Reviews

Wow! What a fantastic game this was.

You're mission was to guide Miner Willy through 20 Caverns collecting long lost treasure guarded by the cavern's robots!

This game has everything. Top gameplay, playability, complete addictiveness and lovely colourful graphics. Even to this day (and by coincidence right now!) I have a Manic Miner/Jet Set Willy top on which I got of Ebay!

I spent hours and hours playing this when I was younger and did manage to complete it without cheating a few times!

The idea of the game basically is to collect the flashing treasure (eg. keys) and once you have all the objects in the cavern to collect, the exit will flash. There is an air supply in each cavern and each level was and still is a joy to play.

An absolute classic. If you've never played it, download it or buy a Spectrum of Ebay and buy it! It's a real retro classic.

Thanks to Matthew Smith the creator for making my days in the 80's so fantastic with this game!

This has to be the most original game ever!

The idea of the game was to run around the school (or should that be skool?!) and retrieving your school report before your parents read it!

The way you did this was by attending lessons and through out the day catapulting shields, kids etc. and getting the combination to the safe before you got 10000 lines (which would result in expulsion).

Fast, addictive and very amusing to punch the boffin, Einstein who knew the answer to every question the teachers asked.

The game is a side push-scroller with four teachers (one a headmaster, Mr. Wacker), four larger kids (one of them is you, the main player called Eric) and the others are smaller kids who just run around and attend lessons.

A real winner this game.

One of the best beat 'em up games on the Spectrum (in 128K mode even better with the throw, extra level and fantastic game music).

The idea of the game is to rescue your girlfriend who has been kidnapped by the evil boss.

Get through 5 levels (including bikers, prostitues and thugs) to meet the big boss with a gun.

A side-scroller game which was far better in 128K mode but almost just as playable in 48K mode. The throw being the difference.

There was one bug on level 2 where throwing the baddies of the screen caused the game to crash but apart from that pretty flawless and much better than the unplayable arcade version. Yes, the Spectrum game was far better than the original!

A great game if you love beat'em up games.

Penetrator was one of the first games I ever played on the ZX Spectrum.

The game was a smooth scrolling Scramble type game scrolling from right to left.

The game had you has a cyan spaceship which could fire missiles and drop bombs at targets on a jagged terrain.

The aliens were basically missiles, radars and a funny looking face type space-craft in the later levels. From memory I think there were four levels with a training mode and a design your own level mode.

The more radars on the screen made the aliens missiles more accurate and the game was fast paced and very playable.

The game didn't have joystick compability with the Kempston joystick until Kempston bought out a tape which converted it to work. I remember the keys were odd to play the game but once you got used to them it worked ok!

Worth playing even today!

A great platform game like Manic Miner but with more screens. The storyline was that with the treasure Miner Willy made from Manic Miner he purchased a mansion. He threw a party and his housemaid Maria, refused to tidy up so he had to collect the trash around the mansion before he could go to bed.

The game involved jumping over platforms, avoiding aliens and sliding up and down ropes.

Very addictive although the game did suffer from what was known as The Attic Bug which stopped anyone completing the game without a "poke" I believe.

Played it for many hours but slightly preferred Manic Miner. Would still rate it 5 out of 5 though.

A fast placed platform game where the main character collected eggs whilst avoiding the birds.

The graphics were a bit flickery at times but the game was very addictive and fun to play.

The game got even better on the later levels when the bird came out the cage flying after the main character.

Moving platforms too which made the levels more entertaining.

This game at the time was good but nowadays has aged considerably!

It was a side scrolling football game which was ok. I remember having fun playing it but wouldn't recommend it these days. It was far too slow to be honest.

Exolon was a shoot'em up game with push-level screens. Once you reached the other side of the screen it went onto the next screen.

The game was very colourful and the graphics for the Spectrum were fantastic. The gameplay however was a bit slow.

You could fire bullets or hold down the fire button to fire a larger rocket which blew up bigger objects.

Fairly addictive. A good game overall.

This has to rate as one of my top 10 on the Speccy.

A vertical shoot'em based on the coin-op Commando.

The playability was excellent, the graphics were good and the nine levels were challenging.

Avoid the soldiers in ditchs, tanks, huts and cannon balls and fight the bases at the end of each level.

Rapid fire and amazing that the managed to fit it all into a 48K machine when you look back at it.

Really good and worth a play.

A game where you played a wizard competing to kill the other evil wizard.

The game involved walking around colourful screens and picking up different plant type ingredients to make different spells. If you got a few combinations, when the other wizard appeared on the screen you could cast your spell and try and kill the other wizard.

The game was quick, easy to play and fantastic value for money. Well worth a play.

A very complex adventure game where you had to be very accurate with what you typed in.

This was a text only adventure game but the storyline was good. Not one of my favourites but to be honest I wasn't really an adventure game player.

A good karate game which had many moves and kept my friends and I entertained for hours.

Nice colourful screens and neat graphics too but the game was just too slow to be really good.

Very good for it's time though and was a bit of a ground breaker at the time.

This game was slow, dull and boring.

Addictive game where you play a ball trying to push objects of a board without falling down holes.

The gravity effects were good, the game was very playable and the 128K music was good too.

The game was quite fast and you could get a jump option too which meant you could jump over the aliens.

A very good game.

A good platform game where you used springs and poles to slide up and down to get around the screen. The idea of the game was to collect the bones of Frank N Stein around the screen and throw the switch to make him alive to progress to the next level.

The game was colourful and had some good puzzles. One of my all time favourites from the Spectrum era.

An action packed game involving smashing the joystick left and right to run faster over the screens.

The fire button allowed you to jump over walls and shoot targets etc.

A fast paced action scrolling shoot em' up game where you could run, shoot and somersault your way over obstacles. Very good.

An excellent coversion of the coin-op game where you shot your way through the scrolling levels.

You could pick up flamethrowers, bazookas etc and jump, stab and avoid bullets, mines and mortars.

A very good game overall.

A fairly good shoot em' up like Commando but not as good. The main difference to Commando being the levels also went left and right and up and down.

Excellent loading screen when you consider the Spectrum's limitations.

A sideway person shooter game where the main character jumps up and down levels to avoid the bad guys.

There are doors on the way where you can reload ammunition and get rockets and stairs and tyres to jump on or over.

Good game based on the Arcade game of the same name.

A very colourful shoot em'up which is as close to the arcade version as you could wish for.

Very highly recommended and fun too.