I'll never forget the first time I saw the fireworks in Penetrator. But I have so many nice memories of: Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy, Ant Attack, Jet Pac, Jet Man, Metabolis, Android One, Spindizzy, Scuba Dive, Glass, Underwurlde, Atic Attack, Starquake, The Hobbit, Commando, Highway Encounter, Thrust, Monty Mole, Fairlight, Chucky Egg, Deathchase, Elite and many more. Meanwhile I have arrived on XBox and I wish there were more Speccy games available there.
Nice to see RoboCop in the mentions. I was a C64 owner, but I remember being green with envy at the Speccy version of that game. It absolutely trashed the C64 version. And R-Type on Speccy was and is a total stonker. Good video 👍
Apparently they didn't finish programming the c64 version so made the last but one level impossible to complete. Upon hacking the game to allow access to the last level you discover it's only partially constructed and impossible to play
@@mr.y.mysterious.video1 that's astonishing. Amazing to think they could be that brazen and get away with it. It really was just the wild wild west back then 😂
I had the C64 version as a kid. I remember getting to that level and returning the game twice because I thought there was something wrong with the ones I brought. I gave up and accepted it was broken on my third copy. And to think this disaster was on the software charts for over a year!
It was one of those things which actually put the UK on the modern day map It's only downfall was the 8x8 pixel two colours restriction but so many coders and splash screen artists found clever ways around that It's resolution, sprite animation and refresh rate were however FAR better than the C-64 or Amstrad could do It's sound chip was somewhat limited, only single channel but again clever coders and sound artists found a way around that, check out the opening music for Aliens (UK version, Publisher: Electric Dreams) for an amazing tune which to your ears sounds multi-channel
@@PFCHudson The 2 colors restriction made it very fast to draw to the screen though! Because the screen was just one bit plane with an attribute grid laid over. That's why Amstrad games are slower because it has more colors
@robertwilson3866 If the game is programmed with the Amstrad hardware in mind, there’s very little noticeable slowdown (we’re talking 8bit don’t forget). Only when shared code needs adapting, which back in the day was often rushed. It’s not so much the colours, it’s the 16K screen. But that can be reduced by turning interrupts off. Look at Pinball Dreams, it uses 128k whilst using every trick in the book, impossible on the ZX Spectrum. Plus there’s a game called Fres Attack and Mission Genocide that include hardware tricks that can be used to increase speed and smooth scroll. There’s also a game called Killer Cobra, I doubt there’s a faster game on the ZX Spectrum, it uses the Amstrad hardware scroll. If you look at games like the 5th axis, Boulder Dash, Eagles Nest and Monty Python, according Axelay (CPC Programming guru) all show examples of how simple coarse scrolls can work well. The 16k screen also comes with some really nice benefits that you can’t get on the ZX Spectrum.
My brother and I once "clocked" jet pac. It never ends, you just go back to the beginning. The first time you discover the space shuttle ship is a moment I'll never forget.
I got a ZX Spectrum 128k +2 for Christmas in 1985 and was absolutely overjoyed with it. Some of my favourite games were Attic Attack, Ollie and Liza, Super Robin Hood, Escape From The Mummy's Tomb, Manic Miner, Bubble Bobble, Paperboy, Bomb Jack, 5 A Side Football, Yogi Bear, and loads more... Good times. Cool video, thanks for the trip down memory lane.
That was a beast of a computer back then, cassette player built in if memory serves. Bubble Bobble, Robocop, ChaseHQ, R-Type. There’s a list as long as your arm of great games. Thanks for the kind words and for leaving a comment 😊
@@ClassicReplay I was pretty lucky, that was my big present from my Dad that year. Yeah the +2 had the built in tape deck, it could play 48k games too. It was a great computer. Me and my friends would borrow games from the Library, copy them, and share them around. 3 lives, no continues, pixel perfect jumps...simpler times, but great gaming memories. Cheers.
The extensive list of honourable mentions makes the survey of ground breaking games on the ZX Spectrum rather complete. Maybe both Starglider and both Starstrike games plus Sim City and (Lords of) Chaos are missing. Ah, and Carrier Command and Midnight Resistance and... This would not end anytime soon, I'm afraid. Very good video! Thanks!
Turbo Esprit surely deserves more than an honourable mention, clearly the grandaddy of the GTA series. Another honourable mention surely should be "the way of the tiger" not because it was a particularly good game, but the amazing graphics with the parallax scrolling. I would possibly throw starglider (128k) in there too, played brilliantly and had more features than its 16 bit rivals. But hey, great list, and I'm sure every comment here will list all the games every individual loved!
Thanks for your comments on this, definitely food for thought 💭 Way of the Tiger felt innovative for the time, but was like wading through treacle. Starglider was probably the best example of wireframe graphics on the ZX Spectrum. But massively inspired by Star Wars from Atari so hardly innovative. But I get you, these were special games.
Loved to hear you mention "Crash" magazine and Loony Jetman, with his aversion to"Bang Sticks", my nickname for hand guns to this day (like 41 years later). My fave 2 were Manic Miner (got a replica Speccy with it pre-loaded, but no sound) and Elite - probably the most ported game of all time. Starion gets a worthy mention as well :-)
Brilliant video!! Your video captured the soul and beauty of the Speccy. All these games set new standards and memories, having owned most of them and played them for so many hours. The Speccy was and still is a great home computer which had so much more character and soul than other home computers at that time. I'm now after the ZX Spectrum Next to continue my Speccy journey 👍
100% every word. I was lucky enough to purchase a Next, very good computer and some great games released for it. Thanks for your kind words and thanks for watching. If you could share with other like minded people and spread the word I’d be eternally grateful 😊
Cracking content of the classic Sinclair Zx Spectrum my friend, Jetpac and Sabre Wulf were my speccy first games and still love them today. Back to skool, Turbo Esprit and Robocop are also some of the many highlights on this amazing little 8-bit😊👍🏻
You spent more time on the 'honourable mentions'. I remember one sunny Spring day in 1986, (got my Spectrum Xmas 1985,) I woke up on a school morning and decided to bunk off school and I just sat playing Sabre Wulf all day drinking orange cordial. Happy days. Had to close the curtains the sun was so bright on the TV screen. I was a bit too young to work out games like The Hobbit, so the ones like Sabre Wulf where you run around and pick up things was easier to grasp. Although, I remember spending hours trying to solve the Neverending Story game.
So many classics that occupied my youth. I spend hours playing Elite, Halls of the Things, Lords of Chaos, Laser Squad, Stop the Express, Lords of Midnight, all great boundary pushing engrossing games. I'm sure I've already forgotten too many other great time sinks, too....
That screeching noise on Skool Daze when a teacher gave someone lines, it’s so embedded in my head I can hear it without playing it….but by god that was a fantastic game, and so was the sequel.
I had a tape-tape hifi with a hi speed dubbing button which used to save so much time for copies, I moved from various speccies to c64 and other stuff that I found in the friday ad mostly, skooldaze, chuckie egg and booty were particular favs of mine.
I always found if you did the high speed dubbing you would get errors in the copy. OK, for music copying, but seemed to come up short copying Spectrum games.
My absolute favorite speccy game is Head Iver Heels. It's such a brilliant title, with so many things so well done: gorgeous graphics, great animation, cute sprites, a good dose of humour, devious puzzles, and good sound effects. And it could be finished contrary to many other speccy titles :)
@@ClassicReplayIt's not better on Amstrad. I also played it, it's more colorful, true, but graphics are better on the Speccy version. The c64 version is similar if not identical to the Speccy version, except that it's slower.
10 minutes for a game to load is basically the PS3 when installing a disc game to HDD. A system that could crash at any time is Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, so really, the Spectrum wasn't especially terrible compared to other systems that came later.
Wow. Loads of memories here. Some I had almost forgotten forever. I’m still gaming and I’m on PC these days after my passage through the amstrad > sega > Nintendo >PlayStations > Xbox. I’m now rocking a VR headset and gaming has never really left me. I recently backed a Sinclair speccy reboot on kickstarter. Looking forward to it even more now. I’m pretty sure one of the software companies operated from my hometown in Burntwood Staffordshire
That’s amazing to hear, I’m Switch, PS3, PS4 and PC gaming ready these days, with access to loads of retro including the ZX Next. VR as well, but only through PS4, I need to take the leap with VR on PC and play the new Half Life. Long live gaming 🤣👍🏻😉
I met Steve Turner the chap that wrote both games. He gave me an amazing insight into both creations. I must have stood there listening to him for an hour.
You didnt read out the name of the #6 game Myth. I listen to these videos when I'm on the move so a good voice over that doesn't miss key details that are only available via the screen really helps. Thanks. Enjoyed reminiscing.
Not even a mention for that killer of Kempston joysticks, Daley Thompsons Decathlon? I could finish The Hobbit from memory (though last time I tried I got stuck in the Goblins Dungeons again) and was very fond of The Quill which let you write your own text adventures. My honorable mention has to be Morris Meets The Bikers which had a great cover of Leader Of The Pack on the reverse side of the tape.
My personal 'most important game' on the Speccy was Micronaut One. I spent most of the 80's with my VIC-20 and as much as I loved it I was pretty used to coveting games on the more powerful and supported micros that my friends had. But in 1987 when I saw Micronaut One it really blew me away. It was the first time I REALLY wanted a Speccy. There was nothing else like that game on any other platform. It was just so (at least to my young brain) smooth and realistic. It was like I'd entered a virtual world! Nobody really talks about that game but for me it will always be special. :)
Yes, we all have that special moment. Mine was probably Deathchase on the ZX Spectrum, despite owning an Amstrad CPC. It was the game I loved above all else, I’d go away from it left in a daze. I think it definitely had the biggest impact on me. But yes, Micronaut One would have probably blown me away as well at the time, but we didn’t have it until much later. I think the Light Corridor borrows heavily from it. I wonder if kids today have a similar experience or moment with new games? I think the likes of Super Mario Odyssey would have given me a sensory overload 😅
Yeah man ! I remake on a PS1 or Dreamcast hardware ( or PC ) would be awesome ! I really loved that game, it seemed to belong to another generation of hardware, smooth and immersive, surely a precursor to modern day FPS games 👍👍
So many good games, I still play thunderbirds,Air wolf and atic atac. Load errors were bad but could be fixed by changing the tape from bad original tape housing to the much superior tdk mechanism
Believe it or not, I used an azimuth tape head align kit, but if that didn’t work I’d put a thin cloth over the tape area I thought creased and iron the tape. That somehow worked 🤣 loved Airwolf
Thank you. Really appreciate you taking the time to watch and leave a comment. It’s always nice to read a pleasant and thoughtful comment. Way too many trolls on TH-cam 👍
Some good picks there. I'm an experienced software engineer but I'm still half convinced some kind of black magic must have been involved in squeezing chase HQ out of the Speccy's resources.
AWESOME !! Had one and played games and programmed my own games with my mates in England. Best game ever was Nemesis OR Aliens in the Dark after watching the film first time..
I remember playing Aliens with the lights off, I snuck down stairs to play it whilst everyone was asleep, about 15 minutes in and I felt a hand touch me on my shoulder, I nearly wet myself with fear, I jumped in the air. It was my dad, he then said “get back to bed you little idiot, otherwise you’ll never see that computer again”. 😅 great memories
Myth, Chase HQ, R-Type, Head over Heels, Jet Pac all amazing speccy games. The two games that stand out most in memory are Feud (playing against an early AI wizard was creepy but amazing) whilst Target Renegade was an epic 2 player co-op, righting the mess that was Double Dragon. Robcocop and IK+ also epic!
A few that would have made my list as most important (bitd and into the present day) Chaos or Rebelstar were important as they were so ahead of their time for strategy/fantasy turn based games (and went on to Xcom). Football Manager as the grand daddy of the wonderful world of sports management that spawned dozens of copycats back then, Leaderboard was such a realistic rendition of a sport back then I think it's another one that would have been important. Very enjoyable video thanks, I do like a bit of history/colour along with the list. Long live the Speccy!
Chaos..👍 40 yrs layer many of us still play chaos , although its the pc version called Chaos groove with great samples. Jullian Gollop is a brilliant programmer ( sad he doesnt get a mention for the pc version though.)
Some great games, and some good ones that didn't even get a mention, especially some of the ones you got "free" in the magazines, the ones you had to type in line by line :) It also taught us future programmers about the importance of Memory saving techniques, something that doesn't seem to bother programmers these days. It taught good programming
Very true! Today we have a brute force approach to programming. Vast amounts of memory, CPU and storage the likes we never thought possible in the 80s. Watch my 'Man vs Machine' video below, I think it will be right up your street, as it covers the reality and truth about AI th-cam.com/video/Wo7-ShQJmfw/w-d-xo.html
I only learned during lockdown why LET A = PI - PI used less memory than LET A = 0 ZxBASIC stores numbers twice, once in ASCII just for displaying, and then in floating point which is actually used. In hex these examples would be F1 41 3D A7 2D A7 and F1 41 3D 30 0E 00 00 00 00 00, so the long winded way of typing saved 4 bytes. Lockdown was an opportunity to disassemble a few speccy games and to finally answer questions from 40 years ago that 12 year old me couldn't figure out.
My own list would include a few of the same games, but I'd omit arcade ports (like R-Type and Chase HQ) and valiant 8-bit conversions of 16-bit games (like Myth) and concentrate more on Speccy originals that genuinely moved gaming forward in some way... 1) Jet Set Willy - for the sheer size of the map and the free-roaming exploration 2) Avalon - for the "persistence" of its world & the way creatures actually followed you between rooms 3) Fat Worm Blows a Sparky - for its true 3D environments at a playable frame-rate 4) Shadowfire - for its Windows style pointer and icons system .. in 1985 5) Chaos: The Battle of Wizards - for its accessible turn-based strategy with up to 8-player duels 6) Sherlock - for building on The Hobbit and taking it to another level entirely
We will have to agree to disagree. But Myth came out on 8bit first, later on Amiga and NES, but these are different to the ZX Spectrum version. In fact the ZX Spectrum version was voted number 12 in the Your Sinclair Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time. It also won ‘Winner Best 8-Bit Graphics’ EMAP Golden Joystick Awards 1990 (published by ACE #33, 1990/6) 👍
@@ClassicReplay Ah, I stand corrected on Myth - thanks :) I played it on the Amiga and wasn't really keeping track of Speccy releases anymore after I got an Amiga in 1988 so didn't realise the 8-bit versions pre-dated the Amiga version by 3 years. That's basically a "next-gen remaster" by modern standards :)
One very funny and often overlooked game was Urban Upstart, a kinda text adventure in the style of the Hobbit but in a modern northern town or city where you had to dodge the killer football hooligan, the various weird and extremely dodgy situations and something of sheer brilliance in writing that would be lost on those outside the UK. Also Fourth Protocol was a bit of a beast for the Speccy, three parts, three tapes and damned difficult, very cerebral puzzler with a hint of James Bond-ishness, finally my thoughts go to Uridium which is prob the best graphics game on the Spectrum, silky smooth controls and fast paced goings on... As for the ZX80 I was one of the first buyers of the original kit, part of the "game" was to a) keep it working b) keep it working and not cause major fires c) keep it working, no major conflagrations etc and for it to stay alive long enough to type in sixteen pages of code and then reset itself halfway through your save record oh and def a d) not picking up treacherous ZX80 and lob it out window/up against wall/flush down the bog/give it to your worst enemy with a secretive smirk... ZX81 was much the same except less fires whereas the last upgraded speccies were awesome esp those with the CFM floppy's on as you could use software from Amstrad machines and PCW computers.
Dude , for me cronos, excelon , soldier of fortune , feud, scumball,sherwood , the first dizzy and chuckle egg 1/2 (For the grind ) elite kentilla, -all still worth roasting yer fingertips and cerebral cortex at once attempting to complete in this day and age . The pyramid one by bubble bus software deserves a mention too . The shrewood game with the invisible swamp paths invented the rage quit.
Why does Ant Attack have 128K sound in this video when it was released in 1983? Is it a re-release, or one of those early games that supported the Fuller Box for additional music ? 👍👍
Those are the beeper sound effects from the original 48k version. There does seem to have been an echo filter added though, either in the emulator or in the video edit.
A thought provoking and entertaining look at the zx spectrum. But not even a mention of the likes of the legendary dynamite Dan 2. Still an enjoyable video though ^_^
It must have been an amazing experience to be part of such creatively back then. Those early days fascinate me so much. I’ve read so much about how the games were put together and the sweat and toil that went into such games. Unpopular opinion, but GunFright is still one of my favourite games ever from an impact on a young kid point of view. I was lost in that game for days, weeks, months.
Great video. Not sure how they made so much with 48k and such simple capabilities. But I suspect it made being imaginative all the more important. Let’s not forget that the technology of the book is just words on paper- and there’s no limit to what we can do with that.
just for comparison : i remember "The Hobbit" on my PCjr (canada) ... it never run that well ! the memory management on the ZX is amazing, on par with the MacIntosh of the time
Just think, a handful of spectrum and C64 games such as R-Type, Streetfighter and more, with their basic graphics and tons of story to grip consumers, paved the way for all the modern gaming today. And except for a handful of them, beats 7 shades of hell out of them like a pro in the arcade.
How Manic Miner and Chuckie Egg aren't even on the honourable mention list is beyond me. I don't know if you were there when the Spectrum came out but I was and believe me, the games that were talked about at school were games like Chuckie Egg, Manic Miner, Trashman etc. I feel that makes them important. At the time, games like Knight Lore were considered by most people I knew as over-rated. Good graphics but too difficult to control to become truly addictive. A lot of text only adventure games were highly important too. Though they seemed to have been forgotten about. I expect you'll consider this subjective, but it is based on the fact I was there.
Great video but personally I'd put skool daze in my top 3, it was the first game I came across that put you in a realistic setting but let you do what the hell you wanted, almost like the first sandbox game or GTA prototype..
Have played all the games seen here except no.s 5 & 6. Think DeathChase was my first ever game as you could play it on the 16K ZX Spectrum. Didn't get the 48K until later on and that was mainly so I could play Manic Miner. Loved Turbo Esprit and Chase HQ. Another Honourable mention I'd give would be "The Sentinel" and "The Great Escape". That's just my thoughts though :-)
I knew Elite had to be in there somewhere the speccy was good with vector based games. I still play text adventures ( usually on a emulator but sometimes on a speccy ) with little or no graphics they still work well.
I was never much a fan of platform games, too infuriating when you knew when exactly to jump but not whether the dead flesh would respond. Still games like Valhalla, Heavy on the Magick. Lords of Midnight (not Doomdark's Revenge) , Sherlock, Hampstead, Timegate, Danger Mouse and Tir Na Nog were there to make amends. Great games.
Some good memories there. Heavy on the Magick was so difficult. Danger Mouse, I think they released two or three different games. But had fun all the same.
Rick Dangerous is a 16bit game, helped put the Amiga and ST on the map. I don’t think it had the same impact on the Speccy, but definitely much love for old Rick on 8bits
JetPac and Sabre Wulf were my all-time faves on the Spectrum. Many a day were lost bashing the rubber keys to those two games. My friends had C64s and BBC computers, but they all preferrred games days at mine when I had the Spectrum out.
@@ClassicReplay I don't recall GunFright. I had most of the Ultimate games, though the 3D effect in later ones became a little repetitive after a while.
Paused at 3:32 when you mention the upcoming 6 games, I'm going to take a guess. Jet Set Willy, Batman: The Movie, Target: Renegade, Head Over Heels, Football Manager, and Chase HQ. Now to see if I am close.
Okay, 2/6, not close, with 2 in honourable mentions. I did the ones I knew people were talking about when I was a kid. The list seems like the some of the best Spectrum games though, not sure if people realised that at the time though, well not in my part of merry 'ol England. I had forgotten about Turbo Esprit, I did enjoy a bit of that, despite crashing so quickly.
Yeah, I get that nostalgia is a big part of all this, but I wanted to do something different. The majority of ZX Spectrum vids on TH-cam are massively predictable and pander to nostalgia. This list was never going to win a popularity contest 🤣
@@ClassicReplay very true. Before my family, the cousins, and other kids I knew bought the consoles in the early 90s, the Batman game was the last game I remember other people were chatting about, though for me, I was longing for Golden Axe for my Amstrad CPC. Most other kids I knew had the Spectrum, I was an Amstrad kid, we'd argue about what was better, the ones I listed were the ones I heard about and played around their houses the most. I was smug as a kid as most kids I knew were jealous of the colours of my Amstrad, thing is, playing the games now feel better on the Spectrum, the Amstrad versions were often much slower.
Sadly the AMSTRAD played second fiddle to the ZX Spectrum with most devs. But there’s a handful of games that really shine. The games I preferred to play on the AMSTRAD were mostly static screen affairs, but I definitely feel your pain. Luckily I personally had near enough access to everything, even the MSX. For me the AMSTRAD had a brilliant port of North & South, Spindizzy showed CPC could compete with all other 8bits. Prince of Persia we got on the CPC is impossible on the ZX Spectrum. Head Over Heels is best played on CPC. Get Dexter = Speccy who? The Guild of Thieves made every other 8bit owner jelly 😎 so not all bad.
A solid bunch of picks there my friend. 'Importance' is debatable, however I would choose Head Over Heels over Knight Lore for playability all day long. Oh, and you need a good lynching for not including a Matthew Smith creation on the list. 😉
@@ClassicReplay 10 year old me never did (actually had more fun just running around killing everything trying to conquer my own high scores). Forty five year old me did escape, after playing for a rather long time soaking up the nostalgic memories, then really wanting to escape the mansion!, and not cheating at all watching a You Tube video on how to complete the game (ok so some video viewing was involved lol).
Jet set willy had a bug in it where it was impossible to do certain tasks which was really annoying as I only got to find out a few years ago. No wonder I could never clear it. Prefered Manic Miner it's predecessor.
No R-Type? I soldered an Atari Joystick board to my keyboard to play it. Because the game didn't support Joysticks. I used an Didaktik M computer Which I also overclocked to 7Mhz.
I have to say that I hated Jet Set Willy back in the day and it would be nowhere on my list (even though grudgingly I realise that you can’t have one of these lists without it). Starquake was probably my favourite game, I completed it many times on my Spectrum and have completed it on several emulators over the years too. I’m fairly sure it was another game that Crash awarded something like 96% to
LoLl! Great joke about R Type and your wife! I was addicted to R Type back in the day; could only get to level 5 but would always would go back for more. My keys were PLZX and C to fire (not space bar...too large therefore slower) 👍
That joke didn’t go down well, I received quite a few complaints 🤷🏻♂️ level five was good going, I think the original just looped as there was a mastering error where the last level was missed off. They later fixed it on the budget re-release. It’s such a great game. I played it quite a bit not long ago and couldn’t put it down. Thanks for watching 👍
Great choices. Would have picked Manic Miner over JSW. For the life of me do not understand how Death Chase makes it in these lists. What a boring game. Worth a couple of hours before storing for good. So unmemorable!
There were few games that had a bigger impact than 3D Deathchase if you experienced it in the context of what else was available when it was released. Seeing it a few years down the line alongside later 48k titles makes it difficult to really understand I guess. It was a 16k game, so the whole thing was squeezed into less then 9k... pretty amazing really. Jetpac was another that was just astounding when it was released, seeing that for the first time at the time, that really elevated the speccy. And yes, it was also squeezed into less then 9kb!. When Jetpac hit the shelves, unheralded, the title folk were looking forward to was - Horace And The Spiders - that should give some context ;). I took a chance buying Jetpac, from this new unknown developer because my brother had already bought the Horace game, and jetpac was the cheapest alternative in John Menzies that day... we loaded up Jetpac first because we weren't expecting much and suffice to say it was a while before anyone played HATS. My first experience of 3D Deathchase was similar round at a friends house. Just unexpected brilliance, and it got played solidly until everyone had mastered it. It then became the yardstick for perspective style 3D action games - is it as good as Deathchase... is it as good as jetpac... is it as good as JSW... These were the questions, and that's why it was an important game. There were many better games released over the years, but very few that were more important!
@@oldmossystone I love Jet Pack! No matter it was 16k. Smooth, simple but addictive. Too bad there was no 48k follow up with more items to do. Then again, it could have been Cyber Run? Yes games should be taken into context of which year it was released. Heck had some fun with Maziacs but it did not age well. But Ant Attack and Match Point held up well. In the end it is all about personal opinions. Cheers!
@@frankj5947 Maziacs was a great game - it's amazing to me that it doesn't get talked about more. There are some games that don't fit easily into a category, so get forgotten about. Maziacs had replayability due to the maze generation. It also had some style, and forced you into strategic decisions... good balance. But it's not in a genre... so... Another for me was Splat! - I still find that as good as it ever was - it just got some criticism for the main character graphic at a time when so many games had large well animated sprites.... It was still a great game with a great and unique concept. And again the replayability, this time due to a different generated route through the environment on each playthough. It's a clever game. There was an amiga game that rehashed the same basic concept, but it was not good, because they underestimated how important the level design was for that concept to work.
The fact elite wasn’t in the top 6 is a joke. It was an almost impossible mission on the speccy. Still recognised as way ahead of its time and technology.
RAM pack wobble on a Spectrum? Aren't you confusing this with the ZX81 and its 16K RAM pack? Perhaps you an issue 1 16K and used a 32K pack? It was easy to expand Issue 2 and 3 16K machines to the full 48K internally, as there were free memory sockets on the board. The vast majority of Spectrums sold were the 48K model.
Nope, our Spectrum was a 48k model with rubber keys. If someone slammed a door, dropped something on the floor or banged the table in anyway shape or form, it would reset.
@@ClassicReplay Oh heck. That was likely a loose power lead. I had no problems with mine, but I rarely pulled the lead out. I had a power socket at desk level, so switched it there.
@@Inaflap Yeah you could pick mine up and move it all you wanted, i dont remember it just randomly crashing ever. Tapes loaded better on a simple cassette player for some reason
@@ClassicReplay Defo a faulty power jack. Very common on Speccy as no on off or reset switch. Having owned a ZX81 and 16k RAM pack, blu-tac was your friend.
Very entertaining video.
Wow! I’m really flattered. Means a lot that it came personally from you 😊
I'll never forget the first time I saw the fireworks in Penetrator. But I have so many nice memories of: Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy, Ant Attack, Jet Pac, Jet Man, Metabolis, Android One, Spindizzy, Scuba Dive, Glass, Underwurlde, Atic Attack, Starquake, The Hobbit, Commando, Highway Encounter, Thrust, Monty Mole, Fairlight, Chucky Egg, Deathchase, Elite and many more. Meanwhile I have arrived on XBox and I wish there were more Speccy games available there.
Many, many happy memories. CRASH is still going too, there's so many fab home brew games.
Nice to see RoboCop in the mentions. I was a C64 owner, but I remember being green with envy at the Speccy version of that game. It absolutely trashed the C64 version. And R-Type on Speccy was and is a total stonker. Good video 👍
Thanks for your kind words. There were plenty of games on the C64 that impressed. I remember Green Beret and Wizball blew me away
Apparently they didn't finish programming the c64 version so made the last but one level impossible to complete. Upon hacking the game to allow access to the last level you discover it's only partially constructed and impossible to play
@@mr.y.mysterious.video1 that's astonishing. Amazing to think they could be that brazen and get away with it. It really was just the wild wild west back then 😂
I had the C64 version as a kid. I remember getting to that level and returning the game twice because I thought there was something wrong with the ones I brought. I gave up and accepted it was broken on my third copy. And to think this disaster was on the software charts for over a year!
My mate had Robocop on the speccy when we were kids, I always tried to engineer a visit to his house 😂
Wow, Avalon! I haven't thought about that game for 40-odd years but you brought great memories flooding back.
I met the chap who programmed it. He shared some fabulous memories at Zzap64! Thanks for watching and kind words.
i'm not from the UK, but i can't get enough of these videos. not sure why, but i'm fascinated by the zx spectrum. jealous i didn't grow up with one!
You missed a very special time in home gaming the spectrum was grounding i still play the games today 40 years later,
The creativity and innovation of the software in the early days was off the charts.
It was one of those things which actually put the UK on the modern day map
It's only downfall was the 8x8 pixel two colours restriction but so many coders and splash screen artists found clever ways around that
It's resolution, sprite animation and refresh rate were however FAR better than the C-64 or Amstrad could do
It's sound chip was somewhat limited, only single channel but again clever coders and sound artists found a way around that, check out the opening music for Aliens (UK version, Publisher: Electric Dreams) for an amazing tune which to your ears sounds multi-channel
@@PFCHudson The 2 colors restriction made it very fast to draw to the screen though! Because the screen was just one bit plane with an attribute grid laid over. That's why Amstrad games are slower because it has more colors
@robertwilson3866 If the game is programmed with the Amstrad hardware in mind, there’s very little noticeable slowdown (we’re talking 8bit don’t forget). Only when shared code needs adapting, which back in the day was often rushed. It’s not so much the colours, it’s the 16K screen. But that can be reduced by turning interrupts off. Look at Pinball Dreams, it uses 128k whilst using every trick in the book, impossible on the ZX Spectrum. Plus there’s a game called Fres Attack and Mission Genocide that include hardware tricks that can be used to increase speed and smooth scroll. There’s also a game called Killer Cobra, I doubt there’s a faster game on the ZX Spectrum, it uses the Amstrad hardware scroll. If you look at games like the 5th axis, Boulder Dash, Eagles Nest and Monty Python, according Axelay (CPC Programming guru) all show examples of how simple coarse scrolls can work well. The 16k screen also comes with some really nice benefits that you can’t get on the ZX Spectrum.
My brother and I once "clocked" jet pac. It never ends, you just go back to the beginning. The first time you discover the space shuttle ship is a moment I'll never forget.
Great memories! Even though it loops, that would have been a great achievement 👌🏻
I got a ZX Spectrum 128k +2 for Christmas in 1985 and was absolutely overjoyed with it.
Some of my favourite games were Attic Attack, Ollie and Liza, Super Robin Hood, Escape From The Mummy's Tomb, Manic Miner, Bubble Bobble, Paperboy, Bomb Jack, 5 A Side Football, Yogi Bear, and loads more...
Good times.
Cool video, thanks for the trip down memory lane.
That was a beast of a computer back then, cassette player built in if memory serves. Bubble Bobble, Robocop, ChaseHQ, R-Type. There’s a list as long as your arm of great games. Thanks for the kind words and for leaving a comment 😊
@@ClassicReplay
I was pretty lucky, that was my big present from my Dad that year.
Yeah the +2 had the built in tape deck, it could play 48k games too.
It was a great computer.
Me and my friends would borrow games from the Library, copy them, and share them around.
3 lives, no continues, pixel perfect jumps...simpler times, but great gaming memories.
Cheers.
I'm not ashamed to say that seeing Chase HQ still makes me go all wobbly in my belly with butterflies and excitement.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
The extensive list of honourable mentions makes the survey of ground breaking games on the ZX Spectrum rather complete.
Maybe both Starglider and both Starstrike games plus Sim City and (Lords of) Chaos are missing.
Ah, and Carrier Command and Midnight Resistance and... This would not end anytime soon, I'm afraid.
Very good video! Thanks!
Turbo Esprit surely deserves more than an honourable mention, clearly the grandaddy of the GTA series. Another honourable mention surely should be "the way of the tiger" not because it was a particularly good game, but the amazing graphics with the parallax scrolling. I would possibly throw starglider (128k) in there too, played brilliantly and had more features than its 16 bit rivals. But hey, great list, and I'm sure every comment here will list all the games every individual loved!
Thanks for your comments on this, definitely food for thought 💭 Way of the Tiger felt innovative for the time, but was like wading through treacle. Starglider was probably the best example of wireframe graphics on the ZX Spectrum. But massively inspired by Star Wars from Atari so hardly innovative. But I get you, these were special games.
Agree, never even saw anyone playing Chase HQ. Turbo Esprit was more open world, kept me entertained for hours
Loved to hear you mention "Crash" magazine and Loony Jetman, with his aversion to"Bang Sticks", my nickname for hand guns to this day (like 41 years later). My fave 2 were Manic Miner (got a replica Speccy with it pre-loaded, but no sound) and Elite - probably the most ported game of all time. Starion gets a worthy mention as well :-)
Brilliant video!! Your video captured the soul and beauty of the Speccy. All these games set new standards and memories, having owned most of them and played them for so many hours. The Speccy was and still is a great home computer which had so much more character and soul than other home computers at that time. I'm now after the ZX Spectrum Next to continue my Speccy journey 👍
100% every word. I was lucky enough to purchase a Next, very good computer and some great games released for it. Thanks for your kind words and thanks for watching. If you could share with other like minded people and spread the word I’d be eternally grateful 😊
Cracking content of the classic Sinclair Zx Spectrum my friend, Jetpac and Sabre Wulf were my speccy first games and still love them today. Back to skool, Turbo Esprit and Robocop are also some of the many highlights on this amazing little 8-bit😊👍🏻
You spent more time on the 'honourable mentions'. I remember one sunny Spring day in 1986, (got my Spectrum Xmas 1985,) I woke up on a school morning and decided to bunk off school and I just sat playing Sabre Wulf all day drinking orange cordial. Happy days. Had to close the curtains the sun was so bright on the TV screen. I was a bit too young to work out games like The Hobbit, so the ones like Sabre Wulf where you run around and pick up things was easier to grasp. Although, I remember spending hours trying to solve the Neverending Story game.
You were lucky, it was water only in our house 🤣
So many classics that occupied my youth. I spend hours playing Elite, Halls of the Things, Lords of Chaos, Laser Squad, Stop the Express, Lords of Midnight, all great boundary pushing engrossing games. I'm sure I've already forgotten too many other great time sinks, too....
Just reading this has me reaching for Laser Squad. That’s my evening sorted. Thank you 😊
Don't forget rebelstar 1 and 2 too
@@paulhembury9505 Yup, Jullian Gollop was one of my heroes for writing all those games.
Also, just played Space Crusade. It’s a board game, converted to a Laser Squad type affair. Very good indeed 👌🏻
Very nostalgic !
Good memories.
Blessings 🙏
Bless you back 😊
@@ClassicReplay thank you
Keep up the great work.
✨⭐🤗⭐✨
Pretty much captured my childhood/teenage years right there. Ghost n Goblins will always hold a special place in my heart.
Happy days!
I won Ghosts N Goblins game in a Crash magazine competition.
That screeching noise on Skool Daze when a teacher gave someone lines, it’s so embedded in my head I can hear it without playing it….but by god that was a fantastic game, and so was the sequel.
I’m the same, all these memories have never left me
I had a tape-tape hifi with a hi speed dubbing button which used to save so much time for copies, I moved from various speccies to c64 and other stuff that I found in the friday ad mostly, skooldaze, chuckie egg and booty were particular favs of mine.
I always found if you did the high speed dubbing you would get errors in the copy. OK, for music copying, but seemed to come up short copying Spectrum games.
Glad to see R-Type on here, still one of my favourite games and fave versions, we included it on our review.
I think the game I played and blew me away the most was Bombjack, but nobody ever mentions it.
I hear it mentioned all the time. Great game
Thank you for including a text adventure in this!
My pleasure. Hopefully I’ve earned a much needed sub from you ☺️
My absolute favorite speccy game is Head Iver Heels. It's such a brilliant title, with so many things so well done: gorgeous graphics, great animation, cute sprites, a good dose of humour, devious puzzles, and good sound effects.
And it could be finished contrary to many other speccy titles :)
Better on Amstrad, but still one of the best
@@ClassicReplayIt's not better on Amstrad. I also played it, it's more colorful, true, but graphics are better on the Speccy version.
The c64 version is similar if not identical to the Speccy version, except that it's slower.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
10 minutes for a game to load is basically the PS3 when installing a disc game to HDD.
A system that could crash at any time is Windows 3.1 and Windows 95, so really, the Spectrum wasn't especially terrible compared to other systems that came later.
Loading times for 48K non-multiload games were under 5 minutes, so even better.
Ratty hardware crashed win 95. On decent kit it was reliable.
Wow. Loads of memories here. Some I had almost forgotten forever. I’m still gaming and I’m on PC these days after my passage through the amstrad > sega > Nintendo >PlayStations > Xbox. I’m now rocking a VR headset and gaming has never really left me. I recently backed a Sinclair speccy reboot on kickstarter. Looking forward to it even more now. I’m pretty sure one of the software companies operated from my hometown in Burntwood Staffordshire
That’s amazing to hear, I’m Switch, PS3, PS4 and PC gaming ready these days, with access to loads of retro including the ZX Next. VR as well, but only through PS4, I need to take the leap with VR on PC and play the new Half Life. Long live gaming 🤣👍🏻😉
Avalon and Dragon Torc of Avalon....two of my best loved speccy games :)
I met Steve Turner the chap that wrote both games. He gave me an amazing insight into both creations. I must have stood there listening to him for an hour.
Deathchase is fantastically playable for such a primiive game.
and 16k
It left a similar impression on me 👍
You didnt read out the name of the #6 game Myth. I listen to these videos when I'm on the move so a good voice over that doesn't miss key details that are only available via the screen really helps. Thanks. Enjoyed reminiscing.
Sorry my friend, sometimes I forget 😅
@@ClassicReplay haha. Good stuff. Thanks for the reply. Keep up the hard work. Cheers
Not even a mention for that killer of Kempston joysticks, Daley Thompsons Decathlon? I could finish The Hobbit from memory (though last time I tried I got stuck in the Goblins Dungeons again) and was very fond of The Quill which let you write your own text adventures. My honorable mention has to be Morris Meets The Bikers which had a great cover of Leader Of The Pack on the reverse side of the tape.
My personal 'most important game' on the Speccy was Micronaut One. I spent most of the 80's with my VIC-20 and as much as I loved it I was pretty used to coveting games on the more powerful and supported micros that my friends had. But in 1987 when I saw Micronaut One it really blew me away. It was the first time I REALLY wanted a Speccy. There was nothing else like that game on any other platform. It was just so (at least to my young brain) smooth and realistic. It was like I'd entered a virtual world! Nobody really talks about that game but for me it will always be special. :)
Yes, we all have that special moment. Mine was probably Deathchase on the ZX Spectrum, despite owning an Amstrad CPC. It was the game I loved above all else, I’d go away from it left in a daze. I think it definitely had the biggest impact on me. But yes, Micronaut One would have probably blown me away as well at the time, but we didn’t have it until much later. I think the Light Corridor borrows heavily from it. I wonder if kids today have a similar experience or moment with new games? I think the likes of Super Mario Odyssey would have given me a sensory overload 😅
Yeah man ! I remake on a PS1 or Dreamcast hardware ( or PC ) would be awesome ! I really loved that game, it seemed to belong to another generation of hardware, smooth and immersive, surely a precursor to modern day FPS games 👍👍
So many good games, I still play thunderbirds,Air wolf and atic atac. Load errors were bad but could be fixed by changing the tape from bad original tape housing to the much superior tdk mechanism
Believe it or not, I used an azimuth tape head align kit, but if that didn’t work I’d put a thin cloth over the tape area I thought creased and iron the tape. That somehow worked 🤣 loved Airwolf
you caught the spirit of the age very nicely thank you :)
Thank you. Really appreciate you taking the time to watch and leave a comment. It’s always nice to read a pleasant and thoughtful comment. Way too many trolls on TH-cam 👍
Some good picks there. I'm an experienced software engineer but I'm still half convinced some kind of black magic must have been involved in squeezing chase HQ out of the Speccy's resources.
I feel exactly the same way about R-Type.
AWESOME !! Had one and played games and programmed my own games with my mates in England. Best game ever was Nemesis OR Aliens in the Dark after watching the film first time..
I remember playing Aliens with the lights off, I snuck down stairs to play it whilst everyone was asleep, about 15 minutes in and I felt a hand touch me on my shoulder, I nearly wet myself with fear, I jumped in the air. It was my dad, he then said “get back to bed you little idiot, otherwise you’ll never see that computer again”. 😅 great memories
An interesting video; I never owned one or played one, I don’t know why I so fascinated by the computer.
Try R-Type, Robocop, Target Renegade and you’ll be hooked
Myth, Chase HQ, R-Type, Head over Heels, Jet Pac all amazing speccy games. The two games that stand out most in memory are Feud (playing against an early AI wizard was creepy but amazing) whilst Target Renegade was an epic 2 player co-op, righting the mess that was Double Dragon. Robcocop and IK+ also epic!
Every word 👍🏻
A few that would have made my list as most important (bitd and into the present day) Chaos or Rebelstar were important as they were so ahead of their time for strategy/fantasy turn based games (and went on to Xcom). Football Manager as the grand daddy of the wonderful world of sports management that spawned dozens of copycats back then, Leaderboard was such a realistic rendition of a sport back then I think it's another one that would have been important. Very enjoyable video thanks, I do like a bit of history/colour along with the list. Long live the Speccy!
Yes, agree! Good games. Definitely would make it into my top ten
You might like this th-cam.com/video/7EH3K7TCNus/w-d-xo.html or this th-cam.com/video/VpgYln5dbpE/w-d-xo.html top ten 👍🏻
Ah yes, Rebel star was fantastic, I took that game apart and changed the graphics!
Chaos..👍 40 yrs layer many of us still play chaos , although its the pc version called Chaos groove with great samples. Jullian Gollop is a brilliant programmer ( sad he doesnt get a mention for the pc version though.)
Some great games, and some good ones that didn't even get a mention, especially some of the ones you got "free" in the magazines, the ones you had to type in line by line :) It also taught us future programmers about the importance of Memory saving techniques, something that doesn't seem to bother programmers these days. It taught good programming
Very true! Today we have a brute force approach to programming. Vast amounts of memory, CPU and storage the likes we never thought possible in the 80s. Watch my 'Man vs Machine' video below, I think it will be right up your street, as it covers the reality and truth about AI th-cam.com/video/Wo7-ShQJmfw/w-d-xo.html
I only learned during lockdown why LET A = PI - PI used less memory than LET A = 0
ZxBASIC stores numbers twice, once in ASCII just for displaying, and then in floating point which is actually used. In hex these examples would be
F1 41 3D A7 2D A7 and
F1 41 3D 30 0E 00 00 00 00 00, so the long winded way of typing saved 4 bytes.
Lockdown was an opportunity to disassemble a few speccy games and to finally answer questions from 40 years ago that 12 year old me couldn't figure out.
I'll never forget Jet Pac
Jet Pac will never forget you ;-)
I remember all of these games but can’t believe that Ultimates’ Underwurld didn’t get a mention.. or Shadowfire
I gave my reasoning and I’m sticking by it 😊
Sabre wulf .. the graphics were so colourful and the game ran smoothly
A visual treat, what a great game for the time
These videos are awesome there's another retro channel I watch called Kim Justice too these are just as good and I love the style!
Cheers. Clarky.
Thank you 😊
Happy to see JSW take the crown but dang, no Castle Master anywhere?
Thought it looked pretty advanced for its era :)
Can’t really include a game that was developed on the Amstrad CPC, that’s heresy 🤣
My own list would include a few of the same games, but I'd omit arcade ports (like R-Type and Chase HQ) and valiant 8-bit conversions of 16-bit games (like Myth) and concentrate more on Speccy originals that genuinely moved gaming forward in some way...
1) Jet Set Willy - for the sheer size of the map and the free-roaming exploration
2) Avalon - for the "persistence" of its world & the way creatures actually followed you between rooms
3) Fat Worm Blows a Sparky - for its true 3D environments at a playable frame-rate
4) Shadowfire - for its Windows style pointer and icons system .. in 1985
5) Chaos: The Battle of Wizards - for its accessible turn-based strategy with up to 8-player duels
6) Sherlock - for building on The Hobbit and taking it to another level entirely
We will have to agree to disagree. But Myth came out on 8bit first, later on Amiga and NES, but these are different to the ZX Spectrum version. In fact the ZX Spectrum version was voted number 12 in the Your Sinclair Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time. It also won ‘Winner Best 8-Bit Graphics’ EMAP Golden Joystick Awards 1990 (published by ACE #33, 1990/6) 👍
@@ClassicReplay Ah, I stand corrected on Myth - thanks :) I played it on the Amiga and wasn't really keeping track of Speccy releases anymore after I got an Amiga in 1988 so didn't realise the 8-bit versions pre-dated the Amiga version by 3 years. That's basically a "next-gen remaster" by modern standards :)
Good old times... ;-)
One very funny and often overlooked game was Urban Upstart, a kinda text adventure in the style of the Hobbit but in a modern northern town or city where you had to dodge the killer football hooligan, the various weird and extremely dodgy situations and something of sheer brilliance in writing that would be lost on those outside the UK. Also Fourth Protocol was a bit of a beast for the Speccy, three parts, three tapes and damned difficult, very cerebral puzzler with a hint of James Bond-ishness, finally my thoughts go to Uridium which is prob the best graphics game on the Spectrum, silky smooth controls and fast paced goings on... As for the ZX80 I was one of the first buyers of the original kit, part of the "game" was to a) keep it working b) keep it working and not cause major fires c) keep it working, no major conflagrations etc and for it to stay alive long enough to type in sixteen pages of code and then reset itself halfway through your save record oh and def a d) not picking up treacherous ZX80 and lob it out window/up against wall/flush down the bog/give it to your worst enemy with a secretive smirk... ZX81 was much the same except less fires whereas the last upgraded speccies were awesome esp those with the CFM floppy's on as you could use software from Amstrad machines and PCW computers.
Trivia: Knight Lore was developed before Sabre Wulf - but its release was held back for reasons of marketing strategy.
Great trivia, keep it up 👍🏻
Remember spending months perfecting my tactics to win Lords of Midnight. Great days!
Very difficult game, even when you know what you’re doing 👍🏻
Sooo many games, how do you pick, cool video.
Thank you! Trust me, really painful having to choose and whittle them down. Thanks for leaving a comment and please share 👍
Head over heels for me. How he managed to get such complicated maps into 48k is beyond me.
Also, hardly any slowdown
loved bruce lee
Dude , for me cronos, excelon , soldier of fortune , feud, scumball,sherwood , the first dizzy and chuckle egg 1/2
(For the grind ) elite kentilla, -all still worth roasting yer fingertips and cerebral cortex at once attempting to complete in this day and age . The pyramid one by bubble bus software deserves a mention too . The shrewood game with the invisible swamp paths invented the rage quit.
Cheers 🍻 There's some absolute belters there. I wonder if you mean 'The Ice Temple' by Bubble Bus. Have a great weekend.
No "Lunar Jetman"??? (the sequel to Jetpac.
Sabre Wulf was my favourite: the graphics for the hardware of that time were amazing.
I know, great games. Loved Sabre Wulf as well.
Why does Ant Attack have 128K sound in this video when it was released in 1983? Is it a re-release, or one of those early games that supported the Fuller Box for additional music ? 👍👍
Those are the beeper sound effects from the original 48k version. There does seem to have been an echo filter added though, either in the emulator or in the video edit.
@@gwishart Wow... It should be a feature in some modern ZX Spectrum emulator 😁😁
This is from the emulator Spectaculator www.spectaculator.com
A thought provoking and entertaining look at the zx spectrum. But not even a mention of the likes of the legendary dynamite Dan 2. Still an enjoyable video though ^_^
Good game, including the original :-)
Almost every game from "Ultimate play the Game" was ground breaking!
It must have been an amazing experience to be part of such creatively back then. Those early days fascinate me so much. I’ve read so much about how the games were put together and the sweat and toil that went into such games. Unpopular opinion, but GunFright is still one of my favourite games ever from an impact on a young kid point of view. I was lost in that game for days, weeks, months.
Great nostalgia thanks
Thanks for watching my friend 👍
Just a quick question, which version of coin ops are you using in your videos thanks.
I just use Legends Ultimate and connect via HD to record. Arcade Punks has them all.
@@ClassicReplay thank you for replying classic replay
Lo Spectrum e' uno dei migliori mai inventati da Clive Sinclair👍🏻
Spread the word 👍 true story
Great video. Not sure how they made so much with 48k and such simple capabilities. But I suspect it made being imaginative all the more important. Let’s not forget that the technology of the book is just words on paper- and there’s no limit to what we can do with that.
It’s this simple. They were geniuses 😉 plus the firmware guide helps
Jet Set Willy? No effing way. Manic Miner or death. I'll be waiting for you outside school at home time mate! 😁
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Is that Alexander Armstrong's voice at the beginning of the video? It really sounds like him.
Correct!
just for comparison : i remember "The Hobbit" on my PCjr (canada) ... it never run that well !
the memory management on the ZX is amazing,
on par with the MacIntosh of the time
For me, in no order :
Atic Atac
Manic Miner
Chuckie Egg
Jetpac
Jet Set Willy
Arcadia
plus a special shout out for Pheenix and Deathstar Interceptor.
Great list, hours of fun right there 👍🏻
Just think, a handful of spectrum and C64 games such as R-Type, Streetfighter and more, with their basic graphics and tons of story to grip consumers, paved the way for all the modern gaming today. And except for a handful of them, beats 7 shades of hell out of them like a pro in the arcade.
Every word 😉
Deathchase and Jetpac for me. Because they were only 16k and I didn’t had a 48k at the time. I played these 2 games like crazy.
Deathchase 100% never heard of the other game 🤷🏻♂️
@@ClassicReplay I meant to say JETPAC. Damn this auto correctors. Hahaha.
What is the game with cars at 2:11?
Hi, that's Travel through Time. Volume 1: Northern Lights
Did I blink and miss Lords of Midnight ... that was amazing for 48KB (the manual was also better produced than most games that come out today)!
Yes, it’s called skipping 🤣 watch again. But seriously, that was an awesome game. But hardly anyone knew how to play it.
Rtype was without any doubt the best game by Spectrum
A quand un neuw zx spectrum, un peu comme la réédition de l'attari.
It’s on sale at Argos, preorders available
Video starts at 03:31
You don't like it?
How Manic Miner and Chuckie Egg aren't even on the honourable mention list is beyond me. I don't know if you were there when the Spectrum came out but I was and believe me, the games that were talked about at school were games like Chuckie Egg, Manic Miner, Trashman etc. I feel that makes them important. At the time, games like Knight Lore were considered by most people I knew as over-rated. Good graphics but too difficult to control to become truly addictive. A lot of text only adventure games were highly important too. Though they seemed to have been forgotten about. I expect you'll consider this subjective, but it is based on the fact I was there.
10:18 top left hand corner 😉
@@ClassicReplay Sorry if this seemed a rant. It wasn't supposed to be.
What is the game at 2:13? It looks great.
Travel through time
Great video but personally I'd put skool daze in my top 3, it was the first game I came across that put you in a realistic setting but let you do what the hell you wanted, almost like the first sandbox game or GTA prototype..
On reflection, I think I agree. You give a good point. I should have made this a top ten and included skool Daze 👍
Have played all the games seen here except no.s 5 & 6. Think DeathChase was my first ever game as you could play it on the 16K ZX Spectrum. Didn't get the 48K until later on and that was mainly so I could play Manic Miner. Loved Turbo Esprit and Chase HQ. Another Honourable mention I'd give would be "The Sentinel" and "The Great Escape". That's just my thoughts though :-)
Couldn’t agree more! The first game I ever played on the Speccy was Deathchase. Happy memories 😍
I knew Elite had to be in there somewhere the speccy was good with vector based games. I still play text adventures ( usually on a emulator but sometimes on a speccy ) with little or no graphics they still work well.
+Chesso C there’s a new Dracula text adventure for the ZX spectrum, it’s really good.
I was never much a fan of platform games, too infuriating when you knew when exactly to jump but not whether the dead flesh would respond. Still games like Valhalla, Heavy on the Magick. Lords of Midnight (not Doomdark's Revenge) , Sherlock, Hampstead, Timegate, Danger Mouse and Tir Na Nog were there to make amends. Great games.
Some good memories there. Heavy on the Magick was so difficult. Danger Mouse, I think they released two or three different games. But had fun all the same.
Great watch was that
Cheers David, really appreciate the feedback 👍
@@ClassicReplay Subbed to your channel
Nice video. What about Rick dangerous that is actually my favorite game of all time.
Rick Dangerous is a 16bit game, helped put the Amiga and ST on the map. I don’t think it had the same impact on the Speccy, but definitely much love for old Rick on 8bits
JetPac and Sabre Wulf were my all-time faves on the Spectrum. Many a day were lost bashing the rubber keys to those two games. My friends had C64s and BBC computers, but they all preferrred games days at mine when I had the Spectrum out.
Sounds like you have many wonderful memories of early gaming. Did you ever play a game called ‘GunFright?’ I loved that game
@@ClassicReplay I don't recall GunFright. I had most of the Ultimate games, though the 3D effect in later ones became a little repetitive after a while.
It won't impress in 2022, but back then it was special. It was a search and destroy type of game.
@@ClassicReplay loved Gunfright, best of their isometric output. Yes, even better than Knight Lore.
Bashing the rubber keys? What no Kempton Joystick?
Paused at 3:32 when you mention the upcoming 6 games, I'm going to take a guess. Jet Set Willy, Batman: The Movie, Target: Renegade, Head Over Heels, Football Manager, and Chase HQ. Now to see if I am close.
Most important ☺️ not sure how you’d convince me Batman the movie would be instrumental. A great game for the time, but not convinced 😉
Okay, 2/6, not close, with 2 in honourable mentions. I did the ones I knew people were talking about when I was a kid. The list seems like the some of the best Spectrum games though, not sure if people realised that at the time though, well not in my part of merry 'ol England. I had forgotten about Turbo Esprit, I did enjoy a bit of that, despite crashing so quickly.
Yeah, I get that nostalgia is a big part of all this, but I wanted to do something different. The majority of ZX Spectrum vids on TH-cam are massively predictable and pander to nostalgia. This list was never going to win a popularity contest 🤣
@@ClassicReplay very true.
Before my family, the cousins, and other kids I knew bought the consoles in the early 90s, the Batman game was the last game I remember other people were chatting about, though for me, I was longing for Golden Axe for my Amstrad CPC. Most other kids I knew had the Spectrum, I was an Amstrad kid, we'd argue about what was better, the ones I listed were the ones I heard about and played around their houses the most. I was smug as a kid as most kids I knew were jealous of the colours of my Amstrad, thing is, playing the games now feel better on the Spectrum, the Amstrad versions were often much slower.
Sadly the AMSTRAD played second fiddle to the ZX Spectrum with most devs. But there’s a handful of games that really shine. The games I preferred to play on the AMSTRAD were mostly static screen affairs, but I definitely feel your pain. Luckily I personally had near enough access to everything, even the MSX. For me the AMSTRAD had a brilliant port of North & South, Spindizzy showed CPC could compete with all other 8bits. Prince of Persia we got on the CPC is impossible on the ZX Spectrum. Head Over Heels is best played on CPC. Get Dexter = Speccy who? The Guild of Thieves made every other 8bit owner jelly 😎 so not all bad.
A solid bunch of picks there my friend. 'Importance' is debatable, however I would choose Head Over Heels over Knight Lore for playability all day long. Oh, and you need a good lynching for not including a Matthew Smith creation on the list. 😉
Playability, yes of course. But which came first 😉 Jet Set Willy is a Mathew Smith game 😵💫 thanks for watching, I think 👍
What no 'Dan Dare?'
Can't believe Elite wasn't number one. Also you left off Wheelie. One of the best games ever.
I can't believe Elite wasn't number 1 either ;-)
I grew up in Brazil with a TK95 (which is zxspectrum only better ;P) and each of these games marked my childhood
That’s the one that looked like a Commodore +4 🤷🏻♂️ Plus I just read that the cassette interface ran at a faster speed 🧐
Atic Atac was the one for me, spent many many months playing that game in that haunted house!
Did you ever make it out?
@@ClassicReplay 10 year old me never did (actually had more fun just running around killing everything trying to conquer my own high scores). Forty five year old me did escape, after playing for a rather long time soaking up the nostalgic memories, then really wanting to escape the mansion!, and not cheating at all watching a You Tube video on how to complete the game (ok so some video viewing was involved lol).
Well done! That’s what you call dedication
Who is she, top left, at 1:08?
Oh that person… I’m pretty sure that is GOD!
I think he's Mathew Smith, developer of Manic Miner (when he was 17)
Sorry, I thought/assumed he was taking the pi$$
@@ClassicReplay No, I wasn't. Now you mention it, yes, I do now recognise him.
Jet set willy had a bug in it where it was impossible to do certain tasks which was really annoying as I only got to find out a few years ago. No wonder I could never clear it. Prefered Manic Miner it's predecessor.
It was fixed early on with the Software Projects version.
No R-Type? I soldered an Atari Joystick board to my keyboard to play it. Because the game didn't support Joysticks. I used an Didaktik M computer Which I also overclocked to 7Mhz.
It's number five. Thanks for watching ;-)
I have to say that I hated Jet Set Willy back in the day and it would be nowhere on my list (even though grudgingly I realise that you can’t have one of these lists without it). Starquake was probably my favourite game, I completed it many times on my Spectrum and have completed it on several emulators over the years too. I’m fairly sure it was another game that Crash awarded something like 96% to
I think “hated” is a bit strong 🤣 for me personally I loved it, also loved Manic Miner. Starquake, Stormbringer, Knight Tyme, loved all those as well.
that looks like Atari Adventure at 3:09 - not spectrum
Yes, sure is. Well spotted. I always like to throw a few Atari or Amstrad goodies into all of my vids 😉
LoLl! Great joke about R Type and your wife! I was addicted to R Type back in the day; could only get to level 5 but would always would go back for more. My keys were PLZX and C to fire (not space bar...too large therefore slower) 👍
That joke didn’t go down well, I received quite a few complaints 🤷🏻♂️ level five was good going, I think the original just looped as there was a mastering error where the last level was missed off. They later fixed it on the budget re-release. It’s such a great game. I played it quite a bit not long ago and couldn’t put it down. Thanks for watching 👍
Great choices. Would have picked Manic Miner over JSW.
For the life of me do not understand how Death Chase makes it in these lists. What a boring game. Worth a couple of hours before storing for good. So unmemorable!
Highly subjective 😉
There were few games that had a bigger impact than 3D Deathchase if you experienced it in the context of what else was available when it was released. Seeing it a few years down the line alongside later 48k titles makes it difficult to really understand I guess. It was a 16k game, so the whole thing was squeezed into less then 9k... pretty amazing really.
Jetpac was another that was just astounding when it was released, seeing that for the first time at the time, that really elevated the speccy. And yes, it was also squeezed into less then 9kb!.
When Jetpac hit the shelves, unheralded, the title folk were looking forward to was - Horace And The Spiders - that should give some context ;). I took a chance buying Jetpac, from this new unknown developer because my brother had already bought the Horace game, and jetpac was the cheapest alternative in John Menzies that day... we loaded up Jetpac first because we weren't expecting much and suffice to say it was a while before anyone played HATS. My first experience of 3D Deathchase was similar round at a friends house. Just unexpected brilliance, and it got played solidly until everyone had mastered it. It then became the yardstick for perspective style 3D action games - is it as good as Deathchase... is it as good as jetpac... is it as good as JSW... These were the questions, and that's why it was an important game. There were many better games released over the years, but very few that were more important!
@@oldmossystone I love Jet Pack! No matter it was 16k. Smooth, simple but addictive. Too bad there was no 48k follow up with more items to do. Then again, it could have been Cyber Run?
Yes games should be taken into context of which year it was released. Heck had some fun with Maziacs but it did not age well. But Ant Attack and Match Point held up well.
In the end it is all about personal opinions. Cheers!
@@frankj5947 Maziacs was a great game - it's amazing to me that it doesn't get talked about more. There are some games that don't fit easily into a category, so get forgotten about. Maziacs had replayability due to the maze generation. It also had some style, and forced you into strategic decisions... good balance. But it's not in a genre... so...
Another for me was Splat! - I still find that as good as it ever was - it just got some criticism for the main character graphic at a time when so many games had large well animated sprites.... It was still a great game with a great and unique concept. And again the replayability, this time due to a different generated route through the environment on each playthough. It's a clever game.
There was an amiga game that rehashed the same basic concept, but it was not good, because they underestimated how important the level design was for that concept to work.
The fact elite wasn’t in the top 6 is a joke. It was an almost impossible mission on the speccy. Still recognised as way ahead of its time and technology.
Let’s agree to disagree. Just my personal opinion. Elite was a great game, I still play it on and on off. I also play Elite Dangerous on PC.
Knighlore? What about Phantom club.Jetpac? What about Brainstorm.
All good shouts!
Games that are so important that I had never seen any one of them...
What!?!
@@ClassicReplay I know!!!!!
Из всего упомянутого тут играл только в Chase HQ, R-Type и Death Chase.
Atic Atak yessssss!!!!
The time and energy that must have gone into Atic Attack is simply mind bending.
RAM pack wobble on a Spectrum? Aren't you confusing this with the ZX81 and its 16K RAM pack? Perhaps you an issue 1 16K and used a 32K pack? It was easy to expand Issue 2 and 3 16K machines to the full 48K internally, as there were free memory sockets on the board. The vast majority of Spectrums sold were the 48K model.
Nope, our Spectrum was a 48k model with rubber keys. If someone slammed a door, dropped something on the floor or banged the table in anyway shape or form, it would reset.
@@ClassicReplay Oh heck. That was likely a loose power lead. I had no problems with mine, but I rarely pulled the lead out. I had a power socket at desk level, so switched it there.
@@Inaflap Yeah you could pick mine up and move it all you wanted, i dont remember it just randomly crashing ever.
Tapes loaded better on a simple cassette player for some reason
@@ClassicReplay Defo a faulty power jack. Very common on Speccy as no on off or reset switch. Having owned a ZX81 and 16k RAM pack, blu-tac was your friend.