Yeah it came with Treasure Island, that wasn't too bad. I think I completed that. Fire Ant was good too. And I had Jet Set Willy.
The big problem was that most of the games for plus 4 were written for the C16 so they were pretty basic and didn't use the whopping great 64k capability.
― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 27 September 2007 14:57 (sixteen years ago) link
Flying Shark was pretty amazing on the speccy too
― Ste, Thursday, 27 September 2007 14:57 (sixteen years ago) link
i regret never getting an amiga :(
i also regret not being able to get excited about games made after about 1995 :(
actually that's a bit of a lie, i just don't get all this halo bollocks :)
― DG, Thursday, 27 September 2007 14:58 (sixteen years ago) link
the only other plus game i remember him having was some maze game where you had to paint the walls of the maze, but with a black&white telly some of the levels were invisible.
and manic miner
― Ste, Thursday, 27 September 2007 14:58 (sixteen years ago) link
Ah no, it wasn't Football Manager that I had. I've just tracked it down--it was called 'Cup Football'.
― aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, Thursday, 27 September 2007 14:59 (sixteen years ago) link
Fruit Machine Simulator, by codemasters. spent hours on that one.
― Ste, Thursday, 27 September 2007 14:59 (sixteen years ago) link
Thrust II Jasons GEM
― Ste, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:02 (sixteen years ago) link
The Plot
god so many to choose from
boulderdash
― ledge, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:04 (sixteen years ago) link
of course
http://members.lycos.co.uk/dizzytheegg/images/screenshots/dizzy1start.png
― DG, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:04 (sixteen years ago) link
Of the rly old-skool: HALLS OF THE THINGS!
― anatol_merklich, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:08 (sixteen years ago) link
"Deathchase"
Was that the one where you rode a motorbike at insanely fast speed through a thick forest. That was MENTAL. I remember both me and my brother would crack up laughing while we played it.
Also, what was that diving game where you had to get stuff out of clams without banging your head? Durrell were the publishers, iirc.
― PhilK, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:09 (sixteen years ago) link
Zorro
― Ste, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:09 (sixteen years ago) link
PhilK - Scuba Diver? I only remember the advert
― Ste, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:10 (sixteen years ago) link
i certainly regret getting an amstrad PC instead of one. but my dad didn't think the amiga was "serious" enough.
he might have been right, but that's not the point.
still: i do have a frightening knowledge of DOS arcana, so hey. it wasn't all wasted.
oh, hang on.
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:10 (sixteen years ago) link
Ste - yeah Scuba Diver - really very good.
I don't recognise any of the names on your list above. Are they "late" spectrum games?
― PhilK, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:12 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.appn72.dsl.pipex.com/wally/img/grab01.gif
i LOVED this. and completed it, i think.
this too, which i definitely completed:
http://remakeszone.com/juegos/42_2.gif
(colour clash in action!)
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:12 (sixteen years ago) link
actually, woah, those mikro-gen games were FUCKIN' ACE.
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:13 (sixteen years ago) link
where you rode a motorbike at insanely fast speed through a thick forest
Forest, that reminds me of "The Forest" -- someone actually had the crazy idea of making an ORIENTEERING SIMULATOR for the Speccy! With enclosed paper maps and whatnot.
Someone mentioned "Deus Ex Machina", that was one ambitious project yeah.
― anatol_merklich, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:14 (sixteen years ago) link
grimly That's part of the Automania series isn't it? I liked it enough, but at the time it was kind of state-of-the-art rather than breaking new ground.
The level of creativity of spectrum games makers was incredible, really.
― PhilK, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:15 (sixteen years ago) link
Philk, not sure i think it's a mixed bag. Not very old tho, definitely not past 88 as i had my amiga then.
― Ste, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:16 (sixteen years ago) link
oh god i would thrash about on those mikrogen games and get absoloutely nowhere. i don't believe i ever completed a single puzzle.
― Ste, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:17 (sixteen years ago) link
I imagine Norman Phay playing Tir Na Nog. I could never get to grips with it, or Dun Darach.
Guilty as charged, "Dun Darach" is one of my favourite games ever. Wd pay $$ for a prerelease version w/the missing centre of the map intact. Otherwise, I liked Knight Lore (I never finished it though), Fairlight, that stealth fighter flight sim one, 3d ant attack. My favourite was highway encounter:
http://www.cpcgamereviews.com/h/highway_encounter.png
A weirdly abstract game which drew you into its odd little world quite effectively. What was that one with the wizard floating around & travelling along ley lines? That one was pretty great, and quite creepy in places.
― Pashmina, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:17 (sixteen years ago) link
i think a lot of my suggestions are small time budget games
― Ste, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:19 (sixteen years ago) link
deathchase was famous for being the #1 spectrum game in your sinclair's best games ever list which filled their letters bag with complaints
lucasarts before they made star wars games:
http://www.zxscreens.i12.com/zxscreens/night_shift.gif
― DG, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:19 (sixteen years ago) link
Pashmina - I finished Dun Darach, but there was one door I could never get in - it was labelled "Ladyo's" or something. That drove me mad for years!
Fairlight was stunningly attractive if I can remember (or describe a game in such terms).
― PhilK, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:20 (sixteen years ago) link
Did anyone play Explorer? Or understand it? Or get anywhere?
― Ste, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:22 (sixteen years ago) link
In the 16K category: The Train Game! I think you either became totally addicted, or loathed it from the very start and continued loathing. Rather original, using all the letter keys on the keyboard to control those rail switch things, whatever they're called in English. Come to think of it, might work well as a mobile phone game even today!
― anatol_merklich, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:22 (sixteen years ago) link
too awesome
― DG, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:28 (sixteen years ago) link
The door in whicheverroom it was that said "forbidden!" when you tried to open it was the door to the missing bit! If you mapped the game out (which you had to) there was a big gap in the middle - the missing bit was Dun Darcach's red light district, inhabited by courtesans - they pulled it because of fear of bad publicity. I liked the game so much I wanted more of it, so I was totally bummed out when I found out about the cut bit.
― Pashmina, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:31 (sixteen years ago) link
Dun Darach probably the forerunner of the GTA 3D games, har.
― Pashmina, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:32 (sixteen years ago) link
Ah right. Well I never saw a door called "Forbidden", so I suspect that must have been inside "Laydo's" or "Loyd's" or whatever.
A really intriguing game though. Loved the atmosphere. Especially the "Thieves' Guild".
― PhilK, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:35 (sixteen years ago) link
You know about the annual comp.sys.sinclair Crap Game Competition, right? Every year, the finest Spectrum programmers, or rather the other ones, compete for the title of crappiest game of the year. Some examples of previous years' winners:
Anthea Turner's National Lottery Simulator http://www.unsatisfactorysoftware.co.uk/csscgc/image.php?file=ALS.SNA&year=1996
Sheepdog http://www.unsatisfactorysoftware.co.uk/csscgc/image.php?file=sheepdog.tap&year=1999
Celebrity Arses http://www.unsatisfactorysoftware.co.uk/csscgc/image.php?file=cel.tap&year=2006
― anatol_merklich, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:38 (sixteen years ago) link
grimly That's part of the Automania series isn't it?
yeh. IIRC: automania, pyjamarama, everyone's a wally, herbert's dummy run, three weeks in paradise. the last two being way too hard for their own good.
once you figured out how to get the proper coin to open the bog door in pyjamarama, the rest was pretty straightforward.
ANOTHER ACE SERIES OF ACENESS:
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/6/6d/Spellbound_screen.GIF
finders keepers/spellbound/the one in space/the other one. don't have time to google ... first one to fill in the blanks wins a blank C15 cassette from boots ;)
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:39 (sixteen years ago) link
hang on, celebrity arses actually looks grate.
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:40 (sixteen years ago) link
er, ahem:
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:41 (sixteen years ago) link
Wizball or Jetset Willy
― Iain Macdonald, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:42 (sixteen years ago) link
Was it Mikro-Gen who did a completely out-of-character fantasy game that came in big box with a RAM pack and map etc.?
It was a bugger because you had to actually BUY it (which I did). I seem to remember that it was lovely to look at, but didn't have much in the way of gameplay.....
― PhilK, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:42 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh yeah, and those Back-To-Skool people did a 1930's detective thing that was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Never got more than about half-way through, mores the pity....
― PhilK, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:46 (sixteen years ago) link
yep: i got it for christmas one year. it was a bit pish -- huge, but a bit pish.
a 1930's detective thing that was absolutely BEAUTIFUL
really? tell me more: i don't remember this at all.
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:55 (sixteen years ago) link
never got those dun darach things. ys gave this away once which i tried to enjoy
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d8/Hotmopening.jpg
― DG, Thursday, 27 September 2007 15:57 (sixteen years ago) link
oh, i remember that one, too. heavy on the magick. with a k. i think i'd have enjoyed it if i'd been a bit older and had more patience. (ditto marsport, although i have v fond memories of it.)
"you are in the room of misery" ... yeh, my fuckin' office.
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 27 September 2007 16:10 (sixteen years ago) link
spellbound! wow, that pic just totally gave me the shivers. loved it.
i used to love a ninja game called, possibly, usurper. google's being unhelpful.
i had a speccy plus between 1986 and 1988, at which point i sold it with all its loads of games to my friend al's parents and got an atari st, which i still own (well, it's packed away, but i can still technically play bubble bobble if i want.
― CharlieNo4, Thursday, 27 September 2007 16:11 (sixteen years ago) link
and gauntlet!
wait, wait- BARBARIAN
― darraghmac, Thursday, 27 September 2007 16:14 (sixteen years ago) link
"Contact Sam Cruise"
grimly - info here: http://www.crashonline.org.uk/36/samcruise.htm
― PhilK, Thursday, 27 September 2007 16:21 (sixteen years ago) link
That Crash online is pure Gold.
"Trashman" - I loved this!
http://www.crashonline.org.uk/04/trashmn.htm
― PhilK, Thursday, 27 September 2007 16:25 (sixteen years ago) link
O yes, that was good. I bought it before it hit the shops properly, at the ZX Microfair.
― Alba, Thursday, 27 September 2007 16:28 (sixteen years ago) link
ah, yeh, i remember that sam cruise thing now ... don't think i ever played it, mind. but, of course, i can rectify that pretty easily ;)
― grimly fiendish, Thursday, 27 September 2007 16:33 (sixteen years ago) link