StarWars. George Lucas sure knows how to milk an idea.
It is a mess of a game. Side scrolling 'action' with icon controls and extremely twee sub-games. I suspect it was aimed at younger players, but I can't see anyone getting much fun out of this.
There is evidence of some slick coding, and an icon that makes C3PO fart on R2D2, this is all that stopped me giving it 1/5.
Push Off is a cute Pengo type game that looks very smooth and polished for a 1983 title. This is great for what it is, and impressive for such an early Spectrum game.
Good for a quick bit of fun, but you may soon tire of pushing blocks around for screen after screen.
The Spectrum conversion of the classic Sega 'burgling' arcade game.
There is a lot, not all, of the original game here. The graphics could be better, but they're adequate and clear, and there is passable audio.
The only real problem is the controls. Bonanza Bros relies on ducking and dashing for cover with split-second timing, and this could be immensely fun in the original game. Having just the one fire button makes things fiddly, as it does with some other Spectrum coin-op conversions. But here, it combines with the general unresponsiveness of the controls to provide extreme frustration.
It is a shame, this game, a missed opportunity. The original is a fantastic coin-op, and ported really well to other platforms, including Sega Master System. The Spectrum version, being a full price 1992 release, could have been a lot better. It can still be fun, though, for a quick two player game. Even if it does consist largely of swearing and laughing in frustration with those damn controls.
OK, yah, I have found the most annoying game in the archive.
A smooth but lame scrolling shooter with a 'really amusing' eighties theme. Funny for the 20 seconds that your first game will last, descending into pure annoyance.
It was only a budget release, but for 1988 this would barely pass as a covertape filler.
One of the classic and definitive platform games from the early days of the Spectrum.
Great fun to play, especially for the time. But objectively, this is extremely simple with terrible colour clash, woeful sounds and fiddly clunky control.
Like Manic Miner, I think many people view this game with huge nostalgia and the associated rose tinted glasses. Was considering a slightly lower score, but feared the lynching.
Slightly worse than I was expecting for a game where you play a piece of Weetabix farming wheat on another planet.
Use your spade to fend off some kind of lazily drawn things, while planting seeds that fall from a spaceship which, confusingly, is named 'harvester'. It could be the premise for a simple little game, but this is just bad all round. It also seems to be bugged/glitchy. Sometimes you can't dig or fill a hole in for no apparent reason. There is allegedly another section to the game, but it appears to be too bugged and painful to play to ever find out.
I may be wrong here, but there seems to be a quite obscene message implied to potential pirates on the loading screen. Given that the game seems to be aimed at young players, and is far below the quality required to draw the attention of any self respecting hacker, it just seems a bit 'off'.
£5.95? Unforgivable.
Elite, 25 Jan 2014 (Rating: 5)
Elite is not entirely 'my kind of game'. The Spectrum version of Elite was inferior to other 8 bit versions, very expensive for the time, and used the nasty lenslock protection system. Despite all this, it is still a great Speccy game.
Once you get the hang of what you are doing, you can immerse yourself by spaceship for days on end in a massive universe, helped by a little imagination and the save-game feature. This is an easy 5/5 for me.
By 1988, Pacman type games were getting a bit old hat, but Pacmania injected some new life into the idea. It is essentially re-vamped Pacman with a '3d' view. The gameplay of the coin-op is captured nicely, and graphics and sound are excellent.
One of the rare multi-platform conversions from the later days of the Spectrum that didn't leave you wishing you had a 16-bit or a few quid to spend in the arcade.
Converting the brilliant 16-bit 'save-em-up' to the Spectrum was quite an achievement.
The game is mostly here, with the progressively challenging levels and cute animation. Obviously there is much missing from the 16-bit versions, like the monochrome landscapes and lack of comical sounds. This is acceptable, and to be expected in a Spectrum conversion. The lack of mouse control, though, sucks a bit of joy from this classic. Levels can feel a bit slow and clunky to play, and the controls can become a challenge.
A shadow of the 16-bit versions, but impressive for a Speccy.
As a game, this is just a very poor Frogger clone. Slow, sluggish, no frills and only a two lane road to play on. As a game, this deserves a rating of 1/5 or maybe 2/5.
But this is much more than just a game to me, and probably many others. This is the first bit of z80 typed into my Speccy that I could actually understand. This is the type-in game featured in the rather good "Spectrum Machine Language for the Absolute Beginner" by legendary Speccy game programmer William Tang.
What this game represents balances out its intrinsic crapness.
W*H*B, 29 Jun 2014 (Rating: 5)
Another 'modern', well conceived, well presented and technically impressive game by Bob Smith, with contributions from others 'in the scene'.
This is the kind of puzzle game that I am quite fond of. Roll your block around isometric levels to reach the exit. It starts simple, and introduces extra obstacles, features and difficulty as you progress.
A great game that I have spent a fair few hours playing.
The cartoon licensed coin-op conversion for the Spectrum.
Presentation here is very nice, with good graphics, and an impressive recreation of the music on the menu screen.
The game is proficiently coded and animation is smooth. The letterbox view makes the action feel a little claustrophobic and frustrating compared to the arcade original, but there is still some fun to be had. Sprite graphics and backgrounds are both good, but not when they clash. Still, it comes together well enough to capture some of the cuteness of the arcade and Looney Tunes branding.
Enjoyed playing this a bit as a kid, and just enjoyed a quick game of it now. But now, as back then, I'm finding no compulsion to carry on after a few goes.
The Speccy port of this classic flight simulator starts promisingly, with simple but effective border effects used on the menu screens. The actual game is somewhat less simple and effective.
The bulk of the 16 bit game is here, with the emphasis on simulation. Its a technical marvel, but maybe a step too far for the humble 48k. Much of what made these games so appealing on 16 bit machines is missing on the Speccy. No cinematic graphics or option to link two machines for head to head combat.
Worth a play if you like this kind of game, but there is better on the Speccy.
Fly out with your squadron to bomb your target, fighting off the enemy along the way.
There is enough here to make a great game, and it certainly looks the part. It just doesn't come together to make a fun game. The graphics, while looking brilliant initially and on static screenshots, become too jerky, and control gets a bit vague when the action gets busy.
After a few games, and successfully bombing the target I just felt the urge to play something with more substance.
UGH!, 17 Aug 2014 (Rating: 3)
Go grab some pterodactyl eggs, while watching out for the camp dinosaurs, not least the aggrieved Pterry the pterodactyl trying to crap on you (drop 'hunks of rock' according to the instructions - hmm). Still, you have a spear - unless you use it, or drop it to pick an egg up. In which case, it is best to scurry back home for another spear.
The graphics are beautifully drawn and animated, if slightly flickery. The controls are something between horribly infuriating and 'need to be learnt'. Sound is good, and once you master those controls it is engaging and entertaining to play for a short while.
What I love about this game is that its so recognisably 1984 and Spectrum. It provokes nostalgia, even though I only discovered it recently. Extra credit for the 12 bar music on the title screen and border effects during gameplay.
Possibly the best '3D space shooter' on the Spectrum. More depth and control than Starwars, better graphics than Elite and more fun than Starstrike. On the 128k version there is better sound than almost any Speccy game.
The emphasis is on arcade action and shooting, but there is enough depth, variety and back-story in this to keep you busy for a while.
The sequel to one of my favourite Speccy games, which can so often be a formula for disappointment. This, however, was a pleasant surprise.
It retains the great look, sound and feel of the original, but is a different game entirely. Starglider was quite a pure 3D space shooter. This is a bit more of an adventure, with exploration and trading to meet your final objective.
So, is it better than Starglider? I think I prefer the original which hooked me instantly, but suspect I may not have played enough of Starglider 2 to fully 'get into it' yet. I reckon others may prefer this to the original.
As with the original Starglider, the 128k version is better than the 48k game, and the 48k version is still impressive. An easy 5 for me.
Really worth a play if you like good old (very) simple arcade games. This has a look and feel that gives me a warm and fuzzy nostalgic feeling.
There is one frustration: Some of the screen designs require you to learn where to exit a screen if you want to avoid an annoying death loop. Overall, the game is good enough to shoulder this unfairness and still be a joy to play.
I'm now considering how much effort it might be to hack the level data and remove the flaws from this gem.
Chaos, 07 Dec 2014 (Rating: 4)
A multi-player turn-based strategy game that is considered a classic on the Spectrum.
The game is a simple card and dice style game, as you might expect from Games Workshop, where wizards battle armed with randomly distributed spells. The action all takes place on one screen and the graphics are relatively primitive. It does have real Speccy style and charm though. The option of choosing many multiple players or computer opponents allows for interesting variations on the game.
It is a good game for what it is, and I can see why so many people really love it. Personally, I find it a bit too simple and random to be a 5/5 game.
Considering some of the other racing titles available when this big movie tie-in was released, this looks a little embarrassing.
The pseudo 3D view nearly works well, and I can find myself 'getting into' this for a few minutes at a time. It has a very primitive feel about it though. Rough graphics, gameplay that feels reminiscent of game'n'watch, and any feeling of speed is reduced whenever the perspective error of the cheap scenery scrolling catches your eye.
£10 for this in 1990? A terrible movie cash-in, in both senses.
Rarely are crabs this much fun.
A simple but great early 16k arcade shooter.
Got this with the Spectrum, in 82 or 83. A solid invaders clone, good fun and a huge dose of nostalgia for me.
Great game, well presented. Much fun to be had in single player mode, where it is easy to get into, but there is much subtle skill and timing to learn to progress. A cracking two player game, too.
A BASIC type-in from the early days of the Speccy. A very simple language processor, along the lines of Eliza. It will attempt to hold a text conversation with you. It is extremely simple, and intrinsically crap - but I do have a bit of love for this.
As with all of these things, you get the occasional serendipitous spooky moment, or unintentionally hilarious responses from the computer - if you're prepared to plough through a lot of boring, predictable and nonsensical replies.
Reasons I didn't score this 1 or 2 out of 5:
1/ Nostalgia. This sparked my imagination as a child.
2/ As with a lot of type-ins, much fun was had adapting/customising the listing - and a lot was learnt by doing so. This listing was begging to be tinkered with.
Fool, 01 Apr 2020 (Rating: 2)
Unremarkable card game.
Robber, 06 Jun 2020 (Rating: 3)
Love this for what it is, a phenotypical early Spectrum game with heart and imagination.
Character-square your flickery UDG character around the screen, avoiding nasties, on your three screen quest to rob stuff.
It has BASIC charms, which makes it hugely endearing and nostalgic, but also makes it too crap for a score above 3/5.
Great little game. Kind of educational, but fun, and full of early Speccy charm - in the same way as "Micromouse Goes Debugging".
Nothing complicated or too fancy. Just a well executed little platform game involving some simple arithmetic, with it's own quirky gameplay and details, all done with gentle humour.
RPG with turn based combat and a quest.
About as good as it got on the Speccy for this sort of thing, along with Bloodwych, maybe.
Just enough to immerse the player and allow filling the gaps with imagination.
No sound - but probably for the best, allowing the player to provide their own soundtrack, and avoid any jarring bleeps or bloops destroying the atmosphere.
A "Bouncing Ball" platform game, done really well.
Graphics are simple, but extremely smooth - which allows for some fast and fluid gameplay. The controls work really well, and level design is pretty good.
My kind of game, and bonus points for the demo scene vibe.
Just discovered this, and love it.
Fully my kind of game. A good puzzler, well presented, that is in no way compromised by the 8-bit platform.
It is an isometric Sokoban-ish game, with some elements of chess and a few bells and whistles. Great level design, with the earlier levels acting as tutorials, introducing new elements to the game, one by one - easing you in and guiding you towards more fiendish challenges.
Possibly not everyone's cup of tea, but if you like puzzle games and chess - there is a good chance you will love this. Nice to see such originality and effort put in to a "modern" Speccy title.
A BASIC type in game - intrinsically terrible, but with real charm. This should get a one, really, objectively, and in view of a little throwaway casual racism/stereotyping in the instruction screen - which feels a little uncomfortable looking back from 2020.
But in context, back then, for what it is - I'd have been relatively happy typing this in as a kid.
Just discovered this one.
I like that it incorporates different mini games. I totally love the beeper music and sound from Tim Follin.
So, I wanted to love this game - and it is graphically smooth and competently coded - but each "event" is a relatively poor / simple offering, and there isn't much to make the overall game greater than the sum of its parts.
Worth checking out for some very impressive beeper music, if you like that sort of thing, and enough game to amuse for fifteen minutes.
Very basic, crude and simple - but great in the context of a type-in game. A little bit of fun and BASIC nostalgia for five minutes.
Nostalgic for me - one of the early games we had on the old Speccy.
Classic "3d maze", written mainly in BASIC, it captures the essence of those times.
Looks basic but neat, and is fast enough to not be frustrating, unlike some examples of this genre - but certainly not as fast and slick as other examples.
Good execution, especially for the time, but very little substance.
Just discovered this one from a review on here, and lost myself playing it for a couple of hours.
A Spanish PC "isometric" motorbike game, bravely converted to the Speccy. Control is tricky but fair. Beginners are aided, and more proficient players challenged, with a choice of difficulty settings. It takes a bit of time in practice mode to master the bike and circuits, which is worth doing - as crashing during competitions can be a punishing and tedious experience.
As with most racing games, it probably hasn't aged well - there are better gaming choices more suited to the genre these days. But I reckon I would have spent some serious time with this, if I had access to it back in the day. It certainly looks good compared to some of the competition.
It is an ambitious game to release on the Speccy - and they get away with it. They didn't "nail it" though - the slick look and large graphics come at the expense of frame-rate. I do love the depth, look and technical challenge of this game - and would consider scoring it a 5, given its age and contemporaries - if it ran smoother. Ultimately, frame-rate is king in racing games, and this falls short in that department. A good game nonetheless.
This was a pretty game on 16-bit computers when it came out, and the Speccy got a worthy version.
Adventure, platforming, action and atmosphere, and lots of it. Animation and graphics are spot on, and the game-play is tough but fair.
This was written by the same guys that did Rex for the Speccy, and it shows. The presentation is very similar, that is no bad thing.
A real epic in terms of Spectrum games. Late to the party, but a classic.
Platform / arcade adventure done really well. Top notch graphics, animation, audio, story and atmosphere - with plenty of gruesome beasties to slash away at with your mighty weapons.
Would recommend.
Very similar to it's predecessor, Gauntlet. Which is nice, because it is great.
Early simple 16k game. A £4.95 commercial offering, but the quality is BASIC type-in standard. Move your ship left and right, drop depth charges at the submarines, and avoid their missiles.
Plenty of depth charges, very little depth to the gameplay. Seen it, played it, not overly inspired to try again.
Ace little puzzle / platform game. Collect the key, and get to the exit - but what distinguishes this from similar platform games - is that you have to rearrange the levels like a sliding puzzle.
Just my kind of game, and well suited to the Speccy. I would have given a rating of 5, but the graphics and sound - although very cute, stylistic and nostalgic, are ultimately a bit basic.
Cool idea and brave attempt at a first person vector ski game - in the earlier days of the Spectrum. Pete Cooke always doing something interesting.
Even has a course editor built in. In many ways great - but inevitably too slow.
Towdie, 30 Dec 2020 (Rating: 4)
Graphically beautiful platform adventure game with some clever touches. A Slovakian game from the twilight years of the Speccy.
Some of the Collins Educational titles were pretty good - this one isn't. Even for the time, and taking it for what it is - this is still lame.
The kind of gentle puzzle game I love. Nicely presented using the Nirvana multicolour engine, decent AY music and playing to the strengths of the Speccy. Some good introductory levels to teach you the basics, while admiring the pretty graphics - before drawing you into some more engaging levels.
A lot of good work has clearly gone into this. The creators have done a great job of bringing Castlevania to the Spectrum.
I appreciate the attention to detail, dedication and polish - I'm just not a fan of Castlevania - huge games that are very repetitive to play.
The graphics are beautiful - but as with many games in this style, I find the background colour clash with the player sprite sometimes makes it difficult to stay immersed without eyestrain.
Brilliantly done little platform puzzle game with a twist (controlling two characters simultaneously).
It is very easy on the eyes and ears, with good modern multicolour graphics and AY sound. The difficulty curve is about right. Level design becomes increasingly challenging without getting unfair.
A "modern" platform / painter game. Well executed with some great touches and features - but also a few rough edges.
I love these kind of games, and it is very nicely done. A little bit shallow/simple for a 5 rating though.
An early swordfighting game for the Speccy.
There appears to be more effort put into the presentation of this than many games from '83, with big bold graphics and some fancy fades and effects.
The problem is that the game plays like a limp vegetable. There is little feeling of excitement or action - mainly just confusion, frustration and boredom. Swordfighting feels equally futile in two player mode or against the computer.
Maybe there is a "knack" to this, that I have failed to grasp - but I suspect that it is just a bit of a turkey.
Another near perfect arcade conversion (emulation) - this time of Taito's classic coin-op.
If you like the original Space Invaders - then there isn't much not to like here.
Pity people didn't have the tools to do early arcade conversions like this back in the day.
Nifty fun crosshair-shooter type game - with the graphics done, excellently, in "low res" attribute squares.
An almost unique looking Speccy game, in a good way, and fun to play.
An "updated" Space Invaders.
The best improvement is the simultaneous two player mode.
The addition of background graphics wasn't much of a bonus on other versions of SSI - but it is actually a bit of a problem on the Speccy one. Trying to keep an eye on enemy fire as it falls through dithered backdrops of the same colours is not fun.
There are interesting alien formations and movement patterns, "shields" and various power-ups, but there are no bases or scenery to hide behind, which was a defining feature of the original Space Invaders.
Super Space Invaders feels like a cash-in on the old licence, and the Speccy conversion falls a bit short.
A strange, and very British, role-playing text adventure.
Progress is measured in PP (Pint Points) - which, bizarrely, you are asked to keep track of yourself. On one hand, this appears to be some kind of unforgivable travesty of game design - but it actually adds to the intrigue, and is mildly reminiscent of old Dungeons and Dragons games and Fighting Fantasy Books, in a nostalgic way.
Nothing of lasting appeal, very basic, but a bit of a laugh to read / play through a couple of times.
One of the pubs featured in this game was my old regular in Birmingham, which raised a smile. I suspect some of the humour may be lost on those not versed in British drinking culture.
Like the Speccy classic; Robocop, with no music, but in colour.
A great "modern" game, good to play and really well presented.
A not-very-good 1983 arcade space shooter thing.
Primitive, repetitive, with terrible control keys. It could be worse, given the age of the game - but it could be a lot better.
A weird, asteroids-esque arcade game from 1983.
Primitive and quirky, with a little charm. Drop gas clouds to destroy anti-matter things, hindered by a hideous choice of control keys - until you get bored. Which won't take long.
A quirky arcade avoid-em-up chimney sweep game.
It has some charm, it is certainly a bit different, and it is very easy to get straight into.
Too simple though, a bit annoying, and the sprites flicker in a fairly off-putting way. Worth a glance - but not worth much more than ten minutes.
A dire Space Invaders clone.
Screen updates are a bit slow, and everything is a bit unresponsive - but the real problem is that it doesn't really work as a game.
It is impossible to die, if you stay still and repeatedly press fire.
The game has a novel "shield" feature - which is a waste of time, as just pressing fire is enough to make yourself invulnerable.
Cute, but worthless.
An early game, with big bold graphics for the time.
The controls aren't very responsive. Gameplay is shallow, with a series of simple levels - the same ballpark as the lame, filler levels in "Horace and the Spiders".
The appeal lies in the cute, cartoon style graphics - it gives the impression of being aimed at young children. But the premise of the action is actually quite gruesome and violent.
Very much a product of its era. It hasn't aged well, but has a certain nostalgic appeal.
Classic early "3D Maze" game, with an awkward twist.
Collect gold bars - which are, for some unexplained reason, becoming devalued while you play. Find the exit, and the value of your gold is your score.
The graphics are solid, and drawn impressively quickly for a 1982, mostly BASIC game - until you ask it to draw an overview/map. Then you can brew yourself a nice cuppa while you wait for it to spew a few letters onto the screen.
A terrible game, but a lovely nostalgic example from the early Speccy days.
An early budget game which has aged quite badly. But I did enjoy playing this at the time.
It is crude. Just "racing" your tiny flickery stick-BMX up one straight road, whilst avoiding obstacles. But this is what you got for £1.99 in 1984, and it has some great humorous touches.
Great 'modern' Berzerk clone / ripoff - done in the true spirit of Horace games.
Nicely presented, with smooth satisfying gameplay and decent sound effects.
A text adventure based on classical mythology - and it isn't too good.
I like it's uniqueness - it is always refreshing to find text adventures that aren't derived from one of the big four game engines. But re-inventing the wheel often ends up with disappointing results.
On the plus side, it has graphics for all locations, and seems to have graphics and sound(!) for all objects - but they aren't the best quality.
There are a few annoyances with the parser, which seems to shun many conventions, and accepts only full words for some commands, and only abbreviations of others. May main problem with it, though, is the tricky/unfair gameplay. Death is a constant threat, and it seems to be possible to get stuck in some locations - with Q for Quit being the only escape.
Not the worst text adventure I've attempted to play, and it has some great touches, but it is too frustrating.
A very crude, in any sense of the word, text adventure written in BASIC.
Fair enough, it appears to have been written as a joke / for comedy value - but here lies the big problem with it. It was presumably written by young lads, and during far less PC times.
Juvenile, racist, homophobic and offensive. There isn't much in the game that doesn't make me want to cringe or wince.
I have a pretty puerile / childish sense of humour, but this didn't come close raising a smile.
Early text-only adventure. One of the many variations on the "Colossal Cave Adventure". Quick responses, clear evocative descriptions and a parser that isn't too annoying make this better than most adventure games of the same era.
Z-Man, 20 Jun 2021 (Rating: 4)
A pretty good early Pacman clone.
No attempt is made to disguise its origins. Coloured ghosts, pills and our familiar yellow hero. With cheekily blatant use of the coin-op music and sound effects to boot.
All said though, it is one of the better Pacman games on the old Speccy. Sane key controls and fun smooth gameplay set this apart from many other Pacman derivatives of the era.
Early, partly BASIC, 16k Pacman clone. It is significantly better than the previous sentence might lead you to anticipate.
Graphics are neat, if a little small (character square based). It has smooth, responsive gameplay, adequate sound and most things you'd expect from a decent Pacman ripoff. The behaviour of the ghosts is slightly questionable at times, but the game still functions decently.
Far from the best, and far from the worst.
This game was written in tribute to the great Sir Clive Sinclair, and I write this review on the sad day of his death.
Like Clive, this game is full of character and unique.
It plays well, tells a story and has enough about it to hook you in. In many ways it is similar to many other games of the time (Manic Miner ripoffs), but it goes about it in a slightly different way, as you guide Clive's disembodied head through the levels to receive your knighthood.
Unlike Clive, this game will never change the world, but it is a lovely little dose of nostalgia.
Drive Sir Clive, in his C5, across a series of flip screens, avoiding and jumping (?!) various static and moving obstacles.
Sprites are flickery, gameplay is primitive and graphics are simple. Somehow though, it manages to hang together as a game and keeps reeling you in for another go. It has a bit of humour and character too, but not quite enough to make up for the general crappiness.
There were certainly worse £1.99 budget games out there.
The sequel to "C5 Clive", and basically just a new set of simialar quality levels for the original game, with a slightly different theme.
Same crappiness, same redeeming features. So, in keeping with the authors tactics, here is a cut and paste job from my review of that:
Drive Sir Clive, in his C5, across a series of flip screens, avoiding and jumping (?!) various static and moving obstacles.
Sprites are flickery, gameplay is primitive and graphics are simple. Somehow though, it manages to hang together as a game and keeps reeling you in for another go. It has a bit of humour and character too, but not quite enough to make up for the general crappiness.
There were certainly worse £1.99 budget games out there.
Speccy version of the classic top-down eight way scrolling coin-op space shooter.
A lot is missing from the original, and you could argue that a lot could have been done better. But the most important thing; fun, remains. Graphics are clear, and audio (on the 128k version) is pretty good. It was a £1.99 budget release, so a bargain, and still good for a quick blast these days.
A great conversion of the cutesy coin-op platformer, from the twilight commercial years of the Spectrum.
The original has been recreated well for the old Speccy. Graphics are smooth, and control is quick and responsive.
Just good lighthearted fun to play, especially with two players.
Only criticism is that a bit of colour wouldn't have gone amiss, especially given the cartoon eye-candy of the original. But with gameplay like this such details can be forgiven.
Basically a game of Othello/Reversi - but with great presentation, a story line of sorts, and very good quality "AI" when playing the computer as an opponent.
Graphics (multicolour) and music (128k only) are better than you would hope for on a game of this type. There are two versions of this game. As far as I can tell, the only/main difference is that one is more busily animated to show off the graphics, and the other remains mostly static during gameplay to make it easier on the eyes.
Yes, it is essentially just a board game, but I have a soft spot for little puzzle and turn based games on the Speccy when done this well. Might not be for everyone, but if you like non-arcade games you could well love this one.
Top down, four player, three key BMX racer.
A good laugh, mainly as a multiplayer game, but plays well with computer opponents too. A couple of minor niggles, like how your bike can end up facing totally the wrong way after a crash (and the graphics don't make it so easy to tell when this happens), but I'm happy to forgive these as just quirks of the game. Classic Codemasters style. Simple, smooth and fun to play.
Lorna, 20 Oct 2022 (Rating: 4)
This is a Spanish game from 1990, so I knew nothing of it until much later on in the days of emulation.
It is a notable game in a few respects. The primary hook is the graphical depiction of the title character. Lorna, it would appear, is something of a 'hottie'. It is an ambitious feat of a game, featuring bold colourful graphics, parallax scrolling and pseudo 3D effects. In many ways it succeeds.
It seems to be heavily inspired by games like Savage, with the same scrolly jumpy fighty gameplay and even the weird flying-into-the-screen levels included. Pretty much; "like Savage, but with even better graphics", "YEAH", "and boobs", "YEEHAAAA", "arse?", "HELL YEAH".
Is it fun and addictive? Meh, though I suspect my 1990 self may have had more enjoyment from it.
