What was your favourite ZX Spectrum game?

i think manic miner (has no-one mentioned this yet? my (acting) boss looked over my shoulder when i had this window open and said MM should win, hands-down) was 35136,0.

There was also something about WRITETYPER, wasn't it?

oy! what was wrong with it? apart from it being on one line. oh, and missing the space before the closing quote, i s'pose.

Given that it was on one line you should have done

10 PRINT "SIMON IS ACE ";:GOTO 10

:-)

I am glad that all these Speccy mags are online now because... well, I have a confession. For ages I read Sinclair User. Even though it's the one of the three I have pretty much no fond memories of, it's the one I spent money on every month. And I only started buying it because I forgot what date Crash was due out, went to the newsagent too early and bought SU instead. Eventually I saw the light they put the price up and I went over to YS though.

Some good free games, mind, but all the mags had their moments in that last-years-of-Spectrum scramble to grab readers by filling them with as many old games as possible every month. Oh, and thank you Crash for awesome reader homebrews (?) Shuriken and Egghead!

Oh yes, much love to all the Horaces, the Dizzy games (even though every single one I couldn't complete even with a walkthrough/map because there was always one last coin that wasn't where the map said it was), Manic Miner and JSW (though I spent longer playing JSW 2 - same game, added space levels, quite a cheap knockoff sequel I suppose with Matthew Smith not involved, but I liked the new areas), er... what else did I spend ages on? Rainbow Islands, Artic's 16k Galaxians, Bruce Lee, but I guess there were better formats for all those.

I gave up on the Speccy in 1991 when within a few months a) I bought Monkey Island for the PC and b) there was an advert in YS for PC Format and I decided the PC was THE FUTURE. A life of already-ancient Sierra games and roguelikes, pissing about in Fractint and POVray, and having to fight with autoexec.bat trying to free enough memory without losing Soundblaster drivers awaited. Woo.

Heh:

http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/mrdaveo/reviews/doom.gif

Jet Set Willy 2 was one of my biggest disappointments. Maybe I'll play it on an emulator tonight.

At school we decided Matthew Smith was gay bcz there was a picture of him not wearing socks in some mag.

http://jswremakes.emuunlim.com/Authors/Smith/msmith1s.jpg

I s'pose JSW2 would be a huge disappointment if you'd already got fairly far through JSW1, as you'd have to get halfway across the map just to find some new bits, and if you want to complete it you'd have to do the whole of JSW1 again and then the new bits (it may even have to be in that order, too). But I hadn't really played JSW1 that exhaustively; I played it a bunch at friends' houses, and I'd got a dodgy tape of it that almost never loaded, so when I got 2 being able to explore and spend hours hunched over it drawing tatty little maps at my own leisure was mostly new to me.

Pretty rare for me to want to be any older now, but this thread makes me wish I had been for the Spectrum thing, as there are lots of games here which sound interesting and a lot more cerebral/unusual than my picks, but at the time I was too impatient for that kind of game. (Now I'm even more impatient, any familiar 80s game in an emulator just makes me save the game every screen because I'm way too lazy to start from more than 30 seconds ago every time, and any unfamiliar one gets given up on after about ten minutes because I can't be bothered to learn what to do or squint at the little monochrome graphics)

xpost

i loved JSW2. there's a shitload of arcana about it out there on the web -- derek rowson explaining how it grew out of the amstrad version, and how they came up with some of the rooms (the whole sewer/holt road thing was a big joke about the flat a load of software projects programmers had in liverpool). in fact, here it is:

http://www.jdawiseman.com/papers/games/jsw2/jsw2-programmer-comments.html

http://www.jdawiseman.com/papers/games/jsw2/jsw2-index.html

writetyper

depending on the version of MM (and JSW) you had, you could stand in a certain place in a certain room and type this (or something like it) and then use the number keys to teleport about ... at least, that's how it worked in JSW. except i could never get it to, so used a poke instead ... crash or YS once carried a COMPLETE JSW POKE LIST which brought me so much joy i thought i'd explode.

basic syntax

of course; you could use a colon to separate commands! although surely it's bad practice to have 10 GOTO 10 :)

Pretty rare for me to want to be any older now, but this thread makes me wish I had been for the Spectrum thing

how old are you, out of interest? i'm 32, and i think i caught the whole spectrum thing at just about exactly the right time -- although i was lucky/privileged enough to be able to get into it at a very early age (ie seven or eight).

> There was also something about WRITETYPER, wasn't it?

type in writetyper (or, in manic miner, matthew smith's telephone number. 6031765? something like that) and then hold down number keys denoting the required screen in binary. this almost always ended up with you jumping into a screen full of spikes or falling to your death from the crows nest. (xpost)

(curses, got the last digit wrong, is a nine. and is driving licence rather than telephone number)

i still remember the day underwurlde was delivered. played it 12 hours straight. nice looping arc for the weapons and a dodgy automatic jump if you got too close to the edge of anything.

(correction: it's not derrick rowson interviewed above, actually: it's some other dude. but still.)

underwurlde: i HATED that. i borrowed it off a friend and gave it back the next day. so, so frustrating.

although surely it's bad practice to have 10 GOTO 10 :)

Back in 1983 it was a bad thing, but on a modern emulator you can execute an infinite loop in under five seconds. Honest. ;-)

(geek jokes r us)

Underwurlde was totally infuriating, though the concept was pretty great, and I got pretty heavily into it for a while. I once spent a whole day playing it, NEARLY got to the end, but got knocked off by some kind of flying thing BASTARD.

BASTARD. God.

:)

I got my spectrum 48k at Xmas 1984. A year after everyone in my then Primary 7 class got theirs. I had to wait a whole year, it was torture!
I forget when I got my Spectrum 128k+ WITH TAPE MACHINE BUILT IN!!
http://www.mrbads-retro-games.com/Saved%20Scans/Photos/Small_Pics/DCP00819.jpg

My 2 most played games would've been Match Day (or Match Day II) and Graham Gooch Cricket. There was a football manager simulator too that I forget the name of that I loved to play.
Manic Miner was great too. My joystick never recovered from Daley Thompson 1 & 2.

What was that label that sold all the games for £2.99? Spellbound was a cracking game for that price.

Graham Gooch Cricket

arcane fact: you had to type LOAD "" CODE to run it.

i used to know how to do that trick; ie fool the header file into thinking the first block of basic was actually machine code.

What was that label that sold all the games for £2.99? Spellbound was a cracking game for that price

mastertronic, and derivatives thereof ... spellbound was on a "new" £2.99 label as opposed to the normal £1.99 one ... MAD, that was it. "mastertronic added dimension".

nb: i write all this shit as fact, because it's how i remember it. i might be wrong about some of it. it worries me how much i can recall.

Firebird was another cheap label. Booty on Firebird was a cracker.

Best Mastertronic game I had was Millipede.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spellbound_(computer_game)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f1/Spellbound128.jpg/200px-Spellbound128.jpg

xposts damn you grimly.

Was it Firebird that was owned by BT? Something-bird, at any rate.

Yeah, that's right. Knew it was owned by someone big but couldn't think who.

grimly, I'm 27. Five years older sounds about perfect, actually. There was a Spectrum around the house for as long as I remember (so yes, I was lucky and privileged too) and a fair chunk of my birthday money would go on whichever budget games had the most enticing inlay (i.e. lots of Ricochet rereleases and Mastertronic games here too, then plenty of Codemasters), but by the time I was old enough to start taking it really seriously and keep up with new releases 8-bit was dying.

I'd forgotten how GREAT the cartography room in JSW 2 is! There's a page about it on grimly's link but I spent a while being puzzled and then delighted by it so I won't spoil it myself.

I think it was Firebird. They had some good games but I resented them for some adventure game which I couldn't get past the first few screens of despite using all the items in every possible location. (xpost)

I'd forgotten how GREAT the cartography room in JSW 2 is

it was originally there for debugging! and that's all i'll say about it ;)

there was firebird and (?) rainbird or something, which did full-price "grown-up" games, but not for very long.

"See also Torremolinos, the adventure game of package holidays."

Alba - do you remember "Urban Upstart"? The adventure game about yobbery? It was the only adventure game I finished, and I figured it all out myself. It's must be a time capsule now.....the only game where you could get your head kicked in, in a skin'ead styleeee....

And for those of you who found Underwurlde frustrating, what about Bugaboo? The only people I know who completed it did it by fluke. They could never repeat it.

That's another sub-genre of Spectrum games - the impossible ones. Like the third screen of Hunchback (swinging over the fire) - damn near impossible.

I have a feeling you could get your head kicked in by yobs in Hampstead! No, don't remember Urban Upstart. I'm not sure I ever finished any adventure game. Maybe The Hobbit.

Alba - do you remember "Urban Upstart"? The adventure game about yobbery? It was the only adventure game I finished, and I figured it all out myself. It's must be a time capsule now.....the only game where you could get your head kicked in, in a skin'ead styleeee....

GOD DAMN i loved that game. i *nearly* completed it. got to the plane, got in, tried to fly ... FORGOT TO READ THE FUCKING HANDBOOK and crashed.

actually one of the most evocative and wonderful games of all time. even the time it took to render the graphics -- and the freaky hum my shit telly made displaying the rain scenes -- was evocative of the aesthetic brutalism of the time. the most early-80s game ever.

> LISTEN

[plays frank sinatra]

... that was it, wasn't it? in the chip shop?

http://www.vgmuseum.com/images/01/Urban%20Upstart%203.gif

arse, too much BEER:

http://www.vgmuseum.com/images/01/Urban%20Upstart%203.gif

http://www.sincuser.f9.co.uk/030/sftcnt39.jpg

http://www.vgmuseum.com/images/01/Urban%20Upstart%201.gif

i'm settling on this.

dude went on to do "tau ceti". which i never played.

For ages I read Sinclair User.

I am not alone woohoo! Started early enough that not all covers were just copies of exciting promo material they'd been sent. Can any of us remember the name of the ROCK BAND that adorned the cover on one occasion, who used the Speccy in their music making? (Also, Gordo Greatbelly. Crap conceit w/ knowingly dim fantasy story taking up 1/3 of column, but useful hints.)

nb: i write all this shit as fact, because it's how i remember it. i might be wrong about some of it. it worries me how much i can recall.

Yes yes me too. This means nothing except that what we remember is the actual TRUTH.

Age disclosure subthread: 38, and I also feel I got an Spectrum at exactly the right time. Then again, I spurn all editions without rubber keys and/or > 48K as "compromising the dream" or something.

Obligatory game mention: Maziacs!

"You need(ed) some sustenance!"

I have a horrible feeling I'll spend far too much time this weekend hitting the emulatz0rs oh noes.

clarifyin: without rubber keys and/or with >48K = not a nactual Spectrum.

you sinclair user readers need to be punched in the throat :)

Can any of us remember the name of the ROCK BAND that adorned the cover on one occasion, who used the Speccy in their music making?

All the SU covers are here:
http://www.sincuser.f9.co.uk/covers.htm
I think you mean issue 26 from May 1984:
http://www.sincuser.f9.co.uk/026/index.htm

And looking at some of those covers reminds me of a disturbing fact: my dad looks like Clive Sinclair, if he was bald - and ginger...

Oh blimey. That is not a rock band. I remember that issue.

Sinclair User had another cover around that time with some equally baffling "Mersey Beat: The knives are out" line.

Actually it may have been on some even crappier mag I had.

What is Mark Radcliffe doing on the front of Sinclair user no.30?

!!

]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v417/albaalba/ilx/SUCover017.jpg

I think you mean issue 26 from May 1984

YES YES I DO. Scariest thing is I envisaged the face of #2 from left when I wrote above, and mental picture was totally accurate! The other ones, incl. notable moustache person lower right I have absolutely no memory of, but those were different times, maybe he was then less notable.

They appear to have been called Mensana! That rings no bells either, but offers a hint twds why they would do such a thing.

"MORE PAGES THAN EVER!" The times when it was actually possible to feel there were too few words, sentences and paragraphs to read about your interests...

I envisaged the face of #2 from left

Looking closer, I am not entirely sure that isn't Tuomas, at the exact same age as today, plus hair, plus specs, minus beard?

The guy holding the Spectrum looks like Bamber Gascoine, and the dude with the guitar looks like Chuck Norris! They seem familiar even though I don't recall the name.
The box labelled "Upstream" is a MIDI interface so presumably they were just using the Spectrum as a sequencer rather than as a sound source. Which is a pity as then they'd be the first chiptune band!

And speaking of making music with a Spectrum, this is probably my favourite "Fred Harris demonstrates something" clip - this time the SpecDrum.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cLfYT6yXgEc

MORE COWBELL FRED!

presumably they were just using the Spectrum as a sequencer rather than as a sound source.

I think this was the case, yes. Prob seems less cool now than using it as a sound source*, but ooth they must've made their own interface to plug into the raw circuitboard exposed at the back-right, which is cool in its own right.

*) also cmon twas a simple on-off-to-the-speaker thing, that would not be specific to the computer and sound exactly the same made by one's own flipflop circuits or whatever.

they must've made their own interface

The interface was a commercial product, but maybe the band were involved in designing it? There's a whole pile of stuff here:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/
...including a lot of information on hardware. As a BBC Micro owner that was the thing I envied Spectrum users, because they had a vast range of hardware for that expansion slot.

And speaking of making music with a Spectrum, this is probably my favourite "Fred Harris demonstrates something" clip - this time the SpecDrum.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cLfYT6yXgEc

MORE COWBELL FRED!

-- snoball, Saturday, 29 September 2007 00:36 (1 hour ago)

AWESOME

"it's like a word processor for drum beats"

There's another Speccy/puter mag thread somewhere where I bigged up Sinclair User, which, I believe, became the daddy Speccy mag from issue 56 onward.

It always had really really awful covers though, which went from cheesy photo-covers in the early days to garish, messy drawings in its heyday.

http://www.sincuser.f9.co.uk/019/su019.gif

Okay, WHAT were they thinking?

I am gonna play the shit out of Marsport today.