@@paxhumana2015 Hehe, yeah my projects tend to be very very weird mate - but I have made about a dozen PC games, 2 art packages, a soundtracker (for PC), an iOS app, freelance on the UK's #1 paid apple app... and am currently working on an unreal 5 project. You know what though?... making those speccy games got me more recognition and was more fun than all of the apple and PC stuff put together, and I'm 100% serious on that!
One of the main charms of the Speccy (at the time, and today) is that it's such a bare-bones machine, graphically and sonically, devs have no choice but to concentrate on the core gameplay. To this day, my litmus test for whether a game is truly any good is whether it would survive being ported to the Speccy - stripped of all its graphical and audio pizzazz, would it still be a good game underneath?
More modern zx-spectrum games (included the games in this top 20): 7777, 9999 in One, Agent Blue, Albatrossity, Aliens Neoplasma, Alter Ego, Angels, Angry Birds Opposition, Aquanoids, Asteroids RX, Atlantis ZX, Automated Cave Explorer, Axel K. and The Lost Bills, Baby Monkey Alba, Balachor's Revenge, Batboy, Battle City 2016, Bean Brothers, Black & White, BlokTris, Bobby Carrot, Bomb Munchies, Bonnie & Clyde, Booty The Remake, Brick Rick Graveyard Shift, Bruce Lee RX, Bruxólico, Bufonada, Buzzsaw+, Carlos Michelis, Castaway Castle of Sorrow, Castlevania Spectral Interlude, Coinz Are Mine!, Cosmic Payback, Crazy Kong City, Crystal Kingdom Dizzy Remake, Cygnus: Alpha, Delta's Shadow, Dirty Dozer, Dogmole Tuppowski - The New Adventures, Dr. Who Surrender Time, Dreamwalker, Dragonfire ZX, Drift!, Duck Tales ZX, Duckstroma, El Stompo, Escape From Colony 8, Farmer Jack, Flynn's Adventure in Bombland, Frantic Pengo, Foggy's Quest, Fucking Mili, Funky Fungus Reloaded, Galdalf Deluxe, Gem Slider, Get Out of Mars, Gluf, Gokumal, Gravibots, Hell Yeah!, Hunt Buck Nuclear Defence, Impossabubble, Impossamal, Invasion of The Zombie Monsters, Jilly's Farm Volume 1 SokoBAArn, Join, Karlos, King's Valley, Klondike Solitaire, Knightmare ZX, Knightmare 2 ZX, Last Train to Tranz-Central, Left Behind, Los Amores de Brunilda, Loxley, Mahjong Solitaire, Manic Pietro, Mario Bros Game & Watch, Marsmare Alienation, Matthew Cranston Battles, Maze Death Rally, Metal Man Reloaded, Metamorphosis, Mighty Final Fight, Misifu Remeow, Mister Kung Fu, More Tea Vicar, Mr. Do!, MultiDude, Ninja Gaiden Shadow Warriors, NinjaJar!, Ninjakul 2: The Last Ninja, Nixy And The Seeds of Doom, Nixy The Glade Sprite, Nothing, Old Tower, Ooze, Pentacorn Quest, Pietro Bros., Pillars, Pilot Attack, Pitman, Pre-Zu, Preliminary Monty, Project Revelation, PTM, Q-Box, Quest For Elements, Raiders of The Lost Ark, Rallybug, Red Raid, Redshift, Retro Racer, Retroforce, Ringo, Rival Gangs, Roger The Pangolin, Rubinho Cucaracha, Run!, Savage Princess, Sea Dragon, Sector Invasion, Seraphima, Shovel Adventure, SIP - Special Inter-Galactic Painter, Sir Abadol, Sir Abadol 2, Sir Froggy, Snake Escape, Sophia, Space Monsters Meet The Hardy, Speccy Bros., Springbot Mars Attack, Sprouty, Stormfinch, Sun Bucket, Super 48k Box, Super Bomberman 2 Remix, Super Mario Bros 128k, Survivisection, Terrapins, The Amazing Rocketeer, The Dark: Lost Pages, The Dark: Redux, The Goblin, The Legend of The Frog Prince, The Lost Treasures of Tulum, The Return of Traxtor, The Sword of lanna, The Tales Of Grupp, The Vectornauts, Tiny Dungeons, TokiMal, Toofy's Winter Nuts, Toof in Fan Land, Tourmaline, Towdie, Travel Through Time, Turbomania, Twinlight, Uroboros, Uwol - Quest for Money, Vallation, Valley of Rains, Vampire Vengeance, White Jaguar, Wonderful Dizzy, Xenoblast, Yazzie
A great selection. I would add Marsmare: Alienation to the list. Great metroidvania with great gameplay. And Wonderful Dizzy is also worthy of getting into the top.
Wow, these games are really amazing.. with the new batches of games for the C64, Speccy and Amstrad I would say that the Spectrum games overall perhaps even look and play the best, they look better than the games from the pioneering years. Love the resurgence!
Great video, I really like it! The original ZX Spectrum was never meant to be a games machine. Sir Clive was not happy that this useful little coding machine was abused that way. 😉 That's why e.g. during sound production the Z80 CPU cannot do anything else. And that's why Valley of Rains and similar games are such awesome coding miracles. One error to correct in you video, though. Tha Castlevania game is called "Castlevania Spectral Interlude" 😎
Lovely list! "Delta Shadow" seems like a conversion of sorts of Power Blade 2, from the NES. The character is very similar, uses the same boomerang as a weapon, and the BGM is exactly the same one in the first stage of the NES game. I also noticed that "Nothing" plays "Garota de Ipanema" as its BGM! As a Brazilian, I think this is way cool!
some of these look and sound quite amazing, modern programmers are pulling off some mindblowing things with old computers and consoles. Nintendo, Sega, and other brands of the past don't realize how much of a market exists for old hardware. they should re release their old machines
Not bad, but FAR from being the definintive list. Serious ommissions include... - Astro Blaster 2019 128k. Possbly the best zx arcade conversion EVER. - Gluf. Work of genius from retrosouls. - Mechwars Arena. Bot support on a spectrum? Damn straight. - Maze death rally X. Arcade conversion par excellence. - Mr Do. Arcade classic remade to perfection. - Pillars. Columns conversion, almost mastersystem perfect. Wonderful. - Sector Invasion. Retro souls shooter of the highest quality. - Toofy's nutty nightmare. Paul Jenkinson classic. - Vampire Vengeance. Awesome platformer. - Yazzie. Lode runner-like from retrosouls. - Ali Baba. Very good arcade conversion. - Farmer Jack and the hedge monkeys. Arcade lady bug conversion done properly. - Frogger by Arda 2021. Possibly the best frogger for the speccy. - Jepack Neo. Awesome update to the classic. - Roust. Almost arcade perfect joust. - Quantum Gadening. Absolute gem by Jon Cauldwell. - The Goblin. Georgeous platformer. And many more. PHEW!
From the driving game & Castlevania demake onwards, the game quality really jumped up several notches. I've never been a fan of the Sinclair, no nostalgia since I never owned one, but it seems for devs who embraced the limitations of the hardware, the graphical style and music look fine supplemented by good game mechanics and controls.
OSG - knowing your first love is the C64 it's great to see you give line to the Speccy. Even back in the playground arguments of my childhood I would always maintain gameplay trumped graphics and this is an area where the Speccy more often then not excelled as developers invite they could only do so much with the graphic limitations
As a Commodore 64 owner as a kid (still got it) I never bothered with the Spectrum and always thought it was crap, but after seeing these games it looks like it was a fairly decent computer for back in the day.
Oh Wow, that 'travel through time' Driver..........Amazing. what a standout. A super list overall and something for me to start hunting to buy / download Thanks for this list.
I said it about the Amiga version of this vid, and same here, just imagine having a time machine and going back in time with some c15 cassettes loaded up with these games!!!
Normally I'm on the C64 side of things, so I did not see all the new Spectrum releases. That part of the retro-scene has not been sitting still either! really impressed! They even managed to do real miracles with the music here and there considering the capabilities of the sound chip. The colorful graphics and animation within the color clash limitations are out of this world in places, especially on Sword of Lanna, makes me feel the C64 scene has to drop the Chunky MC pixel mode all together and simply use only hires or ECM!
Yer right! I am surprised m8! Having only played a few Speccy games and having no nostalgia for the system I'm impressed with some of these, deffo! In my ignorance I just imagined colour clashing and speaker blips, some of these games look great. Smooth scrolling, minimal clash, nice bit tunes, cool! Enjoying this series :)
@@oldstylegaming Travel Through Time sticks out to me m8, never imagined a driving game would look that good on a Speccy! Redshift looks good, yeah. After you've finished yer current one can you please add Atari 800XL to the list? ;)
Shocked that Manic Pietro & Janky Joe in Retro Hell & Cousin Horace are not on this list! All are top ten ever on the Speccy for me, along with Rubinho Curacha which is my favourite racing game on Spectrum by far and MUCH better and more fun than Travel Through Time, which i found kinda boring. Strongly recommend trying these four!
It feels like the developers of these games have realised that retro fans won't care that much about colour clash as long as the game play stacks up. Add to that the Speccy charm and modern gameplay ideas and these could be some of the best games on the platform ever. Also enjoyed some of the colour clash avoidance by using shadowing techniques, which I remember seeing on a coin-op conversion of Karnov, many years ago.
While I’m more a c64 man, but these titles look just fantastic! Got a child free weekend and think I’ll get them all downloaded and have a play through them. Great video!
I didn't have a spectrum for very long. Was a 48k plus. I remember i bought it non working and got it repaired and moved on to the commodore 64 which I still own today. Amazing looking games on the list i must say
I've still to dip into the Speccy Nouveau scene. I know, the lads have been banging on about it for an age now, I'll get there eventually. Great Showcase bud 😎👍
So there's a mobile game called Tomb of the Mask which hooked me visually (I was 15 when it came out and didn't even know the existense of Spectrum or heck knew nothing about 80s home computers in general). Now I know someone made a game (Old Tower) for the original hardware and find it satisfying to see it coming full circle.
Thanks again OSG. I am really happy about the game development on all those old systems. Saw some of those games on Twitch played by Hitch and I have streamed some of'em also. Nice listing, gonna fetch the missing games :)
There's definitely a lot more new great games out there. It would be great to see some quick review vids on these and those on your top 20 list. Another couple of games not on the list worth a mention :- MAGICABLE & ALL HALLOWS Rise of Pumpkin. Great work as always mate! Just checked Spectrum Computings' list of games in release order and there's 56 new releases so far this year !!
Once again, great video. 💪🏻💪🏻 Aliens Neoplasma was supposed to be ported to the C64, and early screens looked spectacular. It's too bad the port was eventually discarded.
@@oldstylegaming Eh, it happens.. Though, I'm surprised that The Dark: Redux and Metamorphosis didn't get in. They're probably the best games in their categories on the Spectrum.
@@alexandruianu8432 I just looked at The Dark: Redux.... Wow. Obviously I can't comment on gameplay from watching a video, but damn it's visually impressive.
an absolutely cracking video Paul really enjoyed your journey through this top 20 and I agree with many that have made your list Mister kung fu is a new one to me and I need to get this game I do hope there is a physical release, travel through time I played it for hours until I completed the whole game and the bonus stage at the end I was craving for more a cracking game I do hope there is a volume 2 🤞 no surprise that everyone you asked recommended Redshift im also a massive fan of the shoot em up genre and it blew me away on the speccy how fast and smooth it plays and the controls are spot on thanks for the shout out mate
Interesting that only one of the games in this list has the 8x8 sprites and tile aligned gameplay of Old Tower. I like the smaller size of 8x8 "sprites" as it allows fitting in so much more map on screen; in comparison the more typical 16x16 feels claustrophobic to me. And I think tile aligned gameplay allows for elegant aesthetic graphics without color clash problems. But the trade-off is that it's artistically challenging to make pixel art in 8x8. Maybe 8 pixel wide sprites were more common here in the USA because the Atari 400/800 was a lot bigger here. They had sprites limited to 8 pixels wide, albeit they were limited in scale so they would be at least 16 pixels wide (with double wide pixels). Nevertheless, most of the big early C64 games were Atari 8 bit ports or simultaneous development, or Apple ][ ports. We didn't have the Spectrum, but the VIC-20 was pretty popular for a bit - and it was even more limited, by a measly 22 columns. These limitations made Old Tower-like 8x8 "sprites" and tile based action pretty common on the VIC-20 ... albeit I think the only VIC-20 classic that people would generally be aware of was Jeff Minter's Gridrunner.
Old Tower is a special one because it's using the multicolour timing tricks, so you've got more than 2 colours in each of those 8x8 tiles. They've managed to combine that with smooth scrolling, great puzzles, and a fantastic rendition of a classic tune (a lot of people will associate the 'Popcorn' tune with Pengo, although apparently Sega didn't actually have permission to use it) Old Tower would probably have been my #1 pick.
Cool list, a couple I haven't played yet. I agree with Larry Bundy Jr., The Dark deserved a mention. And probably the Speccy game I have played the most from the last ten years is Bonnie & Clyde.
Some interesting choices, all quality games, maybe not the list I'd have gone for, I was a little surprised to not see Wonderful Dizzy on here as it's a really impressive game in terms of presentation, although it's far from even being the best Dizzy game on the system, so kinda glad it isn't, there were better games here worth highlighting. One I spent a lot of time with, that didn't make the list, is Snake Escape. I can maybe understand why, it's colourful but does only move in chunks, but it's a fantastic little puzzle game. SplATTR is another, although admittedly it's not the deepest of games, but the style of it stands out. This is one of those times when you could easily do one of those 'Another 20 of the Best...' videos anyway
@@oldstylegaming it's is very pretty, but tried too hard to reinvent what Dizzy was / dumb it down to give it a wider appeal, rather than concentrate on creating a modern world using the established mechanics. The busier visuals were cluttered in places too, sometimes making it difficult to know what to interact with, amd there's one scene with animated water in the background, when such use of animation is typically reserved for foreground hazards you interact with. The easier platforming took away the gameplay challenge for the most part; very few tricky jumps, replaced with a some climbing sections which felt more Monty Mole than Dizzy. There's also a noticeable lack of verticality compared to other games, it's very flat for the most part, I can't remember a single section more than 2 screens high, with only basic platform layouts; a problem more associated with the Seymour games. Other Dizzy games had a more maze-like quality in places with 'Oh, so THAT is how you get to there' moments. Not here. The puzzles are all rather obvious too, even by Dizzy standards and are mostly just bringing objects to different characters rather than solving environmental puzzles with them. There are a few exceptions, but overall this makes the game feel like a dialogue-heavy set of fetch quests. The narrative has been placed above the gameplay. It feels like a very modern Dizzy game, something that could have been released for current platforms, but to a lot of us who grew up with Dizzy games, it's a style over substance entry so I can fully understand the unanimous 'no' vote. Old Style gaming definitely beats New style gaming when it comes to DIzzy ;) As a Spectrum game it's a solid 10/10, couldn't ask for more. As a Dizzy game, it's maybe a 4.5/10.
i do struggle with the speccy shooters as you can never see the bullets, i just can't get use to them. So many other great games didn't make the list, the new spectrum stuff is very good.
I've been sort of disillusioned with PC gaming for a couple of years now. Nothing really holds my attention for some reason. Many games beyond pretty graphics don't really hit the spot. Either the games are too shallow, or they are too complex with bunch of tedious unrewarding mechanics, they fail to hit that sweet spot somehow old retro games hit effortlessly. I decided to go back to my roots. My god, I had no idea people still made games for the ZX Spectrum and C64. And not only do they still make games, they are better than ever! I played the Old Tower recently and I was just amazed at what's possible in terms of overall enjoyment and game-play on these old 8-bit bangers. I've been missing out big time. Time to dust off my old Speccy.
Fantastic, thank you! One question please: just watched a "wireframe" mod of Tomb Raider 2 (search Footi Tomb Raider II 10+ dragons, minute 38) which made me wonder if a Speccy was capable enough to run TR in this reduced way - what do you think? Just love the idea 😁 Cheers!
Many of these games are really ace, but "the 20 best"? And all released in the last 2-3 years at most? I would have included, to name but a few, Carlos Michelis, Escuela De Ladrones, Red Raid The Infiltration, Abe's Oddysee Escape, Karlos Und Schatze Der Azteken, Gandalf De Luxe, Twilight, Los Amores De Brunilda, Speccy Bros, Cosmic Payback, The Swarm Is Coming, Majikazo, Ninjajar etc. rather than several of those seen here. And I won't add any of my own games, because you might think I am biased ;-) Well, I guess with such "20 best of this and that" you are not bound to please anybody anyway, that's why I abstain from making them myself :-) Thanks for the video anyway :-)
Good list from my favourite retro computer but i would choose completely different games.i think you focused in technicaly advanced games and not só much in the Gameplay. What s the point in playing the mighty final fight on the Spectrum when you can play on the nes. I would prefer unique games with Simple Gameplay mechanics that you hardly play on other system. Loved uwol, Quest for money, horace and the mystic Woods, splatrr, manic Pietro, etc.
That Sword of Ianna instantly makes me think of Tir na Nog (sp?) and Myth. Is the gameplay anything like Myth? (Speccy version, which was legit far better than the 16-bit versions of the game.)
As always am here super super late but hey am here now haha. Not a big fan of the Spectrum if am honest as i could never get around the colour but hey i did like a few games. Great stuff as always buddy and am looking forward to the next one, so until then take it easy man.
List of Games
01:02 20 - Valley Of Rains
01:35 19 - Angels
02:10 18 - Nighty Final Fight
02:45 17 - Rival Gangs
03:20 16 - Super 48K Box
03:55 15 - Delta Shadow
04:30 14 - TokiMal
05:05 13 - Space Monsters Meet The Hardy
05:40 12 - Metal Man Reloaded
06:15 11 - Mister Kung Fu
06:50 10 - More Tea Vicar
07:25 09 - Last Train to Tranz-Central
08:00 08 - Travel Through Time
08:35 07 - Castlevania Special Interlude
09:10 06 - Old Tower
09:45 05 - Ooze
10:20 04 - Redshift
10:55 03 - Nothing
11:30 02 - Aliens: Neoplasma
12:05 01 - The Sword of lanna
Thanks mate
@@oldstylegaming You're welcome!
T hanks for the chapter menu.
WOW! - I'm in shock!, I wrote Super 48k Box, to have it featured in a video like this has made my year!
Be proud!
I wonder if you are going to cover more powerful technology soon?
@@paxhumana2015 Hehe, yeah my projects tend to be very very weird mate - but I have made about a dozen PC games, 2 art packages, a soundtracker (for PC), an iOS app, freelance on the UK's #1 paid apple app... and am currently working on an unreal 5 project. You know what though?... making those speccy games got me more recognition and was more fun than all of the apple and PC stuff put together, and I'm 100% serious on that!
Its amazing what people can do with old machines. Great games.
One of the main charms of the Speccy (at the time, and today) is that it's such a bare-bones machine, graphically and sonically, devs have no choice but to concentrate on the core gameplay. To this day, my litmus test for whether a game is truly any good is whether it would survive being ported to the Speccy - stripped of all its graphical and audio pizzazz, would it still be a good game underneath?
More modern zx-spectrum games (included the games in this top 20):
7777, 9999 in One, Agent Blue, Albatrossity, Aliens Neoplasma, Alter Ego, Angels, Angry Birds Opposition, Aquanoids, Asteroids RX, Atlantis ZX, Automated Cave Explorer, Axel K. and The Lost Bills, Baby Monkey Alba, Balachor's Revenge, Batboy, Battle City 2016, Bean Brothers, Black & White, BlokTris, Bobby Carrot, Bomb Munchies, Bonnie & Clyde, Booty The Remake, Brick Rick Graveyard Shift, Bruce Lee RX, Bruxólico, Bufonada, Buzzsaw+, Carlos Michelis, Castaway Castle of Sorrow, Castlevania Spectral Interlude, Coinz Are Mine!, Cosmic Payback, Crazy Kong City, Crystal Kingdom Dizzy Remake, Cygnus: Alpha, Delta's Shadow, Dirty Dozer, Dogmole Tuppowski - The New Adventures, Dr. Who Surrender Time, Dreamwalker, Dragonfire ZX, Drift!, Duck Tales ZX, Duckstroma, El Stompo, Escape From Colony 8, Farmer Jack, Flynn's Adventure in Bombland, Frantic Pengo, Foggy's Quest, Fucking Mili, Funky Fungus Reloaded, Galdalf Deluxe, Gem Slider, Get Out of Mars, Gluf, Gokumal, Gravibots, Hell Yeah!, Hunt Buck Nuclear Defence, Impossabubble, Impossamal, Invasion of The Zombie Monsters, Jilly's Farm Volume 1 SokoBAArn, Join, Karlos, King's Valley, Klondike Solitaire, Knightmare ZX, Knightmare 2 ZX, Last Train to Tranz-Central, Left Behind, Los Amores de Brunilda, Loxley, Mahjong Solitaire, Manic Pietro, Mario Bros Game & Watch, Marsmare Alienation, Matthew Cranston Battles, Maze Death Rally, Metal Man Reloaded, Metamorphosis, Mighty Final Fight, Misifu Remeow, Mister Kung Fu, More Tea Vicar, Mr. Do!, MultiDude, Ninja Gaiden Shadow Warriors, NinjaJar!, Ninjakul 2: The Last Ninja, Nixy And The Seeds of Doom, Nixy The Glade Sprite, Nothing, Old Tower, Ooze, Pentacorn Quest, Pietro Bros., Pillars, Pilot Attack, Pitman, Pre-Zu, Preliminary Monty, Project Revelation, PTM, Q-Box, Quest For Elements, Raiders of The Lost Ark, Rallybug, Red Raid, Redshift, Retro Racer, Retroforce, Ringo, Rival Gangs, Roger The Pangolin, Rubinho Cucaracha, Run!, Savage Princess, Sea Dragon, Sector Invasion, Seraphima, Shovel Adventure, SIP - Special Inter-Galactic Painter, Sir Abadol, Sir Abadol 2, Sir Froggy, Snake Escape, Sophia, Space Monsters Meet The Hardy, Speccy Bros., Springbot Mars Attack, Sprouty, Stormfinch, Sun Bucket, Super 48k Box, Super Bomberman 2 Remix, Super Mario Bros 128k, Survivisection, Terrapins, The Amazing Rocketeer, The Dark: Lost Pages, The Dark: Redux, The Goblin, The Legend of The Frog Prince, The Lost Treasures of Tulum, The Return of Traxtor, The Sword of lanna, The Tales Of Grupp, The Vectornauts, Tiny Dungeons, TokiMal, Toofy's Winter Nuts, Toof in Fan Land, Tourmaline, Towdie, Travel Through Time, Turbomania, Twinlight, Uroboros, Uwol - Quest for Money, Vallation, Valley of Rains, Vampire Vengeance, White Jaguar, Wonderful Dizzy, Xenoblast, Yazzie
OSG, you sneaky-snake…with that cover who wouldn’t click on this vid! 😆 great video though as always!
A great selection. I would add Marsmare: Alienation to the list. Great metroidvania with great gameplay. And Wonderful Dizzy is also worthy of getting into the top.
Thank you for including my game! Top 10 too - you're far too kind! *sheepyhugs*
Games with no music was a good time to bang on some Pet shop boys or some House music.
The spectrum still alive is a great notice.
My favourite game to play is "Imagine if this had been a launch title"
Wow, these games are really amazing.. with the new batches of games for the C64, Speccy and Amstrad I would say that the Spectrum games overall perhaps even look and play the best, they look better than the games from the pioneering years. Love the resurgence!
Great video, I really like it!
The original ZX Spectrum was never meant to be a games machine. Sir Clive was not happy that this useful little coding machine was abused that way. 😉
That's why e.g. during sound production the Z80 CPU cannot do anything else. And that's why Valley of Rains and similar games are such awesome coding miracles.
One error to correct in you video, though.
Tha Castlevania game is called "Castlevania Spectral Interlude" 😎
Great list mate and I love the spectrum as you know I have almost all the games on this list
Lovely list! "Delta Shadow" seems like a conversion of sorts of Power Blade 2, from the NES. The character is very similar, uses the same boomerang as a weapon, and the BGM is exactly the same one in the first stage of the NES game. I also noticed that "Nothing" plays "Garota de Ipanema" as its BGM! As a Brazilian, I think this is way cool!
some of these look and sound quite amazing, modern programmers are pulling off some mindblowing things with old computers and consoles. Nintendo, Sega, and other brands of the past don't realize how much of a market exists for old hardware. they should re release their old machines
With complete Rom SDK's
Not bad, but FAR from being the definintive list. Serious ommissions include...
- Astro Blaster 2019 128k. Possbly the best zx arcade conversion EVER.
- Gluf. Work of genius from retrosouls.
- Mechwars Arena. Bot support on a spectrum? Damn straight.
- Maze death rally X. Arcade conversion par excellence.
- Mr Do. Arcade classic remade to perfection.
- Pillars. Columns conversion, almost mastersystem perfect. Wonderful.
- Sector Invasion. Retro souls shooter of the highest quality.
- Toofy's nutty nightmare. Paul Jenkinson classic.
- Vampire Vengeance. Awesome platformer.
- Yazzie. Lode runner-like from retrosouls.
- Ali Baba. Very good arcade conversion.
- Farmer Jack and the hedge monkeys. Arcade lady bug conversion done properly.
- Frogger by Arda 2021. Possibly the best frogger for the speccy.
- Jepack Neo. Awesome update to the classic.
- Roust. Almost arcade perfect joust.
- Quantum Gadening. Absolute gem by Jon Cauldwell.
- The Goblin. Georgeous platformer.
And many more.
PHEW!
Lol i could have made a 100 list easily and still left games out
Some great recommendations here. Set off a download frenzy. Many thanks
These are ridiculously impressive
Brilliant video as always…..goes to show we never really needed new hardware. Definitely my favourite TH-cam channel :)
From the driving game & Castlevania demake onwards, the game quality really jumped up several notches. I've never been a fan of the Sinclair, no nostalgia since I never owned one, but it seems for devs who embraced the limitations of the hardware, the graphical style and music look fine supplemented by good game mechanics and controls.
OSG - knowing your first love is the C64 it's great to see you give line to the Speccy. Even back in the playground arguments of my childhood I would always maintain gameplay trumped graphics and this is an area where the Speccy more often then not excelled as developers invite they could only do so much with the graphic limitations
As a Commodore 64 owner as a kid (still got it) I never bothered with the Spectrum and always thought it was crap, but after seeing these games it looks like it was a fairly decent computer for back in the day.
Their games looked like a slightly better 'Game&Watch'
Oh Wow, that 'travel through time' Driver..........Amazing. what a standout. A super list overall and something for me to start hunting to buy / download
Thanks for this list.
I said it about the Amiga version of this vid, and same here, just imagine having a time machine and going back in time with some c15 cassettes loaded up with these games!!!
Normally I'm on the C64 side of things, so I did not see all the new Spectrum releases. That part of the retro-scene has not been sitting still either! really impressed! They even managed to do real miracles with the music here and there considering the capabilities of the sound chip. The colorful graphics and animation within the color clash limitations are out of this world in places, especially on Sword of Lanna, makes me feel the C64 scene has to drop the Chunky MC pixel mode all together and simply use only hires or ECM!
Nice to see a list for ZX Spectrum, but my personal top 20 list of modern ZX Spectrum games would have been quite different.
Yeah its one of those lists that could have been 100 games as there are so many...but i personally think thats a good thing
Yer right! I am surprised m8! Having only played a few Speccy games and having no nostalgia for the system I'm impressed with some of these, deffo! In my ignorance I just imagined colour clashing and speaker blips, some of these games look great. Smooth scrolling, minimal clash, nice bit tunes, cool! Enjoying this series :)
Yeah mate i bet you would like that redshift irs a proper arcade feel shoot em up
@@oldstylegaming Travel Through Time sticks out to me m8, never imagined a driving game would look that good on a Speccy! Redshift looks good, yeah. After you've finished yer current one can you please add Atari 800XL to the list? ;)
What's amazing is the best games are yet to come.
Shocked that Manic Pietro & Janky Joe in Retro Hell & Cousin Horace are not on this list! All are top ten ever on the Speccy for me, along with Rubinho Curacha which is my favourite racing game on Spectrum by far and MUCH better and more fun than Travel Through Time, which i found kinda boring. Strongly recommend trying these four!
Thanks for the shout out. Some belting games on here. Class vid 👌
It feels like the developers of these games have realised that retro fans won't care that much about colour clash as long as the game play stacks up. Add to that the Speccy charm and modern gameplay ideas and these could be some of the best games on the platform ever.
Also enjoyed some of the colour clash avoidance by using shadowing techniques, which I remember seeing on a coin-op conversion of Karnov, many years ago.
Ibhad 1 as a young teen and ive now got a nother 128k zx spectram and i love it
yooo OSG my man hope all's well buddy. I really liked the spectrum so this will be good 😁💪♥️
While I’m more a c64 man, but these titles look just fantastic! Got a child free weekend and think I’ll get them all downloaded and have a play through them. Great video!
I didn't have a spectrum for very long. Was a 48k plus. I remember i bought it non working and got it repaired and moved on to the commodore 64 which I still own today. Amazing looking games on the list i must say
I've still to dip into the Speccy Nouveau scene. I know, the lads have been banging on about it for an age now, I'll get there eventually. Great Showcase bud 😎👍
So there's a mobile game called Tomb of the Mask which hooked me visually (I was 15 when it came out and didn't even know the existense of Spectrum or heck knew nothing about 80s home computers in general). Now I know someone made a game (Old Tower) for the original hardware and find it satisfying to see it coming full circle.
Wow Travel Through Time impresses me. Nice looking driver
Thanks again OSG. I am really happy about the game development on all those old systems. Saw some of those games on Twitch played by Hitch and I have streamed some of'em also. Nice listing, gonna fetch the missing games :)
There's definitely a lot more new great games out there. It would be great to see some quick review vids on these and those on your top 20 list. Another couple of games not on the list worth a mention :- MAGICABLE & ALL HALLOWS Rise of Pumpkin. Great work as always mate! Just checked Spectrum Computings' list of games in release order and there's 56 new releases so far this year !!
I love the background music! It's the "Ocean Loader", is it not? Amazing!
What an awesome vid and glad could help a small bit. Thanks for your kind words 🔥🔥🔥
It would be great to see your version "20 Spectrum NEXT games" ))
Thats a great idea .... ill defo do that
Just recalled how I sacked my joysticks on my spectrum preferring Q A up
down O P left right and space for jump/fire👍🏻
For someone like me who has never owned a ZX spectrum, but wants to play games - what Spectrum computer should I start off with?
An emulator like fuse.
@@sudeepthought1921 the most complete emulator is MAME, however the most usable is Unreal Speccy.
Once again, great video. 💪🏻💪🏻
Aliens Neoplasma was supposed to be ported to the C64, and early screens looked spectacular. It's too bad the port was eventually discarded.
some pretty awesome games here, thanks man :)
I'm surprised that FPS game didn't make the list.
What game is that?
@@oldstylegaming It's called "The Dark", had a huge update for it fairly recently.
8:38 - It's Castlevania: SPECTRAL Interlude BTW
Lol my bad
@@oldstylegaming Eh, it happens..
Though, I'm surprised that The Dark: Redux and Metamorphosis didn't get in. They're probably the best games in their categories on the Spectrum.
@@alexandruianu8432 I just looked at The Dark: Redux.... Wow. Obviously I can't comment on gameplay from watching a video, but damn it's visually impressive.
It was going to be a Simon's quest clone but it turned into it's own game and I'm glad it did
Fantastic list of speccy games mate, I have such fond memories of the machine that I'm going to get Trans Am and Atic Atac on the go tonight.
I think you would love Mister Kung Fu mate. Thanks for watching
Old tower and Redshift are looking very good.
There’s some great stuff here my friend. As always, awesome video.
I'm only halfway through but I'm impressed how good some of these look. I guess they know how to get more out of the spectrum now
an absolutely cracking video Paul really enjoyed your journey through this top 20 and I agree with many that have made your list
Mister kung fu is a new one to me and I need to get this game I do hope there is a physical release, travel through time I played it for hours until I completed the whole game and the bonus stage at the end I was craving for more a cracking game I do hope there is a volume 2 🤞
no surprise that everyone you asked recommended Redshift im also a massive fan of the shoot em up genre and it blew me away on the speccy how fast and smooth it plays and the controls are spot on
thanks for the shout out mate
1:05 The sound for that game is almost identical to the sounds from the 4th level of Conan: Hall of Volta for Apple IIe!
Can you imagine if one of those games travels to the past and lands in the 80s? Castlevania, Toki, Nothing, ALIENS!!!!!
Interesting that only one of the games in this list has the 8x8 sprites and tile aligned gameplay of Old Tower. I like the smaller size of 8x8 "sprites" as it allows fitting in so much more map on screen; in comparison the more typical 16x16 feels claustrophobic to me. And I think tile aligned gameplay allows for elegant aesthetic graphics without color clash problems.
But the trade-off is that it's artistically challenging to make pixel art in 8x8.
Maybe 8 pixel wide sprites were more common here in the USA because the Atari 400/800 was a lot bigger here. They had sprites limited to 8 pixels wide, albeit they were limited in scale so they would be at least 16 pixels wide (with double wide pixels). Nevertheless, most of the big early C64 games were Atari 8 bit ports or simultaneous development, or Apple ][ ports.
We didn't have the Spectrum, but the VIC-20 was pretty popular for a bit - and it was even more limited, by a measly 22 columns. These limitations made Old Tower-like 8x8 "sprites" and tile based action pretty common on the VIC-20 ... albeit I think the only VIC-20 classic that people would generally be aware of was Jeff Minter's Gridrunner.
Old Tower is a special one because it's using the multicolour timing tricks, so you've got more than 2 colours in each of those 8x8 tiles. They've managed to combine that with smooth scrolling, great puzzles, and a fantastic rendition of a classic tune (a lot of people will associate the 'Popcorn' tune with Pengo, although apparently Sega didn't actually have permission to use it) Old Tower would probably have been my #1 pick.
Cool list, a couple I haven't played yet. I agree with Larry Bundy Jr., The Dark deserved a mention. And probably the Speccy game I have played the most from the last ten years is Bonnie & Clyde.
Some interesting choices, all quality games, maybe not the list I'd have gone for,
I was a little surprised to not see Wonderful Dizzy on here as it's a really impressive game in terms of presentation, although it's far from even being the best Dizzy game on the system, so kinda glad it isn't, there were better games here worth highlighting.
One I spent a lot of time with, that didn't make the list, is Snake Escape. I can maybe understand why, it's colourful but does only move in chunks, but it's a fantastic little puzzle game. SplATTR is another, although admittedly it's not the deepest of games, but the style of it stands out.
This is one of those times when you could easily do one of those 'Another 20 of the Best...' videos anyway
Lol dizzy was on my short list but had a unanimous no vote from everyone i asked lol, i quite like dizzy games though
@@oldstylegaming it's is very pretty, but tried too hard to reinvent what Dizzy was / dumb it down to give it a wider appeal, rather than concentrate on creating a modern world using the established mechanics.
The busier visuals were cluttered in places too, sometimes making it difficult to know what to interact with, amd there's one scene with animated water in the background, when such use of animation is typically reserved for foreground hazards you interact with.
The easier platforming took away the gameplay challenge for the most part; very few tricky jumps, replaced with a some climbing sections which felt more Monty Mole than Dizzy.
There's also a noticeable lack of verticality compared to other games, it's very flat for the most part, I can't remember a single section more than 2 screens high, with only basic platform layouts; a problem more associated with the Seymour games. Other Dizzy games had a more maze-like quality in places with 'Oh, so THAT is how you get to there' moments. Not here.
The puzzles are all rather obvious too, even by Dizzy standards and are mostly just bringing objects to different characters rather than solving environmental puzzles with them. There are a few exceptions, but overall this makes the game feel like a dialogue-heavy set of fetch quests. The narrative has been placed above the gameplay.
It feels like a very modern Dizzy game, something that could have been released for current platforms, but to a lot of us who grew up with Dizzy games, it's a style over substance entry so I can fully understand the unanimous 'no' vote. Old Style gaming definitely beats New style gaming when it comes to DIzzy ;)
As a Spectrum game it's a solid 10/10, couldn't ask for more. As a Dizzy game, it's maybe a 4.5/10.
@@mamehaze you are over thinking a classic game just stop
Castlevania Spectral Interlude is great. Spent many hours playing it.
Some class games in there mate, Red Shift looks the best to me cos of splosions etc
@@GP-sv9nh I get replies, sometimes ;)
The 'Valley of Rains' definitely looks like re-skinned Savage.
i do struggle with the speccy shooters as you can never see the bullets, i just can't get use to them. So many other great games didn't make the list, the new spectrum stuff is very good.
You need to try redshift everything is so clear
hold up castlevania would you happen to know if it's cannon?
you have to admit, the speccy had pretty good graphics, if only yjry could have had full colour
Old Tower has a C64 port as well. There's also a really good port of Mr. Do! that came out for the Spectrum a couple of years back
I love the Speccy, some great games there and just show what the Speccy was capable of.
Nice video, you make really nice videos👍
WOW. Thank you.
There is a pac attack style game called buzzsaw I quite like. Pac Attack was on the snes and game gear. Like tetris but with pacmen.
Great video but you missed the Mr Do remake!
Hey I'm super early :) Dude, you're one of my favorite channels - thanks for all of the great content!
Great video 👍
Some games like nothing I could see as a swich indie game
I've been sort of disillusioned with PC gaming for a couple of years now. Nothing really holds my attention for some reason. Many games beyond pretty graphics don't really hit the spot. Either the games are too shallow, or they are too complex with bunch of tedious unrewarding mechanics, they fail to hit that sweet spot somehow old retro games hit effortlessly. I decided to go back to my roots. My god, I had no idea people still made games for the ZX Spectrum and C64. And not only do they still make games, they are better than ever! I played the Old Tower recently and I was just amazed at what's possible in terms of overall enjoyment and game-play on these old 8-bit bangers. I've been missing out big time. Time to dust off my old Speccy.
brilliant video mate!
Good analysis
Fantastic, thank you! One question please: just watched a "wireframe" mod of Tomb Raider 2 (search Footi Tomb Raider II 10+ dragons, minute 38) which made me wonder if a Speccy was capable enough to run TR in this reduced way - what do you think? Just love the idea 😁 Cheers!
I love all the more colorful games, it's a shame so many games were made monochrome on the ZX Spectrum.
Damned good list I'd say
Great vid 😊
Some good games here, gonna have to grab and them them on the MiSTer.
Many of these games are really ace, but "the 20 best"? And all released in the last 2-3 years at most? I would have included, to name but a few, Carlos Michelis, Escuela De Ladrones, Red Raid The Infiltration, Abe's Oddysee Escape, Karlos Und Schatze Der Azteken, Gandalf De Luxe, Twilight, Los Amores De Brunilda, Speccy Bros, Cosmic Payback, The Swarm Is Coming, Majikazo, Ninjajar etc. rather than several of those seen here. And I won't add any of my own games, because you might think I am biased ;-) Well, I guess with such "20 best of this and that" you are not bound to please anybody anyway, that's why I abstain from making them myself :-) Thanks for the video anyway :-)
That alien game reminds me of sabateur 1 and 2
Good list from my favourite retro computer but i would choose completely different games.i think you focused in technicaly advanced games and not só much in the Gameplay. What s the point in playing the mighty final fight on the Spectrum when you can play on the nes. I would prefer unique games with Simple Gameplay mechanics that you hardly play on other system. Loved uwol, Quest for money, horace and the mystic Woods, splatrr, manic Pietro, etc.
Holy shit, Delta Shadow
I thought Toki did come out for spectrum back in the day.
Am I losing it or does the tune in Mr Kung Fu sound almost exactly like the drums in the Donkey Kong Country theme?
Супер! Классные игры!
Great top 30 But no sport games in there 😮
"Nothing" is clearly the best one.
Didn't even know they made this many?
Wish I held onto my 128k +2 (and my Amiga A600).
There's at least one more game missing, and that's Marsmare: Alienation
Great video! quick question, you mentioned someones twitch stream in the number 1 game, how is his name spelt? I'd like to check his stream out... :)
Xyphoe mate :-)
@@oldstylegaming thank you kindly lol
Wait, none of these games have the word Simulator on the end of their name. Thats just weird 😉❤️👍
That Sword of Ianna instantly makes me think of Tir na Nog (sp?) and Myth. Is the gameplay anything like Myth? (Speccy version, which was legit far better than the 16-bit versions of the game.)
Gameplay is a bit like prince of persia.
And where is Dizzy 8, Marsmare or Nixy? :)
you missed Vampire Vengeance!!!!!!
As always am here super super late but hey am here now haha. Not a big fan of the Spectrum if am honest as i could never get around the colour but hey i did like a few games. Great stuff as always buddy and am looking forward to the next one, so until then take it easy man.