Spectrum Games - Hypaball - Classic ZX Spectrum Game

Hypaball ZX Spectrum
This was the second computer game for the good old Speccy by Bernie Dugggs, aka Doug Burns.

His first (Ping Pong) was an excellent conversion of the Konami table tennis game which goes down in history as one of the great arcade conversions for our beloved 8-bit machine.

This classic game was released by Odin in 1986 and is one of the few Spectrum Games where distribution is still denied all of these years later.

Like any good game from the 1980s it had a back story and synopsis to set the scene. Game on...

The minimalist loading screen works well

The inlay instructions proudly tell us:
'Beyond field sport, deep into the future of mankind, lies the greatest team game in the known Universe - Hypaball.'

You begin the game picking your players for your team which are called 'The Hawks". Each player has a different name and attributes such as speed, strength and so on; so the selection does make a small difference to the actual gameplay.

Once you have made your selections (it's a bit like picking teams in 5-a-side!) it is onto the game proper to do battle with the no doubt evil Vipers and try to win the Odin Super Cup.

The game takes place in the ultra-cool sounding 'Hypa-Dome', played against the clock, with each team trying to outscore the other.

The 'goal' is basically a moving box on a central column which is constantly shifting upwards and downards on it's vertical axis. 

I'm hypa just thinking about it!

Hitting it is by no means easy and the ball bounces around the arena pretty quickly, moving from one side of the screen to another (in a wrap-around styleeee) and of course bouncing off the walls and 'ceiling' of this hypa-arena, the hypa-most of hypadomes.

The winners of the game are (unsurprisingly) the team with the highest score at the end of the match.

The game itself is quite fun due to the nicely implemented ball physics and once you get the hang of it you can pre-empt where the ball is going to appear.

As I said scoring points is a difficult task, but with a bit of practice you can judge your throws quite well and it is possible to score from different angles and areas of the screen.

On Release:
This is a game that met with a pretty lukewarm reception when it was released back in the day. Crash magazine were pretty harsh when they reviewed it - a little unfairly in my opinion. Still, it is fair to say that this game was not up to the high standards set by the mighty Ping Pong, and at £9.99 it was overpriced.

The Test Of Time:
This is a classic game that is okay for a quick play and a bit of perseverance pays off. There are some nice ideas in here and if it had some extra features such as different ways to accumulate points, powerups, player boosts and so on it would have really been something special. Two player mode can be quite fun too, I got more out of it playing against Brian than I did against the Speccy. It could also be considered a cultural predecessor to the mighty Speedball and even mightier Speedball II.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware - and this game is not available for download online.

GENRE: Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: 1986
RELEASED BY: Odin
DEVELOPER(S): Doug Burns
PRICE: £9.99

Classic Arcade Action:
 

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

Spectrum Games - Hysteria - ZX Spectrum classic game

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 - Hunchback 2 - ZX Spectrum Classic Game

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 - Hyper active - ZX Spectrum retro game - arcade game

ZX Spectrum Hyper Active
Hyper Active was a Sinclair User covertape arcade game in 1988. I tell you what, for a freebie attached to the cover of a gaming magazine, Hyper Active was pretty good!

Taking inspiration from the classic arcade game Defender, this game had you as an astronaut trapped on an unstable asteroid.


You had to collect a series of energy pods (one at a time) by touching them. On contact they would float and circle around you - keeping close by as you jetted around the scrolling level. In the centre of the level there was a crystal repository where you would drop the pods off at. So - drop one off and go find another.

A scanner at the bottom of the screen (again very reminiscent of Defender) showed the locations of each pod as well as the alien nasties that inhabited each level.

Luckily you were armed with a rather splendid lazer gun which zapped the alien hordes very nicely. As the levels progressed your weapon would change to a sort of missle launcher, bomb dropper (on bonus levels) and so on. Good variety actually.

Each level had different nasties to destroy such as weaving dragons (reminded me a little of the dragons in the arcade classic Space Harrier), flying saucers etc.

You also had to watch your shield level and energy level. Losing either meant the loss of one of your three lives or no ammo!

If you dallied around too much on a level then a rapid flying homing saucer would be on your ass like attribute clash on Wally Week - and a bit of nifty flying was required to nail it.

Once you had made your way through each level you were returned the start with the difficulty ramped up... It looks like there was no way out afterall for our poor star traveller.

It should also be noted that this game featured some absolutely stonking menu music. Keith Tinman's theme tune is superb and ranks amongst my favourite ZX Spectrum music.

The excellent music to set the scene of this arcade game...


The only downside to this classic game is the main character is a little difficult to control - it can be fiddly lining up to shoot down the nasties. Having said that once you get the hang of the gravity effect (which is nicely balanced) it's pretty much okay.

All in all for a freebie this game was superb - I would have been happy to part with £2.99 for it!

I think I'm also correct in saying that Joffa Smith developed this game in roughly five days - not bad going eh?

GENRE: Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: 1988
RELEASED BY: Special FX Software - Sinclair User Covertape
DEVELOPER(S): Jonathan Smith and Keith Tinman (music)
PRICE: FREE!



Classic Games and ZX Spectrum Games

ZX Spectrum Game - Hypersports - ZX Spectrum retro game

ZX Spectrum Hypersports
Yet another fine Joystick Waggler for the ZX Spectrum - Hypersports was the official conversion of the Konami arcade game which was the follow up to Track and Field (which had inspired the uber popular Daley Thompsons Decathlon).

Anyway, Imagine Software released Hypersports for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum in the summer of 1985 - and it was met with high regard.



As usual with these types of classic games (and these conversions from arcade game to home computer), there were a number of events for you to overcome.

The events were: Swimming, Skeet Shooting, Vault, Archery, Triple Jump and finally Weightlifting.

Each event had either a qualifying time, distance or target for you to achieve. To proceed onto the next event you had to qualify in the preceding one - failure to do so resulted in the end of the game.

It should be noted that some of the events could be a bit damaging to your ZX Spectrum keyboard or your joystick. But that was usual for these types of sports arcade games...

So, after inputting your initials it was game on, and time to don those speedo's for the first event.
The swimming event was a pretty simple one to start with. All you had to do was waggle that stick or mash the keys as fast as you could whilst intermittently hitting the fire button to make your swimmer breathe (a little breach icon flashed up telling you to do so). If you breathed too early then your swimmer would stop for a moment to cough and splutter.

Skeet shooting (my favourite) was a fast moving event. Your marksman would stand in the centre of the bottom half of the screen as the clay pigeons zipped in from the left and right. You had two 'targets' and when a skeet passed through you could blast it away. Qualifying from here saw your marksman turn to look at you with a smile on his face and give you a cheeky wink!

Next, it was into the gym and onto (or vault) the wooden horse. Your man automatically ran up to the horse but you had to time his jump onto the springboard using the fire button to make him vault. Too itchy on the trigger finger and you didn't get much of a jump; too late and your guy tripped over.

Timing the jump correctly was the key - doing so launched your athlete through the air, to land hands first on the horse. Now the tricky bit; when his body was horizontal you had to press fire again and hit the speed buttons as fast as possible to make him somersault over and over. Now you had to land feet first, otherwise he would tumble over and you're score would be penalised. This was a pretty tricky event!

After this came the archery - one of the most difficult events (as far as my foggy memort tells me anyway). Pressing fire determined wind speed and then a target was winched down the screen which you had to hit.

To do this you had to allow for wind speed and let the arrow fly by pressing the fire button. Making sure your angle was as near to five degrees as possible was the way to an accurate shot - and if you were really good you might hit the bullseye. You didn't win a speedboat though.

Next it was the triple jump and this was speed button-tastic. With as much speed as you could waggkle, you had to run up to the line and press the jump button, aiming for a 45 degree angle. You had to this again for the step and the jump to get a qualifying score.

The weight lifting event was a mash your Speccy into the deck or destroy your joystick level. After selecting the weight to 'lift' it you had to pound or waggle away until your man lifted the weight to his chest. Once there you had to press fire to 'snatch' the weights and waggle away again push and keep them above his head. Once that is over you and your arms (and ZX Spectrum!) had recovered it was back to the start with each qualifying time more difficult.

This was all classic arcade gaming action!

On release:
Daley Thompson Decathlon had been a smash hit on the ZX Spectrum and Hypersports was a welcome addition to the sporting genre. Gamers new the format and style of play and the arcade game had been popular too. Programmer Jonathan Smith (who always signatured his games with 'Joffa' or his name written in reverse) did a good job converting Konami's game to the humble Speccy. The game was playable, the events were varied, the characters nicely animated and it was addictive overall. Playing with others was good for a laugh too as you tried to beat each others scores. Magazines and gamers enjoyed Hypersports and it was a big hit.

The test of time:
Well here in Spectrum games we like a bit of Hypersports every now and again. It is a pretty simple game and is easy to get into. It'll never keep you occupied for hours but for a quick half hour you can't go wrong - and it's still fun with two players too. The controls are responsive, and the skeet shooting and triple jump are particularly good. A good arcade game back then, still not bad today.

Try not to be too hard on your keyboard when playing Hypersports again!

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

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

GENRE: Arcade sports game
RELEASE DATE: Summer of 1985
RELEASED BY: Imagine Software
DEVELOPER(S): Jonathan (Jof) Smith
PRICE: £7.95

Bri does a bit of swimming with classic arcade action


Mart loves a bit of arcade game shooting...

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games

ZX Spectrum Games - Horace Goes Skiing - ZX Spectrum retro game

ZX Spectrum Horace Goes Skiing
Another classic ZX Spectrum game (one that would run on the 16K Spectrum) that is surely fondly remembered by most.

Horace was a ZX Spectrum Games character that starred in four separate adventures. Horace goes skiing was his second outing on the ZX Spectrum, and was almost 'two games in one'.

The game was coded by William Tang (of Melbourne House fame) and released by Sinclair Research in 1982 - making it one of the early titles for the Sinclair machine.

The first part of the game was getting Horace across the road to the ski hut to purchase the equipment allowing him to ski on the slopes. This part of the game was really very similar to the classic arcade game Frogger - and was a decent rendition to be honest.

At the beginning of the game Horace had $40 to spend. If he was knocked down whilst crossing the (busy) road it cost $10 in ambulance fees. After you had guided Horace across the road, you had to walk him into the door of the hut where he would fetch his skis at a cost of $10.

Horace could not enter the ski hut unless he could afford the hire charge. If Horace had spent all his money on ambulance fees, then it was possible to accumulate points and money by crossing the road repeatedly - very dangerous. At every 1000 points scored Horace received a $10 bonus.

You would notice when doing this that the traffic became more hectic.

Anyway - once you had collected the skis it was time to race back across the road and onto the slopes.

Now the game switched to the actual ski-ing, the second part of the game. You had to slalom down the ski-slope (the Hannekon run), avoiding any trees and going between the flags.


Points were scored for travelling between the flags - and as before $10 was awarded for every 1000 points gained. Hitting trees caused Horace to fall over - but if his ski's were undamaged then you could carry on down the slope. If they were broken then it was back to the busy highway to purchase them again...

You gained more points for succesfully moving through the end flags - and once you had conquered the slope it was back to that insanely busy road to get your next set of ski's...

On Release:
Well Hungry Horace had been a popular game on the ZX Spectrum and his next outing proved to be equally as popular. It was quite well received, the colourful graphics and different stages went down well with gamers. In the early days of the ZX Spectrum, arcade games like this were quite amazing...

The test of time:
Well old father time has not been too kind to poor old Horace. But here in Spectrum games we look back at this one with a lot of fondness. It was never a brilliant game (even back then) but it reminds us of that magical time when colour graphics, slightly jerky scrolling and sparse sound effects seemed to be the pinnacle of technological achievements. We also reckon it was written in BASIC - not bad at all if so.

Get out the cowbells and download Horace Goes Skiing for the ZX Spectrum. 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
RELEASE DATE: 1982
RELEASED BY: Sinclair Research Ltd
DEVELOPER(S): William Tang
PRICE: £1.99 - UK

Mart really needs to drink more before going on the piste in a really early arcade game...

ZX Spectrum Game - Harrier Attack - ZX Spectrum retro game

ZX Spectrum Harrier Attack
Harrier Attack was an earlier right-to-left scrolling arcade game probably inspired by the arcade classic, Scramble. This game achieved cult status and put Durell Software on the Speccy games map.

The developer Mike Richardson would go on to create many more quality titles for the ZX Spectrum during the 1980's (such as the quirky and original Scuba Dive and the excellent battle simulation Combat Lynx also released by Durell)

On load-up the loading screen picture was simply animated and the front most harrier would launch a few rockets before you were taken into the games menu. Once you had selected your controls it was into the game proper.

The aim of this classic arcade game was very simple - take control of a Sea Harrier jet to bomb enemy ground installations, ships and also defend yourself from opposing fighter jets.

Starting on an aircraft carrier you would take off and increase speed, and the sea (and clouds) would scroll past from right to left. It was possible to 'stay low' over the sea to avoid radar, but you would run the risk of being shot down by an enemy destroyer.

You would soon be flying over land where flak batteries would pepper the sky and enemy fighters would swoop in to try and take you out.

You could drop bombs onto the ground targets and you were also armed with air-to-air missiles to defend yourself against the enemy aircraft. These missiles were short range and were guided by your flight path.

If you fired then made your harrier climb, the rocket would also climb with you. This made for interesting tactics when shooting down any enemy planes. It was also possible to fly above the planes and drop a bomb onto them and destroy them this way - not the most realistic of scenarios eh?

If you made it to the end of the 'island' then you would fly over the enemy 'base' (which happened to look like a load of seafront hotels) and you would pick up the majority of your points as you unleashed your remaining payload onto the installations. Once past the base you would return to your carrier and land (carefully - otherwise you would put your harrier down too hard and destroy it)

There were simple indicators in the game showing your airspeed, fuel and remaining ammunition. You would need to land on the carrier before your fuel ran out to succesfully complete the mission.

It was also possible to 'bail out' and your pilot would parachute to safely as your harrier plummeted into the sea or ground. It was better than crashing if you ran out of fuel and was a cute little touch to the game too.

One thing should be noted with Harrier Attack was the fact that it was possible to bomb your own ship as you took off from it. If you did bomb it, then when you made it back it would no longer be there (presumably having sunk) and being unable to land on it your plane would just continue flying until it ran out of fuel and crashed, or you bailed out.

Nice attention to detail there by Mike Richardson.

On Release:
The game was an early release, but was generally given high accolades. It was probably the best side scrolling arcade game available for the Speccy at that point in time. Gamers enjoyed the fast paced action, the bombing runs and the five skill levels. The fact that it was available for a 16K Spectrum ensured it had a wide fan base. The quirks in the game (such as flying 'behind' clouds, bailing out of your plane and bombing your own ship somehow seemed to make the game even better).

The test of time:
Let's be honest here, this game is extremely simple. There is little depth and the action is repetitive. But you know what? It's still fun, and it represents the early days of home computer gaming. Remember a full scrolling arcade game was *squeezed into a 16K Spectrum - a minor miracle. If you've got 15 minutes to spare you could do worse than having a quick go on Harrier Attack - a fine retro arcade game.

*Good old Mike managed to get the executable size down to just under 9KB, which allowed for a fast loading time from cassette. The game is rumoured to have sold roughly a quarter of a milltion copies in total. Some going.

We recommend getting hold of the real hardware but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Harrier Attack for the ZX Spectrum. Alternatively you could try and play it online. Fly fly fly!

GENRE: Scrolling Arcade Game
RELEASE DATE: 1983
RELEASED BY: Durell Software
DEVELOPER(S): Mike Richardson
PRICE: £6.95 - UK

Flying ace Major Lawrence Bartle Frere shows he is still an ace when it comes to classic arcade game action...

Classic Games, Arcade Games and ZX Spectrum Games