Does anyone have a fond nostalgia for old spectrum games? I love 'em. Jeff Minter was a genius!

Honestly, I know very little about it... well, I know nothing about it. Did the Spectrum comeout around the time of Atari? What were the good games for it? Make us fall in love with it Duncan.

Sorry for the late reply!

Spectrums were among the first home computers, starting with the ZX81 in about 1980, progressing to the 16K and eventually the much loved 48K Spectrum with it's unreliable 'rubber keypad'. They came out shortly after those big old Atari consoles. They were invented by Sir Clive Sinclair and competed in the marketplace against the Commodore 64 for the attention of spotty gaming nerds.

You had to load Spectrum games using audio tape cassettes. This improved the popularity of the computer, as everyone could steal software by 'home-taping' onto cassette, much the same as recording albums onto mix-tapes.

Thing is, because the graphics and sound were so crappy, software engineers had to concentrate on producing addictive game concepts, so the playability made up for lack of style. This is not to say all the games were good - there's tons of bad titles, but many of them went on to influence some of the biggest gaming franchises in history.

A few examples of good Spectrum games -

Halls of the things - see 'Doom'
Turbo Esprit - see 'Grand Theft Auto'
Manic Miner - see every platform game ever!

It should be noted that many Spectrum games are still as infuriatingly addictive as when they came out. One strategy game - 'Rebelstar' still works because it's largely conceptual, in the same way Chess is still playable.

There were also a number of early film 'tie-ins'. Although Atari lays claim to the first example of such a medium, with the dreadful ET , Spectrum caught up fast and produced titles such as Alien, Airwolf and Evil Dead.

Unfortunately, Spectrums were just too dated and clunky and died out in the late 80s/early 90s, replaced by Amigas and Atari STs.

You can still play the games on numerous websites - just do a google search for 'Spectrum games online' or whatnot.

My favourite titles (amongst others) include -

Renegade
Manic Miner
Rebelstar
Saboteur
Bruce Lee
JetPac
Alien
Jet Set Willy
Chuckie Egg
Knight Lore
Lamatron
Stop The Express!
Eric and the floaters

Dubious mention also goes to the film tie-in based on Deathwish, where you got to blow up old ladies with a rocket launcher.

You'll probably look at the games and think they're rubbish, but as a snapshot of where it all started, the ZX Spectrum is worth checking out.

Ok - no-one seems that interested.

How about if I provided a link to a fully playable Spectrum game?

Click on the link below to play Manic Miner. One of the best loved and most influential computer games in history. Enjoy! -

MANIC MINER ONLINE

OK, no-one likes that either.

Blimey - tough audience!

Atari 2600 anyone? I've got one of those too.

Guess not.

It's quiet round here isn't it?

(taps fingers on table)

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You really made me think about the "good old times" I really do like the ease and elegance of the current games but the old ones were quite good as well as Spectrum was creating really good games
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Thanks for the reply!

What made Spectrum really great was the limitations of the computer. Programmers had to come up with really brilliant ideas, because that's all they had!

Things are a bit different now. The games look and sound incredible, but there's not a lot of originality anymore. How many first person shooters do we need? Doom came out well over 10 years ago!