Here was a snapshot of 80s school life, complete with a shaggy-haired bully, bespectacled swot and cane-bending patriarch, doling out lines should the player Eric step out of line. There was an entire school to wander freely around, interacting with its other inhabitants while attempting to activate numerous wall-mounted shields.
Completion of this far-from-easy task confused the teachers, helping Eric to extract clues as to the combination for the headmaster's safe which contained his damning school report.
Perhaps the most ingenious move by the game's designers was to include the option to rename all the characters, allowing players to add a real-life frisson to this digitized version of the so-called best days of your life.
By , the Spectrum was reaching its peak, and big-budget licensed games were beginning to dominate the market. The conversion of arcade games seemed a particularly hopeless proposition - the technological gap between the cabinets we gorged with loose change up and down the country's seaside towns and the unsightly attribute-clash and farty sound effects of the Spectrum seemed impossible to bridge.
One game that managed it was Elite's Bomb Jack. Each screen contained a deviously-arranged cluster of bombs to collect plus a few pesky mummies and birds , with lit bombs awarding extra bonus bar points. It was hardly complicated, but with its nimble, precise controls, smart graphics and speedy gameplay, this arcade conversion quickly became revered as one of the best titles on Speccy - and proof that in the right hands, the home computer could offer the same quality of experience as its coin-op brethren.
Together with licensed games, budget titles dominated the Spectrum release schedules by the late Eighties. Modestly dubbed The Ultimate Arcade Adventure, Dizzy incorporated neat, cute graphics reflecting the changing demographic of Spectrum owners and a tried-and-trusted arcade adventure formula, as established years earlier by games such as Mikrogen's Pyjamarama.
While not everyone's cup of tea thanks to its restrictive inventory system, and the resulting endless traipsing backwards and forwards, Dizzy was a massive hit among economically-minded gamers, while also instigating a shift towards a more youthful market.
With the era of the bedroom programmer a distant memory by , most major software publishers were either utilising their own in-house teams or farming their projects out. One of the last famous solo programmers was Raffaele Cecco, who had hit the big time for Hewson with the colourful run 'n' gunner Exolon in However, it was with the thoughtful and patient shoot-'em-up Cybernoid that Cecco cemented his reputation, demonstrating that the ageing Spectrum could still produce amazingly striking and playable games.
Working within the limits of the computer and conquering its disadvantages was an excellent training ground for future coders - and there were few greater than the legendary Cecco. We want to make Eurogamer better, and that means better for our readers - not for algorithms.
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It is officially our favourite way of killing time at work. Just don't tell the boss. Shout in the comments if we've missed any of your favourites. Elite — Firebird Games. R-Type — Electric Dreams Software. Chuckie Egg - A'n'F Software. Back to Skool - Microsphere. Football Manager - Addictive Games Ltd. Horace Goes Skiing — Beam Software. Boulder Dash — Front Runner. Sim City - Infogrames. Underwurlde - Ultimate Play The Game. Rainbow Islands - Ocean Software Ltd.
Willy has had a humongous party and feels a little worse for wear. Many of them are filled with monsters and enemies, all of which Willy needs to defeat. Work through 60 screens in any order you wish.
Just get that house tidied so poor old Willy can go to sleep! You know how Mario and Sonic have made the Olympic Games fun for kids and family to enjoy more than once every 4 years? Well, Daley Thompson was the one that brought epic Olympic Olympic action to home consoles back in the day. The game itself resembles Track and Field, a title that most of our readers will have played at some stage in their lives.
Thanks to Speedlock, this is one of the fastest loading games in this list of the best ZX Spectrum games! Not as fast as Daley though; that guy is quick!
Bomb Jack takes the 12th spot in this list of the best ZX Spectrum games of all time! This bombastic hero might not be as famous as our favourite kangaroo-riding, explosive-kicking, Sega Mega Drive star, but Bomberman would certainly be proud of his exploits.
Collect bombs while trying to avoid enemies; sounds simple, right? It would be a heck of a lot simpler if the enemies were easier to defeat. Whoever thought that Egyptian mummies that turn into UFOs once they hit the bottom of the screen would be a good idea? Those guys are tough to beat! Collecting all bombs on a stage opens up new areas too. What do Operation Wolf and Bubble Bobble have in common? Still, as one of the first shooting games to have a storyline, all the thrilling arcade action appears in heaps.
Operation Wolf has six levels, each with side quests and sub missions to complete. It might not be the most technically advanced title in this list of the best ZX Spectrum games, but it does give gamers a lot to sink their teeth into.
Blast back enemies on each stage in order to advance. The Lords of Midnight could have one of the coolest game cases of all time bar Number 3 in this list, of course! In true RPG style, gamers control four characters from the beginning and can up their party numbers as the levels progress. Take the protagonist Morkin through the main story towards a showdown to destroy Doomdark and his Ice Crown of power.
The war mode sees players strategically recruiting nobles and their armies before declaring war on Doomdark. And the Epic mode is basically the first mode followed by the second in succession. Instead of having coloured in limbs, they remain translucent, taking on the colour of the background.
Gamers must compete in a series of karate matches against various fighters. Like Punch Out! The format is different to many modern fighting games like Street Fighter too. Instead of bashing someone to oblivion and depleting their energy bar, players must secure solid hits against their opponent to obtain yin-yang symbols.
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