Tag: ZX SpectrumPage 3 of 9

Underwurlde – “Scurrying slithering shadowy grave”

1983 was a good year for Ultimate. They released their first game Jetpac to much success earlier in the year. Then (after some other, less successful 16K games)…

American Football – “The tactical battle against the Opposing Team”

In 1984, the Los Angeles Raiders won Super Bowl XVIII. I had to look that one up. Despite that lack of American Football knowledge, though, I know something…

Computer Scrabble – “Are you also using a Scrabble® board?”

In 1938 in New York, Alfred Butts invented Scrabble. Well, he invented Criss-Cross Words, a board game based on an earlier game of his called Lexiko. It was…

Full Throttle – “The best bike in the race”

There is a motorbike game for the Spectrum, programmed by Mervyn J. Estcourt and released by Micromega, which is beloved enough to have been the subject of remakes…

Match Point – “Strawberries and cream”

There’s an interesting challenge played out across adverts every time the football World Cup or the Olympics comes around. Those events’ official sponsors play a lot for their…

The Lords of Midnight – “Do you want dawn?”

In 1982, Veronica Megler and Philip Mitchell (with help from Alfred Milgrom and Stuart Ritchie) made adventure game The Hobbit, and it wowed players with its cast of…

Sabre Wulf – “A huge Goliath animal”

In 1983, when Smash Hits magazine was central to UK pop music media and the “showbiz zap” that Crash magazine set out to align with, the Smash Hits…

Jack and the Beanstalk – “Magic bag of beans”

In 1902, cinema was still in its infancy, and people were still working out what they could do with it. One big breakthrough of the year was the…

Mugsy – “Da boys in the mob”

After the massive success of The Hobbit, the wait was on for Melbourne House’s successor. Before they’d even finished it, Philip Mitchell and Veronika Megler had decided on…

The Fall of Rome – “Numbers only please”

In 1984, it was still quite common for people to make games on their own, and sometimes even get them to the top of the charts. The Fall…