A Conversation for Classic ZX Spectrum Games

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Post 1

DoctorGonzo

Okay, so far we've got the Miner Willy games, Stop the Express!, Dizzy, The Hobbit, a load of Julian Gollop's games, and Chase HQ...

Anyone dissapprove of any of those choices? And what else should we have?


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Post 2

Mister Matty

Glad to see Ant Attack in there smiley - smiley

Forgot to mention, there is no excuse for leaving out Ocean's seminal Head over Heels


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Post 3

DoctorGonzo

Yes there is - no one's mentioned it yet :p

Which is why this thread is here smiley - ok


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Post 4

DoctorGonzo

Erk.

There's an entry on Dizzy gone into the edited guide today, so a detailed section would be unnecessary. A short couple of sentences and a link will have to suffice.


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Post 5

Mistdancer-X-sporadically coherent

How Could You?????

All this wonderful nostalgia, and no mention of my all time fave Speccy game???

Ok, who forgot about Atic Atac??? I think that's how it was spelt! And no, I never completed the damn thing...even though I got the A.C.E. keys and got back to the front door. It never let me out smiley - wah

Oh, how I loved my speccysmiley - cuddle It's just not the same on the emulator!

smiley - elf


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Post 6

Mister Matty

Atic Atac - good idea smiley - cheers

You fancy doing an entry on it? smiley - smiley


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Post 7

Mistdancer-X-sporadically coherent

Oh man, now you're asking the almost impossible!!!

My free time is not very free, having 2 kids under 5! But I will happily collaborate with someone! My memories of the speccy are here for you all to pick at!

I remember playing Civilisation on the 48k, and leaving it on overnight to build up some money!!! And I ruined numerous tape decks loading the games! I even blew up the speccy ...twice...and it still worked after it cooled down! They turned a rather fetching red when they were left on for 3 days!!smiley - winkeye

Mind you, the O and P keys took a hammering!!!

smiley - elf
Proud owner of a 48k speccy, commodore 64 (with a disk drive!), Amiga 500 and Amiga 1200!!


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Post 8

DoctorGonzo

I wasn't aware that Civ was available on the spectrum - I remember it on the Amiga, where it was a 2 player game, one to play the game, one to swap the disks...

Now Atic Atac - should that go under Action? I remember it, especially the 'falling down a pit' animation and noise. In fact, the sound effects were pretty fine, as I recall.


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Post 9

Bagpuss

I didn't know Civ was either, but somewhere I have a saved Sim City game, where I built a power station, two residential blocks, a commercial one and an industrial one with a bit of road linking the two and went away for a week. $$$$

I'm amazed I vever overheated my 48K pulling stunts like that. *thinks* Does anyone know why the membrane burned out?

I think there should be some mention of the ubiquitous eighties sporting joystick waggler. Didn't play them myself, partly due to not having a joystick, but mostly because they were a bit pants.


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Post 10

DoctorGonzo

Daley Thompson's Decathlon, and Super Test? They were good, as I recall. They could go under one heading, like Miner Willy.


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Post 11

Bagpuss

I thought there was a lot of them. Probably all clones of the ones you mentioned, though.


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Post 12

Scott Bennett-AKA Scoop

I used to play ghostbusters quite a lot.smiley - ghost


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Post 13

DoctorGonzo

Woo - a blast from the past. Sort of several sub-games in one, wasn't it? You had the driving, the catching of the ghosts, the city screen, and the bit at the end that ended abruptly. And you could play again, with the same 'bank account' as I recall. And it used to shout 'GHZTBZTRS' at you, before playing the theme tune. Ace.


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Post 14

Scott Bennett-AKA Scoop

Yep that's da one.
Often it ended abruptly by crashing.


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Post 15

Mister Matty

Didn't it actually go "GZBZTERS! VAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA" in fantastic spectrum fuzzospeak, as though the words were formed by a swarm of well-trained bees.

And what was the point of those dots your Ghostbusters logo left as you moved around the city?


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Post 16

Bagpuss

That reminds me, the Dizzy article didn't mention that number III shouts "FGTZY WRRD DZIYYY!" at you did it?


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Post 17

Scott Bennett-AKA Scoop

All of these rememberings about poor/genius quality spectrum speak is true.

The best is from a game I think was called 'F-1 Simulator'.
The simulation was limited to a square dot a circular dot and a triangular dot "driving" (or more often crashing at ludicrus speed) around a figure 8 circuit.

At the start the speecy would say "VREEE DO UN GRRR" to announce the beginning of the race.

PS
I'd forgotton about them till you mentioned them but ehat the F**K were those dots about?


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Post 18

Bagpuss

Just so we're not only picking out the bad examples, there's a Codemasters' game called "Championship Jet Ski Simulator" that did a very passable impersonation of BBC English (only on 128K I think). That is, if the BBC radio station was a badly-tuned medium wave one, but still it wasn't bad.


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Post 19

Scott Bennett-AKA Scoop

I think we should put in a quick mention for the classic magazines of the period like CRASH that made the spectrum experience what it was.
Oh and also the feeling of rivalry with Commodore 64 owners.


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Post 20

Bagpuss

CRASH! was great. An wot about da loony Jetman cartoon?


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