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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2022
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Growing up, I had a Commodore 64 & my mate had a ZX Spectrum and I hated the Spectrum! 30 years later, I get a Spectrum & find that some games are actually better than on the C64.....
#1980s #retrogames #sinclair #zxspectrum #spectrum #sinclairzxspectrum #commodore #commodore64 #c64 #c64games #vintagecomputers #8-bit #retrogaming #8bit #microcomputer #vintagegaming - บันเทิง
Cost was a big reason for my family and most of my friends having Spectrums rather than C64s. Let's not forget that £300 was a serious wad of cash back in the mid 80s and it was out of reach of many family's budgets, including ours. We ended up getting a Speccy 48k for free as a hand-me-down when someone my aunt knew "upgraded" to a C64 and asked her if she knew anyone who would like their old Speccy. I still remember getting home from primary school in the spring of 1985 to find my brother and my dad hunched in front of the TV playing Tornado Low Level. Happy days!
Oh TLL was a good one :)
The Spectrum never ceases to Amaze me,even after so many years since i first seen it and even though it was not made to play games this little wonder machine with meager but intuitive hardware and the love of programing on it made amazing things possible.
On the Speccy a lot of 3D racing games and vector based games were better executed. The faster CPU and speed of the character graphics of the Speccy was a solid advantage over the C64.
So yeah I can agree with you on these games being better executed on the Speccy. I was a Commodore kid myself, but loved to spend time on my mate's Speccy playing the different alternate versions. I'd sample gameplay on Amstrad, MSX, Speccy and my own C64 as much as I could. A bit of an 8bit addict I reckon. :P
ZX didn't use character graphics. It only has one mode which is equivalent of C64 hires bitmap mode.
Overall The C64 was superior to the Spectrum, as the Amiga was to the Atari ST.
However, the cost differences were so vast that the majority of kids just ended up with the affordable machines - including myself. I'm presuming the software houses also noticed which platforms could create the most revenue.
Some of the game coders got so good that I was continually amazed that they kept breaking the boundaries of the machines.
(Hardcore fans are still doing it now!)
The Spectrum was superior in gameplay and graphics imo to the C64....I definitely liked it far more but to each their own 😝
Yes, I remember being satisfied with my Speccy but really wanting a C64. And then get an ST, but really wanting an Amiga lol The truth is, I was lucky to have both and they served me well throughout my younger years😊
I started with a ZX81, then upgraded to a Vic-20 both bought for me by my parents. When it came to upgrading again my parents made me get a part time job so I could pay off my C64 from Grattans catalogue 😂
In truth, the Speccy had no business doing the things it could do - it was never designed to do any of that or compete with expensive US computers. Thing is, that ULA turned out to be a work of genius. The graphics mode might superficially be the same as the C64 hi res mode, but it's MUCH faster- storing the colour data separate to the pixels (the bit people complain about) was actually genius. CPU-wise, it should be around 1.75 times faster (A 6502 is around twice as fast as a Z80 at the same clock speed - 1MHz vs. 3.5MHz), but it's a bit more than that.
Now, obviously when the C64 does what it's built for, there's no comparison - anything with small blocky sprites and scrolling it'll wipe the floor with anything from the same year TWICE the price, let alone a super-cheap bare bones computer.
But it certainly means there's no clear 'better' computer and having both machines in our house when i was young was the best of both worlds. .. didn't have an Amstrad CPC, though! That lovely palette and full colour on screen! Had to wait until 2019 for that!
And now we have people who actually managed to break the attribute clash barrier 40 years later ....I honestly don't know what sorcery is that.
Maybe not visually, but I prefer the Spectrum versions of Rainbow Islands and R-Type as they both play so much closer to the original arcade games. I mainly play those games on MAME these days, but I'm always impressed with how easily I can slip back into the Spectrum ports, really impressive efforts on such a limited system.
Agree 100% on RType….the Spectrum version was superbly done and an absolute gem of a game. Probably differ on Rianbow Islands though. I always thought the C64 version of it was excellent (but to be fair so we’re several version of it….one of those games that many systems got brilliant ports of)
I totally agree with you on that. When I first saw Rainbow Islands on the Speccy I was blown away with how good I thought the graphics were. It was one of my favorite games on the Speccy. I knew the graphics could be bit limited on the Speccy but I thought Taito did a brilliant job at maximising what the Speccy could do. 10/10 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🌈
At that time, I had loved to buy a C64 w/o any real technical reasoning or understanding, but because it seemed more powerful. But... speaking open... I just lacked the money.
Not only was the C64 expensive, you also needed to buy at least a datasette. In retrospection: The C64 clearly had much better graphics and sound with all these coprocessors on board. Having a floppy, regardless how slow and pitiful, was also a great pro.
On the other hand, the z80, actually partially capable to do some 16bit arithm, is a soo much better cpu. And the basic, albeit being a bit weird with all those 1-keystroke commands rather than typing things char by char, was extremely powerful. Not only did it have graphics draw commands (circles, lines and stoff) but it could take a string with an formula expression in it like "sin(x)^2+cos(y)^2" and evaluate it using values of variable x and y.. Oh.. how many func plotters did I write based on this. (even a 3d plot with some drawing helper in asm)
I remember a school class where we all brought our home computers and the teacher gave us the task: Draw a circle. Me: "circle x,y,r", done. The teacher and my class mates with their c64 were shocked.
So: It is IMHO amazing what Sinclair squeezed out of the z80 and at such a low cost. And I'm grateful, because I wouldn't have been able to get anything more expensive at that time.
@eowmob the basic on the c64 isn't very good, it doesn't really give you access to the hardware. The spectrum one is better. The basic on the bbc micro absolutely wipes the floor with both though.
@@nowt1002 What part of the hardware was inaccessible from C64 basic?
@nowt100 I have a SAM Coupè in the loft (used to have 2 but one died).
The BASIC on that was incredibly powerful.
There's a command which edits existing parts of the code dynamically..Which is hideous from a structured code perspective but was actually really useful at the time.
It also had commands for I/O through the MIDI ports, which I used to create a simple network between the two SAMs.
Like all these machines though, it was far too slow to do anything that required fast calculations. For that you needed to get the assembler out and write machine code.
@@stesve2007 Well techincally, because you could "poke" instructions directly .. all the hardware chips were accessible in this way but for a normal user you had very limited hardware access. There are no drawing commands at all. You had limited access (from what I remember) to the SID chip.. and so on. In addition - the BASIC rom was mapped into RAM memory so you only had access to 44k (again from memory). You could switch this out but then you couldn't do a great deal :)
@@cynewulf1 I learned BASIC on my SAM Coupe. It really was a great system to play around with in that respect, even if it failed and lacked a software library. I was still messing around with it into the late 90s for fun despite having a Pentium lol.
Great BASIC instruction book too. I still have my SAM upstairs in a box. Haven't plugged it in in a while though.
We would definitely add Renegade, Enduro Racer, Super Hang On, Kwick Snax, Narc, R-Type, Cobra, Head Over Heels, Skool Daze, Bomb Jack, Xenon, Flying Shark & Cybernoid to that list 👍
Many more on top of that too!
Agree except for R Type and Cybernoid. Speccie games were great but c64 similar, as playable and had the music too!
Probably skooldaze and Head over Heels weren't much different, they were nigh on identical, the main difference was the speccies colours were brighter.
Cobra is still bad on the speccie, just the c64 version is a shocker.
@@Edgel-in6bs Cybernoid on the 128k machines had in game music. R-Type is a more faithful on the Speccy compared to the C64 version. Plus there is a hacked 128k version with in game music.
Cobra on the Spectrum is a Joffa Smith classic. Don’t knock it 👍
Skool Daze & Head Over Heels both run faster on the Speccy.
@@theretroasylum yeah, but cybernoid on the speccie music is still vastly inferior to the c64! Honestly never noticed any difference in skooldaze or head over heels as had them on the speccie then the c64, in truth. Both played about the same for me. Definitely not chase HQ where the difference is stratospheric.
Still prefer R Type on c64 because of the music (noting the speccie one is an amazing achievement)
I never had either, but played loads at my friend's and cousins.
If you tell kids these days, that you could end up waiting 10 minutes for a game to load, they wouldn't believe you.
Unless they hadn't turned their console on for more than 3 days
The main reason for Target Renegade being a one player game is most likely the technical limitations depending sprites. It is hard to believe because other games are showing tons of objects on screen. But speaking of brawlers the sprite priorities are way more important. This means that there are 8 sprite layers that have to be kept in order constantly per raster line - and dynamicly depending the sprite positions. This is something what does not work well with multiplexing sprites.
It is possible to create a simultanious two player modes that way, as can be seen in the Simpson's arcade port, but with such hires-overlay-sprites as displayed in Target Renegade it is a total different story.
Chase HQ on the Speccy also had a proper ending, a real rarity back in the day.
I haven't got that far yet, lol 😂
@@RetroOrBust If you haven't already, make sure you play in 128 mode!
Speccy and CBM64 were very close in the first years 1983-1985. I loved the brighter colours in the Spectrum, despite the typical overlapping effect. The isometric games were superior on the Speccy.
Game music improved for both in 1987-1989 and for CBM64 was great, but I still remember some great tunes on the Spectrum. In the last years it seemed a different machine compared to the early days. Great music was produced compared to the former simple and noisy buzzes. There is an interesting documentary on music production on Speccy, about the use of oscillators inside the chips to generate rhythm and background sounds. The programmers were great.
Grew up with the Spectrum, but appreciating the Commodore later in life.
The Spectrum really did well when it came to arcade racing conversions.
Loved that man, truly. I'm a fan of both and often use both aesthetics for my own music vids.
There's quite a few more I reckon in favour of the ZX, the Ultimate games in the main...but man, the c64 had Wizball, Outrun, Spy vs Spy, Uridium, IK+, California Games, Crazy Comets (just for the music alone, that SID is dope), The Last Ninja, Summer Games, Bubble Bobble. Brilliant Games.
Keep up the good work!
As a spectrum fan I am impressed you manage to reduce all games released on both to just 8!
Obviously joking (maybe). I think some might not agree, but personally I would also add R-Type to the list. I think the Spectrum version is up there with the best port of the game from that time.
Turbo Esprit... what a mess on the c64. Spectrum was excellent.
R-Type C64 version is far more better than Speccy, you are wrong. Even not comparable...
@@hayrettinyildiz8018 Nah, C64 not even close. You are wrong.
Hi Pal, I came across your channel just at random and I'm really glad I did, cos I can so relate to this video, my first actual computer was the c64, it learned me to type, just typing on that blue screen for hours, lol but by chance, my name is martyn, and I had a friend who also had the spectrum, so I got the best of both worlds. Thank you for putting the time in to do this video, I really enjoyed it, a nice selection of games there, personally my favourite c64 games are definitely last ninja 2 or remix and all the dizzy games and of course the great escape, however I think the great escape is better on the spectrum, cos it has the music at the start and the flag pole for your moral meter, and also the spectrum had a game called a day in the life which the commodore didnt. still I have everything emulated these days, however I think its cool that you got an old stock brand new spectrum to play, the nostalgia must be amazing, anything keep up the good work pal, your doing great things.
Perfection, I loved that game as a child. New to the channel and commented because of the intro 🤣 I grew up with zx spectrum 48k (yes I'm that old) and then c64 before I got an Amiga in 1990.
ZX Spectrum is like cats, everyone that says hate it, when have one, start to love :)
Good vid, I have a similar story, had a C64 back in the day, friend had a Spectrum, I slagged him for it haha as the C64 was usually superior. Now in my older and wiser years, I can see the value in the Spectrum, and acknowledge when they are clearly better than C64 versions of some games.
Being in the US I was never able to get a ZX machine, but I had a customer who visited my game store gave me one 3-4 years ago. The little machine really impressed me with what it could do. My first gaming computer was an Atari 65XE then a few years later I went with a Commodore 64 back in the 80's.
Honourable mentions:
Short Circuit
Cobra
Turbo Esprit
Head over Heels (or pretty much any isometric adventure)
Boy it kept me a cup of coffee from not feeling asleep with your vid.
Well done on the video. Glad you put Chase HQ top. C&VG magazine gave the Speccy version 97% which out performed the 16bit versions including the Amiga (it was shockingly bad). It was the most playable covertion of all formats.
Loved the vid. Chase HQ on Speccy is an utter masterpiece! Although, I had to chuckle when you said the Amiga version was like the arcade, it most definitely is not! 🤣🤣
It's been a while since I played it on the Amiga lol 🤣
I had a Spectrum 128k+2 and i loved it back in the 80's.
I used to borrow games and copy them, as most people did back then.
A few games i really enjoyed were -
Enduro Racer.
Bomb Jack.
Manic Miner.
Bubble Bobble.
Ollie & Lisa.
Target Renegade.
Suburban Nightmare.
Fruit Machine Simulator.
Cool video, i enjoyed the trip down memory lane.
Your comment about smelling the computers brought smile on my face :) Of course I smelled my C64 and Amiga all the time, didn't everybody do that? They both smelled a bit differently, and I especially loved the C64 smell when it warmed up. Those fumes of electricity, its living processes going on... Something special, really. And the best part? Today, some 35 years after, they still. smell. the. same. One short inhalation is enough to transport me right back to my childhood. Just incredible. Now, I agree with everything here, every game you chose really does seem to play better on ZX. But there was one, only one game that made me want to actually own a Spectrum. It also made me lust for it a little, like it's some mythical machine capable of creating a sort of a little holodeck experience for our boyish minds, especially after reading the movie plot-like review in local magazine: Renegade. Not the Target Renegade, but the first one. While TR on C64 is very good game, Renegade is ugly and unplayable due to strange commands. We live in an age of emulators so now I can give myself ZX shot I need. That said, most other games look, play and sound (music was almost half of the enjoyment) much better on C64 and I wouldn't change the ownership experience during the 80's for anything :) Not even for the high tech galore of today.
This made me remember the arguments with my brother about who would get to use the Joystick vs Keyboard. The spectrum was brilliant for it's time & price.
Great video superb comparison. I was lucky enough to own both systems at some point in my youth. I was blown away by the graphics and music on the C64 however for some reason most games on the ZX Spectrum IMHO played a little better. Turbo Esprit by Durell being one example. You now got yourself a new subscriber!
I grew up with the C64 and only recently picked up a working Spectrum. I can really recommend some of the homebrew that's out on the Speccy, they're really pushing the system to the limits
Yeah, I played Castlevania recently & was blown away!
Great video. I had a Spectrum in my youth and always favoured it, only recently I bought a c64. They both have their pro's and cons. Much better music on the c64 but the graphics were often a better resolution on the spectrum and not shades of brown. Personally I think they were both equal in reality - some games were better on one machine than the other some the other way around.
I think this is reasonably accurate. I had both machines (but not at the same time). In the end I went back to the C64 because there were more games available (USA market added a lot). The floppy drive was (relatively) fast and reliable compared to tape and errr "swapping" games with others was a lot easier!
While that is true about the music, I was surprised he didn't mention the title music of Robocop on the Spectrum. It's such a classic tune and I feel the sparse Speccy version is the definitive version.
@@dworkin7110 Those old tape to tape cassete decks made speccy game "sharing" a doddle😂
All down to programming. The things that programmers are doing on the C64 now are incredible.
I know, the c64 Sonic the Hedgehog is amazing!
@@RetroOrBust exactly. Also, The NES Mario conversion (which is perfect on the C64). Soul Force shooter is incredible. Eye of the beholder.
Oh my god man!!! How have you not got 100’s of thousands of subscribers?!!! Your content is incredible!!!! I’m going to share your channel out as much as I can!!!!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Nicest comment ever! Thanks so much 👍🏻
@@RetroOrBust Believe it!!! You are so absolutely talented!!!! So professional in your presentation!!!!!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
@@RetroOrBust PS…. as with regards to the video subject, those big, chunky ass Spectrum graphics seemed to, in a lot of regards, actually make the graphics age much more like fine wine, compared to the pixelated, low res C64 graphics, despite the Soectrum’s monochrome limitations.👍
This video blew my mind. I assumed all Spectrum games were just worse off ports. I grew up with a C64 which I loved, and RoboCop was the first ever game I bought. I literally can't remember that glitch but that is just incredible that you couldn't complete it. 🤯 Great video.
The Speccy was the working class console, C64s were for the rich kids.
I wasn't there in the 1980s, but history researching makes it fascinating. Interesting that games were mostly dead in North America the same time they were thriving over here in the UK. :D
Love the video. I just subscribed. Keep up the good work!!
Thanks 👍🏻🙂
I had both a Spectrum and C64. I think most games were better on the C64, but sometimes games were better on the Speccy. Vector games tended to be better... though Mercenary on the C64 played well. The Z80A in the Spectrum could crunch about twice as fast as the 6510 in the C64, but the Commodore had the VIC-II for scrolling and hardware sprites. The 2D stuff tended to look better and run smoother on the C64. The sound on the 16/48 was a bit shite too. Not so much of an issue with the 128 Speccy, but by then I'd moved on to an Amiga. One game I remember being better on the Sinclair, was Bombjack. That was a 2D game - but it looked unfinished on the C64. The C64 version had a great JMJ tune, but the gameplay on the Spectrum version was much more fun to play.
I'll have to check bombjack out. Also, the loading tune for Bombjack on the C64 is Living on video by Trans-X! (Well, it is on the Encore re-release). Another game I was impressed with on the Speccy was Altered Beast. It felt a lot faster than other versions.
@@RetroOrBust Bombjack on the Spectrum is monochrome - but the software sprites move smoothly. The feels like more room to move... closer to the arcade original. The controls are much better... I play with keys and choose the turbo jump mode. Playability is most important. I think R-Type is better on the Spectrum too. Mostly I'd rather play scrollers on the C64, but there were some amazing coders writing for the Speccy.
100% agree with you on Bomb Jack. The Spectrum version is so playable. The sprites are too big on the C64 for the playfield and it is nowhere near as playable.
The homebrew version on the C64 looks immense but the original Elite release was much better on the Spectrum and is one of the best arcade conversions for the Spectrum.
.
I was also a 48k Spectrum owner who went to the C64 in 1988 before going 16bit at Christmas 1990.
You could make an argument for Green Beret on the Spectrum but the C64 version is also really good.
@@Inaflap The guy who wrote R-Type for the Spectrum (Bob Pape) released a free ebook about its development - it's a fantastic insight into that era in software development and, yes, an incredible port of a game that should barely be possible on the system.
He talks about the issues with the C64 development, how the original coder had problems and was fired from the project. In the end the R-Type that was released for C64 is basically a reworked version of Katakis - which plays well enough but you can tell its not quite the same game. Killer theme tune from Chris Huelsbek though.
Had both systems, sold my Spectrum +2 and got a C64, never looked back. I loved side-scrolling shooters (Salamander, Katakis, WizBall etc.), and the C64 was great at those.
What I like in case of Speccy games are colors - yellow is yellow, green is green. And also C64 games with resolution 160x200 are too rough in details and lines.
Of course, SAM sound and Speccy beeper, that's always win for C64.
The comparison is interesting. It shows the Commodore relied a lot on its hardware sprites features. I have the feeling the slower games were adapted from other versions (often from ZX Spectrum, Amstrad or MSX) and seem not to use sprites because they weren't rewritten to make use of the specific features of the Commodore.
They were much better when they were specifically written for the Commodore. Without its hardware sprites, the terrible slowness of the 1 MHz paced 6502 is immediately showing, especially when it comes to multidirectional scrolling. Especially compared to the the Z80's fast memory block moving mocahine code instructions (though of course much slower than using a DMA, but the unexpanded ZX Spectrum had no hardware graphics acceleration whatsoever and everything had to be hard coded).
On the DMA topic, the popular British MB02 disk interface had a Z80 DMA onboard and it was used a lot as a blitter in more modern games. The MB02 principles was adopted by the Soviet clones and became a widespread standard, so lots of games and demos use the DMA. It has even become a standard by itseld and you can find a standalone DMA add-on for the Spectrum using the same port address, with lots of classic games modified to use it (check on the velesoft.cz website). Of course it has also been included in the Spectum Next (for both compatibility with the Soviet Pentagon 512 and providing acceleration to games and homebrew software in general).
Thats Vintage Scottish factory air you could smell. A combination of Whiskey, Heroin, haggis, deep fried mars bar, Dundee cake (where factory was) and Tenants super. I imagine…
I’m right aren’t I?
🤣
The way programmers like Jeff Minter wrang every ounce out of the speccy never ceases to amaze me.
Just found your channel and subbed.
Had a Speccy as a boy and loved it but was always jealous of the 64 port of Ghostbusters 😃
Thank you! 👍🏻
This was excellent mate, I'm a speccy fan, and I agree with all those games, always surprises me the speccy at times.
Cobra on the speccy, sure thats better dude 😃 and the original Renegade I'd say👍🏻
Enjoyed buddy, keep up the good work ✌️ 😊
Many people say that 6502 is better than Z80 as it executes command per cycle.
Well this is true but Z80 is clocked higher and in real life the results prove this.
In game that use vectors or have to draw rods, Z80 is better.
These types of games don't use C64's extra hardware, they are CPU driven.
Add that ZX has a 1bit display and there you go.
I was a Spectrum owner back in the day....interesting video....cheers 👍🏻
I’ve never played with a spectrum,I must say I’m impressed.
I think if I was playing Ninja Gaiden on the Spectrum, I'd opt to play in black-and-white because, while it is very colourful for a Spectrum game, the colour combinations are rather garish to my eyes.
The battle continues... even to this day. C64 vs Spectrum. C64 owners always argued that their platform was better because they had "better music, more colours" and always slagged off Spectrum games because of colour clash. I'm not going lie, colour clash was an issue in some games, but I would rather have speed and playability any day of the week.
I suspect there are loads of games whereby Spectrum games are better than on the C64:
1. R-Type, C64 version is incomplete
2. Lotus Esprit - C64 version has appalling graphics
3. 3D Construction Kit - No 128K version for Commodore, whereas there was one for Spectrum and Amstrad.
But I suspect, there is a list whereby games are better on C64 than the Spectrum. It all come down to who is programming.
Just found my old Spectrum 128k this morning in a box..
Quess I'll be revisiting my childhood :)
As a C64 user, I always wondered about the Spectrum. They were not sold anywhere near me in the US. It's games looked amazingly detailed in magazines and the isometric perspective was impressive. I think the Spectrum/C64 was a classic contrast between raw speed and slower speed with co-processors doing sound and graphics. This contrast continued through Atari ST/Commodore Amiga and DOS/Macintosh and others I bought a Timex/Sinclair 1000 in 1983. I knew about the weird keyboard setup inherited by the Spectrum. In day to day, I don't think many people would pick the Spectrum with its equally weird keyboard. Respect
An interesting video; I did not own or play computer games, being a console gamer, so It’s a puzzle why I am fascinated now. It’s a surprise why I am fascinated by retro games, since I don’t play games.
Hey There. New to your channel. It looks entertaining. Very entertaining even.
About the speccy. I'm impressed by the 3d capabilities now i've seen star wars on it.
Keep it up!
Yup, those and many others were curiously better on the Speccy despite the inferior hardware.
Is Empire Strikes back a 128K hack, as the one I have just has title screen beeper music?
No, I have it on the Hit Squad label & it has in game music.
The faster CPU meant the ZX Spectrum was always going to handle 3D games far better than the C64, but i have always been amazed by the 128K ZX Spectrum version of Starglider, it's superior in many respects to the 512K Atari ST version.
In the right hands, the ZX Spectrum was a formidable beast
I went with the C64 and so missed out on Chaos and Rebelstar for a start, gutted 😭
Yes, and don't forget that the C64 CPU was even slower in PAL-land. C64 had hardware sprites but many games couldn't make use of that.
I was a C64 boy and yeah, can't argue with this list. I would have also added "Enduro Racer", "Super Hang-on" and "Bomb Jack". The speccy versions killed their C64 equivalents.
Yes i do smell my consoles,still remember the smell of my atari and nes ! Great show off of the zx spectrum.
Can't take away the quality of some speccy games. Clear crisp graphics and decent sense of speed. Chase hq was a masterclass of programming on the speccy. The c64 version was just shocking
I grew up with (and still love) the C64 and am blown-away at how good the sprites and some of the graphics in a lot of the Spectrum games looked; the aesthetic is reminiscent of the GameBoy. How is it that this machine and the game devs developed graphics faithful to the original source material with obvious color and memory limitations? What was so different between the Spectrum and the C64 that allowed this? I ask b/c so many of the ports over to the C64 looked almost nothing like the original source material/graphics, despite color, memory and performance advantages over the Spectrum?
Excellent video, thank you!
There's no shortage of bad ports/games on the C64, back then the programmers used to brag about making or converting a full game in just weeks, and these garbage games often went straight to release with little or no testing. It's a shame really. I think at least half of the games I bought back in the day turned out to be disappointing.
Not to mention the countless direct Spectrum ports. Unlike the uploader, I never hated the Spectrum, I actually had a lot of respect for the Spectrum, even though I started with a VIC-20, However, with that said whenever I saw a direct Spectrum port on the C64, I was always gutted. There were a few exceptions where it worked, like Skool Daze, but I was usually let down whenever I saw a direct Speccy port on the C64, Kind of the same way I was let down with the direct ST ports on the Amiga.
Speaking of bad ports to the C64, and in this case it was a direct Speccy port, and a lazy one at that: Chase HQ. Brilliant on the Speccy, hell, even the Amstrad had a decent port, but the C64 version was bollocks.
I could say the same thing for 911 Tiger Shark/911 TS. Not a great game on the Spectrum, but far better than that....whatever the fuck that was on the C64.
I had a Spectrum 48k and my mate a C64. funnily enough I found the random use of joystick port 1 and 2 on the C64 much more confusing than the joystick standard being clearly named.
Great video, what game is the intro music from? rings a very loud bell!
It's the music that was from the Ocean game's loading screens on the C64. This one's known as Ocean loader 5.
What is the piece of 8bit music you are playing as you are talking and have Jet pac on in the background?
I think it's the title screen music from Platoon on the Spectrum.
Brilliant, thank you so much you were right. Awesome piece of spectrum music
I personally thought the monochrome graphics of the Spectrum looked much better than the c64 for many games
The only time anyone ever talks about Navy Seals is the video game adaptations.
The only game I remember being better in the Spectrum that the Commodore 64 was Turbo Esprit. My cousin had it on the Spectrum, but the Commodore version was hopeless in comparison. There were so many games for the systems back then, you'd be unlikely to see/compare them all. For the most part, I thought the Commodore games were much better. Paperboy, The Last Ninja and Bombjack were all far superior on the C64. Cracking graphics, gameplay and music. Ah, happy days indeed!
Great comparison, I've always been very dismissive of the Spectrum, but this just goes to show how clever programming can compensate for lesser hardware and how so many games just didn't bother to take proper advantage of the C64's awesome VIC II and SID chips, choosing, instead, to feed on a captive market.
In Americans we really hate c64 and really hate zx spectrum, so this video is really great for us
Just compare Exolon on both platforms
I personally believe the first Renegade game was also better on the ZX Spectrum. Way back then I owned the C64 version and my friend had it on the Spectrum. In my opinion the Spectrum version was superior due to it having many more frames of animation and not having such goofy looking graphics. The Specy version only had monocrome colours but the motion of the gameplay had much more fluidity to it in my opinion, for example when the player grappled a foe the number of frames of animation present on the ZX version made it more comparable to the arcade version.
I had both, a spectrum in 1984 then a c64 in 1985. The c64 was clearly the best gaming computer. I remember being blown away by the sound and the scrolling of the first game I played on the C64, attack of the mutant camels.
The main drawback of the first version of the sinclair is that it did not have joystick ports! Extensions existed, I had one (which did not very well) but still...
That said, the crisp spectrum graphics had its charm and the color palette was much more pleasant.
An example of game vastly superior on the spectrum is scubadive. Beautiful on the spectrum, awful on the C64.
I had my Spectrum + modded by the shop and added two joystick port in front. It supports Sinclair interface. Basically just wiring additional wires for the number keys to the joystick 9 pin port with a bit of soldering. If only i have a bit of electronics knowledge and skills back then, probably can do it myself. I have recently built myself a pair of Paddle controllers for the C64. :)
I thought you said my friend Martin is on the spectrum. I was like same. Then you said you hated the spectrum 😂 I had to rewind it
And add Commando, Green Beret and R-Type to that list ;)
I went from a Spectrum 48k to a C64 around 1988 and agree with most of your choices in this video.
I was lucky enough to own a rubber keyed Spectrum near launch and enjoyed it immensley.
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My famliy would have not been able to afford a C64 in 1982 when the price would have been double the cost of a Spectrum.
The first time that I played the C64 was around 85/86 at a friends house and was blown away by the soundchip. The Spectrum didn't get a dedicated soundchip until the 128k model launched.
The 128K Spectrum and the C64 were pretty much the same price from 1988 onwards. When I got the chance to get a C64 in summer 88 I jumped at it.
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It is worth mentioning that the 48k Spectrum versions of the games featured in this video will be stripped down experiences. The 48k Spectrum had no soundchip so a lot of the games featured in this video if played on the 48k Spectrum will just have the beeper sound - Empire Strikes Back, Target Renegade, Robocop, Chase HQ. Target Renegade on the 128k Spectrum is great where the game has no multi load and has the ingame music. It is a totally different experience on the 48k Speccy with no music and multiload.
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Another couple of games which are definitely better on the Spectrum are Enduro Racer and Super Hang-On as you mentioned. The C64 versions of those games are atrocious.
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The faster Z80 processer on the Spectrum favoured vector and isometric games so Elitew is better on the Spectrum along with Head Over Heels and Fairlight.
Match Day II is also better on the Spectrum where it is faster.
Exolon and Cybernoid are both possibly better on the Spectrum - these games are flick screen which suits the Speccy and are colourful.
Cobra is better on the Spectrum but is basically a completly different game to the C64.
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TLL is a fantastic early game on the Spectrum which is much better than the C64 version.
Double Dragon is better on the Spectrum. It is still not a good conversion but the C64 version was terrible with none of the weapons or excitement of the arcade original captured in the conversion.
Thanks for the video mate, great one as I had played Batman The Movie, Robocop, Chase HQ a lot back in the day. I would add Bomb Jack on the list. Bomb Jack Speccy version playability is so much better then on C64 (it is also much better then Atari ST version).
Yeah, I checked out Bomb Jack the other day. Not bad.
I remember buying Bomb Jack, and it not working on my 128K +2A, got a letter back from the publisher? with a list of about 20 other games to choose from instead, so I ended up with "Roller Coaster" instead.
This bring back some memories. I had a 48k then 128k. Got operation wolf pack with light gun for Xmas. As some others have said I think cost was a big issue with spectrum v c64. I had a friend with a c64 and although sometimes I was jealous of the larger colour pallette and music I generally thought the spectrum had better detail in the graphics. Had some great times with friends playing target renegade. If I had keyboard it was always set to QAOP and Space as keys :) I had chase hq 2 on speccy and loved it (think it was with magazine subscription crash or something)
You are right about the details. This is due to Speccy using higher resolution than most C64 games which use multicolor sprite mode which halves the horizontal resolution. There are C64 games which uses higher res (non multicolor sprite mode). I believe Auf Wiedersehen Monty (or one of Monty Mole games) use this and the details are comparable (minus the attribute clash.
So many more interesting games on spectrum than on c64 , and I’m a commodore guy, c16/ c+4/c64/Amiga 500/ Amiga 1200/CDTV. The spectrum did have much higher resolution graphics than the c64 , they were just lacking in colour, the speccy is awesome mate
Every vector game and every isometric game is better on Spectrum than on C64.
There are a few comments mentioning Amaurote as being better on spectrum. Since the c64 version was topdown instead of isometric.
But there has recently been released an isometric version for the c64. Which IMO beats the spectrum version.
While generally, the spectrum beats the c64 on anything vector graphics related - it's not always the case.
@@stesve2007 The C64 was more expensive and better than the ZX Spectrum. A well-made C64 game is better than a well-made ZX Spectrum game. Today's programmers have all the knowledge that their predecessors have accumulated over 40 years. Of course, today's games are better than the games of that time. I meant old times and old games and wrote about a rule from which, of course, there are exceptions. For example, the isometric Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis was much better on c64 than on the ZX spectrum, but these are the exceptions that prove the rule.
But, for example, the Filmation engine that supports games such as Knight Lore and Gunfright was too powerful for the MOS 6510, which is why many Ultimate games were not made for the C64. It was similar with Great Escape or Where Time Stood Still.
Not watch the vid yet but the title got my interest as I'm definitely a spectrum fan
You can also add all of the Dizzy games (at least the platform adventure games)
An interesting watch, The Speccy did it for me it was a great value machine with so many fantastic games, Happy memories .
How are you getting the Spectrum sound output in stereo when it only had a mono output?
I tried to capture from real hardware but failed so ended up using emulation. All C64 footage is captured using the real thing though!
Hard for me to comment on the games as I only ever had the ZX Spectrum 48k when I started but I loved the games even with the restrictions, couldn't afford a C64. Though the machine code was easy to learn to programme on the Z80 as was the basic, I actually wrote a Lottery Numbers Prediction programme (never won, but did get it published in one of the magazines), a floppy disc defragmentation prog (had one of them Discoverys & an MGT Plus-D) and later on when I got a 128k Grey, wrote a stock control programme :) I now have ZX80's, Spectrum 48ks / 128K (grey plus 2 which was also old stock still boxed) and even a Plus3. But then I also have an Acorn, and an Acorn Communicator, an MSX Personal Comp and a C64 or two - OH and an Amstrad PCW? - Never got the Atari or the Amiga. Always wanted a Dragon32. My very first computer was a hand me down from my brother, a MK14 from Science of Cambridge (Pre Sinclair) :) Might just leave them all in my will to the Computer Museum at Bletchley. One regret is that I had a Sinclair QL but dumped it when it had a problem, instead of fixing it :(
I used to hate spectrum (and C64) mostly because most software houses ignored my machine (Atari 8bit) even if most of its specs were superior than any other 8bit machine.
Fast forward to this day and I own and enjoy all those machines of the past. ZX Spectrum has become one of my favorite mainly because of its unique aesthetics of its graphics and sound. The homebrew community is doing an amazingly good job pushing that really simple architecture to new levels.
Hey! what is the name of the game music playing during the first minutes of the video???? can it be Platoon?
Yes, I think it's from the title screen on the spectrum 👍🏻
All Spectrum games are in resolution 256x192 and almost all on c64 are 160x200 and feel flattened. 49152 dots vs 32000 which is 65% less and you say, only eight (8) games? 65% difference and users paid from double to triple price. Have you ever compared Spectrum Red, Blue, Yellow and c64 "colors of the only same name"?
Elite should be on this list.
The Spectrum was made on the cheap. As frustrating as it was, it was brilliant. The C64 used to be £399, which was really expensive.
Either way, they were wonderful times.
So interesting. Amazing how much better Empire is on the Spectrum.
That happens a lot when it comes to CPU-hungry games. Starion e.g. and those Freescape (solid 3D engine) games. Some of these games were never even converted to the C64 (both Starstrike games e.g.) and Carrier Command only got a 2D treatment on the Commie.
What I always admire is when really good programmers overcome the systems' limitations like in R-Type on the Spectrum or in Mayhem in Monsterland on the C64.
That's what makes retro computing so fascinating!
speccy was 3.5mhz vs c64 1mhz that's why it could do 3d calculations better. interesting interview on youtube is how nobody thought 'head over heels' could be ported to the c64 because of the 3d. it was ported very well, but the doco explains how many software houses thought it couldn't be done.
@@andre0000000007 And problem was aggravated in PAL countries as the CPU ran even slower due to the 50 Hz mains frequency.
Nice topic fella, if I was to add another to ur list it would be Oceans Cobra. I owned a Spectrum b4 owning the c64 and thought it was an ok game until I came across the awful Commodore n Amstrad efforts.
Some great picks mate I struggle with the colour palette on the c64 because I'm colour blind. So not just the fact that I had spectrum back in the day why I really like it now. Go and check out some spectrum homebrew games like ooze and castlevania so many great games still being made
I'll have to check those out! 👍🏻
I mostly focus on home micros on my channel pentacorns quest and old tower are also very good
You forgot to add the game Saboteur. One of my favorite games and much better on spectrum. (I have both versions)
I was a massive speccy fan, i had the 48k version and even purchased the new keyboard from sinclair research back in the day, thinking about it for me the only thing that held the c64 back as was the 1mhz CPU, yes i was jealous of the sprite, colour and sound capabilities of the c64 but that CPU was so slow things like 3d racing games and the old freescape games like driller, castle master, total eclipse etc were mind numbingly slow for the c64 with fps being about 0.0003. what i wanted was a machine with vic and sid chips of the c64, the CPU of the spectrum and also the spectrum basic with simons basic added in to access the graphics abilities of the vic but without the 1 keyword entry system. i think the only games on the c64 i was jealous of were the last ninja series as those games were bloody amazing.
I grew up in the 90s in the US, with no consoles older than the NES, no computers older than a Windows 95 box. I started getting into older consoles and computers about 2013-14, and I will openly admit I quickly turned my nose up at the Spectrum as nothing *but* a budget computer, with no reason to bother with it if the game was available on the C64 or Atari 8-Bit machines. Within the past couple years, however, I gave it another shot due to the homebrew scene(which has a much higher tendency to utilize 40 year old systems to their utmost limits), and I was amazed at how many games made even during the 80s run well, play well, and aren't the eyesores I'd always seen them as - you just have to go out of your way to find them more than you do on the C64 of Atari 8-Bit computers. I'm rather looking forward to checking out the Spectrum version of The Empire Strikes Back after this video.
I agree 100% with the gripes you had as a kid about the hardware, though. If I was a kid in the 80s and had a C64 or Atari 800, and saw the hoops you had to jump through to just play games on a Spectrum in comparison, I'd probably never give it a second thought. (Especially if it wasn't a Spectrum+ and still had the absolutely awful rubbery membrane keyboard.)
Target Renegade for C64 has nice ingame music as well. You select between msx and sfx before game.
I sometimes use the music from the C64 Target Renegade in my videos 👍🏻
I just can remember playing Jet Set Willy on the ZX Spectrum, but I don't think it was as advanced as those games you showed. I had friends who had a Commodore 64 but I never played on that.
I like colors on Speccy, they are so juicy and rich. Why color palette on c64 is so lifeless and dull? Sadly i never played on ZX, only Commodore. Good times, though.
100% agree with your opinions here. Always surprised how good some of the Spectrum games were. Much as the C64 was a superior machine, the music sometimes grated and the colours always looked bleached out to me. Sometimes the extra colours didn't add anything of note.
Class David, over the moon for you buddy, I must admit I've avoided the Hit Squad games to be honest 😆 , if there's Hit squad in my pickups I'm happy, I've only got about 15 of them anyway haha, but no way am I going down the rabbit hole David, as It would drive bonkers mate 😄 , Enjoyed this, and take care pal✌️
Who's David? 🤔
@@RetroOrBust Lol, I'm really sorry mate, this went to the wrong person, my stupidity here, have a great day 😀
@@stewsretroreviews lol, not a problem. Wondered why you were talking about Hit Squad games too! 😂
@@RetroOrBust I was in a bit of a rush 😆 🤣
Bionic commando. The speccy was the best version. Classic game.
Target Renegade 2 was in my top 5 favourite Spectrum games, was like Double Dragon in your own home!
I think the Spectrum was cheaper so more kids at the time got that and learned to program on it and ended up on spectrum development teams as they got to know how the machine worked and how to push it and some programmers really pushed the spectrum to it's limits and beyond in some instances.
To the same extent I would say there are better ST games out there than the Amiga versions (Mostly as Amiga developers concentrated more on graphics and showcase with animations cutscenes and all than the game itself.) Better hardware doesn't always mean a better game.
It's what you do with that hardware that does it. And in this case the Spectrum not as technical and all spec wise, did have some cracking games nonetheless.
Completely agree 👍🏻 btw, keep an eye out for my next video, another home micro's going head to head with the C64.....
Magical Times!