Tag: ZX SpectrumPage 1 of 10

Barbarian – “Thanks big boy”

“Because the way in which the player loses is always by dying, it was felt to be unsuitable for persons under 15 who might find it frightening to…

BMX Simulator – “Pedals ready”

Brothers have been a recurring theme in the story of the popular games of the 1980s. As games slowly moved from being a thing mostly made by individual…

Feud – “For ‘erbs an’ stuff”

In 1983, Virgin Games paid £500 for a ZX Spectrum game called Ghost Town, a text adventure with some limited graphics and a gold rush setting. It was…

Gauntlet – “You have found a treasure room”

The August 1987 issue of Spectrum magazine Crash brought back an old feature “after almost three years in the cupboard”: the comparison test. The first one of these…

10 Computer Hits 3 – “Software & sweatshirt competition”

In December 1982, the London band Incantation had a UK #12 hit with “Cacharpaya (Andes Pumpsa Desi)”, an upbeat panpipe-based instrumental which the composer Michael Land may or…

Infiltrator – “Papers, please”

I’ve talked about many British developers who made their start by making home computer games based on arcade games, often Atari ones. This story will be a rare…

Paperboy – “It’s a rough job, but…”

For the fourth time in fewer than 25 posts, I am writing about an Elite Systems conversion of an arcade game. Paperboy followed Commando, Bomb Jack and Ghosts’n…

Dragon’s Lair – “Dirk, who knew no fear”

When Zzap! 64 interviewed Chris Butler about making Ghosts’n Goblins, the interviewer reacted strongly to the game Butler said he’d be working on next. “Space Harrier! You’re joking?!…

Ghosts’n Goblins – “Worse danger is ahead”

In June 1986, Japanese computer game magazine LOGiN launched a spin-off magazine, initially focused on Nintendo’s Famicom but soon taking in a wider range of platforms. It kept…

Green Beret – “Stab to start”

At Christmas 1985, the UK’s game charts saw a battle between two hit games along very similar lines. Elite Systems secured the rights to Capcom’s Commando arcade machine,…