ANDROID 2
27
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Impresive 3D arcade game, Android 2 more relies on look than on workflow. The robot-hero must stop progress of Millitioids, spec of centipedes, and resist to keeping robots Lebdodopids, avoiding mines on the floor. There are three zones in the game: The maze of death, the paradox zone and flat earth. It is unlikely that the players who reach the second phase of the game will leave alone the third. Developed at end of 1983, the game was one of the first which generate random labyrinth greater than screen which is scrolled in all directions.
CRUISING ON BROADWAY
96
:
Take a look at that screenshot. Does it look like the dullest thing you've ever seen on a Spectrum screen? If it does, think again, because to a veteran gamer it looks like a pic of one of the most addictive games ever to grace a computing screen. Cruising was a painting game, where you controlled a character square around a series of mazes made up of single-pixel lines, pursued by another character square (or on later levels, two other character squares). And that was all. The only way to discover just how compulsive it was, though, is to play it. Alternatively, you could always take my word for it. I wouldn't lie to you.
CORRIDORS OF GENNON
21
:
Three dimensional action maze game, with one news, the maze is round shaped. You must pass through sequence of doors where some one can be open only using correct code number. Once you pass all doors, you enter the main computer room to stop the machine which will destroy the whole complex. The only problem is Bogul creature which oddly sounds and sucks psi energy that approach him. Bogul can self-clone and on return you must avoid many such creatures. The game combines best elements of strategy and action.
ERIC AND THE FLOATERS
61
:
Crude graphics, simplistic gameplay, awkward controls and dull colour are just a few of the 'features' which completely failed to wreck the appeal of this brilliant little game. The only thing it really had going for it was the addiction brought on by its deceptively tricky nature and Tetris-style 'finish the screen or go for the big but risky bonus?' dilemmas. That it's still getting rave reviews (in a slightly revised form) on the console machines is proof of how timeless its appeal is.
ESCAPE
25
:
The first three-dimensional game. The player walks through maze, trying to take one axe to escape from several (up to five) dinossaurs which hunt him. In the hardest fifth level, revived big ptherodactilus moves the wings through labyrinth corridors seeking for victim. "Escape" is one of the first games for spectrum, but after two years it kept technical bright. It is a legend between the owners of this computer whose remembrance goes several years ago and still is one of the most popular.
FRED
9
:
In this nice game we act as an explorer, who came, nobody knows how, on the bottom of a complicated vertical labyrinth made of wells and tunnels. At the top of every well is a strong rope attached to a metal ring that allows you to climb the maze. Our task is to reach the top of the maze where the exit is and emerge out in the surface carrying as many treasures as possible and staying away from the sinister guys that flutter around us. As allies we only have our faithful revolver and the maps that we can find along the path.
GAUNTLET
38
:
Do I really need to tell anyone about Gauntlet? The arcade's four-player epic of dungeons-and-dragon slaughter-filled mayhem transferred to the Speccy better than anyone had dared to expect. US Gold managed to cram every last level of the original game in with the aid of the least intrusive multiload in history. As a recreation of the coin-op's feel, it hasn't been bettered to this day. As a game in its mown right, it's as great as it ever was. One of the true milestones of Spectrum gaming.
GLOBULAR TROUBLES
10
:
This is a nice puzzle game in which we control a little jumping ball that lives on a squared board. At the start we can select one of four game types that must be all completed to reach the end of the game. Essentially the games consist of jumping all around the board touching the right square to change its state and obtain the requested configurations. There are some other balls that jump around. Touching them means to loose a life. During the game we have a limited amount of bombs that, if activated, completely clear the board of all the enemy balls. The time available to complete the game is also limited.
GYRON
93
:
It's almost unconcievable these days, but the reward for completing this game wasn't a naff little well-done message, or a pretty picture inviting you to buy the 'coming soon' sequel. Nope, for finishing Gyron, you got a Porsche. A real one. Of course, it wasn't easy - the team of mathematicians who programmed the maze and the movements of its guardians to repeat only once every 10,000 years saw to that, but it was such an absorbing game that, for many players, 10,000 years didn't seem too long to wait.
HALLS OF THINGS
11
:
This funny title reveals one of the oldest and the fastest action games which lead to many similar, but noone reached its technical perfectness. You walk through multi level maze attacking the monsters using arrows and storms. The things can attack you in the group and burn you to death. To escape from labyrinth you must collect the keys and get the power from milk in the bottles that you find. The unique loading routine makes program almost unaccessable for pirates.
HUNGRY HORACE
26
:
The main person of this popular game is Horace, comix like creature that eats flowers in park-maze and escape from keepers that try to catch him. This is first game where the character is more important than the workflow. The graphic was and is excelent with domminant use of shapes, technics that was not used previously. The game is a logic part of the developement started with Pacman which, by the way, has no software equivalent for Spectrum, because Atari (Pacmen owner) has no interest in small computers.
HYPERACTION
82
:
One of the best games never to sell a dozen copies, Hyperaction was a Pengo-like puzzle game with hidden qualities that belied the simplicity of the two-rule gameplay. Years ahead of its time, this is the kind of thing that screams for a second chance and it's a tragedy that so few peopke have ever had the chance to curse and swear at it. Write a letter to your favourite software house now, demanding that they buy it up and re-release it. Or would you rather play Sooty and Sweep for the rest of you life?
MAZIACS
99
9
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The advertisements for this claustrophobic maze game (actually an update of Mazogs, probably the most popular ZX81 game ever) claimed that the fight sequences were choreographed with the aid of a real live stuntman, and for once you could almost believe it. It wasn't a games for arachnophobes though, as seeing your brave little adventurer clamped broken-backed between the jaws of an evil spider-like Maziac was enough to put a shiver up the spine of all but the most stout of heart. Maziacs was a game with more character than a thousand Turricans, and more horror than all the Nightmare On Elm Street movies put together.
MOTOS
10
:
This videogame is placed on a chequered platform that floats in space. We have to push all the creatures we find, that change from level to level, out of the platform before they can do the same thing to us. The graphics are simple and clean and the controls help to make an high degree of interactivity. As the game goes on, the platform becomes more rich in surprises and even takes an irregular shape.
RECKLESS RUFFUS
10
:
This game is placed on a board made of some little squares. Outside the squares there is a strange bottomless world made of black and green moving lines. The main character is a funny puppet with bulbous eyes that can caper on the squares. Some other strange objects wander around and are very annoying. Some of the squares have a number on them that shows how many other invisible squares are on the path. If we incorrectly guess the right direction the puppet will fall down and a life will be lost. Other squares have different behaviours. The goal is to collect all the diamonds we find on the path. When a level is completed there are other more difficult levels waiting for us.
SOLOMON'S KEY
10
:
A very simple and neat game. It consists of various levels in which we try to find the keys to open the doors that lead to the next levels. The game is viewed from the side and we can create or destroy bricks that allow to climb till the desired point. But we must pay attention to the odd moving creatures that seem to chase us. It's also convenient to get the various bonuses that we find scattered around.
SPLAT
66
:
Speech on the Spec, eh? Mostly it went 'mxchxtrrrbkstxtprrkkk', but in Splat! the joyous 'yippee!' your character Ziggy (an 'X' with legs) let out after completing a level was crisp and coherent. Amazingly, this was the least impressive aspect of this original and addictive scrolling maze game. Your character stayed put, the maze moved around and the edges of the screen were the game's main danger. Deceptively fast-paced, this is the kind of game that you just never see any more.