ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - V - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2012-01-20T10:47:00.001Z

V ZX Spectrum
Ahh V.

One of my favourite TV shows from the 80s. It had the awesome and spooky intro music, it had Mike Donovan in his scarily tight faded denims, it had Ham Tyler being the utlimate badass and above all it had Diana; the sexy alien leader who warped peoples minds in the conversion chamber whilst simultaneously turning on teenage lads up and down the land.

When I found out my favourite show was being made into a computer game I was as excited as Jeff Minter on a Llama farm - and with Ocean Software at the helm it should turn out to be great.

The alien invasion show was classic material and the basis for a classic arcade game. Or was it?

Lets hammer punch those lizards back off the planet - nice loading screen

You played the part of Mike Donovan - resistance leader and all round good guy. The game took place on board one of the visitors motherships, with you attempting to sabotage it by planting bombs in various key locations.

In true arcade game style though there were some security precautions to prevent intruders like yourself from getting far. In particular (and this is where the game fell down straight away), four kinds of robots were roaming around the ship:
1) Surveillance - follows you and enables the Visitors to track you

2) Maintenance - fairly harmless; fixes things aboard the ship

3) Cleaner - airborne janitor robots, in effect

4) Security - should be avoided like the plague; fast and dangerous

We did not want robots chasing us! We wanted the alien lizards! This was V - not invasion of the robot monsters....

All the robots were electrified to prevent interference. Contact with them will gave you a nasty shock - and receiving too many shocks resulted in game over.

Mike Donovan explores never ending corridors in V

As usual for computer games from this era it was all about exploration, opening locked doors with codes and using teleporters (teleporters in V?) to move around the ship.

The problem here was that it just want't V. The ship was never ending (and remarkably dull) corridors that looked identical - I remember being excited running past a hanger with one of the fighter ships in it which was the only thing that resembled anything from the TV show.

With no aliens to fight, a lazer gun to only shoot at robots, no conversion chamber to avoid and no sign of Diana the game became repetitive and duller than a dull thing that's been covered in black matt paint and dropped in the bottom of a well.

Crash Magazine asked 'Where are the Visitors?' and gave it 70% overall - which I thought was a tad generous.

On Release:

This is a classic game that was hyped up a lot prior to it's release. The TV show had been an absolute sensation - and a game tie-in was inevitable. The general feeling was that it was a decent game that could have been any old arcade adventure; it was as if the TV tie-in was an afterthought.

Which it probably was to make money.

The Test Of Time:

It was a pretty average arcade game back then so by todays standards it has aged badly. With repetitive and endless corridors and little in the way of arcade action I can't really recommend it. Nice animation on the main character though.


We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download V. Alternatively you could try and play it online.






GENRE: Arcade Game (TV Tie In)

RELEASE DATE: 1986

RELEASED BY: Ocean Software

DEVELOPER(S): Nick Bruty, Gary Knight, F David Thorpe

PRICE: £7.95 - UK




So so arcade action:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - WHB - Modern ZX Spectrum Game

2011-12-06T08:32:00.002Z

W*H*B
So what's this game all about then?
This is a superb puzzle game from modern day coder of the ZX Spectrum (and ZX81) Bob Smith - who has developed a number of great computer games over recent years.

If you enjoy classic games such as Tetris, Pipemania or even Downfall then you will definately enjoy this, it really is one of the most enjoyable and well though out puzzle games I have ever played on any platform.

So let's take a look at a fantastic recent game for the greatest ever 8-bit machine...

W*H*B Loads Up...

This is a game where you have to control a 1x2 'block' cuboid around on a set of grid levels, with the objective being get it to stand 'upright' on the marked floor panel.

Throughout the game there are special objects to make matters a little more interesting. There are teleporting blocks which teleport you to a different location and crumbling blocks which disappear once you have 'stood' on them. Sneaky!

The graphics are top notch being very nicely drawn and superbly animated. Your 'block' rolls and moves around the screen extremely smoothly and the isometric viewpoint is absolutely spot on. For me this is the type of computer game that lends itself to this style of screen rendering perfectly.

This game also features some nicely composed music on load up, and a funky little ditty at the beginning of each level. The controls are completely redefineable too which all adds to the overall package.

The game starts of nice and easy as I try to get used to the controls...

Once I reach level three it becomes more fiendish!

All that I can say that this game is a brilliant example of a modern classic game for a retro computer. It is highly polished and superbly implemented; a real clever piece of coding.

With music from Mister Beep and level design from the games coder Bob Smith plus Kev Thacker, Jumping Stack, Karl Gillott, Mulder anbd Znorxman this is a real winner.

Once of my favourite puzzle games of all time. Brilliant.

Arcade Games, Classic Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Frank N Stein (Rebooted) - Modern Retro Classic

2011-09-09T13:05:00.003+01:00

Frank N Stein (Rebooted) ZX Spectrum
The reboot of the classic game from 1984 Frank N Stein is here!

The game's author Colin Stewart was kind enough to give me a sneak preview copy (see preview note here and an interview with Colin here) so here we are with a look at the game itself, twenty seven years after the original was released by PSS Software.

This is a classic game in the platform genre, and even back in 1984 it was a little different from the likes of Manic Miner, Fahreneit 3000 and Jet Set Willy.

So let's take a look at a modern re-boot of an already great game...

Frank N Stein Re-Booted is a real treat for us Speccy gamers

The title was different from other arcade game platformers of the era due to the gameplay mechanics and the objective. Instead of the usual left, right and jump controls, in this game you had left, right and 'use' (and 'jump' is available on certain screens).

It was up to you how best to use the various items around the screen to navigate your way around.

The object of the game (playing as Prof. Stein) is to fulfill a life-long ambition and build your own monster.

To do this you need to collect all the necessary body parts! A skull, arms, legs, a rib-cage.... you get the idea.

Guiding our little egg-head professor around the dungeon picking up the bones to assemble the monster like an air-fix kit is great fun, not to mention challenging.

You have to collect the parts in the correct order and each one collected appears in the electrode 'cage' at the top of the screen as the monster is built up.

Collect the body parts on level 1

Once all the parts are collected then you can throw the switch to power up those electrodes and give him life! Muhahaha haaaaa

At this point it is advisable to run around the room proclaiming yourself to be a new god and life giver as maniacally as possible.

Once you have calmed yourself down it is onto the next screen.

The format changes on the second screen - as your own home made monster turns against you as he starts rolling barrells down the screen towards you (the cheeky bugger). But here is the neat twist; now you can jump whenever you want as well as use on screen items.

You have to make your way to the top of the screen and throw the switch whilst avoiding the nasties and pitfalls along the way. Throw the switch and you've beaten your monster and it is on to the next screen.

I gave you life and now you try to kill me! These monsters don't appreciated anything you do for them...

The other neat aspects of this game are the objects dotted around the screen. There are springs to launch you upwards, fireman poles to slide down, light bulbs to electrocute you (you do not lose a life but are hampered for a couple of seconds), slime to slow you down, ice to make you slip (and prevent you from jumping) and any manner of weird critters to avoid at all costs.

In keeping with the horror theme you will come across:
snails, bats, man-eating pumpkins, spiders, caterpillars, tanks, mice, lobsters, snakes, bumble bees,
jack-in-the-box and more....

It is the use of springs and poles to get around the screen along with timing your jumps and slides (to avoid the creatuers) that make the game stand out. Careful planning is required to collect the parts and create the monster before the time clock ebbs away.

With now over fifty screens to play through this is a computer game that will keep me going for the next few weeks. I have only seen a few screens so far (I'm not as good as I used to be!) but the level layout is very well done and the alternating game styles mixes the action up nicely.

The sprites are nicely animated and move around the screen smoothly. All I can say is that this is a great re-boot of a classic game and I for one am looking forward to Colin's next game, Dracula.

Level One - Collect the parts and throw the switch!:

Level 2 - Note the shift in gameplay:

Level 3 - Note how much I am struggling!

If you like classic arcade action then give this game a go, you will not be disappointed. It will be available to play on the 14th of September, precisely twenty seven years since it's first incarnation.

*UPDATE*
This game can now be downloaded for your Spectrum Emulator from:

Colin's own link
http://www.colinstewart.co.uk/page/frank-n-stein-re-booted

World Of Spectrum link
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0026834

Enjoy!
Dim the lights, don a lab coat and prepare to make your own monster...

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Frank N Stein and Dracula Update - Colin Stewart

2011-09-03T00:20:00.002+01:00

Update on programming progress from Colin Stewart.

After speaking to me a couple of months ago and providing an interview (here) - ZX Spectrum developer Colin Stewart has been kind enough to give me an update on the progress of his arcade games Dracula and Frank N Stein re-booted

Frank N Stein re-booted is a re-write of the classic game (from 1984) and will feature extra levels, improvements that could not be squeezed into the original release and various other enhanced features. Look out for this game in the next couple of weeks!

In the meantime here is a nice pic for you all...

The re-boot of the classic platform game looms ever nearer...

Keeping in the gaming horror genre, Colin's other title Dracula (which was originally planned for publishing back in 1984 but never quite made it to release) is coming along nicely too.

It is great that this game is going to see the light of day (even though Dracula would hate that!) all these years later.

I can't wait to get my teeth into this one. Ahem....

Get your teeth into this game soon...

Hopefully we should see this game on our Spectrum emulators in six weeks or so.

Coders like Colin really prove that the retro gaming scene is very much alive and kicking - and many thanks go to him for the update and I can't wait to see these games!

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Programmer Interview - Colin Stewart

2011-07-01T14:57:00.001+01:00

Colin Stewart
Colin Stewart worked on the ZX Spectrum back in the 1980's creating the platform game / arcade adventure Castle Quest before going on to create the playable and quirky platformer Frank N Stein.

Colin's follow up game to Frank N Stein was to be called Dracula but unfortunatley it was only partially completed and the project was shelved...

Now, all of these years later Colin is working to complete Dracula (which should excite us Spectrum gamers!) and was kind enough to reminisce with us about his days making those classic games for the good old Speccy...

Frank N Stein was a deserved big hit

1: Hello Colin. What was the first computer you used and how old where you at the time?
Hello, thanks for talking to me today. That would be a Sinclair ZX81 and I was 14 years old. I remember the whole experience vividly and from that moment on, I was completely hooked.

2: What did you like best about coding on the ZX Spectrum?
The ZX Spectrum has it’s limitations, such as poor colour resolution and virtually no sound, but it was fairly cheap and I could see huge potential in it. I guess the thing I liked best was bringing very simple graphics to life, a Spectrum screen is so recognisable, even today.

3: And what did you not like about coding on the ZX Spectrum?
Well that has to be saving my work to cassette tape, before I got microdrives.

4: Which programmers or software houses impressed you most back in the day?
Ultimate Play The Game made my jaw drop every time, even their logo was amazing. I remember seeing Jetpac running in W H Smiths and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and it was running in 16K! It was so playable too and introduced some physics to the player movement for the first time.

5: Was your game Castle Quest fully published? It is hard to find any reviews of the game from back in the day.
Castle Quest was my first real attempt to break into the games market. I sent it off to lots of software houses and got limited response back. PSS did reply however asking if I had any other things in the pipeline, as they liked something about it. My understanding is that it was only ever released in Spain.

Colin's first game Castle Quest

6: After the success of Frank N Stein what happened with your next game, Dracula?
PSS were very keen to follow-up Frank N Stein with another horror related title. I came up with Dracula and started work on the game based in a hotel with lifts between floors. I got about half way through I reckon, but it was never finished.

Games were becoming very graphically rich and I didn’t think the simpler Dracula format would be able to be a success in the market. It was very time consuming and I also got a real job.

7: I see you have the original source code for your unfinished game Dracula which you are planning on completing (which is brilliant!). Can you give us any idea when it will be ready for us Speccy fans to play?Yes, I have recovered everything I created and I intend to finish it off and release it. I’m not going to bring it up-to-date, I’m going to release it in the style I had originally intended, so it may look kind of simple compared with titles that followed Frank N Stein.

I hope to have it ready for special previews in about a month.

8: How has it been coding in Z80 assembler again after all these years?
To be honest, I’d forgotten it all, but it all came flooding back as soon as soon as I looked at it again. The worst bit is remembering all the ZX Spectrum quirks like the weird screen memory mapping and the need to the interrupt vector table.

9: What was life like working for PSS in the 1980's?
I was very young so it was a massive experience. I worked from home in my bedroom and they provided all the necessary sales and marketing support. I did visit them in Coventry on several occasions and I was offered the opportunity to work from there, which I didn’t take up.

10: Do you have any favourite games on the ZX Spectrum?
Yes, Manic Miner, Penetrator and Jetpac.

11: How do you find modern games compared to those of the 8-bit era?
I don’t play games computer anymore, they’re all a bit too realistic now and the plots are too complex. The quality of the graphics and general game-play is amazing though.

12: After Frank N Stein and Castle Quest what did you move on to next?
I got a job working as a programmer for a company who manufactured computerised milling machinery. I mainly worked on the machines user-interface and some early PC based CAD software they developed.

13: Can you tell us what you are up to now?
I’ve spent my whole career in IT, designing and developing software. I mainly programmed in C and still do some development work using C#. I’m currently the IT Development Manager for a large UK company, designing and developing in-house systems.

14: Finally, the retro gaming scene is booming. Once Dracula has been completed would you consider writing another game for the Spectrum? Go on, you know it makes sense! ;-)
I would consider it. I found the beginnings of another game when looking for Dracula, called The Goblin Caves, so I may finish that off. The problem is, with new games, players expect so much and my rather simple platform genre may not be good enough anymore. Better to go out on a high rather than a low.

Many thanks to Colin for taking the time to talk to me.

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Castle Quest - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2011-06-29T08:54:00.001+01:00

Castle Quest ZX Spectrum
Now this is a real lesser known game for the ZX Spectrum.

As far as I know this game was only given full release in Spain and was available to rent (yes rent!) in the UK courtesy of a company called Wildest Dreams.

It was developed way back in 1982 (from the real early days of the Speccy!) by Colin Stewart who also programmed the playable and popular platform game Frank N Stein.

This game when compared to likes of Frank N Stein and other arcade games (specifically those in the platform genre) it is to be fair, quite basic. But you have to remember that it was written in 1982 so for that era it was pretty impressive.

Castle Quest on the ZX Spectrum

You will notice that the main character is not animated as he moves around the screen and that the background graphics are simply drawn. But despite this, the game does play quite nicely and oozes a ton of charm.

The aim is to move from screen to screen, navigating your way from right to left avoiding the nasties (which move around the screen very nicely indeed) and accomplishing all of this before your time runs out which is depicted by the slowly reducing bar at the top of the screen.

The character has a slightly odd jump action which always makes him move through the air to the left or right, you cannot jump straight upwards. This actually adds a tactical element to the game as you really have to time your leaps to progress through the screens.

The second screen is pretty tricky!

I have to say that this game, despite being quite simple is actually quite playable. The 'time bar' at the top of the screen reminds me of Manic Miner and the overall style of the game makes me think of the Ocean classic games Hunchback and Hunchback II.

If you like arcade adventures and platform games then please give this classic game a go; it's got charm, a lot of retro style and enough to make you want to beat that screen! Oh, and I love the way your character 'warps' into the screen too, it's as if he has been 'beamed' into that damn castle!

GENRE: Arcade Game (Platform Game)
RELEASE DATE: 1984 (Although it was written in 1982)
RELEASED BY: Wildest Dreams (Aquired from PSS)
DEVELOPER(S): Colin Stewart
PRICE: - Rental only in the UK, given full release in Spain

It is charming retro arcade action all the way in Castle Quest...

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Programmer Interview - Mark R Jones

2011-06-08T08:18:00.003+01:00

Mark R Jones
Mark R Jones worked as a graphics artist on the ZX Spectrum for Ocean Software during the 1980's.

He worked on many prominent titles on our favourite 8-bit machine providing various graphics and loading screens to the likes of the classic arcade conversions of Arkanoid and Arkanoid: Revenge Of Doh, the shoot em up game Mag Max, the Your Sinclair covertape game Road Race and the excellent trade em up game, Tai Pan.

He also provided graphics and the loading screen to the classic game Wizball which holds fond memories for many gamers.

Mark R Jones 1990

I was lucky enough to catch up with Mark who was more than happy to take me through his days of graphics design during his years at Ocean...

1: Hello Mark. What was the first computer you used and how old where you at the time?

The VERY first computer I ever used would have to be those old beige coloured PC things they had in schools in the early 80s. This would have been about 1983.

We didn’t have computers in middle school, so it would have been that year when I started at my upper school, I would have been 13. You’d type in some basic program that would tell you something enthralling, like the percentage of people living in 3 bedroom houses under 35 years of age which you’d then print out on that old printer paper with blue lines and perforated edges.

The first games I ever played though would have to be “Mazogs” or “3D Monster Maze” on my cousin’s ZX-81. I remember him turning off the TV half way through a game of “Mazogs” and I thought then that the game was gone and that we’d have to reload it, didn’t realise that you only had to turn the TV back on again and it was still there.

Classic ZX81 game Mazogs

I used to go round his house every other Saturday for a good few years and we’d wander round shopping centres, watch “The Tripods”, buy Beatles 7 inch singles & and get mucky playing in forests in the rain and, eventually, progressed to going in arcades at Billing Aquadrome (I remember them just being sheds!).

I’d watch him and his brother playing “Space Invaders”, “Boothill”, “Mr Do” & “PacMan”, the first generation of arcade games.

Wow! I had no idea what I was witnessing. Just before all this happened we’d just end up in WHSmiths looking at pencil cases and pens in our free time!

2: Which game (on any machine) was the first ever published title that you worked on?

The VERY first thing that was ever published was “MagMax”. I had just started at Ocean days before and I don’t think Gary Bracey, our boss downstairs in the cellars where the games were made, had paired me up with a programmer yet so I was at a bit of lose end for a few days.

“MagMax” was being converted to the Spectrum & Amstrad out of house and was nearing completion. He gave me a tape of the latest version which I then loaded up and was horrified at how crap it all looked.

Gary asked me to redesign the main character sprite (which was tiny, so I didn’t have many pixels to play with) and the 2 other parts you picked up as you went along which made up the complete robot. I think Gary was just trying to tart up what there was so it could be finished and put to bed.

I remember seeing adverts for it a good few months before this so it was probably well overdue. It was also missing a loading screen which I duly got to work on. I did a pretty good job of that if I may say so.

After all, I had to impress everyone and it was my first loading screen! That was all I had to do with that game though and I was chuffed when the mediocre review Crash gave the game mentioned the “brilliant loading screen”!

Crash magazine rave about the loading screen

The not quite finished loading screen to Mag Max

The finalised loading screen that was rightly raved about by Crash

The first full game I worked on where I produced all the graphics and got a credit for was the half assed conversion of “Wizball” on the Spectrum. Not that I was half assed about it, it was the damn programmer! Ugh!

An incomplete version of the Wizball loading screen

3: What did you like best about graphic design on the ZX Spectrum?

The best thing was that I could actually do it!! Before I started at Ocean I hadn’t created an animated sprite ever! I had just sent them a load of loading screens, all static, as examples of my work.

So I was sat down and asked to come up with this stuff for a game and, after a rusty start, found I could do it. I got some help from games legend Simon Butler & “Renegade” artist Ronnie Fowles.

Also, I loved doing loading screens, that was my favourite part of the job, because the only restrictions laid on you were those of the machine itself and not those of a programmer telling you that the main character’s face was only 3 pixels wide!

I turned out a few nice ones too, they still look good today, they stand up compared to the other stuff made at the time. And I have some of them on some great looking retro mugs with Bob Wakelin’s art on the other side courtesy of “The Attic Bug”. They have pride of place in my retro games room that I set up in my house in January 2011.

4: And conversely what did you not like about creating graphics on the ZX Spectrum?

I’ve been asked this before a few times and I always give the same answer. Having produced a graphic, it’s taken you a GOOD few hours, most of the morning in fact and it’s animating well, doing what it should, a few people have commented how smashing it is then, 2 days later, the programmer goes “Oh, that graphic you did, there’s not going to be enough room”.

I know it’s NOTHING compared to some people I know who’ve worked for YEARS on one game with a cast of 40 others only for it to be canned, I just can’t imagine what that feels like. One animated sprite being given the heave ho was bad enough for me.

5: Which applications and packages did you use to design sprites, graphics and loading screens?

For the sprites we used an amended version of Melbourne Draw, renamed Ocean Draw, that had animation features added by Paul Owens, if memory serves me correctly. It was real easy to use.

I'm not sure if this version has actually been archived yet. I do still have my microdrive cartridge with it on. Maybe I should lend it someone to see if it can be salvaged before it disapears forever.

For loading screens I used 3 different packages, the one I just mentioned, and Artist 2 and Art Studio.

They ALL had things that worked better on each version so it would just be a question of using all 3 priograms still you got something jolly! I had bought Art Studio and The Artist 2 with money from my school job at Co-Op. Money well spent I think!

6: What game are you most proud of on the Spectrum and why?

I’m not REALLY proud of any of them. I was proud of “Wizball” getting a Crash Smash and a Sinclair User Classic but it could have been so much better had the programmer known what he was doing and hadn’t left Ocean with no notice with the game half finished only for it to be tidied up by another programmer, Paul Owens, and released as it was.

With my other games, all I see are the bugs and the bits that had been put together half assed. See, once I’d handed my graphics over to the programmer it was out of my hands. The main character in “Gryzor” had a proper animated run but due to “memory constraints” his top half was animated less than his bottom half, which missed half the frames out, so it looked OK but could have looked better!

At least if I did a shit loading screen I only had myself to blame. I don’t think I did a real shit one but a couple were ropey because the artwork I had to copy off was bloody awful in the first place.

7: What was it like working for Ocean and Imagine during the 80's?

Fantastic. I can say that now looking back. Most of us just didn’t realise just how fantastic it was at the time but it was.

It was my first proper job away from home, I was living in my own place for the first time and I was doing something I had been doing as a hobby for the past 2 years and now I was being paid to do it and it was going to get published all over the world.

Plus I was working with people who had written some of the games I had been playing myself at school, I KNEW them, I went to arcades with them at dinner time to nick ideas!

The Ocean Software crew

Some of the greats worked at Ocean while I was there, Simon Butler, Mike Lamb, John Brandwood, John Meegan, Andy & Ivan, Paul Hughes, Dawn Drake, Martin Galway, Jon Dunn, Matthew Cannon, Allan Short, Steve Wahid, Steve Thompson, Colin Porsche, Paul Owens and a host of others.

They all were great to work and/or hang out with after work.

8: Which other programmers/graphic designers and/or companies impressed you the most during the Spectrum era?

Steve Turner, I LOVED “Avalon” and “Dragontorc”. I immersed myself in the world he had created on my humble Spectrum, so rich with atmosphere I could wander around these lands for hours, without actually getting anywhere armed with just some Cheesey Knick Knacks. I never did finish either of them.

Bo Jangeborg, for “Fairlight” which I spent many hours on, again, not really getting anywhere. Wasn’t too keen on the follow up though, that annoying slow down when you had too many things on the screen had got a bit too much for me on that one.

I loved Gargoyle Games, “Tir Na Nog” was my fav but I loved “Heavy On The Magick” too, they lost it though when they started to do those Faster Than Light games. Shame that, we never did get to see “Fornax” or “Gath”, which were supposed to be the follow ups to “Marsport”. Would be great to hear from them now, I've never seen a recent interview with either of the 2 fellas who ran Gargoyle.

I loved “Trashman” by Malcolm Evans and released by New Generation Software. It was the first original I bought with my 14th birthday money and it’s still a jolly good game.

Ultimate, of course. I’m not going to bleat on about how great they were because it’s been done a zillion times already but seeing “Knight Lore” for the first time on a cold school evening left a huge impression on me.

I still remember that evening in a totally useless amount of detail and I have 2 copies of each real Ultimate game on display in my games room, as a sort of homage/shrine/mental type geekness. Those games STILL smell new, when you open up those glossy cryptic instructions sheets, they still smell the same as they did back in 1984! Just holding one in my hand transports back to being 14 years old!

And still after they turned into Rare they carried on being amazing with the stuff they did on the Nintendo 64 which, in my opinion, are up there with some of the best games ever written, "Donkey Kong 64", "Banjo-Kazooie", its follow up and "Conker's Bad Fur Day". I love 'em!

When I dug out my old Nintendo 64 I made it my first priority to get myself a complete collection of Rare games for that machine (my 2nd fav machine after the Spectrum!)

9: Do you have any favourite games on the ZX Spectrum? Which are they and why?

Most of them are mentioned above but other ones I loved then and still love now just because they were great, playable games include “Pogo", “Jumping Jack”, “Antics”, “Jet Set Willy”, “Chuckie Egg”, “Karnov”, “Rex”, “Ant Attack”, “Thanatos”, “Bugaboo”, “Way Of The Tiger”, “Boulderdash”, “Dynamite Dan 1 & 2”, “Zub”, “Maziacs” and “Sabre Wulf”. I could go on and on, but I won’t, so I’ll leave it THERE!

10: The title screen in Total Recall is very impressive and still looks good today. How was it accomplished on the humble Speccy?

An unused montage screen created for Total Recall

Another unused screen for the Arnie game Total Recall

The excellent title screen for Total Recall

Oh! I cheated! Arnie’s face was scanned in. I didn't even scan it in, someone at Ocean scanned it, Bobby Earl I think. All I had to do was position it and draw the planet surface, some triangle thing, a tiny planet and some stars. Easy peesey!

11: TaiPan was a very extravagant and feature rich game. The sprites and backgrounds capture medeival japan very well - how did you think about designing the graphics for it?

That game was produced out of house, by Sentient Software I think. All I did was make the loading screen, which is my least favourite Spectrum screen that I made. The advert art was boring, I hated doing it. It was a drag!

The Tai-Pan screen in development

The final loading screen for Tai-Pan

I don't know why after having MADE the game they couldn't be bothered doing a loading screen themselves. I never played it either, trading games bore the pants off me and I didn't like the look of it. Ugh! Yet it got a Crash Smash! Hey ho!

12: Wizball (which was a superb game I might add) was such an iconic C64 game - how much pressure was there when making the Spectrum version considering the attribute colour problems on the machine?

Mmmm. In my opinion "Wizball" on the 64 is one of THE best games ever! Kudos to Mr Gary Bracey for seeing the potential in it (no licence! A completely original game!) and seeing it through. Also to the boys at Sensible for coming up with it in the first place.

The Spectrum version was never really finished properly. There was no pressure whatsoever. “Wizball” starts off as a black and white game, the land had lost its colour. That's totally suited to the Spectrum! You fill in each colour and, on the Spectrum, parts of the landscape get coloured in.

A selection of sprites from Wizball

More sprites and graphics from the classic game Wizball

Those famous Wizball Yin-Yangs!

I know on the C64 it was a more subtle shading in of different parts of the background, which you couldn't do on a Speccy. The only problems with attributes was from when different baddies passed over each other. Wasn't down to me anyway, that was up to the programmer.

I gave him white graphics, I didn't get any say in what colour they were, Wizball had to be green obviously but everything else was up to Mr Maths.

The final excellent loading screen for Wizball

13: How do you find modern games compared to those of the 8-bit era?

I have a Wii and an Xbox 360 in my house. The Wii, well, it started off promising but go look at a shelf full of Wii games in HMV or Game, it's 95% games for kiddies, or families. Silly quiz games, or compilations of shitty subgames, or singing games.

There's barely ANYTHING that people are going to look back on and remember, it's a load of old tosh! I was reading an old N64 magazine recently from 1999, and in it they talk about Nintendo getting rid of their 'kiddy image'. Well it's even worse now, lordy mary queen!

I can't get over how realistic some of the Xbox games look nowadays but you have to put so much TIME into them all. There's not that many games you can switch on, have a blast then turn off.

For that I have to go back in time and switch on the N64, Megadrive or Spectrum! There's too much involvement, and if you can't commit to the time needed to get on with the game, then it's pointless starting. And I always get stuck at one bit, have to do the bits before it OVER and OVER again, want to throw the damn thing out the window and never touch it again.

So I don't usually bother. I'd much rather watch someone else playing it! I don't end up screaming at the screen if I do that.

14: As the Spectrum scene began to fade what did you move on to?

I did some 16 bit games at Ocean for a little while. Went freelance when I moved back home from Manchester to Northampton, worked on some even less well know titles, nearly worked for Bullfrog on "Flood 2", which would have been great fun to do had it not all fallen through then went to Israel for a while.

Came back and got a normal job. I should have stuck it out. My biggest regret now looking back was leaving Ocean. I was an idiot! Boo hiss boo!

15: Can you tell us what you are up to nowadays?

For a job I work with young adults with learning disabilities which I love to bits. I'm a known expert on Syd Barrett & the early Pink Floyd and have had my name credited on a documentary and in 3 major published books on him.

I helped Pink Floyd's management company with Syd's official, posthumous website too which was fun. I play guitar and can sing and when the mood takes me make home recordings of songs I think are hot, thought I can't write a song for toffee. I also design inlays for various unofficial Syd/early Floyd/Beatles DVD and CD covers, that are then distributed via the internet. Keeps me busy.

16: With the retro gaming scene booming would you consider being the graphics artist on another Spectrum game? Go on, you know you want to.... ;)

I'd love to do another Spectrum game. I did put the feelers out a while back (and nearly ended up making an iPhone/Android game but that fell through) but no one came forward. I need a good programmer who is willing to bash some ideas together.

I'm currently making the inlays for a massive 8 DVD Beatles set, called 'The Cathode Ray Tube Collection'. I'm 2 in and 6 to go at the moment.

When that's all done I'm project-less and will be looking for my next little time consumer thingymahoop so if anyone is up for it, let me know. I'm on the look out.

Mark with his old boss Gary and top Ocean programmer Jim Bagley in 2010

Many thanks go to Mark for taking the time to discuss his days at Ocean and for supplying so much information. Brilliant.

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Force Fighter - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2011-05-27T15:28:00.002+01:00

Force Fighter ZX Spectrum
The combined force of Tim Williams and Chris Jones who gave us gaming gems such as Turtle Timewarp and Fahrenheit 3000 also gave us this little playable arcade game in the early days of the ZX Spectrum.

This little known game was released back at the beginning of 1984 and was generally regarded as a decent and fast moving game in the arcade / shoot em up genre.

You can tell this is a game from the early days but I tell you what it oozes a lot of charm...

Only you stood between Earth and the fifteen waves of alien attackers bent on destruction of our lovely planet. This did seem to happen a lot back in the 1980's eh?

It was pretty much standard arcade gaming fayre. Each wave attacked with ships of five, and there were also indestructable meteors making random paths downwards which you had to avoid. These meteors would sometimes 'stick' to the bottom area of the screen for a short while.

You could move your ship to the left or right and also fire a single shot upwards. Each enemy ship shot would rapidly fall downwards making you have to shoot and move quickly. There was no room for sticking around and it was fast paced action all the way.

The usual bonus scores were given for clearing a wave - and the quicker you cleared it the more points you got.

A neat feature in this game was the firing action. You could press the fire button and hold it - which allowed your 'shot' to hover above the nose of your craft until you released the fire button.

This added a little bit of handy tactics to the game as those alien nasties moved around the screen at rapid speed.

All in all this is a very simple game that is fun for a while. It plays really well and you need quicker reflexes than 'The Flash' to do well.

Give it a go - it's a testament to the real early days of ZX Spectrum gaming.

GENRE: Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: Early 1984
RELEASED BY: Perfection Software then re-released by Softstone
DEVELOPER(S): Tim Williams and Chris Jones
PRICE: £5.50 then £4.95 - UK

This is classic arcade action from the early days:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Programmer Interview - Steve Turner

2011-05-03T11:54:00.005+01:00

Steve Turner ZX Spectrum
Steve Turner was a fine games developer for the ZX Spectrum and various other platforms for many years.

He helped create many classic games for Graftgold which were in turn published by Hewson and his titles include many well known retro games such as Avalon, Dragontorc, 3D Space Wars, 3D Sieddab Attack, 3D Lunattack, Intensity, Quazatron, Ranarama and Zynaps.

The Seiddab trilogy is a particular favourite of mine, culminating in the technically excellent and fun 3D Lunattack - a game which I spent playing into the small hours.

Steve was more than happy to take me through his coding days on the ZX Spectrum...

1: What was the first computer you programmed on and how old where you at the time?
When I was 14 I joined a computer club at my school. We went on a coach to the Roral Liberty School Romford that had a computer. The main bit was the size of a desk and had 512 bytes of core ram. We used to type programs in a langauge called ALGOL 60 on computer tape.

Then you had to load a huge tape that must have been some sort of compiler. A machine code paper tape was output. You then loaded another huge tape to program the computer how to execute the machine code.

After that you input the machine code tape and if you were lucky an output tape was produced. Feeding this into a teletype machine converted it to printed output. It was long winded but it was pure magic.

Later (1970) I helped write what was probably the worlds first dating program .It was a huge success at my school. You fiilled out a form with your details and likes etc and the computer matched people and we printed a big list of the matches.

Kids were buying loads of entries and filling them in for their friends trying to get bad matches as we had both good and bad options to choose from such as green hair.

2: Which game (on any format) was your first ever published title?
My first title was published by Hewson on the ZX Spectrum. It was such a neat little machine , it seemed like science fiction as I was used to huge mainframes at work.

3: What did you like about coding on the ZX Spectrum?
Z80 was a very good assembly langauge. It was very compact and extremely fast. It was simple to learn at first but there were many tricks to learn to speed things up.

4: And what did you not like about coding on the Speccy?
I started off without an assembler so rather than type in human readable instructions such as "ret" for a return instruction.

I had to type in the machine code in hexadecimal which was "C9". So essentially I was assembling the program by hand. One mistake and the program would be very wrong. The lack of a decent storage media was a drawback for a long time.

I used to use a cycle of 10 cassette tapes to store versions of the program, as at any time one may not load. The other bugbear was the ram extension sitting on the back of the machine. Hit a key too hard and it could come loose and you lost all your work.

I dont know how many times I felt like putting a hammer to the machine when it did that. I eventually bought a full size keyboard and mounted everything inside. Eventually we were using IBM pc clones to write the programs using a cross assembler, connected to the Spectrum and C64 with our own hardware.

5: The sprite movement in intensity is incredibly smooth. How did you manage this considering the animations and shading etc?
It integrated Dominic Robinson's cell based code that he used for Uridium. It was a neat system that only built the character cells on the screen that changed. It kept a copy of the screen so it could rapidly copy any dirty cells.

Cells with sprites were built off screen then copied to the screen. This allowed the frame rate to be kept high. The sprites were all pre-rotated to horizontal pixel positions so they could be copied rapidly as cells. That saved having to use rotate instructions to move a sprite to the required pixel.

6: Out of all your titles for the ZX Spectrum, which one are you most proud of any why?
My favorite was Dragontorc. I still had lots of things to learn to improve plotting speed but I got the balance of arcade and adventure I was looking for. I really enjoyed programming it - I think it was opening up a complete new genre.

7: What was life like at Hewson during the Speccy era?
We didnt work for Hewson, he was just our publisher. Andrew and I worked from my front room which was very cosy. We had a couple of desks with big comfy office chairs. Hewson's was a small industrial unit on an estate.

It was a family firm, his dad used to control the tape copy machine, his brother used to help review and produce the games. We used to visit perhaps once every few months to show our latest work. They would give us feedback but we basically did what we wanted.

8: Where you given free reign to develop games or did concepts come in from other people?
Hewson used to let us do the game design and he did the publishing. We usually had a good idea about our next game while finishing the previous game.

Usually the technology preceded the game design and influenced it. For example we would think of a new way to speed up plotting that would have design limitations for the game so you designed to fit the new system.

9: Which other developers or software houses impressed you at the time?
I liked the Ultimate games. Very often it was individual games such as Lords Of Midnight or Jet Set Willy that impressed us. Whenever we saw a new technique we would work out how it was done and try to do it better.

10: Do you have any favourite games on the ZX Spectrum that were not written by you? !! :-)
Not really, the truth is I had no time to play games. I was too busy writing them or play testing our own games. Many people have no idea the effort that goes into a game. In those days we did all the music and graphics, programming, design, play-testing etc ourselves. I used to work 9-5 and then "go home" to my wife and small boy, so didnt get much chance to play other peoples games.

Occasionally a friend would visit and show us the latest games but I hardly played them.

11: How do you find modern games compared to those of the 8-bit era?
There are some really good games around but they are almost all the same formula. I tend to play Total War games a few years old. The newer ones are so slow compared with their older game engines and I have a pretty good laptop.

I would like to see some new ideas. The cost of developing games is just too much to risk new ideas. What may start to happen though is new ideas start on iPhones or similar and then get re-developed on the state of the art games machines.

12: As the Spectrum scene began to fade what did you move on to?
At that time I was already writing for the C64 and pretty soon after that the Atari ST, Amiga and PC. It was really important to design game systems to run on several machines as no one knew what would be successful.

13: Can you tell us what you are up to now?
Ive been playing around with a Realms 2 for a long time. I retired at the end of 2010 so have been prgramming on the PC. I have Direct X 9 all up and running a landscape with thousands of men running in formations over it.

I would like to try an online game as I think there is a huge scope using human interactions.

14: With the retro gaming scene booming would you consider writing another Spectrum game?
I still got my Spectrum, Z80 manual and development system just in case. It would be fun to have another go if I get bored.

15: Finally - I remember the 'B' side of the 3D Lunattack cassette had a spoken piece between the mission commander and the pilot (I think) which set the scene for the game and was also pretty funny. Do you know who provided the voices?
I remember that; it was a professional voice mimic that Hewson knew. I think he used to do some of the voices for the Spitting Image TV show.

I was done like Q breifing James Bond and pre-empted the jokes that the bond films put in later on with Whats that? Its the cigarette lighter.

The voice thing was Hewsons idea and was done as we had included voice messages in the game if you had some voice add-on board (currah microspeech) that probably hardly anyone had bought. Everything that came up as a scrolling message on the HUD also had a voice message.

Thanks go to Steve for taking the time to do this - it is very much appreciated.
Many thanks,

Martin.

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

ZX Spectrum Games - Ad Astra - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2011-04-08T09:07:00.006+01:00

Ad Astra ZX Spectrum
To The Stars!

That was the motto of this classic 3D game from Gargoyle Games which was their first ZX Spectrum release.

This game was released around April 1984 and was quite amazing at the time due it's 3D graphics and fast paced gameplay.

Unfortunately this game has dated more than many other games for our favourite 8-bit machine, but let's have a look at it anyway...

Set against the blackness of space, this 3D arcade game was one of those games that amazed you back in early 1984.

As usual for these classic games there was a back story to set the scene...

There is little to occupy a pilot as he doggedly coasts from station to station...

That is, unless you count the deadly phasers of the formations of Pirate battle-cruisers and their robot Scout ships, the multidirectional scatter bombs, the gigantic mine-layers of the Capellan Anti-Terran League (what a great name!), the almost impenetrable curtain of lethal mines and the fragmentation bombs, not to mention, of course, the ever-present interstellar debris that litters areas of space...

So, basically you had to blast away at incoming enemy ships and avoid crashing into planetoids.

The 3D effect of the planetoids coming towards you and the bad guys as they swooped 'out of' the screen was, at the time, pretty damn amazing.

With six lives to play with and seven stages to play through, the game offered some variety and also a pretty tough challenge.

Five different types of aliens attacked in eight different formations, firing two types of lasers at you.

This was followed by a minefield stage where you had to destroy streams of rotating mines before they moved to close to your craft.

Then come those pesky spinning saucers firing at you as they span across the gameplay area. These had to be hit several times to ensure destruction.

The last phase was a 'Way Station'. A security code appeared for the next Way Station, and as the station appeared the player had remember this code and then input it correctly.

An incorrect code resulted in loss of a life. A correct code rewarded you an extra life and a nice 'Welcome' message. Infinity welcomes careful drivers...

And that is pretty much it. It's a real retro arcade game that has very little depth but plenty of charm.

On Release:
When this game was released it was praised for it's amazing 3D graphics and perspective. Crash Magazine awarded it a very respectable score of 80% commenting on the rotating shaded planetoids, fast moving graphics and addictive gameplay. It ended up being a reasonable hit and a good first game from Gargoyle.

The Test Of Time:
Well the years have not been kind to this one. Of course the 3D effect is no longer amazing and the playability is pretty shallow, but there is something utterly charming about this classic game. Despite the sometimes seemingly 'random' deaths that befall you the game can make you smile a little. This is one from the early days before developers really began pushing the hardware, and to be fair it has dated a lot - but it is definately worth a look for pure nostalgia.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Steel Eagle. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game (Shoot em up)
RELEASE DATE: 1984
RELEASED BY: Gargoyle Games
DEVELOPER(S): Roy Carter, Greg Follis
PRICE: £5.95 - UK

Classic Arcade Gaming:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

ZX Spectrum Games - Steel Eagle - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2011-03-22T08:53:00.007Z

Steel Eagle ZX Spectrum
This game is a lesser known title from Players Premier Software which was released towards the end of the Spectrum's life in 1990.

It is a classic arcade game that borrows a lot from the likes of Nemesis and R-Type and is one I never ever played back in the day.

So after having a go on it now I reckon it's a playable shmup that is pretty addictive. I'm still not very good at it though!

There don't seem to be any reviews of this game by the likes of Crash Magazine or Sinclair User - so I don't even know how the game was rated back in 1990.

It is the usual horizontal from right to left scrolling type deal with nasties to destroy and scenery to avoid crashing into. The scenery scrolls by very smoothly I must add, even if it is single layer scrolling only. This does not detract from the arcade action in any way.

Some nasties when shot release a token which can be collected to powerup your little craft with rear firing shots, more powerful guns, speed boosts etc etc...

This game also features some great AY Music on the title screen and it is also very well presented overall with cool rolldown effects on the menu screen and high score table.

The in-game sound effects are far too sparse and some meaty explosions or even a looped tune would have gone a long way to adding some atmosphere to the proceedings. Still, this is a playable arcade game that I like a lot.

If you like Nemesis and games of that ilk then you should give this one a go. The Speccy version of Nemesis was never ever good enough anyway - this game is a far more polished effort.

It retailled at only £2.99 too which was great value for an arcade game of this quality.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Steel Eagle. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game (Shoot em up)
RELEASE DATE: 1990
RELEASED BY: Players Premier Software
DEVELOPER(S): Andrew Severn, Simon Hobbs, Martin Severn, Sonic Graffiti
PRICE: £2.99 - UK

Classic Arcade Action:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Xenon - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2011-03-04T09:10:00.010Z

Xenon ZX Spectrum
A classic game for sure.

This was released for the ZX Spectrum by Melbourne House in 1988 and was met with a lot of high praise.

Funnily enough the Xenon series ended up being regarded as classic games on the Commodore Amiga (by the legendary Bitmap Brothers) - but to be fair this version was extremely playable and also featured some excellent music that really showcased the AY Chip (courtesy of musical genious David Whittaker).

Like any good arcade style shoot em up there was a back story to explain why you were pitched in battle against a bunch of bad guys...

From the moment that Captain Xod's (kneel before Xod?) face appeared on the communicator, you just knew he was in deep do do. As the only other ship in the sector it was up to you to go to his aid.

Fight your way through the many game zones whilst collecting essential supplies for the fleet. At the end of each sector you have a chance to refuel and reload ammunition - but only after you have defeated the most vicious alien you have ever seen. Game on!

So there you have it - the best plot since The Phantom Menace. In the game you had to negotiate four sectors, each of which were divided into four game zones. Like I said this is classic arcade gaming.

In a nice twist had a choice of two craft which could be changed at will depending on the environment. You were in control of a ground craft which was capable of eight-way movement as well as a faster jet-fighter.

It was up to you to select the appropriate craft to negotiate the current obstacles and you also had to be prepared to switch between them rapidly. Certain types of your opponents were ground based and some were at altitude - meaning that only the right craft could destroy certain enemies you faced.

In true arcade gaming tradition there were powerups aplenty. Certain weapons could only be collected and used by the fightercraft and vice-versa. Shooting the aliens and their weapon emplacements revealed power cells which could be collected to give you some much needed juicy powerups.

The powerups available were:

A ARMOUR - Granted invincibity for 15 seconds
F FUEL - There were two types of fuel cell. Those with one orange band restored five fuel units; those with three restored fuel to full
H HOMING - Gave homing missiles for 15 seconds
L LASER - Armed your fighter with lasers. Duh!
G GUN - Canceled the lasers (boo!) and reverted to normal bullets (a power down?)
P POWER - Increased the range of your shots
R RATE - Sped up your ground craft
S SIDE - Armed fighter with side firing lasers
W WINGS - A can of red bull. Only joking, gave you wing-tip weapons
Z ZAP - Two types of zap pills. A single orange band zapped all aliens on the screen; a triple band zapped aliens and emplacements
Balls - Up to three rotating balls that followed you and replicated your fire pattern. Nice.

This game was quite tough and for the seasoned arcade gamer.

Each time you were hit by you lost at least a unit of fuel which was used to recharge your shields. If you collided with any of the aliens you suffered substantial damage and consequently used up more fuel.

If your fuel ran out you lost a life and had to restart from the beginning of the current game zone. Some aliens required more than one hit to destroy and some were indestructable - all of the traditional arcade gaming elements were here.

In keeping with this gaming tradition you would face off against a single large opponent roughly half way through the current level. This was a 'Sentinel', a supposed fully sentient enemy. As usual you had to find out the vulnerable points and concentrate your fire upon it - it was the only way to destroy these big bad boys.

Colliding with a 'Sentinel' was instantly fatal, and if that wasn't bad enough at the end of each section you had to take on another larger and more dangerous 'Sentinel' than the one you faced at the halfway point!

If you succeeded in defeating the end of level boss you were refuelled and re-equipped for the next game zone, but you lost any weapons you had collected in the previous section. Bummer.

On Release:
This game was highly regarded when it was released with the likes of Crash Magazine giving it an overall score of 84%. It was praised for it's detailled graphics, smooth scrolling, playability and fantastic in-game music (for a Speccy 128 anyway). A great shmup in the classic mould.

The Test Of Time:
Well you know, this game still plays pretty well and has not dated as much as some other arcade games on the Speccy. If you like vertical scrollers that are pretty tough then you won't go far wrong. Kicking in-game music too. Play this and get yourself into a 'Xen' like state.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download anything but this game for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game (Shmup)
RELEASE DATE: 1988
RELEASED BY: Melbourne House
DEVELOPER(S): Jason Cowling, Tiny Williams, Lee Cawley, David Whittaker
PRICE: £7.95

Classic Aracade Action:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Ghost's Revenge - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2011-02-23T12:21:00.005Z

Ghost's Revenge ZX Spectrum
This is perhaps a lesser known title from Micromania that was one of many Pacman clones available for the ZX Spectrum.

If you like Pacman then this is a decent version to try. I never played this one back in the day but took the notion for a spot of Pacman gaming today.

So here is a quick review of a nice version of one of the most classic arcade games of all time...

Look it's one of many Pacman Games available for the Speccy - there isn't too much I can say about it that you won't already know! (Unless you've been living under a rock for the last thirty years).

Travel around the maze to gobble the pellets, avoid the ghosts (which do exhibit varying AI - just as they should) munch the power pills to make the ghosts eatable for a short amount of time. The screen also has the wrap-around from left to right and right to left - like any classic Pac-Man game should.

To complete the screen you have to eat all the dots and energy blobs in the maze whilst avoiding the blue, red, purple and green ghosts.

If a ghost touches you a life is lost. Eating a pulsating blob causes the ghosts to turn light blue and become vulnerable, allowing you to eat them to score extra bonus points.

After a short time they become invulnerable again - again just like the arcade game.

One good thing about this game is the difficulty selection which actually adds variety to the game as well as making it more difficult or easier.

For example:

LEVEL 1-3 Features normal mazes in the classic Pac Man style
LEVEL 4-6 Features mazes which become invisible after a short time - pretty novel for 1983!
LEVEL 7-9 Features completely invisible mazes
LEVEL 10 Features an invisible maze coupled with double speed ghosts! Pac-tastically difficult

One annoying thing about the game is the little ditty that plays after you lose a life. I mean it's okay as far as BEEPER tunes go but it gets on yer pecs after a few times.

This game was also a title that would run on a 16K Spectrum - if you like Pacman then check it out.

And that's about it!

It's Pac Man, it's playable and it is a fine example of a total retro game.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download anything but this game for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game (Pac Man)
RELEASE DATE: 1983
RELEASED BY: Micromania
DEVELOPER(S): Dominic Wood
PRICE: £5.95

Classic Arcade Gaming:

The Maze Disappears - Pac Man is slightly scary!

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - 3D Lunattack - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2011-02-13T14:32:00.012Z

3D Lunattack ZX Spectrum
This classic arcade game for the ZX Spectrum was released by Hewson Consultants (who pretty much always impressed with the likes of Uridium and Technician Ted - both classic games) in 1984

This was a time when anything with 3D graphics was amazing, and to be fair this was a very good and playable arcade game.

It is also notable for supporting the Currah Microspeech unit and for having a back story on side 2 of the cassette which was a conversation between the pilot and the mission leader (If my memory serves!)

It continued the Seiddab story too and was probably the best game in this series...

So, the whole deal was that those nasty Seiddabs had setup a base on our very own moon. Cue some arcade gaming that was quite revolutionary in 1984.

The game required you to fly in your almost cool sounding Z5 Luna Hover Fighter against the baddies which was protected by three rings of defense. It was classic arcade action all the way.

The first consisted of robotically controlled DAB tanks which fired missiles at your craft which could be destroyed by laser fire.

The second was a mountainous area seeded with aerial mines which exploded within a certain range of your craft. These could be shot down or flown around.

If you flew too close an exploding mine would damage your craft and knock you around quite realistically.

The third zone was dotted with missile silos, which again could be shot at with your lasers.

If you managed to reach the command zone, a lot of straffing runs were required to destroy the base which tried it's best to shoot you down with a barrage of gunfire. If you took it out then it was mission complete and in classic arcade game style you returned to the beginning to do it all again.

Your craft was also armed with air-to-air missiles which destroyed the enemy fighters before they appeared in visual range, although when they were sighted the lasers had to be used to shoot them down.
Weapon selection was automatic (and pretty cool), below the horizon it was lasers, above the horizon missiles were chosen. The transition of weapons was nicely done. There was also a rader effect which showed you in which direction to proceed - but only when your cross-hairs were at the bottom of your view screen. This added a nice tactical element to the game which made it more than just a bog standard shoot em up arcade game.

All in all this classic game was a bit of a benchmark in 3D gaming which also included good gravity and collision effects. I played it a lot back then and it still gives me fond memories.

On Release:
The 3D sprites were quite amazing, the playability great and the cockpit graphics almost made you feel like you were really in a space-ship. This was the highest quality of 3D gaming and mags such as Crash raved about it. The little mission briefing audio on the tape was a nice bonus too.

The Test Of Time:
It's sooo basic these days, but I still quite like it. This classic game is such a retro 3D shooter that unless you played it back in the day you may not like it as I do. Still, it has aged a lot better than many other 3D type arcade games on the Speccy. Not bad, and I still give it a go now and again.

Oh, and if you get shot down you can always say 'Hewson, we have a problem'.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download anything but this game for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game (3D Shooter)
RELEASE DATE: 1984
RELEASED BY: Hewson
DEVELOPER(S): Steve Turner
PRICE: £7.95

Classic Arcade Action - And It Was 3D too!

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Jackal - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2011-02-03T22:07:00.011Z

Jackal ZX Spectrum
This was an arcade game that ate a bucket load of my loose change back in the day. I loved it, and I was pretty good at it too :-)

So, when it was being converted to the good old Speccy in 1987 by Konami (who had developed the coin-op version) I was rather excited.

I needn't have been as this game turned out to be a complete turkey...

For fans of the original arcade game the plot will be familiar; drive around in your jeep killing enemy soldiers, destroying vehicles, gun emplacements and buildings.

It was classic run 'n gun action that was simple enough and fun enough down your local arcade.

The squad was a four-man team composed of Colonel Decker, Lieutenant Bob, Sergeant Quint and Corporal Grey sent to rescue soldiers kept as hostages by the enemy. One or two players controlled the teams in an armed jeep, in which you had to venture through several enemy strongholds to rescue your buddies.

In each of the six levels, the goal was to rescue POWs from various buildings and then transfer them to dust-off locations where a chopper would take them to safety.

Once the soldiers were rescues the player(s) had to defeat (in classic arcade fashion) a boss enemy at the end of each level. If you made it to the final level, there were two bosses for you to take out.

As with most arcade games, there was a scoring system that would grant the player extra lives depending on the score attained.
If a collision occured with an enemy vehicle or if the jeep was hit by an enemy bullet, a life was lost. No surprises there.

For rescuing your buddies you could receive various rewards. Some buildings contained one flashing prisoner; if this man was rescued the jeep's primary weapon (a machine gun) was upgraded. In addition, if enough prisoners were rescued, a weapon upgrade was given during the unloading process to the rescue chopper.

The Jeep's initial weapons consisted of a machine gun and a grenade launcher. The grenade launcher was upgradeable into a rocket launcher, which could be further upgraded to shoot long-range missiles, and two kinds of spread missiles.

These powerups were excellent and needed as you progressed through the game.
It should be noted that in the arcade versions I played the machine gun always fired upwards, but there were versions where it fired in the direction the jeep was facing. This method was employed in the ZX Spectrum version of the game.

This all worked well in the original arcade game and for me was up there with Commando and Ikari-Warriors. It's a shame that the Speccy version seems to be a lazy port over with poor graphics, jerky scrolling, stodgy controls and little playability.

The screen moves so badly you can barely see an enemy before it is on top of you meaning you can be shot before you even know where it came from. The graphics are terrible, and the scrolling is more jerky than a slice of beef jerky that is being jerked around by a jerk.

This conversion of a good arcade game was sooo bad it still brings me out in a cold sweat. Yearghs!

On Release:
The original arcade game was never mega-popular but the game was reasonably anticipated and a preview appeared in good old crash magazine. When it was released in late 1987 most mags and gamers noted the game as yet another poor arcade conversion, something which had plagued all of the 8-bit machines. There was nothing worse than a half-arsed attempt at converting an arcade game to a home computer.

The Test Of Time:
Well twenty odd years on and this game is as bad as ever. The original coin-op is still worth a blast but please avoid this one on yer Speccy. Comedy value only.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download anything but this game for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game (Vertical Scroller)
RELEASE DATE: 1987
RELEASED BY: Konami Ltd
DEVELOPER(S): Cyclone (David Whitehouse, Stephen Lockley, Adrian Carless)
PRICE: £7.95 - UK (£2.99 on re-release)

It should have been classic arcade action:

Arcade Games, Classic Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Silkworm - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2011-01-18T09:09:00.006Z

ZX Spectrum Silkworm
The 'prequel' to arcade classic game SWIV (which I looked at last week - check out SWIV ZX Spectrum) was a very good conversion of the popular arcade game by Tecmo in 1988.

Once again I am looking at the ZX Spectrum version (emulated on a +2 machine with AY sound) and the Commodore Amiga version at the same time - see my Amiga Games blog if you want to compare them for yourself.

Anyway, arcade conversions were all the rage on the Speccy, and to be fair this was a good conversion of a game that was way beyond our beloved 8-bit hardware...

As most of you will know the coolest aspect of the game was being able to play as a helicopter or a jeep (more difficult) and also the two player co-op mode, with one player choosing a vehicle each.

The game featured decent enough scrolling (although we had seen better with the likes of Green Beret, Hysteria, Uridium and Cobra) and to be fair the sprites matched up to the arcade version about as well as could be expected on the Spectrum.

All of the classic arcade game features are in here: large bosses to overcome, weapons powerups, enemies that would 'pop up' and surprise you... the list goes on.

The dual fire was especially great for wiping out hordes of bad guys, the heli and jeep could cut a swathe through the enemy targets with ease.

The sounds effects (on the AY chip) were decent enough and suited the game nicely.

As you progressed through the game the background scenery did not change a great deal - it was the ground that the jeep rolled over that was altered on each level. I suppose the developers were limited and concentrated on gameplay - I can understand why.

The enemy sprites changed as the game progressed though giving the game some degree of variety. The game did have the 'self assembling' enemy helicopter (that was pretty damn cool in the arcade game) which could be destroyed for weapons powerups.

Playing as the helicopter was generally regarded as being easier than playing as the jeep as the latter would have to destroy or jump over obstacles in it's path.

Also, when playing in two player co-op mode each player had to 'cover' the other which made the gameplay more interesting and imposed a small tactical element to the proceedings.

For instance the helicopter could only fire forwards, so the jeep would have to cover the rear with it's swiveling gun turret. However, when covering the rear the jeep was vulnerable from frontal attacks, so the helicopter would then have to provide covering fire for it.

Saving your best pal was a great laugh and almost made you feel like a combat expert. :-)

All in all Silkworm is a true classic arcade game that was converted very well to the Speccy when you consider the hardware. For me there are better scrolling shooters to play, but it is still a good example of how to develop a horitzontal shooter correctly.

GENRE: Arcade Game (Side Scroller)
RELEASE DATE: 1989
RELEASED BY: Virgin Games
DEVELOPER(S): Random Access
PRICE: £9.99 - UK (£2.99 on re-release)

Classic Arcade Action:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - SWIV - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2011-01-04T16:28:00.012Z

SWIV ZX Spectrum
Now this is a classic arcade shoot em up across a variety of retro computers.

I am looking at the ZX Spectrum version and the Commodore Amiga version at the same time here - have a look at my Amiga Games blog to make the comparison yourself - the article is at SWIV Amiga.

The Spectrum was treated to this in 1991 - the twilight years of the machine. This classic game proved that there was a little life left in the old dog as it tried it's best to keep up with the 16-bit powerhouses that were now the gaming hardware of choice...

This game was the follow up to the reasonable popular arcade game Silkworm, which was again regarded a classic title for the Amiga, and a 'good' game for the Speccy. I reckon that this beats the arcade conversion of Silkworm in terms of graphics and playability.

Once the game was loaded up you were treated to a nice piece of menu music (especially if you had a Spectrum 128)

The nice AY music on the games menu:

So, this game was of the tried and tested top down vertical scrolling variety and one that played along quite nicely.

In case you are or were wondering back in the day, SWIV stood for Special Weapons Interdiction Vehicle and allowed you to play as a helicopter gunship or as a fully armoured battle tank. Most players tended to go for the heli option.

Each vehicle had it's own advantages and disadvantages.
For example the copter did not have to avoid any ground based obstacles but could only fire in the direction it was flying (forwards).

The tank could crash into pot-holes and buildings, but you could rotate it's field of fire. Super duper!

It could also jump over some of the ground based obstacles - but you had to watch for jumping into enemy air units.

The graphics in this game could in no way match those of the Amiga. The developers rightly went for a monochromatic look allowing decent sized sprites to scrolled smoothly across the game zone and gun emplacements to pop up sneakily from the ground.

Tall buildings cast shadows on the ground giving the game a nice sense of depth but unfortunately enemy air units did not come complete with shadows.

All in all the graphics and sound effects were functional and allowed the game to move along smoothly and most important be playable.

The game was further enhanced by the two player option. With one as the heli and the other as the tank it was great fun blasting away at the bad guys, plotting your route as you went.

The usual arcade game power ups were there to be had such as triple fire, shields, multi-cannons and so on.

On Release:
This game was highly anticipated prior to release. It was nearly up there with the 16-bit versions but just fell short. Just. Still, it was a very playable and worthwile shmup. Arcade gamers loved it and rightly so. It was a big hit for the ZX Spectrum in it's later years.

The Test Of Time:
I have to say playing this one again was a lot of fun. It's still playable and challenging and is up there with the better shoot em ups on my beloved Speccy. Simple to pick up and play, SWIV is classic gaming from the early 90's.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download SWIV for the ZX Spectrum. You may even be able to play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: 1991
RELEASED BY: Storm Software
DEVELOPER(S): Ken Murfitt, Tahir Rashid, Steve Snake
PRICE: £10.99 - UK

Classic Arcade Action:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - 3D Combat Zone - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2010-12-23T15:15:00.006Z

3D Combat Zone ZX Spectrum
Here we have a version of the classic Atari arcade game Battlezone on the ZX Spectrum by legendary game coder Jon Ritman.

This game and Realtime's 3D Tank Duel are the best versions I ever played on the Speccy. If you are a fan of Battlezone and wireframe graphics arcade games then this version may be right up your street...

Just like the arcade original you begin the game with three lives. The game takes the viewpoint of looking outwards from the front of your tank, the battlefield complete with various landmarks and of course, enemies to evade and destroy.

The game was predominantly 'green screen' (with enemies in cyan) and used a suitable arcade style font to display current score, menu options and so on.

As far as I know there is no end to the game, you just keep going until you run out of lives. As you destroy an enemy each subsequent bad guy is more difficult to kill than the last. Again this is matching the arcade game.

There is not much else to say. For a 1983 game the 3D graphics were very impressive and it certainly wowed a lot of home gamers. The vectors move nice and smoothly and explode nicely when you score a direct hit.

If you like Battlezone and games of this ilk then you can't go far wrong and this is a great example of fine early ZX Spectrum gaming. Jon Ritman would go on to be responsible for many classic games on our favourite 8-bit machine...

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download 3D Combat Zone for the ZX Spectrum. You may even be able to play it online.

It's vector-tastic.

GENRE: 3D vector graphics arcade game
RELEASE DATE: 1983
RELEASED BY: Artic Software
DEVELOPER(S): Jon Ritman
PRICE: £5.95 - UK

Classic Arcade Action:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Gilligans Gold - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2010-12-07T18:30:00.010Z

Gilligans Gold ZX Spectrum
This classic game was a 1984 release for our beloved ZX Spectrum from good old Ocean Software.

It was based on the lesser known 1982 arcade game 'Bagman' by the also lesser known Valadon Automation.

If you liked arcade action and platform games such as Chuckie Egg then you couldn't go far wrong with this offering...

This arcade style game was set in a gold mine and split over three inter-connected screens.

The aim of it was pretty simple: collect the bags of gold, evade the outlaws and use the ladders and carts to negotiate your way around.

Games in 1984 tended to be quite simple so for them to work they had to work. Fortunately this game was damned playable and pretty addictive.

After collecting the bags you had to place them in your wheelbarrow, all done against the clock of course. Each bag deposited increased your alloted time and raised your score. All the while the outlaws were after you - and the gold.

It was possible to jump into the mine-carts by hanging on the ceiling hooks and dropping in as they passed by (which was pretty cool), and you could also run up and down the ladders or use the lifts to get around.

Dropping down a long mine-shaft meant the instant loss of a life.

Some of the booty was hidden behind breakable walls. Using a pick-axe would allow you to break through and grab the bag.

In another cool feature bags could be dropped from a height onto the bad guys, which would stun them for a few moments. Stars would whirl around their heads as they lay there concussed, before panting heavily (their stomachs rising and falling) as they began to come around. Using a pick-axe on them had pretty much the same effect.

Touches and attention to detail like this were impressive and added a nice dose of humour to the game.

All in all Gilligans Gold is a good solid arcade game that remains playable due to it's simplicity even to this day.

On Release:
Few people tended to realise that this was pretty much a conversion of an arcade original when it was released in 1984. It was well recieved and achieved a good overall score in the likes of Crash Magazine and once you got the hang of how to play the game it was decidedly addictive. It also featured a neat in game beeper tune which again was pretty nifty at the time. Not quite a classic game, but one worth having for sure.

The Test Of Time:
This is a nice simple game that I enjoyed playing again. Once you get the hang of the controls it plays well, moves at a fair old pace and is real old school gaming. The graphics are by no means the best but they serve their purpose. Not bad, not bad at all.

We recommend getting hold of the real Sinclair Hardware but if not them download this game for a ZX Spectrum emulator. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

Please see our other ZX Spectrum game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.

GENRE: Arcade Game (Platform Game)
RELEASE DATE: 1984
RELEASED BY: Ocean Software
DEVELOPERS: Keith Burkhill, Ronald Rhodes and F.David Thorpe
PRICE: £5.90 - UK

Classic Arcade Action:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Airwolf II - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2010-11-25T08:44:00.005Z

Airwolf 2 ZX Spectrum
So, the sequel to the popular Airwolf arrived for the ZX Spectrum in 1987. It was a change from the previous game and focused more on classic arcade action, borrowing heavily from the likes of Nemesis.

Anwyay, this game actually came bundled with a couple of others; the bizzarely named 'Great Gurianos' and 'Trio'.

Anyway, like the first game in the series, it had little to do with the actual show, apart from the fact that you were gaming with a helicopter.

The whole premise of the game was that you (as Stringfellow Hawke - I always chortled at that name) had been given a mission to destroy an alien craft which was threatening civilisation! This just would not do.

By collecting and using sophisticated new weaponry you had to overcome the many
perils facing you along the route, ultimately destroying the craft and sending those aliens back across the cosmos with their alien tails between their alien legs.

In true classic arcade fashion it was a horizontal scrolling shoot em up (from left to right) with nasties to shoot and powerups to collect.

All of the usual arcade game suspects were in there, such as shields, double fire, smart bombs yada yada yada. Gun emplacements would take pot shots at you, aliens would sneak up behind you and there were destructable walls which had to be blasted away brick by brick.

The game also 'boasted' some fine features such as:
- REALISTIC HELICOPTER FLIGHT CONTROL
- FRANTIC "BATTLE ACTION" WITH ALIEN STAR SHIPS
- COMPULSIVE GAME PLAY
- MULTIPLE SCROLLING LEVELS

These could not really be counted as fantastic features - surely they are all major requirements of the game? All in all this was a bog standard arcade game that offered nothing over others.

On Release:
This game was met with a lukewarm reception. There were plenty of better arcade games on the Speccy that offered better gameplay, graphics, sound and overall polish. Not bad as part of a trio but folks knew it had little longevity. There was still no sign of the famous theme tune either! Sh*te hawks!

The Test Of Time:
This game is pretty basic. It is by no means total crap, but let's say it has nothing special to offer over other titles. There are plenty of better to play such as Uridium, Cybernoid, Zynaps and even budget game Chronos has some neat cheat codes and easter eggs.

We recommend getting hold of the real Sinclair Hardware but if not them download other shoot em ups for a ZX Spectrum emulator. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

Please see our other ZX Spectrum game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.

GENRE: Scrolling arcade game
RELEASE DATE: 1987
RELEASED BY: Hit Pak
DEVELOPER(S): Neil Latarche
PRICE: £9.95 (as a 3 pack of games) - UK

Classic Arcade Action:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Programmer Interview - Alberto Gonzalez (Joe McAlby)

2010-11-12T16:05:00.006Z

ZX Spectrum Alberto Gonzalez (Joe McAlby)
Alberto Gonzalez went under the name of Joe McAlby during his days as a developer on the ZX Spectrum.

He worked with New Frontier software and programmed the graphics and AY music for many arcade games such as The Light Corridor, Hostages, North and South and many more. In my opinion his game music was amongst the very best and really pushed capabilities of the AY hardware.

I was lucky enough to be able to speak to Alberto who was more than happy to discuss his days making those wonderful graphics and music on our beloved Speccy...

1: What was the first computer you ever programmed on, and how old were you at the time?
My first computer was a Casio PB-700, which was not very powerful but at least it ran on batteries, so I was able to bring it everywhere with me. I was 11 at the time.

2: How did you get into the games development scene? Did you have an interest in programming as well as music?
I learned some BASIC with the PB-700's operating manual (that's when they were useful) and I started to program my first games on it.

But, at that time, my main interest was graphic design, since I used to draw a lot on paper. I programmed a small program to make graphics with my PB-700, and the first sprite I made was the soldier of Raffaele Cecco's Exolon; I copied it pixel perfect from a screenshot I found in a Spectrum magazine I used to buy (Microhobby).

At some point I changed that computer for a Spectrum +2 and that was incredible, I could play real arcade games and make true useful graphics! Then I continued making graphics with the Spectrum, and some more BASIC coding.

When I was 16 (in 1988) I found a letter-box with the name 'New Frontier' on it. I remembered it from a game named 'Time Out'. I Knocked their door, they liked my graphics and the next day I was in.

At first I started as a graphic artist, then some day a fellow lent me a copy of the Music Box program for the Spectrum. I started to make music, all sort of melodies, experiments... it was amazing to me. They liked how my music sounded, so I started officially making music too. The next step was learning assembler so I could have all the control over the music, and write my own sound driver and utilities.

Music and programming were both incredible experiences to me, I had much to learn and I was highly motivated.

3: Can you tell me a little about your musical background and knowledge?
Until I started making music with my Spectrum I had no knowledge or interest in music, in the sense that I didn't know I was capable of composing, I had never tried. I played some flute at school when I was 8 but that was all.

I'm not a good student, I need to make things myself to learn, so I never studied music. I always composed instinctively, without knowing much about what I was doing, or how that thing was named. If it sounded good then it must be OK!

It is now that I'm slowly learning some music theory. Now I know what a chord is! But I'm still unable to play any instrument properly.

4: How was programming the single channel Spectrum beeper?
I only made one song with the beeper, for the Light Corridor 48k version, but I didn't write the sound driver; actually I ripped it from another musician (guess who!)

At the time I had enough assembler knowledge to disassemble and understand the code, so I adapted the driver for my own music. I'm a bit embarrassed about that, but I learned a lot from the experience. You know, there was no Internet, or books about that; you had to learn many things that way.

5: How good was it when the machine was released with the AY chip?
Well, I started working professionally at 1988, and my first Spectrum was a +2 which already had the AY, so I didn't experience the transition from the beeper. I enjoyed both sounds, some programmers and musicians did a wonderful job with the beeper that couldn't be replicated on the AY.

6: Was programming the AY chip the same across all machines that used that piece of hardware?
My Spectrum and MSX soundtracks sounded almost the same. The Amstrad versions sounded a bit different. The sound driver was exactly the same, only with small changes to the code used to write to sound registers.

7: I see you also did some graphics work. Can you tell me what sort of things you worked on?
At New Frontier I was responsible of all the sprites and animations of the games. There was other fellow who made the backgrounds and fixed screens. So, I did the sprites for Hostages, North & South and Magic Johnson, in the Spectrum and Amstrad versions. I also made the music for those and other games, as well as some utilities.

Later we started to make Game Boy games, and I did the sprites of Asterix and The Smurfs for the Game Boy and NES consoles. Those were my last graphics, since I had to focus on composing and programming music only for our increasing production.

8: Which game on the ZX Spectrum are you most proud of?
It's hard to say, it depends. I really liked the graphics I did on Hostages and North & South. Both games were fantastic and got very good reviews, specially North & South.

On the other hand there was the Light Corridor, which I really loved to compose the soundtrack.
I'd rather say which one I'm not proud of (except for the music), and that was Magic Johnson. I did a terrible job with that one.

9: Which programmers or musicians impressed you most at the time?
I could name all of them! Some of the favourite programmers that come to my mind just now were Jon Ritman, Mike Lamb, Jonathan Smith (RIP, always remembered), Don Priestley...
About the musicians, many more: David Whittaker, Jonathan Dunn, Ben Daglish, Matthew Cannon, Fred Gray, Dave Rogers... each one had their own techniques and style I loved. But the one who I got most inspiration of is Tim Follin, even now!

10: How was life at Infogrames during the early 1990's?
I didn't work at Infogrames, my company was New Frontier, and we made games for them. Being a Spanish company published by a French one made us almost invisible to the world and even to our own country.

But in New Frontier life wasn't as good as It could have been. I was very young and motivated to learn and experiment with coding, music, and all sort of game things, but we didn't get a good payment for any of our games. The bosses took all the money, and made all sort of never-ending and agonizing excuses not to pay us. But what to do? We wanted to make games, and there was no other game company in Barcelona.

We couldn't earn a salary until we took the control and founded Bit Managers.

11: Do you have any anecdotes or funnies from your Spectrum days that you can tell me about?
There must be some, and good ones, but I can't recall any right now... sorry.

12: How did you come up with the name 'Joe McAlby'? for you Spectrum work?
At New Frontier all of us had nicknames for the games. "Alberto J. Gonzalez" is a name so common and Spanish sounding that I had to find a better alternative. At the time there were lots of famous Mc names (MC Hammer, McDonalds, Paul McArtney, Marty McFly...), so I thought I could use that before my own name, "Alby". Some time later I added the first name Joe, which is almost my second real name, "Jose". I take MC as Music Creator :)

Once I started making music for consoles I dropped the nickname, but I'm still not getting used to hear my real name pronounced in English! Sounds very weird to me.

13: Finally, can you please let us know what you are up to these days?
Actually I haven't stopped making video games since the Spectrum days. At some point the last New Frontier team (4 people, including myself) founded Bit Managers, where I did dozens of soundtracks for game consoles such as the Gameboy, NES, Master System / Game Gear, SNES, Game Boy Advance... Later I left Bit Managers and founded Abylight with some fellows (at 2003) , and started making more games for Mobile Phones, Nintendo DS / DSi, Iphone, Wii....

Now I'm more focused on game design, but I still do a bit of everything. I'm also still in charge of sound design and programming, but usually music is produced externally.

Cheers and good night!
Alberto

Many thanks Alberto for talking the time to chat.

A nice mix of strategy and arcade action:

One of the greatest ever tunes in an arcade game:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - The Light Corridor - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2010-11-09T12:54:00.014Z

The Light Corridor ZX Spectrum
This classic game was released for the ZX Spectrum in 1991 by Infogrames. I suppose it could be classed as a sort of breakout arcade clone with a massive twist.

It was now a 3D vector graphics breakout style game, and very good it was too.

This game was released at a time when the 8-bit to 16-bit transition was gathering pace, but New Frontier software put a lot of polish on this version. If you liked breakout and puzzle games then you wouldn't go far wrong with this one...

The aim of the game was to negotiate your way along 'The Light Corridor'. Equipped with a translucent raquet you had to guide the metallic sphere (not just a ball!) from the heart of the corridor.

Avoiding the walls and the traps, you had to collect the bonuses on offer and battle your way along, until eventually you would see the light, quite literally, at the end of the tunnel.

The game was spread of four stages and in classic arcade style there were plenty of bonuses to collect and nasties to avoid.

First off, this game had one of the best pieces of title music on the ZX Spectrum ever. Even the 48K version was nicely done:

The ZX Spectrum 128 was blessed with an AY Chip, and it was majestically put through it's paces with the title music. This is one of my favourite AY tunes and showcases just how good it could sound in the hands of a talented developer. Check out this pure ear candy:

At the beginning of the game you had to release the ball and watch if fly down the corridor until it struck a wall or similar obstacle. At this point it would bounce back towards you and you had to 'hit' it with the paddle, sending it back 'away' from your viewpoint.

The player used the time the ball spent in flight to move along the corridor (you could stop and start as and when you wished). The colour of the walls also changed as you progressed further which was a nice touch.

The object of the game was to reach the end of the corridor without allowing the ball to miss the paddle and 'hit' the player. If this happened, as you might guess, it was the loss of a life.

Obstacles such as moving elevator-style doors and blocks made navigating your way quite difficult and the game was all about quick reflexes. There were also nice powerups to be had to help you on your way.

It must also be said that this classic game was extremely customisable.

You could run the paddle at normal or fast speed which was nice, but the real boon was being able to create your own 'corridors'. The game had an in-built editor that allowed you to create corridors and then save them to cassette or disc. Now just how cool is that?

This was a great feature at the time and added a lot of longevity to the game.

On Release:
This classic game was met with high regard when it was released and rightly so. Crash Magazine awared it an overall score of 87% and praised it's playability, smooth 3D graphics, music and digitized speech (sampled from no other than pop Prince, Prince!). It was a very good mix of arcade action, 3D gaming and puzzle solving. It turned out to be a deserved big hit and proved that there was still life left in the good old Speccy in 1991.

The Test Of Time:
I have to say that this game has aged superbly. It is still playable and addictive, and creating your own in-game levels is rewarding. For me most of the classic games on the Speccy come from the mid 1980's, but this one is up there with best of them. A playable and different game.

Play this one again, you'll trip the light fantastic.

We recommend getting hold of the real Sinclair hardware but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download this classic game for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game / Puzzle Game
RELEASE DATE: February 1991
RELEASED BY: Infogrames
DEVELOPER(S): New Frontier (Zydro, Robin, Fustor, McAlby)
PRICE: £10.99 on cassette, £15.99 on disc - UK

Running control at normal speed:

The arcade action hots up running at fast speed:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Programmer Interview - Lee Tonks

2010-11-01T12:19:00.005Z

ZX Spectrum Programmer Lee Tonks
Lee Tonks developed a number of text adventure games for the ZX Spectrum back in the 1980's and has continued to create both adventure and arcade games on the machine well into the 2000's.

Lee still develops games to this day, not only on the ZX Spectrum but also on other formats.

We were lucky enough to talk to Lee who was more than happy to discuss his passion for coding on the greatest ever 8-bit computer.

1: What was the first computer you ever programmed on, and how old were you at the time?
The first computer I ever programmed on was also the first computer that I ever owned - a 16K Spectrum that I got for Christmas back in 1983. I was 11.

2: How did you get into the games development scene?
I didn't, really. From the very beginning I loved games and always wanted to make my own, but I was never actually particularly good at it. Games programming has always been something I've done 'on the side' rather than a main hobby, mostly because I tend to lose interest in projects half way through and never pick them up again (you'll note the rather large gaps in time between my various projects if you check my WOS profile). So I don't really consider myself part of 'the scene', I just call in from time to time when the mood takes me.

3: You have worked on adventure games as well as arcade style games. Which do you prefer to create?
I do like to work on adventure games, mostly because as well as being a programmer I'm also a frustrated amateur writer. Doing adventures allows me to mix the two hobbies together in interesting ways. The main problem with adventure games is convincing people to actually play them, though - they're pretty much a niche audience these days.

Most of the arcade-style games I've worked on have been created in some sort of game-making package so I've never really been truly happy with any of them because you're always having to limit what you wanted to do somehow. I'd love to do a kick-arse arcade game, but I don't think I have the skills - looking at some of the amazing stuff that's come out for the Spectrum in the last couple of years sort of puts me off even trying!

4: What was the first game you worked on?
My brother and I used to spend hours typing games into the Spectrum from magazines like Sinclair Programs and would quite often try to make our own so that we could get them printed and become famous. That never quite worked out! Because we weren't very good at programming back then I turned to Gilsoft's "The Quill" and began working on adventures, because back then it was still possible to get an adventure game published commercially.

The first game I ever completed was a mini-adventure called School (it's in the archive), and to be frank it's bloody awful! Several experiments followed, but the first 'proper' adventure game I ever finished writing was called 'Attack of the Mutant Bumpries', which I actually submitted to Atlantis Software for publication (they sent me a nice 'sorry, we're not interested' letter after a few weeks). Sadly that's now lost to the mists of time, although I still hold out hope of rediscovering it (and it's sequel, 'Revenge of the Mutant Bumpries') on an old tape somewhere one day.

5: What did you/do you like about programming on the Spectrum and what was your impression of the machine the first time you used it?
The thing I liked best was how quick it was to get going. Switch it on, do some stuff. Spectrum BASIC wasn't super-fast but it was quite easy - even as kids we could get something out of it. Of course, it wasn't nearly as easy as we'd imagined it - I remember before we had our own Speccy I used to sit and design all the games I was going to make once it arrived, but of course they all proved far too ambitious once reality set in. I wasn't too disappointed once I discovered Jetpac, though. Basically I was never off it, my parents had to physically throw me out of the house to get some fresh air.

6: And what did you/do you not like about programming on the Spectrum?
Tapes! I really, really hated tapes. They were fine for loading your favourite game, but when you're working on something and want to try something out which may or may not work, it's furiously irritating to have to wait for everything to save out to a cassette. And you're always living in fear of the dreaded 'tape loading error' too - I remember losing a 95% complete adventure to a chewed-up tape, and the only other copy I had was only about 50% done. Mortified.

7: Of the games you have created, which is your favourite?
My last game, On Reflection. I set out to do a modern-style adventure on the Spectrum and I'm pretty pleased with what I achieved. I wanted to create something which wasn't just 'you are in a room, it is empty, what now' and instant deaths every five seconds because you couldn't guess the exact keywords to use. Ideally I wanted something more akin to modern interactive fiction but with the ease-of-use of a point-and-click adventure like Monkey Island.

The game reads more like a short story than a traditional adventure, and that's on purpose. I also went out of my way to highlight things of interest, exits, etc. so as not to frustrate the player. Frustration is the single thing that puts people off text adventures, I think, so that's precisely what I wanted to avoid. I hope I succeeded for the most part, although I'm not sure how many people have actually played it. It does pretty well in WOS's Top 100 Adventures list though, which is very flattering.

8: How did Manic Miner III come about?
Back in '96 I was helping to maintain the NVG Spectrum archive and someone uploaded a file called 'Manic Miner 2'. I presumed this was Jet Set Willy, but it actually turned out to be a hack of Manic Miner with different levels. It was a bit wonky - the levels weren't very well designed and I seem to remember it glitching quite often, but it got me interested.

I remembered a listing in an old Your Sinclair for a Manic Miner editor program, so I asked around and managed to get a copy of the pages sent over in the post from a friendly comp.sys.sinclair reader. I typed the programs in and got to work, wondering if I could do any better. The editors were pretty basic (actually they were literally BASIC!) and didn't allow you to do things like change the positions of the bad guys, so I came up with the idea of using a 'parallel universe Willy' to explain why the levels were sort of familiar but slightly remixed.

In all I think it took about three months to complete a set that I was happy with and unleash it to the public. It seemed to go down pretty well, I think - the levels have been included in several PC-based remixes over the years too, which is always nice.

9: Which other programmers on the Spectrum impressed you most?
We always noticed the companies more than the individuals back in the day, but I used to love Raff Cecco's games and Ocean/Imagine had a fantastic set of guys at one point with the likes of Joffa Smith, Mike Lamb, etc. Don Priestley's big-sprite games were always wow-inducing for me, though, and I have a particular soft spot for David Jones and his Magic Knight series - I always wanted to do something similar to those.

These days things are even more impressive, I think - there have been some amazing new Spectrum games in the last five years. Jonathan Cauldwell, Bob Smith, The Mojon Twins - I'd take my hat off to them all, if I had a hat! A special mention to Colin Woodcock too - his 'Blink' adventure game was what inspired me to consider returning to Spectrum adventure-writing.

10: Do you develop games on any other platforms?
Quite a few in the past. I've done stuff for the Atari ST and the PC, and I've also dabbled with Gameboy stuff. Most of my coding projects over the years have been utility or productivity software, though - the games are definitely in the minority, sadly. These days I'm pretty much PC and Spectrum only as far as development goes.

11: Any current projects you can tell us about?
I have a long-running maze-game experiment called Dex which I sincerely hope to complete one of these days. I think I've been working on it since about 2003 though, so don't hold your breath. It's actually completely playable now but there's only a single level and it's pretty unpolished. I also have about a third of a sequel to Tales From A Parallel Universe (created with much better tools), but that's been in the works since the late 90s - I doubt it'll ever get completed now, but you never know.

Other than that I've been kicking around a few ideas for another adventure, but nothing concrete as yet - I want to do something smaller and leaner that doesn't take quite so long to get done (On Reflection took nearly three years, on and off).

12: Finally, Cheese Freak Software must go down as one of the most impressive company names I've ever heard of! How did it get named as so?
Heh. I'm a terrible artist, but I'm a doodler - just about every book I own is covered in scribbled drawings. One of my most popular doodles from as far back as high school is a chunk of Swiss cheese, so the company name comes from that. It also serves quite nicely as the company logo.

Once again many thanks to Lee for taking time out to talk with me. Cheers mate.

Arcade Games, Classic Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Spy Hunter - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2010-10-06T12:25:00.007+01:00

Spy Hunter ZX Spectrum
The famous Bally Midway arcade game was converted to the ZX Spectrum by Denton Designs and released by US Gold back in 1985.

The arcade game had been really popular and we were treated to a decent version on the good old Speccy.

In the game you play the part of a world class spy, driving for your life in a snazzy bondesque turbo-charged and armed sports car. The road is crawling with enemy agents bent on your destruction.

You had to manoeuvre your car along the road ways and water ways (where it would convert into a speedboat) watching out for the Road Lord, the Switch Blade, the Enforcer and many other enemies.

The arcade action began with the Weapons Van rolling up from the bottom of the screen and stopping at the shoulder of the road. Your car would then roll out of the back, prepped with fully loaded machine guns.

Your car could be moved left and right as well as forwards (accelerate) and backwards (which could be used to come to a standstill).

The game was a vertically scrolling romp, with the road weaving and forking as you blasted and rammed your way through the enemies.

What was cool about the game was the varying weapons at your disposal. Not only could you blast the bad guys with machine guns, you could also power up with rocket launchers, oil slicks and smoke screens. Muhahahaaa!

If all else failed you could try and ram or nudge the bad guys into the road edge, disposing of them nicely.

The terrain changed too as you traversed the course. As the game moved on you were eventually given the chance to drive into a waterway. Here your car entered a boathouse and automatically became amphibious, skimming along the surface of the water with ease.

Now it was time for waterborne arcade action as you battled away against enemy speedboats et al.

Every now and again the weapons van would appear on the roadway, ready to supply you with weapons power ups. To gain the power up you had to drive into the van by moving behind it and driving up the rear ramp to get on board. Once you had been powered up you would then roll out the back and the game would continue.

There were plenty of different enemies to dispose of (in classic arcade fashion), each one with different strengths and weaknesses:

The 'Road Lord' was bulletproof and had to be rammed off the road
The 'Switch Blade' had nasty extended buzz-saw hubcaps to slice you up nicely
The 'Barrel Dumper' dumped barrels in water ahead of you, sneaky b*stard
The 'Enforcer' fired a powerful shotgun
The 'Mad Bomber' aimed bombs at you
The 'Doctor Torpedo' unsurprisingly tried to torpedo your ass into oblivion...

All of this aside running off the road or water caused you to crash and lose a life...

On release:
Well the arcade game was a huge hit so the converion was eagerly awaited. We were glad to get a nice conversion of the game (Crash Magazine awared it Smash status) and not a quick cash in. I suppose it could have been better with some improved sound effects and smoother scrolling, but overall it was playable, fun and addictive. It did well on the Spectrum and was a big hit.

The test of time:
This classic game is still quite fun in a quirky way. Picking up the different weapons does not have the wow factor it did back then, but you know what, it plays quite well and brings back the nostalgia nicely. Not bad at all.

We recommend getting hold of the real Sinclair hardware but if not then download this one for a ZX Spectrum emulator. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

Please see our other ZX Spectrum retro game reviews and programmer interviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.

GENRE: Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: 1985
RELEASED BY: US Gold
DEVELOPER(S): Denton Designs and F David Thorpe
PRICE: £7.95

Classic arcade action...

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Flight Path 737 - Classic ZX Spectrum Games

2010-10-05T15:16:00.009+01:00

Flight Path 737 ZX Spectrum
It's time to look at an all time turkey again. This festering turd of a game was unleashed upon us ZX Spectrum gamers back in 1985.

In fact it is such a bad computer game / flight simulator that not only is it one of the worst ever games on the ZX Spectrum, it must be one of the worst games ever. Period.

Now that I've got that out of the way....

After the basic loading screen you got a slightly odd yet decent piece of music to set the scene. It has nothing to do with flying but must be the best part of the game. Trust me, it get's worse from here on in.

So - onto the flying excitement. Hold onto your hats as we get to grips with our arcade joysticks...

The aim of this 'classic arcade game' (ahem), was to take off, fly over a mountain range then land on the other side. Hardly a thrilling prospect but I suppose flight-sim fans should like it. If was any good they probably would have.

You were given six skill levels to play with, from first solo (easiest) to test pilot (most difficult). The more difficult the skill level, then the higher the mountains would be. You would also be hit with cross winds, turbulence and even engine fires.

But let's be honest here, the game was ultra difficult without any of the extra Roland Emmerich type disasters thrown in.

The instructions supplied with the game were a joke, they didn't even list the keys to use. Figuring out the controls by trial and error was a thankless task too as the controls are so un-responsive you cannot even tell what is supposed to be happening. You can press a key and wait a week for a response.

Getting airborne was difficult enough as being incorrectly lined up by one pixel would cause the airplane to blow up. Realism at it's best there. You could run out of runway too (even though you can still see it in front of you, stretching away into the distance!) - causing you to crash. How bad can you get?

If you ever did manage to get airborne (you would have more chance standing in the street and flapping your arms) the mountain range would come into view. And it would sit there and not move. Ever. Until you probably crashed into them - despite them still looking like they were miles away from you.

Never in the game did you ever get a sense of movement. Aside from your instrument panel changing, nothing else did. This game is sooo bad I just can't describe it. The constant engine drone sound effect is enough to send you over the edge for good.

I'd rather listen to a record by David Hasselhoff on repeat for 24 hours. Honestly, I would.

On Release:
Good old Crash Magazine described this game as being a 'botch up'. How right they were. They scored it with an overall of 4% - personally I think they were generous with that. At £5.95 it was a joke - the only way you could recoup some money was by using it as a blank cassette. An abomination of a game and the lowest score in Crash Mag I can ever remember.

The Test Of Time:
Well it has not improved with age. An utterly disgusting game. I think it was probably written in BASIC (given the keys being more sluggish than Jabba-the-hut), but even so it is no excuse for being so bad. Have I said it was a terribe, terrible game?

We recommend getting hold of the real Sinclair hardware but if not then do not download this one for a ZX Spectrum emulator. Alternatively you could try and not play it online.

Please see our other ZX Spectrum retro game reviews and programmer interviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.

GENRE: Arcade Game / Flight Sim / P*ss take
RELEASE DATE: 1985
RELEASED BY: Anirog Software
DEVELOPER(S): Stefan Walker
PRICE: £5.95 - far too much for a blank cassette ;-)

Classic Arcade Gaming - I run out of runway:

Classic Arcade Gaming - I fail again:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Chuckman - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2010-10-04T08:50:00.006+01:00

ZX Spectrum Chuckman
Another 'classic' game from the slightly odd software house, Custom Cables International (who were also responsible for the unofficial Star Wars computer game 3D Star Wars.

I remember picking this maze like arcade game up for my ZX Spectrum when it was re-released by Mastertronic at £1.99.

I tell you what, for £1.99 it wasn't bad.

It's hard to get into and fast moving, but if you persevere with it a good (if slightly basic) little arcade game is hidden away in there...

The aim of the game is pretty simple: guide your hero around a maze along the yellow paths to diffuse the numerous time bombs. So finding the bombs is your first problem, but as usual there are plenty of pitfalls to hinder your progress

From time to time there are earthquakes (eh?) which leave a nice gaping hole in the path - which will kill you if you fall in. These have to be repaired or if you can find a way you can 'go around' them.

There are also stomping boots wandering about the maze which are out to... stomp you. Avoid these at all costs as instant death occurs if you touch them. The mazes were usually quite fiendish too so there were plenty of dead-ends to leave you able to see the bomb, but not reach it. A puzzle game to make you a little tetchy.

In a neat touch the mazes are generated randomly each time the game is started, so that no two games are ever the same. Pretty cool.

Dotted around the maze are wheelbarrows (to fill in any holes), toolkits (to diffuse the bombs - do not touch a bomb without carrying one of these!), rollerskates (which scare away the stomping boots - weird!) and food (to top up your energy levels).

As you move around the maze your energy slowly decreases, and firing up the map drains it even quicker. Eating food along the way is essential as when your energy level hits zero your wee guy is kaputski.

The scrolling is quite smooth and the game cracks along at a fair old pace. Once you get the hang of it the simplicity of it means a fair amount of fun as you try and find the next bomb before it explodes. There are also the usual skill levels and high score table - and a huge scrolling message every time you lose the game, which is a little bizarre. Not bad overall and a fun puzzle game.

The test of time:
It's simple, but it is pure puzzle and arcade action. The graphics are very simple (and were back in the day), but the scrolling works well, the action is fast and the controls are responsive. Oh, and try leaving chuckman alone for a little while and watch what he does - another little neat touch.

We recommend getting hold of the real Sinclair hardware but if not then download this one for a ZX Spectrum emulator. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

Please see our other ZX Spectrum retro game reviews and programmer interviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.

GENRE: Arcade Game / Puzzle Game
RELEASE DATE: 1983
RELEASED BY: Customer Cables International then re-released by Mastertronic
DEVELOPER(S): K Baker
PRICE: £5.00 then £1.99 on re-release

Classic scrolling arcade action:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Moon Patrol - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2010-09-24T08:30:00.006+01:00

ZX Spectrum Moon Patrol
Another classic arcade game here from waaay back.

Atari's Moon Patrol was popular in the amusement arcades and was eventually converted to the ZX Spectrum by Atarisoft. Despite the game being completed it was never commercially released.

Why it was never released is a mystery to me (if anyone knows can you please tell me?!!), but it's fair to say that this version never managed to capture the playability of the original classic arcade game.

Moon Patrol (the arcade game) was released in 1982. The game is a shmup of the side view, side scrolling variety.

The player controls a moon buggy, viewed from the side, that travels across the rocky surface of the moon. The player 'drives' it, all the while avoiding obstacles such as craters and land mines. You could also fire missiles upwards and forwards to take out any nasties that would get in your way.

You also find yourself being attacked by UFOs from above and tanks on the ground. This game was one of the earliest linear side-scrolling shoot'em ups and the first arcade game to feature parallax scrolling. How's that for a slice of gaming history?

The top portion of the screen displays a timeline-style map of the current sector, and it also displays incoming ariel threats, upcoming minefields and any attacks from the rear.

The map shows five different checkpoints labeled E, J, P, U and Z. In a similar fashion to racing games, the time spent between each checkpoint determines the amount of bonus points you can score.

The objective of the game was to make right through to the end of checkpoint Z - where the game would switch to a more difficult sector. Complete that one and you have finished the game (I think!)

The problem with this conversion is that it moves along far too slowly. The jumping action is okay as it feels almost like lesser gravity, but the scrolling, buggy and nasties move around the screen far too slowly. The Speccy was easily capable of running a good version of this classic game, it really should have been great.

For me I think it is a real pity that later in the Speccy's life, (when programming techniques had improved), someone did not revisit older arcade games like this one. Can you imagine this game implemented with Jonathan Smith's parallax scrolling as seen in Cobra? Awesome it would have been.

All in all this is a below par version of one of my favourite arcade games.

In the meantime here is a nice and playable version for you to enjoy (Thanks to classicgamesarcade.com):

Arcade Games
It could have been some classic arcade action:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Munch Man - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2010-09-23T08:45:00.006+01:00

ZX Spectrum Munch Man
This is a real golden oldie. Pure retro gaming with one of the unofficial versions of Pac Man that made it onto the ZX Spectrum.

This one was programmed by Crash Magazine's very own Derek Brewster, and was released by DK'Tronics in 1983.

There were a lot of Pacman games on the ZX Spectrum, and this one is pretty standard and plays well enough. Crap loading screen though.

Most of the Pacman game features are present: A nice yellow Pacman (or Munch Man) for you to control; four enemy ghosts coloured yellow, green, cyan and magenta, pac-dots, power pellets and a wrap around game screen.

The only thing that seems to be missing is the bonus fruits that Pacman could eat for extra points.

One thing I noticed whilst playing it was the short time that you can eat the ghosts once you have gobbled up one of the power pellets. It is very difficult to eat all four ghosts in one go.

They don't seem to remain in the central ghost pen for very long either!

If you like Pacman then I would say give this one a go. It is not really any worse than the official arcade conversion of Pacman from Atarisoft.

For me you can't beat the original arcade game, and none of the Speccy versions I have played manage to capture the magic completely. Still, for a 1983 game this one ain't bad.

GENRE: Arcade Game (Pacman Game)
RELEASE DATE: 1983
RELEASED BY: DK'Tronics
DEVELOPER(S): Derek Brewster
PRICE:£4.95

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Star Trader - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2010-09-22T08:37:00.012+01:00

ZX Spectrum Star Trader
This classic game was a space trade em up released for the ZX Spectrum by good old Bug Byte software in 1984. They actually had the gall to call it 'The highest plateau yet reached in Spectrum software'! Now it was a decent enough computer game, but the highest plateu? Not quite...

On start up you would 'enter a galaxy more complex and enthralling than any previously experienced.' As you may have guessed, the game was in the 'Elite' mould (and came well before that landmark game on the Speccy) and you had to trade, fly and shoot your way around eight planets.

The game switched between wandering around the planets surface buying and selling goods (and eating and drinking to stay alive) and flying across the stars (with some fairly impressive 3D arcade action for the time) to land on another planet to hopefully make a profit. All enjoyed in the 'most advanced 3D graphics yet attained on a Spectrum.' Ahem.

A great back story would set the game scene. A long time ago in a distant galaxy...
Are colonies of men on small inhabitable planets in neighbouring star systems. Over the years these communities have learned to rely on each other for trade. Marauding pirates have been quick to take advantage of the strong inter-dependence of the planets, and patrol the interplanetary routes.

In fact, it has come to the point where interstellar trading is a risky line of work, though profits, as ever, can be made.

As a result of a recent increase in the pirates' greed (their self-imposed "tax" on captured ships is now 1/4 of the ships cargo), all the remaining traders have left the system. All, that is, except you...

You alone must attempt to vanquish these rogues, whilst keeping the vast interplanetary economy intact. So no pressure then.

TRADING:
There are eight planets to visit and to buy and sell your goods. They each have eight
major industries, which buy and sell goods to you. You begin the game with an amount of cash and a space ship. You must use your cash wisely, to purchase goods at low prices on producing worlds, so that you may then sell your wares at a suitable profit on consumer worlds. Not immediately easy and gameplay perserverence is required.

Planets with poor supplies of any commodities will suffer from quick inflation, which you may use to your money making advantage. If inflation rises to a chaotic level, social unrest will lead to a complete collapse of civil order; so various people will turn to piracy for as a new source of income.

You have a limited storage capacity in your cargo hold, which you have to keep an eye on. You may only buy and sell your goods during normal business hours, outside of which you will find all shops closed. (They even close at lunchtime!)

The main legal tax on your profits is from the customs officials, who will charge you a sh*t load of duty on your wares. You may try to cheat these officials of their dues (by declaring nothing), but at great peril should you be caught (you are looking at jail time and being 'bashed in').

LIVING:
To stay alive during the game you must eat and drink at regular intervals (it can get a little annoying to be told you are hungry after eating a pub dinner along with a pint of beer!). Failure to do so will cause starvation, and eventually death! You may stay overnight at an inn or a hotel to reduce your chances of being mugged, although it still can happen whilst you are snoring away in a holiday space-inn.

You should also take a quantity of food packs to eat during space flight between planets. These food packs can be bought from the local supermarket.

PIRATES:
The worst hazard to the game player is being attacked by a pirate band - the height of scum and villany. You may protect yourself though by buying armaments for your ship. You will need
a laser and at least one battery pack to powre up the laser if you intend fight these space bound vagabonds.

This is the arcade portion of the game. The arcade action is viewed from your spaceship front windows, with the enemy craft approaching. You can move your vessel up, down, right, left and (taken from the inlay instructions was quite something for the time 'so, for instance, if you choose to move left, the enemy craft will drift rightwards past your windows, just like driving a car!'). Amazing stuff I'm sure you'll agree.

If the fight is not going well (as in your shields are fully depleted) you can always surrender and pay the pirates their 'tax'. It can actually work out cheaper to do this rather than buying a lazer and an eight pack of ever-ready. Your shields always have to be repaired too when you land at your destination - so my advice is to avoid space combat and just pay any pirates you bump into.
Watch out for civil unreset on a planet - if society collapses and war breaks out you are immediately killed and the game is over. Keeping the economy secure across all eight planets is no mean feat....

On Release:
This game was generally well met, but was never considered a must have. It managed to combine trading elements with arcade action quite well, and the menu screens were easy enough to follow. It was quite a popular game, but every Speccy users wanted Elite (I was jealous of my mate and his BBC Micro) - they would have to wait a little longer and this game filled the void for a while.

The Test Of Time:
Well, it's a charming game for sure. Very much a true retro game, this one is quite dated, more so than many other games from 1984. Having said that, there is something that is still enjoyable about playing it. Buying and selling is fun for a while, and the different random things that can happen through the game are both funny and frustrating (such as being mugged and having cash stolen, being thrown in jail, being mugged but being too strong for your attackers, spending a bucket load of cash on food but no matter how much you eat you are still hungry...)

Once you get over trying to use your mouse to make menu selections and get back into old school menu selection then progress can be made. Transport yourself back to a time when eight planets seemed almost limitless and when your imagination made each shopkeeper look different...

It's not quite Elite, but it's a quirky little computer game. Not bad. I always thought the spaceport looked quite cool too.

GENRE: Space strategy game/Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: 1984
RELEASED BY: Bug Byte
DEVELOPER(S): Trevor Hall, Rob Phoenix,Gary McNamara and Joey
PRICE: £6.95 - UK

Classic gaming in the 'Elite' mould...

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Programmer Interview - Nick Bruty

2010-09-13T10:39:00.004+01:00

ZX Spectrum Programmer Nick Bruty
Nick Bruty worked as a graphic artist on many classic games on our beloved ZX Spectrum.

A lot of you will remember titles such as the classic arcade games Slap Fight and Out Run, as well as the likes of Dan Dare III: The Escape and Trantor: The Last Stormtrooper.

We were lucky enough to catch up with Nick recently who was more than happy to discuss his days creating wonderful graphics on the ZX Spectrum.

1:What was the first computer you ever programmed on, and how old were you at the time?
I started with very limited access to a ZX81 at my high school in Livingston, Scotland. I was around 13 and had little idea what I was doing but I was instantly hooked.

However computers were new and my school didn't really trust us with them. Things didn't take off until I received my own 48K spectrum for Christmas a year later. You couldn't tear me away from that thing. I would sneak up in the middle of the night to keep playing.

2:How did you get into the games development scene?
My high school friend David Quinn wanted to apply for a programming position at a company called Softstone.

We were only 15 and really had no idea what we were doing. He was learning some sprite routines from a book and as I liked to play around with art, I made him some sprites for his demo. To my utter amazement and jealousy he got the job.

The good news for me was they liked my art and wanted me to come down to Brighton and try out.After a few weeks they hired me on as a full time artist which although awesome wasn't something I had planned on. I thought I would be a programmer but it all seemed to work out well.

3: How did you Probe Software come about?
While we did quite a few titles at Softstone it eventually went bust. David and I were looking for work and found a local company in Probe Software. They were very small back then, in fact David and I were the only developers in the tiny 2 room office.

Our first game for Probe was a horse racing game called Sport of Kings. I can't remember exactly how many different titles I did at Probe, around 20 I think.

4: What was the first game you worked on that was published?
That would be V on the spectrum based off the original TV show back in the 80's. I remember drawing the animations of the main character Donavon (you know, the Beast Master!) on graph paper and manually converting it to hex to get it into the game. Things were very primitive back then.

5: What did you like about programming on the Spectrum and what was your impression of the machine the first time you used it?
It felt pretty slick coming from the ZX81. At the time I was so desperate for a computer, anything would have been great. I loved how open it was. I knew nothing about code or programming techniques but the machine was so simple you couldn't really break it. I felt like an explorer.

Every day I would learn some new revelation. I felt like Mathew Broderick in Wargames. On my mission to learn the secrets of machine code while my parents had no idea what I was doing. Except I was never going to break into the department of defense with Spectrum basic.

6: And what did you not like about programming on the Spectrum?
The lack of hardware graphical support and having to listen to C64 owners go on about their fancy hardware sprites. It did make us speccy's work harder though.

I certainly had my share of micro drive and tape failures. Saving always felt like a treacherous affair. I would hold my breath while the little drive whirled endlessly away, wondering if it would ever return. Thank god for the Opus Disc drive, although even that could be ropey with the edge connection.

7: How did you create graphics on the ZX Spectrum? What was the difference in creating game scenery and game sprites?
My main art package was The Artist. With no mice or tablets available I used a old Atari VCS joystick to draw with. To get from one side of the screen to the other I had to press left and wait 10 seconds for the cursor to get there.

Creating loading screens was rather painful.Scenery was generally done in 8x8 tiles. Typically you would only have 256 tiles to play with so you had to be careful how you spent them. This would also have to include the font if you wanted something other than the system one.

Over time I used a few different customized tile editors. You would draw your tiles and arrange them in a sequence of blocks. Then lay those blocks out in a level map. Thrilling stuff!

Early sprites were done on paper but eventually some kind soul made some primitive sprite editors. The frustrating thing about sprites was being confined to a set rectangular shapes. The size of that rectangle would be the same for every frame.

If you were animating a figure running you had to make it quite small so the arms and legs didn't penetrate out of the set shape and size. Years later this was one of the advancements Dave Perry made when we did Aladdin on the genesis. We could finally have sprites any shape or size on any frame which allowed us to use actual Disney animation.

8: The opening huge spaceship sprite in Trantor was mighty impressive. How did you get it to look so good?
I've always been a fan of Sci-fi and all the tech that goes with it. Trantor was designed as a very simple game just so I could blow all the memory on giant sprites and try to make something a little more cinematic.

Technically there was nothing very advanced going on, just a big old sprite dumped to the screen. The only concession was to have the movement vertical so we could have smooth scrolling.

9: How did you splash so much colour around in 'Extreme'. It's some achievement on the Speccy given it's attribute problem.
It was my last Spectrum game and I wanted to do something special so I pulled out every trick I knew. It was an original game which meant I could create the visual's to play to the Spectrums strengths.

Dave Perry's game engine was based off 8x8 pixel movement so that helped minimized clash but also meant we were going to have a fast paced game like Savage and Dan Dare 3.

10: Out of all of the Speccy titles you worked on - which is your favourite?
I would probably go with Extreme as DP and I made that without any contract. We were just having some fun although it would have been nice if we could have made more levels for it. I have a fond spot for the game play of Goonies. There weren't many co-op games like that and it was overlooked at the time.

11: Which other artits or programmers on the Spectrum impressed you at the time?
Anything by Ultimate although I don't know the individuals who worked on their titles. Technically they always seemed to be a year ahead of everyone.

Their 2D work was great but my personal favorite was Knightlore.

I'm going to give a shout out to my good friend Bob Stevenson who was doing some excellent art but unfortunately it was on the C64. Never too late Bob!

12: Did you move onto the 16-bit machines once the Spectrum (and 8-bit) scene began to fade?
A few titles before I stopped on 8-bit. Dave and I made a space strategy game call Supremacy (or Overlord in the States) for the Amiga and ST. It was a big departure for us and we had a lot of fun.

After 8 bit I moved onto the Genesis and Snes.This brought its own challenges for me as while I had a good reputation for 8-bit art I didn't really have any clue about colour theory and other basic art techniques.

Moving to 16-bit meant I was now competing with "real" artists and it was the start of a new journey for myself that I'm still enjoying.

13: Were you a games player back then? Did you have any favourite games be it your own or games by other software houses?
Oh yeah, I tend to veer towards action games. In no particular order:-
Underworld
TLL
Way of the Exploding Fist
Knightlore
Highway Encounter
3D Deathchase
Elite
Sentinel
Daly Thompsons Decathlon

I could go on...
In the arcades it was Star Wars, Defender (which I'm lousy at even though I own one), any race game.

Currently I'm having a lot of fun with Just Cause 2.

14: Can you tell us what you have been doing since those days?
After 8-bit was over for us we then moved onto the Genesis with Terminator. I followed that up with my first SNES game Alien 3.

l then moved over to Virgin Games in the states and worked on Terminator for the megadrive CD and the Disney titles Aladdin and Jungle Book.

At that point myself and the rest of the core Aladdin team left Virgin to start Shiny Entertainment. Our first titles were Earthworm Jim 1&2 for Genesis, Snes and Megadrive CD.

After EWJ I got back to my sci-fi roots and moved into 3D gaming with MDK on the PC. Then I formed a new company, Planet Moon Studios with the MDK team to make Giants Citizen Kabuto and Armed and Dangerous.

Planet Moon is still an independent game developer based in San Francisco.

15: Finally, the retro scene is booming. Would you consider putting something together on the Speccy again?
Only if I can hardwire my Wacom tablet to it... and a mouse... and maybe a hard drive.

Classic Games and ZX Spectrum Games.

Spectrum Games - Out Run - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2010-09-01T08:36:00.009+01:00

Out Run ZX Spectrum
Ahhh now this is one the most iconic arcade games of all times. Who else can remember the thrill of sitting in the Out Run cabinet, the 3D graphics racing towards you and Magical Sound Shower pumping in your ears?

Out Run (by Sega) was a fantastic beat the clock arcade racing game, and a conversion to the ZX Spectrum was always on the cards. But could such a large and graphically intensive game be converted to the Speccy? Well, yes is pretty much the answer.

Out Run was released by US Gold in 1987 and was met with a mostly positive reception. I'll get this out of the way first; the Spectrum 128 (or +2 and +3) versions were superior to the standard 48K version, due to the excellent in game sound track. A fine example of great AY Music.

Having the same music as the arcade original really enhanced the gameplay. Aside from this the versions were essentially the same.

Out Run Music:

For anyone that has been living in another dimension since 1986, here is a little overview of the game...

Out Run placed you in the driving seat of a Ferrari Testarossa convertible with a stunning blonde in the passenger seat (female players had to pretend it was a right-hand-drive vehicle ;-)), to race around a series of tracks at breakneck speed.

As you neared the end of a track (assuming you did not run out of time) then you would take the left or right fork to move onto the next track - each one branching into a different area.

As soon as you loaded the game up it was obvious that the programmers, (Probe Software), had pulled out all the stops to to reproduce the original as fully as possible. Graphically it was pretty much all in there. To be fair the graphics were excellently drawn and true to the original, despite the monochromatic colours (understandable on the Speccy).

What was good about the game was that it 'felt' like Out Run - all of the trackside scenery was in place, the bends, the road undulations - it was all true to the original arcade version. The only downside was that the Speccy version could not match the speed or smoothness of the Sega machine, but let's be honest here, there was no way that it ever could.

Kudos goes to the developers for squeezing so much into so little. A bit like Space Harrier, they managed to give us the best version we could have hoped for.

On Release:
Well when Out Run came out, some seemed to love it, some seemed disappointed. Some loved the detailled graphics and the fact that the tracks were recreated faithfully, some did not like the slow pace of the game which did not match the original. The game did well and fans of the arcade game snapped up the home version.

The Test Of Time:
In a strange way this game still plays quite well. Maybe it's because I'm a fan of the original game - but even after all these years there is something about it. Load it up, give it a go and let the magical sound shower wash your troubles away...

We recommend getting hold of the real Sinclair hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Out Run for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game (3D Racer)
RELEASE DATE: 1987
RELEASED BY: US Gold
DEVELOPER(S): Probe Software (Iain Morrison, Alan Laird, Nick Bruty, Jas Brooke)
PRICE: £8.99 - UK (£2.99 budget re-release)

Classic Arcade Action (Level One):

Classic Arcade Action (Level Two):

Spectrum Games - Guardian II - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2010-08-25T08:30:00.006+01:00

Guardian II - Revenge Of The Mutants
Well the title of the game is a bit of a mouthful, but what we have here is a very good version of the classic arcade game Defender.

This game was released for the ZX Spectrum in 1990 - so it really was a retro game back then as the original arcade game had been released in 1980.

Anyway, most of us know the deal with defender, and this version of it held no special surprises over the original. What it did do was capture the playability of the arcade version nicely.

The game took place over a two-way scrolling landscape and all of the Defender type bad guys were present in the game. It was you and your trusty fighter against the mutant menace.

There were ten humans on the surface of the planet, and it was up to you to keep as many of them safe as possible. The raiders would swoop down and pick up one the little guys and make their way to the top of the screen. If they made it to the top they would mutate into a more aggressive foe (a mutant) - whilst the human was destroyed.

If you shot a mutant carrying a human you would have to 'catch' him with your fighter before he hit the ground with a splat. Doing so allowed you to gently drop him on the surface and also earned you some extra points.

In classic arcade fashion the nasties had cool sounding names and different modes of movement and attack. Aside from the raiders (and mutants) you had to contend with Baiters, Lures, Luresses (yes), Hives, Dynamo's, Mo's, Swarmers, Munchie's, Fire Bombers, Technofighters and Fireballs.

RAIDER - Skims planet surface, snatches humans and lifts them to the sky where a mutation will occur
HIVE - A floating capsule containing deadly SWARMERS. When hit, the swarmers will be released (annoying buggers)
DYNAMO - A floating alien mothercraft releasing MOs which will fly on a suicide mission (really annoying buggers)
TECHNOFIGHTER - An advanced alien which fly in a squadron formation
FIREBOMBER - An elusive alien which releases fireballs (total pain in the jacksie)
LURE - The killer alien only appears if you are slow in completing an attack wave. Watch for the female (LURESS) which was probably the deadliest alien of them all

There were also warp gates on each level allowing you to 'jump' from one part of the landscape to another. Useful to escape from a sticky situation.

You were equiped with a limited supply of smart-bombs. Useful for blowing the sh*t out of everything on screen.

Another 'extra' was the Energy Cloak which allowed your fighter to become invisible and destroys every alien you came into contact with for a limited time period of one energy unit. Useful for clearing away annoying buggers.

As all Defender fans will know, if all the Earthlings were destroyed then the planet was lost and the fight continued in space against Mutants alone.

The game was over when all of your lifes were gone.

This was probably an unusual game to come out on the Speccy in 1990 - but as far as arcade games go, this is a very good version of a classic (which I like a lot). The controls are responsive, the scrolling is spot and and the sounds effects match the game perfectly. It's got to be one of the best Defender type games on the machine - and this game (and Planetoid on the BBC Micro) is one I return to time and time again.

Oh and it was nicely priced back in the day at £2.99. Good stuff from H-Tec Software.

We recommend getting hold of the real Sinclair hardware but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Guardian II - Revenge Of The Mutants for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game (Defender Clone)
RELEASE DATE: 1990
RELEASED BY: Hi-Tec Software
DEVELOPER(S): Steve Evans
PRICE: £2.99 - UK

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Light Force - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2010-08-04T13:26:00.013+01:00

ZX Spectrum Light Force
This is a classic arcade shmup released by the cool sounding FTL, which was an off-shoot of Gargoyle Games who were famous for the likes of Tir Nar Nog and Dun Darach.

Anyway, this game must go down as one of the better vertically scrolling arcade games on the ZX Spectrum, and when it was released in November of 1986 it caused quite a stir.

It also had a pretty cool back story. How's about this for a slice of epic pie?

LIGHTFORCE is for VENGEANCE... LIGHTFORCE is the Punishment Arm of Galactic Fighter Command.

A bunch of human colonists had settled around Regulus for a number of years when, one one FATEFUL DAY... alien craft began to land at key installations around the human settlements!

So, instead of sending a galactic army to respond to the alien threat it's lucky old you who has to go in single handed and save the day. As well as the galaxy. All in all it's all a pretty much standard arcade game 'excuse' to drop you into the action.

Those alien invaders will rue the day that they took on you in your Light Force fighter! Probably.

So, the scene was set for you to emerge from light-drive and send the aliens scuttling home with their tails between their legs. If they even have tails that is.

All you really need to know is that you have to blast the sh*t out of hordes of enemy ships, ground based turrets and energy domes.

The screen scrolled from top to bottom and you could move your ship up, down, left and right. It was also equiped with a double barrelled lazer cannon for blasting those nasties to kingdom come.

The aliens would swarm from different points of the screen, coming in from the side, swooping in from the top and even rushing in from the bottom of the screen.

What was immediately apparent was the lavish colour splashed throughout the game. The aliens were multi-coloured, green and blue planets scrolled smoothly past and yellow/green enemy space platforms were there for you to gleefully destroy.

The game didn't just take place in space though. Oh no. You could descend to each planet's surface by destroying the invaders orbital stations which allowed you to descend to the surface and take out the control stations there. Once you had blown the lot away it was onto the next planet, giving plenty of level variety throughout the game.

There was a jungle planet, an ice planet, a barren desert planet, and finally the alien factories. Destroying the factories meant victory - and you sent those alien slimeballs back across the space pesos. Each control station destroyed added a hefty bonus to your score too.

Aside from the planets there was also a lovely asteriod field to negotiate, which meant quick reflexes and a cool head.

You could also pick up extra weapons (typical arcade powerup) from time to time.

On Release:
This game was praised for it's use of colour combined with smooth scrolling. Whilst the scrolling was not quite on a par with the likes of Cobra - it was still quite something to see colour splashed around moving smoothly with hardly any colour clash (take note Wally Week!). Graphically the game was amazing and the fact that it had plenty of arcade action sealed it as a must have game for shmup fans. Crash awared it a Smash and described the use of colour as revolutionary. The only downside was the spartan sound effects, but it was a small price to pay for pure eye (and trigger!) candy.

The test of time:
Well, if you like classic arcade games then you won't go far wrong. This game still plays quite well, the controls respond quickly enough and the enemy formations keep you guessing. I can see why this game was heralded all those years ago (I remember it well), and it's definately worth digging out again. Not bad. Not bad at all.

So, watch the Last Starfighter to get you all nostalgic then play this one again.

We recommend getting hold of the real Sinclair hardware but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download LightForce for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: November of 1986
RELEASED BY: FTL
DEVELOPER(S): Greg Follis and Roy Carter
PRICE: £7.95 - UK

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Adventure Of St Bernard - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2010-07-27T16:15:00.005+01:00

Adventures Of St Bernard
Well what can I say, apart from that this game is crap? Really, really crap.

I was unfortunate enough to buy this for my Speccy back in the day, and my hard earned £1.99 (I got the Mastertronic re-release) was duly wasted.

Would you believe that Carnell actually had the gall to charge £5.95 for this turgid piece of 'arcade action' originally? It wasn't even worth the £1.99 that Mastertronic were asking for a year later. Still, you've got to look back and laugh eh?

At least Carnell redeemed themselves with the excellent text adventure 'The Wrath of Magra'....

The whole point to the game was to rescue your 'mistress' (oohh matron) from the clutches of the abominable snowman. We should have rescued the gamers from this abominable game.

The inlay instructions actually used words like 'intrepid' and 'icy wastelands' to convey the terror and action of the situation. Well it doesn't work quite like that...

The game is a horizontally scrolling affair (supposed to arcade action), and you control the hero who must fend off attacks from wolves and jump over broken bits of the icy ground.

Wolves always attack from your rear, so you can scare them away by turning to face them or if you time it right, bite them (use your imagination) to kill them outright.

After you have got far enough (the background scrolls painfully slowly) you will reach stage two. Now you have to jump over water patches and avoid the walrusses that poke their heads up through the ice-holes.

If you have the luck or patience you'll reach stage three where you have to climb a hill and avoid the rolling snowballs. If you make it past this it'll be more by luck than judgement - I never ever did, and never ever will.

You have to laugh as the instructions actually ask:
"Will it go on forever? Is she really worth it? These and many more questions
can be answered in this multi-level, fast moving, colourful
arcade style game."

They also boldy state that the game was written in full machine code, featuring arcade action and cartoon style graphics.

I honestly can't see how this was written in machine code. The controls are so un-responsive it's beyond funny. Your character takes longer to turn than a jug of cream - and timing jumps is well... you've got more chance of winning the lottery.

Oh - and a special mention must go to the sound. It truly is a revolutionary use of the Spectrum's beeper.

On a positive note I suppose the main sprite is quite nicely drawn - it's a shame the animation on it is crap.

Maybe I'm being too hard on this game. It did come out in the early days of '83 so I've got to cut it some slack, but really, play this for comedy value only. It's a load of pish.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download any other arcade game (but not this). Alternatively you could try and play something else online.

GENRE: Arcade Game (Even though it's slower than bullet time)
RELEASE DATE: 1983
RELEASED BY: Carnell Software / Mastertronic
DEVELOPER(S): No idea.
PRICE: £5.95 then re-released by Mastertronic at £1.99 - UK

Hair raising arcade action in this classic game...

Arcade Games, Classic Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Tank Trax - ZX Spectrum Classic Game

2010-07-21T10:11:00.007+01:00

ZX Spectrum Tank Trax
Yet another budget spectrum game that was released by Mastertronic for £1.99. It had originally been released by Amoeba Software at £5.95 - no way was it ever worth that.

This arcade game was a very simple turn based affair designed for two players - you couldn't play against the computer. I ended up playing against myself some of the time back in 1985... but to be fair a little bit of fun could be squeezed out of this game.

I suppose this was a strategy arcade game which had you with your tank against an opponent, also with a tank. There were options to choose such as altering wind speeds and you could also choose to battle it out in mountains or foothills.

Finally you could choose to duel in the daytime or at night - where both thanks were 'hidden' from view. Mind you, you could actually tell where the tanks were sitting if you looked carefully.

But first I've got to mention the menu music which was a little bizarre to say the least. Listen to that beeper sing!

Anyway to defeat your opponent you had to elevate your gun barrel and choose the velocity of the shot you wanted to fire. Unfortunately both tanks were static, so all you could do was point your gun up or down and choose the strength of your shot. If the tanks had been moveable it would have added a lot more to the game.

Anyway, there was also wind speed to take into account (which could be variable if you wanted) and those pesky mountains which were usually in your way. Once you took your shot it either hit your opponent or blasted part of the landscape away. Then you had to wait whilst the other guy took a shot. The game went tit for tat like this until someone landed a direct hit.

A direct hit treated you to a loverrrly rendition of 'the last post' in true beeper style. Which you couldn't stop. And had to listen to every time you played. Which became annoying after about three listens.

As usual for a classic game of the era you could enter your name in the high score table - but it seems that the better you were the less score you got! Check this out as I score a direct hit with my first shot and at night...

It then has the cheek to show me this! Four points for a direct hit on the first shot at night? You gotta be sh*ttin me!

All in all this retro game is a reasonable amount of fun for two players. It's got loads of retro charm and it's simplicity makes it seem a little bit better than it really is.

Not quite crap yet definately not good, this offering is a nice way for a couple of friends to waste half an hour. Give it a go to remember what Spectrum software was like in the early days.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Tank Trax for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game (Arcade Strategy I suppose)
RELEASE DATE: 1983
RELEASED BY: Amoeba Software / Mastertronic
DEVELOPER(S): C Steel, B Baker
PRICE: £5.95 then re-released by Mastertronic at £1.99 - UK

Arcade Games, Classic Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Hysteria - ZX Spectrum classic game

2010-07-09T15:00:00.007+01:00

ZX Spectrum Hysteria
Another classic game for the ZX Spectrum from those excellent folk at Special FX software.

Once again the fantastic Joffa Smith was the main programmer behind the game, and once again his attention to detail and overall polish soon becomes apparent.

This review is a tribute to Jof.

This arcade game was released in 1987 by Software Projects and was met with a lot of praise (let's be honest, most of Jof's games were, his name attached to a game was generally a seal of quality.)

An interesting back story really set the scene...

Someone is changing the future by altering the past. A powerful entity is being summoned forwards through time in an attempt to disrupt the future balance of power. You are the last survivor of the 'time corps', and it is now up to you to prevent this from happening and restore order to the timeline.

It was an interesting slant on some good old classic arcade action! Anyway - the game was a parallax scrolling headbutt em up / shoot em up game that focussed on frantic action and excellent powerups.

You began the game armed with a 'sonic headbutt', which although short-ranged was still pretty powerful. Now comes the clever bit. As you run across the scrolling landscape destroying and evading enemies, worms will periodically pop up from the ground.

Collecting a worm by walking or flying over it will enable you to select a different weapon if you wish. To activate the current weapon type (indicated by an arrow above the icons at the bottom of the screen) press down and fire. The icon flashes, and you are powered up nicely. This was done a little bit 'Nemesis' style I suppose (I wish Jof could have coded the Speccy version of Nemesis - it would have been fantastic).

The same weapon powerups could also be collected and chosen by walking over a lemon! So, a lemon or a worm could increase your firepower - genious stuff!

You are also packing an energy conversion kit which allowed you to change ordinary objects into a powerful array of stunningly useful mega-utilities!

Destroying certain hostile characters and objects will leave behind a clue, which would lead to the identity of one of the conspirarators (symbolized by a jigsaw piece).

Collecting these pieces exposes the entity which will appear (as a classic arcade boss) to battle you. Hit it enough times and it will retreat to another time - allowing you to move to the next level and continue your task in another era.

You only have a limited energy supply which is depleted a little each time you are hit. It was topped up on each new level though. You also have a shield which is to be used sparingly.

On Release:
Once again this game was well recieved and was regarded as an essential purchase for your Spectrum. Apart from the gameplay, what was impressive was the attention to detail. For instance you could set the game background to monochrome or colour, turn the sound effects off and entering your name in the hall of fame was superb! Utterly cool.

We were also treated to another great piece of plip-plop music which had become a trademark since the technique first appeared in Ping Pong.

Some gamers tended to prefer Jof's other uber scroller Cobra (which was a fantastic game and hilarious to boot), but Hysteria was regarded as a top arcade game in it's own right. For me this game just edges Cobra - probably because I can actually play this one quite well and I've always been crap at Cobra! Doesn't stop me trying it again and again though....

The Test of Time:
Well Hysteria is still fun to play. The graphics move very nicely and the parallax scrolling is top notch (amongst the best on a ZX Spectrum). The neat touches really set it apart from other arcade games of 1987. Once again from top notch stuff from Jof and Special FX Software.

Get yourself hysterical and play this. Now.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Hysteria for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game (Side Scroller)
RELEASE DATE: 1987
RELEASED BY: Software Projects
DEVELOPER(S): Jonathan M Smith, Karen Davies, Stephen Wahid, Tony Pomfret
PRICE: £7.95 - UK

Classic scrolling arcade action... note the high score table too.

Spectrum Games - Jonathan Smith

2010-07-02T08:31:00.005+01:00

As most of us ZX Spectrum fans will know - one of the greatest ever coders on our humble 8-bit machine sadly passed away on 26/06/2010

Jonathan Smith (or Joffa) as he became known was responsible for some of the greatest ever titles and arcade conversions for the Speccy.

I never met Jof in person, but he was kind enough to provide me with an interview about his ZX Spectrum coding days last September.

Not only that he kept contact with me (a true legend kept in contact with little old me) and kept providing me with insights into his game coding days, (not only on the Spectrum but also on the Atari ST and other formats), and also his special effects work.

Thanks for the great games, thanks for plip-plop music, thanks for the laughs (particularly on the World Of Spectrum forums), and thanks for the brilliant YouTube videos.

And now I think it's time for another shot on Cobra - perhaps I can finally complete it after all these years.

Rest in peace, Joffa.

Spectrum Game - Galakzions - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2010-06-24T16:58:00.007+01:00

Galakzions ZX Spectrum
Since I'm in ultra-retro game mode at the moment, and the last game I reviewed was Galaxian, I'll stick with it and look at Galakzions from Mikro-Gen.

This game was basically an un-official version of Galaxian, and I tell you what, it's actually not bad.

There is no loading screen (it was released for the ZX Spectrum in 1983 - a time when you could 'copy' arcade originals and get away with by changing the name) and the main menu screen is extremely basic.

Anyway - 99% of you will know the score. Alien space ships attack in the usual Space Invaders formation at the top of the screen, moving left and right in unison.

You are at the bottom part of the screen and can move left, right and fire. And that's it. Simplicity itself - but this is what makes the game so good.

In a twist from Space Invaders some enemy ships would break from formation and 'swoop' down the screen towards you, firing as they went.

As you cleared each wave, the amount of swoopers increased, making each wave more difficult than the last.

Just like Galaxian the game featured a backdrop of a scrolling starfield. There were also three 'speeds' you could play the game at: Slow, Normal or Fast.

Play it on fast for a real challenge.

There isn't really much more to say about this; it's a version of Galaxian and it's good. Considering this is an earlier ZX Spectrum game it's pretty decent and plays nice and smoothly. Good stuff.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Galakzions for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game (Shoot Em Up)
RELEASE DATE: 1983
RELEASED BY: Mikro-Gen
DEVELOPER(S): Stephen Townsend
PRICE: £5.95 - UK

More classic arcade action...

Arcade Games and Classic Games

Spectrum Game - Galaxian - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2010-06-18T09:58:00.008+01:00

ZX Spectrum Galaxian
Surely Galaxian is one of the most well known arcade games of all time?

Atari-soft treated us to the official ZX Spectrum conversion of Namco's classic game in 1984 - and to be fair it did the arcade original justice.

Galaxian basically expanded on the formula pioneered by Space Invaders. As in Space Invaders, Galaxian featured hordes of attacking aliens that took pot shots at the players ship at the bottom of the screen.

Galaxian added a further element of gameplay by having alien ships dive bomb the player's ship (which was called the 'Galax').

Atari-soft managed to cram in the arcade game features, including the opening sequence which proudly stated that 'we are the galaxians' and displayed how many points you would get for each ship type destroyed.

The opening got you in the mood for Galaxian:

The gameplay was relatively simple. Swarm after swarm of alien ships attacked your ship which could be moved left and right at the bottom part of the wraparound screen.

Your ship could only fire sparingly by default, but rearmed instantly when an enemy was blown out of the stars. Once you defeated one swarm of invaders it was replaced by another more aggressive and challenging swarm. As you progressed the amount of 'dive bombing' aliens increased which made things more difficult for the player.

This repeated infinitely until all of your lives were lost.

A plain starfield also scrolled in the background too which looked quite nice.

On Release:
Well Galaxian was considered a bit 'old hat' by 1984 - and even though this version was pretty faithful to the arcade original gamers wanted more. I suppose with games such as Manic Miner, 3D Starstrike and Night Gunner to play, the concept of Galaxian was a bit limited. At £7.99 it was also overpriced.

The test of time:
Well it's not bad to play and captures the spirit of the old arcade machine (which I can just remember). In fact, it's so retro now that it's more relevant today than it was back in the mid 1980's. If you're a fan of Space Invaders or Galaxian then give this a go.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Galaxian for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game (Shoot Em Up)
RELEASE DATE: 1984
RELEASED BY: Atarisoft
DEVELOPER(S): David Aubrey Jones
PRICE: £7.99 - UK

Classic Arcade Action... (needs a decent player though!)

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Krakout - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2010-06-11T13:55:00.009+01:00

ZX Spectrum Krakout
The Spectrum went through a spate of breakout clones, and this was yet another one from the folks that brought us the likes of Trailblazer and Avenger.

Okay, so it's basically Breakout or Arkanoid except turned on it's side. Here you bat from either side of the screen rather than the bottom. One cool feature of the game was the fact that you could select to bat on the left hand or right hand side at the beginning of the game.

You could also select from six 'speeds' of play which added a little variety to the gameplay. The highest speed was only humanly possible if you'd drank 2 litres of Jolt Cola.

There was some real 'clutching at straws' back story about an 'awesome ogre' who had to be defeated, but we won't even go there.

So we've got coloured blocks, a bat and a ball. Time for some classic arcade action. Game on.

As usual for an Arkanoid type game there were various powerups and block behaviour within the game.

For example some bricks when hit rolled over to reveal bonuses. Bonuses that could be got included:

Glue: The Ball sticks to the bat
Bomb: There is a massive explosion destroying adjacent blocks (wo-hoo!)
Shield: Makes a barrier appear behind you (nice)
Missile: Gives you one missile to fire (not very exciting)
Slow down: Slows the ball down slightly (handy)
Times two: Doubles scoring (More precious points)
Double bat: Gives you another bat in front of your present bat. (super!)
Extra man: Gives you an extra life
Expand: Makes your bat expand (no dodgy comments please)

Aside from all this you had the blocks that took multiple hits to destroy and the aliens floating around the screen which could divert the path of the ball if struck by it.

If you like Arkanoid then you will probably like this game. It's easy to pick up and play, the graphics are okay for the era and the controls are responsive enough. The fart noise that accompanies the destruction of an alien becomes a tad annoying after a while though.

On release:
Well this game perhaps came at a time when us ZX Spectrum gamers were becoming a little fed up with Breakout type games. I remember Crash magazine gave it less than favourable review - but this was a rare occasion where I didn't really agree with them. At only £4.99 this game represented great value for money and was a playable Arkanoid type variant. It ended up being a reasonable hit for Gremlin Graphics.

The test of time:
This classic game is easy to get into, playable and you know what you are getting. Not a bad way to pass half an hour and to be fair this game hasn't aged too badly at all.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Krakout for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade game (Breakout Clone)
RELEASE DATE: 1987
RELEASED BY: Gremlin Graphics
DEVELOPER(S):Rob Toone, Andy Green, Greg Holmes, Ben Dalglish, Marco Duroe
PRICE: £4.99 - UK

Classic arcade action in this breakout variant:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Hunchback 2 - ZX Spectrum Classic Game

2010-06-04T13:46:00.006+01:00

ZX Spectrum Hunchback 2
Well ZX Spectrum gamers loved Hunchback by Ocean Software - which is strange because it was, in the main pretty much crap.

With it being popular a sequel was on the cards, and out came this follow up platform game in late 1984. Was this incarnation any better and would it contain any decent arcade action?

Well sort of. Once again poor Esmerelda had been captured and was impisoned in a castle stronghold - so you would play out your rescue over seven screens.

The game was of the classic platform game variety, with our hero having to collect bells in order to progress to the next screen. As well as being able to jump your game character could also grab onto moving ropes and use them to travel upwards and downwards.

There were the usual items to avoid such as arrows flying across the screen, bouncing fireballs, bats, large rats and moving platforms atop pulleys had to be negotiated with care.

The menu screen was quite nicely presented and had a synthesised version of the William Tell Overture (which was quite good before the advent of plip plop music). It certainly had that 'Ocean' feel to it anyway.

You began the game with five lives - and you needed them. The game was all about timing your jumps and waiting for the right moment to move upwards or downwards.

You had to collect all of the small bells (by walking over them) on each screen before making your way to the big bell (usually at the top of the playing area) where you would be transported to the following screen.

It would take a while to master, but once you knew the pattern it was easy to work your way through the current level you were on.

The worst part was that if you were killed at any point the current screen was re-set and you had to do it all again - as in re-collect all of the items. A bit of a bummer that.

All in all Hunchback II was an improvement on the first game, and it was a decent enough platform / arcade game. The traversing and climbing of ropes was a nice feature that made it stand out from other platformers a litte. Even so, it was never in the same league as the likes of Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy or Chuckie Egg.

On Release:
This game was highly anticipated due to the popularity of the first title. I reckon it was a big improvement on the first offering and was more playable. The graphics were improved also - although the main character could have been animated better (especially when he jumps). Still, this game was playable enough and sold plenty of copies.

The Test Of Time:
It hasn't aged at all well. I just can't get into it and can't be bothered to re-learn the patterns to each screen. It all get's pretty frustrating due to some dodgy collision detection and having to re-do each screen from scratch every time you lose a life. I'd rather play many other arcade games of this type - even the uber difficult Fahrenheit 3000 grabs me more than this. I do like the high score table entry though. Not bad - but not one of the best.

It used to be classic arcade action.... but now it's so so:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Rambo - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

2010-05-31T10:35:00.006+01:00

ZX Spectrum Rambo
Ahhh good old Rambo - the ultimate 80's action icon?

Stallone's on screen larger than life character was bound to make the transition to 8-bits, and Ocean Software won the rights to convert Rambo to the ZX Spectrum in 1985.

Surely such a well known action character would lead to a classic arcade game? Well, sort of...

According to the instructions this classic game took place in approximately 1 million sq. feet (scale) of jungle which featured the P.O.W. camp, a secret Temple plus many different types of terrain.

Good old Colonel Trautman, had given you very precise orders...
Find the P.O.W. camp, photograph the evidence then make your way north to the extraction point where a helicopter would whisk you to the safety of your command centre in Thailand.

Just like in the movie you were not to engage the enemy or attempt to rescue any POW's you may find.

Of course on finding captured soldiers and hordes of enemy soldiers your fighting instincts took over and it was time to kick some ass, in true Rambo/Arcade game style.

You had to free the captive POW (who was tied up) and then head north towards the extration point to where the chopper would be waiting.

The game was presented in standard 8 way scrolling, with the jungle scenery moving nicely around our hero. Of course there were plenty of enemy soldiers skulking around the playing area too, and in the beginning you could use the trusty knife or grenades to take them out.

The grenades were very effective but obviously noisy - so using them would draw more enemy soldiers towards you. The knife required more skill to use but was also more stealthy and kept contact with the enemy at a minimum. Even so, for some reason the bad guys 'exploded' when you threw a knife at them! They should've only done this with explosive tipped arrows?

Further weapons such as a machine gun, rocket launcher and the famous bow and arrow could be found in the jungle (in a different location each time you played), but only one could be selected and used at a time. The variety of weapons was a good feature and added something more to the arcade action.

Basically the aim of the game was to gain access to the camp (through a hole in the fence), rescue the soldier named Banks then head north to the chopper. Once in the chopper you had to locate the helipad where more hostages could be liberated. With the hostages on board it was time for a final duel with the enemy gunship before flying to safety.

On Release:
The movies had already been popular so the arcade game ended up being popular too. This game was generally regarded as a reasonable effort in the arcade genre, and for a movie tie in was pretty well executed. It did well due to the popularity of the character.

The Test Of Time:
Well, I want what every other Spectrum games player wants, for this game to love me as much as I, love it! But unfortunately - it's not quite there.
Rambo is still fairly playable, but has aged more than other arcade games from the same era. The characters tend to flicker and it just doesn't play as well as the likes of Commando. Not bad, and worth it for pure nostalgia. Nice loading screen and cool 'drum beats' rendition of the film music too. Try it - cos if you don't I'll give you a war you won't believe.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Rambo for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: 1985
RELEASED BY: Ocean Software
DEVELOPER(S): David Anderson, F David Thorpe
PRICE: £7.95 - UK

Our hero wastes a few bad guys in classic arcade action:

Arcade Games, Classic Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Starmaker - ZX Spectrum Classic Game

2010-05-24T11:29:00.006+01:00

ZX Spectrum Starmaker
Starmaker was a strategy game/management game released for the ZX Spectrum in 1986 by R&R Software.

The games coder Dave Hawkins also went on to develop adventure games such as Wizards Warrior and Stranded.

This game was something different on the Speccy - where most games player were used to arcade games, adventure games or platform action.

The aim of the game was to run a music band and drive them to commercial success.

After choosing your skill level you would begin. After naming your band you started with a small amount of cash, although you do have the option of borrowing from the bank. If you want you can go straight into it and start on the long road to pop stardom. I wonder if Simon Cowell used this to hone his skills?

You can choose from varying options from making a record (either a single or an album), performing a concert, advertising (only if you have a record to advertise) and also producing some merchandise such as posters and T-shirts.

To generate cash you have to sell records, starting with singles before moving on to albums. If you get it right your bands popularity will increase and you will generate more money. Other positives will happen such as deejays interviewing the band, slots on tv will reap more cash and so on. Just watch out for dodgy geezers selling fake tickets to one of your concerts!

A rocking gig in this classic game:

If you play it right you may never have to borrow from Mr Jones.

The interface is nice and easy to follow, with icons and options clearly displayed allowing you to make your next managerial choice (the phone ringing icon when you phone Ron Static to produce some merchandise is excellent!)

At each month end you see what position in the charts your single reached and how much of your merchandise you have sold. This in turn will give you a figure of revenue generated - hopefully at a profit!

All in all this classic game was very enjoyable back in the day, and you know what, it's still fun to play all these years later.

On Release:
This game picked up a bit of a cult following back in 1986 and did reasonably well. It was never a huge hit but a lot of gamers enjoyed it as it was playable and something different (I was more of an arcade games player but really liked this back then). At only £2.99 it was great value too.

The test of time:
Like I say this classic game is still pretty playable. It's got oodles of retro charm, is easy to use and once you start generating some cash is plenty of fun. Give it a go.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Starmaker for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Management Game
RELEASE DATE: 1986
RELEASED BY: R&R Software
DEVELOPER(S): Dave Hawkins
PRICE: £2.99 - UK

Star making those stars in classic gaming action:

Arcade Games, Classic Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Mr Freeze - ZX Spectrum classic game

2010-05-08T23:41:00.009+01:00

ZX Spectrum Mr Freeze
This slightly odd platform/arcade game was released for the Speccy by Firebird in 1984.

It sold for £2.50 before being re-released at £1.99 - and was just about worth it. Just.

In the game you played that part of Mr Freeze, a cool customer if ever there was one. Ahem.

The challenge was to de-ice six compartments of a refrigerator using your trusty flame thrower - so the game was spread over a walloping massive six screens!

There were the usual hazards to watch out for in an arcade game based in a fridge. Nasties such as flying food, guardian robots and lasers of course.

Also stationary ice-cubes would prove to be deadly and falling through any gaps in the shelves would take away one of your six lives. Six screens, six lives, you had to stay ice-cool to overcome the excitement in this game...

You could de-ice the compartments in any order you fancied - so it was possible to traverse between the screens, which were linked in tried and tested flick screen fashion.

To de-ice a compartment you had to walk into the De Ice button located at the top of the screen - your flame thrower was actually just used to 'scare away' nasties (it didn't kill them, merely turned them away from you)

The main thing to avoid was the laser which would try and zap you as you climbed any set of stairs. A little tactical thinking was required when planning your route upwards in any of the compartments.

The game would have been decent but for one thing: The controls are more stodgy than my mum's Bolognaise. Getting our hero to jump a gap or move off a ladder is fiddly and usually happens more by luck than judgement. If it wasn't for this the game would be okay - as it stands it was (and still is) a bit of a frozen turkey.

On release:
Well this arcade game did not do Firebird any favours - although they would go on to do better. It was generally regarded back then as poor to average - but the awful controls and low amount of screens made sure it generally recieved a 'cold reception'. Even at £2.50 it was frozen out in favour of other bargain offerings. There were far better platform games you could get for your lolly too.

The test of time:
I did have this back in the day (picked up with my £1.99 pocket money) and managed to complete it despite the crappy controls. I never played it again - and writing this review has brought back all those bad memories. It could have been an okay game - but believe me it isn't. Even the little game over ditty is odd.

It's time to give this game a go for pure nostalgia and laughability. You'll soon see that it's not nICE.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Mr Freeze for the ZX Spectrum if you want to see a poor-ish game. Alternatively you could try and play it online.

GENRE: Arcade Game (Platform game)
RELEASE DATE: 1984
RELEASED BY: Firebird Software
DEVELOPER(S): David T Clark
PRICE: £2.50 then £1.99 - UK

Stay cool in some insipid arcade action:

It's game over (thankfully) - hang onto your joystick in this not so classic game:

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Programmer Interview - David M Webb

2010-04-30T08:09:00.004+01:00

David M Webb was a programmer and author of many books for the ZX Spectrum

His books included 'Advanced Spectrum Machine Language' and 'Supercharge your Spectrum' - which were both big sellers.

Many gamers will remember his 3D classic arcade game Starion, and anyone who was into arcade gaming on the ZX Spectrum from the early days may well remember the Pac-Man style game Spookyman.

We were lucky enough to catch up with David who was more than happy to talk about his Spectrum coding days.

1: What was the first computer you ever programmed on, and how old were you at the time?

In 1978, at 13, the parent-teachers association at my school (Fulford Comprehensive, York) used some of their school fete money to buy a teletype terminal and a 300-baud acoustic modem, and we were given an account on the DEC-10 mainframe at York University. So with that, we could write and run basic programs.

The machine had no display, but printed results on rolls of white paper – it was like the machine that used to print the football scores on TV, and very noisy. Games like Lunar Lander were feasible, but in slow motion – you would send a command, and it would move the lander one space and print the results. One of the first programs I wrote was an unbeatable noughts and crosses.

The terminal had a punch-tape reader/writer, so we could store our programs (written in BASIC) on rolls of pink paper punch tape, which fit ideally in a school blazer pocket. Lunchtimes at Fulford were fun.

2: How did you get into the games development scene? Did you start with BASIC before moving into other languages?

Later, in 1981, I bought a ZX81, and taught myself machine language from a book. I wrote a toolkit for the 1K ZX81, which was the first program I sold to Melbourne House, and later a toolkit for the ZX81 with the 16K RAM pack hanging off the pack. The 16K RAM pack cost GBP50, and was notorious for being wobbly, so you had to keep the machine on a solid table to avoid losing memory.

BASIC was, well, basic – you couldn’t do much with an interpreted language on a machine running at 4MHz. Machine language allowed much more. There was a Zilog book called “Programming the Z80” which had details of exactly how many clock cycles each instruction took to execute. Every cycle counted for a top-notch game.

3: How did you end up at Melbourne House? And what was the company like to work for?

I never worked for Melbourne House as such. They were one of my publishers, and paid me royalties based on a percentage of sales of my works, but there was no employment contract. I was still at Woking Sixth Form College and then Oxford University while writing the books and games. A company called Abbex also published two of my games.

4: What was the first game you had published?

After the ZX 81 Toolkit, my first game for the Spectrum was Spookyman, which was not unlike Pac Man.

5: What did you like about programming on the Spectrum and what was your impression of the machine the first time you used it?

Well, the big breakthrough was that it had colour, and a decent screen resolution (256x192 was big news compared to the ZX81), and a separate graphics chip, so the CPU didn’t spend half its time painting the screen, as the ZX80 and ZX81 did. The bad news was that you could only have 2 colours per 8x8 pixel block, so games had to work around that. So there was one memory block of 6KB for the monochrome data (256x192/8), and then a different block for the colour, which was much smaller (32x24=768 bytes). Still, for the 16KB spectrum, that took up quite a bit of RAM. It was certainly built down to a price – hence the membrane keyboard.

For my later games, I used a Memotech machine to write in assembler, and port the code across the RS232 link in the Expansion Pack for testing.

6: And what did you not like about programming on the Spectrum?

See above

7: How did you get into writing books about programming?

Melbourne House asked me to write the books. The first was “Supercharge Your Spectrum” and the second was “Advanced Spectrum Machine Language”. The first one had more mass-market appeal, because BASIC programmers could use it. The second one was, as its title suggests, aimed at more sophisticated users.

8: Did you prefer writing games or books?

I enjoyed both. The books were a bit more tedious because of all the proof-reading, but it was cool to see my name in print at 18. The games were intellectually challenging, because I had to stretch the capabilities of the machine to new boundaries by writing really neat and efficient code.

9: How did you manage to animate smooth vectors and a machine as humble as the ZX Spectrum?

This was a bit of a breakthrough at the time. The key to it was some very efficient code for copying the 4K of active screen area (256x128) during the screen refresh. I had to draw each frame in a separate block of RAM (4K) and then copy it across to the graphics area when the machine had finished drawing that part of the screen to the CRT. So I wrote a routine treated the screen memory like a stack, using every register of the CPU (including the alternates), pushing and popping 16 bytes at a time.

10: Did you move onto the 16-bit machines once the Spectrum scene began to fade?

No. My last game was the Amstrad version of Starion, written in the summer of 1985. The C64 version was programmed (badly) by someone else, but I got a royalty for the game design. Then I had 1 year left to focus on my maths degree.

11: Can you tell us what path you took once you had moved on from the ZX Spectrum? Are you still active in the games industry today?

No, I could see in 1986 that it would soon be impossible for a single programmer to turn out a top-class game, because of the increasing power of computers. So with polyphonic sound and much better displays, it would take teams of people to produce a good game, including composers and graphics designers, and a lot of business knowledge to run that as a company. I didn’t have the business knowledge, and I didn’t just want to be a programmer.

By then I had been investing my royalties in the stock market, and this interest took me into investment banking in the City of London at the age of 21. I moved to Hong Kong in 1991, and this is now my home. I was an investment banker until 1994, then worked for a local conglomerate as in-house adviser for 4 years, then retired in 1998 (aged 32) to focus on my investments in HK small-caps, and set up a non-profit site, http://www.webb-site.com/, to push for corporate and economic governance reforms.

My programming skills still come in handy – I wrote a lot of VBscript and Visual Basic to automate the site, which uses a MySQL database back-end.

12: Were you a games player back then? Did you have any favourite games be it your own or games by other software houses?

Not really. Writing them was more fun. I do recall a couple of good games: Manic Miner and Chequered Flag.

13: Which other developers on the Spectrum impressed you during that time?

I can’t remember any, but it was always cool to see people pushing the envelope with what the machine could do.

14: And finally - with the whole retro game scene booming do you ever fancy writing another game for the Spectrum?

Yes, but I will never find the time to do it!

Here is an example of David's vectror graphics from the demo Show 3D:

Once again many thanks to David for taking the time to do this.

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

ZX Spectrum Games

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Spectrum Games - W*H*B - Modern ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Frank N Stein (Rebooted) - Modern Retro Classic

Spectrum Games - Frank N Stein and Dracula Update - Colin Stewart

Spectrum Games - Programmer Interview - Colin Stewart

Spectrum Games - Castle Quest - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Programmer Interview - Mark R Jones

Spectrum Games - Force Fighter - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Programmer Interview - Steve Turner

ZX Spectrum Games - Ad Astra - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

ZX Spectrum Games - Steel Eagle - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Xenon - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Ghost's Revenge - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - 3D Lunattack - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

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Spectrum Games - Silkworm - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - SWIV - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - 3D Combat Zone - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Gilligans Gold - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Airwolf II - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Programmer Interview - Alberto Gonzalez (Joe McAlby)

Spectrum Games - The Light Corridor - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Programmer Interview - Lee Tonks

Spectrum Games - Spy Hunter - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Flight Path 737 - Classic ZX Spectrum Games

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Spectrum Games - Moon Patrol - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Munch Man - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Star Trader - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Programmer Interview - Nick Bruty

Spectrum Games - Out Run - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Guardian II - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Light Force - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

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Spectrum Games - Tank Trax - ZX Spectrum Classic Game

Spectrum Games - Hysteria - ZX Spectrum classic game

Spectrum Games - Jonathan Smith

Spectrum Game - Galakzions - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Game - Galaxian - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Krakout - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Hunchback 2 - ZX Spectrum Classic Game

Spectrum Games - Rambo - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Spectrum Games - Starmaker - ZX Spectrum Classic Game

Spectrum Games - Mr Freeze - ZX Spectrum classic game

Spectrum Games - Programmer Interview - David M Webb

Spectrum Games - WHB - Modern ZX Spectrum Game