Film/TV Tie-In ZX Spectrum Games

but the Bennt Hill game sounds great - i expect it was a case of waggling your joystick as fast as possible to keep up the chase of the gaggle of nurses, or to slap the old man's head as many times as possible in one minute?

The Benny Hill game: Well, it was more "pick up the item and give it to someone/use it in some way" sort of thing. It seemed to be pitched at quite a young audience as none of the "Hill's Angels" made an appearence, or any sexy nurses, and the old man who got his head slapped wasn't it in either. The main sprite of Benny was superbly realised, a great big thing that took up half the length of the screen, all in retina burning primary colours, glasses and stupid expression. Something of a missed oppurtunity (sp) - your version of it sounds a lot more fun.

Your other idea sounds good too. I'd like to see a Hollywood remake of Monty Mole, starring Danny DeVito as Monty.

The Popeye game was grebt - your lives were restored by cans of spinach you gained energy by snogging Olive.

I only played Trap Door once but it was GREAT!!

b-but it had the scary first-person crawling-around-the-tunnels bit! And it came bundled with a tape of Tracks of my Tears.

Anyone ever play the Robin of Sherwood graphic adventure?

http://www.gulliver1.demon.co.uk/sinclair/spectrum/

hmm.. it's a bit rub

Ah, I don't remember that bit. I was rubbish at the game, which coloured my perception of it I suppose. Also I didn't get the tape of Tracks of my Tears because I bought it when it was out on a £2.99 budget label.

And I just remembered there was a Grange Hill game! Oh, I loved playing that, even though I was rubbish at it as well. You played Gonch and you could get killed by tripping over a loose paving stone. There was a drug pusher in the park (you lost the game if you accepted his smack, natch) and I never could manage to get back inside the closed Grange Hill via the sewer system (You were supposed to get back inside there after school hours to retreive your confiscated Walkman, IIRC). And the way Gonch jumped was amusing.

Aliens was also really good.

Yeah, that was excellent, and had a great sense of humour - in the "define keys" bit it asked you to define a "murder" button.

Maybe it was Cobra I was thinking of when I said Rambo.

I just discovered a game that I don't remember called Mantronix but was disappointed to find it wasn't (as far as I could make out) a dramatisation of the electro pioneer's work.

I remember there were two versions of this: A UK one which was great - straightfoward, 1st person, get from room to room stuff - Very atmospheric and scary in an ALIENS COULD BE BEHIND THE VERY NEXT DOOR!!! sort of way. It also had a white noise & snowy camera effect thingy when you died.

Then there was the US one that followed the film's plot more closely. It was utter toss with dull text-and-static-image 'cut scenes' between levels - or at least I assume so, since the 1st level (land the dropship amid epilepsy-inducing flashing backgrounds) was completely impossible.

i loved the beepy theme tune at the start of this, though the game was actually the most awful thing in the world apart from the final part where you had to walk back to the hut drunk at night.

i see nobody has mentioned the most obv one, Ghostbusters, which was the talk of the playground from what i remember. although pants now, still looks amazing for the time of year it was released and puts about 90% of other tie ins to shame.

C64 Ghostbusters: "He slimed me!"

Speccy Ghostbusters: "Ccheshhlivvedvee!"

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/hardware/feat30.html

blimey that was dull...

(also is talking about spectrum/c64 the new talking about bod/rainbow? "codemasters, what *were* they on???" etc)

Neighbours was great, it was a race game on skateboards and stuff.

Blade Runner was officially the WORST of all tie ins, so says me.

This was CLASSIC when I was age 10, but seems deathly dull now. There were also 8-bit games of Ghostbusters II, and the Ghostbusters cartoon series.

(Best 8-bit computer game evah in a completely mind-destroying way HAS TO BE Fruit Machine Simulator, incidentally)