R-Type

[Mantakev]

Respect. This game is still insanely difficult. Just download it onto your wii and try to get past the first level! I had this on the zx too and it was awesome

[MattTheSaiyan]

This.....looks much better than I was expecting.

[JekaLogin]

Сразу детство вспоминается!!!

[Jsvkkie]

where is the music in the end from?

[1simo93521]

Had this as a kid. The graphics really were astounding on the speccy.

[jackjude]

Amazing for a 48k machine - Amazing programming!

[HerdDotTV]

This game rocked our world when it arrived as a stand-up arcade game at the college bar where I worked in around 1981. The colors and explosion affects seemed mind numbingly good back then. Us bartenders would spend all our tip money playing it after the bar closed each night. Prior to this, only Omega Race came close to stealing as much of our time.

[jackjude]

@HerdDotTV ... '87 surely?

[HerdDotTV]

@jackjude , yup, you are correct, '87. The 80's are but a blur now ;-)

[sl9sl9]

Probably the best shooter on the spectrum. Just look at those graphics - almost every item on the screen is using a trick to simulate full color without any noticible "bleeding"! Amazing when you consider the speccy can only display two colors in each 8x8 pixel block, one of which was the background color! Electric Dreams were programming gods...

I remember the long screeching tape loading time for every single level was a pain, but oh so worth it for a game of this quality...

[se7en1976]

epic game.. Id have a degree now if I had studied all the hours i spent on this game as a kid

[EarthquakeMachine]

WHAT THE FUCK? WITHOUT MUSIC?? THIS SUCKS

[BobbyUK1979]

R-Type was notorious for it's difficulty level but the beautiful graphics for it's time kept me playing (I got to level 4 after the big mothership). I agree with some here that programmers had to squeeze as much playability out of 128k of memory (I28 bit-rate mp3 files are roughly 3,000mb big!). Another interesting aspect is that games about 20-25 years ago were meant to drive you insane. You could only finish R-Type properly with limited continues. Often games now give save points everywhere.

[DepressiveMindsband]

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! the old machines rocks!!!

[jrkin]

"click!" "click!" "click!" "click!" "squeak!"

[TheBfutgreg]

Total ripoff of the xenomorph design lol

[bobyard123]

you dont get it dumb guy ezelite amga way better

[FukkingAmnesia]

them sounds are painful

[mesicnicarodej]

@gabicuesta you are a skilled pilot :)

[frigginjoe]

One of the most impressive feats I've seen, to have this game look and move so well on the Spectrum. Games "beyond" the capability of the 8-bit machines of the time were generally not very fun to play due to simply not having the horsepower. Not the case here, the game looks like it belongs, which is a huge accomplishment considering the source material and platform it's presented on here.

[thekingofgingers]

Dont suppose anyone knows the name of a game like this on spectrum except you flew vertically instead of horizontaly?

[Quazatronn]

One of the best shoot'em up games i've ever played on the Spectrum so far!

GREAT conversion!

[th7dude]

That is a surprisingly good conversion of a classic game. I remember playing this on my +2 and then the amazing improvement on my Atari ST.

[dreamcastII]

This is a really good conversion. Am impressed.

[bobyard123]

what the hell is this amga is better

[ezelite]

@bobyard123 and the arcade is better than Amiga..whats your point?

[janmansde3dede]

@ezelite Of course the arcade version is better since that is the original however the Amiga port

isn't a real Amiga game since the graphics and code is ported from the Atari ST version.

[eternallycool]

one of my favourtie shoot-em-ups! thanks for uploading. brought back many childhood memories!

[Silverchair84]

I was about 10 or 11 when I played this on the spectrum and i completed it after a few tries. I have to admit i doubt i'd be able to complete it now if i played it again. My reactions are no way as good as they used to be. I was pretty awesome game player back then and frequently beat people a few years older than me

[nicholasthetaylor]

This looks like great fun. Awesome version Spectrum!

[DimaRESEARCH]

одна из самых высоко технологичных игрушек для спектрума

[macdeath69]

@thesentinelonline

It was ported by actually modify a bit the codes and getting some sort of Character attributes emulation on CPC...

[TyltyI]

Not a bad conversion considering the limitations! However the sound is awful :(

It's fascinating to see how people didn't give up at all with so limited hardware! It should have been challenging. Now you get a PS3 with less RAM and everyone say GTA4 sucks on it!

[falkerhard]

The graphics are amazing. The colour clash, limited colours etc and it still looks wonderful.

[CoolDudeClem]

pretty good graphics for the spectrum. Muticoloured sprites are so rarly seen, just shows you that it could do it.

[IVlr3vil]

Impressive. I don't get why people bother comparing the c64 to this version when you can now play it on MAME32. I have to say though, the level structure of this is more faithful than the c64. Only thing that had going for it was the graphics, music and sound.

[rainxxxx]

@IVlr3vil graphix on the speccy are better than the c64, your just thinking of color perhaps?

[IVlr3vil]

Have you seen the c64 version?

[nwostevea]

there is no music on the speccy version

[seventiesclassic]

" there is no music on the speccy version "

Well boo fucking hoo...you poor bastard, no music..I feel so sorry for you.

[rainxxxx]

@seventiesclassic was there a 128k version of this? if so there might have been, but what an incredible conversion, i wish i paid more attention to the comp mags when they said r type for the speccy got great reviews

[SamusDrake]

@nwostevea

That's a fair cop, gov, but this was written for the Spectrum 48K and the graphics alone were pushing the machine to its limits. If there had been a 128K version then they might have squeezed in the music too.

It would be interesting to hear a 128K version of the R-Type sound track, but alas we will never find out now...

[antdude]

No music, eh? :(

[macandfriends]

reminds me of defender

[edzzzwin]

Nice, the colors are very well done here.

[malc1976]

the spectrum and amstrad versions are shit you want to see it on the c64

[HansHackfress]

I wouldn't exactly call the spectrum version shit, it is a remarkable conversion given the serious limitations, i.e. lack of hardware scrolling/sprites.

[tb2000a]

@HansHackfress I agree. It's a great conversion considering the hardware - 48kb and a 3.5mhz CPU! Did it with hardly any colour clash either! They managed to convert the whole game into less memory than your average jpg takes up these days. I think it took a lot more ingenuity and skill to fit games into predefined specifications than what they do now. And for those who say "oh the games/machines were crap" - people will say the same in twenty years time about the games and machines of today!

[fzort]

@tb200a yeah... no hardware support for tiles or sprites and the most hellish display layout ever (non-contiguous scanlines, only 2 colors for every 8x8 pixel blocks, and so on). Getting something this close to the original arcade version was one hell of an accomplishment.

[walter0bz]

cpu with no sprites etc. an amazing conversion indeed

[edzzzwin]

Agreed

[macdeath69]

Amstrad version was shitty only because it is a speccy port.

CPC couldn"t work it properly as most of his ressource was used to emulate a speccy...

[gillianx68000]

great music!joke...is a great conversion one of the best spectrum games for me good memorys

[Relugus]

Remember in those days for arcade conversions they had to go to the arcade and play the games and make notes and memorise the various details and designs.

As far as 8-bit conversions go, the Spectrum is right up there with the Master System and PC Engine conversions.

[maiki60fps]

Amiga? no thank you... that computer based on horrible 8-bit sampling, 8 HW sprites (C64 capabilities) and horrible conversions (Exolon to name one)... I never wanted one and people who bought it realized the made mistake and went for SNES and Mega Drive instead (the real gaming powerhouse)

[80Thom80]

HW sprites aren't really relevant on the Amiga, where all the heavy graphic lifting is performed by the blitter, and the 8-bit sampled sound is to be compared to the square & noise waves of almost every other platform. There were many horrible conversions (I'll add Chase HQ to your list), but quite a few really good things too. Outlived by the MD and the SNES though.

[maiki60fps]

blitter does not work well... look at Turrican 3 and Mega Turrican... which one do you think performs much better as for the number of objects and complex backgrounds... HW sprites are even on Playstation PSX (I think 4000 of 8x8 spr.) and that speaks for itself...

[Galahadfairlight]

Blitter works fine. Hows the sound on the Megadrive version of Turrican 3? Noticeably piss poor in comparison to the Amiga version.

[maiki60fps]

I tested Amiga version and it had major issues with sprites - when a lot of bullets were to be displayed - the famouse sprite oevrflow bug appeared and the object were not drawn - this is the problem with all HW sprite limited systems like NES... blitter apparently cannot help this issue at all... as for the sound - 8bit sampling does sound horrible... even the Turbografx Hudson Soft chip is much better sounding than that 1984 Amiga "sampler"...

[maiki60fps]

plus: Amiga version lacks significantly the graphics depth in the background layer... again since Mega Drive is much more advanced in its VDP capable of independent playfields... as for the Sega sound - yes FM synthesis does suck and is worse than anything like C64' SID, Spectrum's AY, Turbografx' Hudson CPU... but at least we have famou SN sound chip in Sega and many games use it to generate REALTIME sound synthesis.. yes realtime.. not ugly low resolution DJ-like endless flat loop-sampling

[Galahadfairlight]

The Amiga version was a rushed version. So are you able to explain why R-Type 2 on Amiga does have the extra background layers that you claim it cannot do?

I'll take REAL sounds over FM synthesis junk on the Genesis. Hey, hows the Genesis version of Shadow of the Beast sounding? Or the SNES version..... I think you'll find the Amiga version is SIGNIFICANTLY better sounding in all areas.

Get a clue maiki60fps, because right now, you haven't got one.

[Galahadfairlight]

You're not particularly well informed are you maiki60fps?

Amiga version doesn't use sprites for the bullets, they are blitter objects, so it can put as many as it likes onscreen, and ALL are displayed. The ship is hardware sprite, I can assure you the bullets are not.

Its UNIVERSALLY acknowleged that the title music for Amiga R-Type is the best music by quite a far margin in comparison to other machines.

SNES was 16bit sound and the Amiga regularly trounced that machine with ease.

[Galahadfairlight]

What an ill informed chap you are. Sound was superior on Amiga by quite a margin.

[blade004]

@maiki60fps The first Amiga came out in 1985, the Mega Drive came out in 1988 & the SNES came out 1992. So those who bought an Amiga between 1985 - 1988 and between 1985 - 1992 respectively were regretting the decision of buying an Amiga based on no knowledge of either machines existence because they "didn't" exist were they?

The Mega Drive didn't TRULY have quality titles for it for a few years as it was new technology in 1988 whilst the Amiga had already established itself.

[rainxxxx]

@blade004 the megadrive wasnt out ti'll 91' mabe your thinking of the mastersystem!, snes came out 91' and i dont reckon the amiga was out in 85 either!

[blade004]

@rainxxxx The Master System was released in 1986, the Mega Drive was release in Japan in 1988 but its latest release date for other parts of the world was 1990. You are right and wrong in regards to the SNES for its first release date was 1990 but its final release date for the other parts of the world was 1993.

[blade004]

@rainxxxx The Amiga was DEFINITELY released in 1985 in the form of the Amiga 1000, and then later on in 1987 the Amiga 500 came out followed by other Amiga's as the years progressed. It was until late 1992 though the Amiga's chipset was given a big update but by then it was too late :(

[rainxxxx]

@blade004 how come 1000 would come out before 500?

[blade004]

@maiki60fps The Amiga's strength was never with Arcade conversions but the terrible conversions themselves were not the result of the machines lack of power, it was more to do with shoddy programmers. The Amiga's strength's were in its own original titles developed specifically for the machine and the Amiga "could" match the Mega Drive with the right programmers who knew how to do all sorts of tricks with its hardware.

[rainxxxx]

@blade004 their not likely to be, arcade boards are a different kettle of fish

[blade004]

@maiki60fps And people who made the mistake? Hmmm yeah, that is why 2 of my friends had Mega Drives back in the day and they used to come over and play on my Amiga wanting one. The sound in games on the Amiga was far superior to the shit being generated by the Mega Drive and was part of the reason why i never wanted one of those! because i of course used to go to my friends houses who had those Mega Drives and i couldn't stand the shitty sound!

[utubernumber]

the amiga version is better

[Abrimaal]

Amiga is a 16bit machine. The worst thing in the Spectrum version is that there's no music and the sound fx are terrible).

[macdeath69]

Please Amiga users, go troll some Atari ST video, here it's speccy, it's up to Amstrad CPC and C64 fans to troll there !

[303bassline]

Moves very smooth for a Speccy! Nice port indeed!

[FranticMydlo]

This is painful to watch for Amiga users

[kmikze]

reminds me of Chronos...

[Supersaiyan79]

Nice port. I haven't seen this before. Spectrum had that rolling thing at first level. C64 didn't.

[SweetStevieAaron]

The C64 version was rushed because the first version they were working on was taking too long. Interesting story behind it actually and the early beta version is well worth checking out. Had they had more time it would have been great.

I heard the Spectrum version took about six months whereas the final C64 port took six weeks. Do the math.

[gillianx68000]

omg que recuerdos ...estava mui bien esta conversion con colorido i todo,hombre la version sharp x68000 es perfecta claro....

[phs43]

considering spectrum's system spec, this port is simply amazing.

but the best r-type port i've ever seen is for japanese pc called X68000 which was almost IDENTICAL to original arcade.

[phs43]

I mean this one:

watch?v=Xg5Rs6IPHIA

video shown is lagging but X68000 version had exact same speed as arcade.

[squishyblanket]

For some reason I really feel like playing this version now, even though I have an arcade emulator and all of the arcade versions of R-Type...

[decadecounter]

Considering the speccy's abilities, this is an INCREDIBLE feat of programming ingenuity. So much moving at once and very good use of colour (taking into account the colouring of graphics limitations). Thank you for posting.

[4ngry5n1p3r]

What's up with the weak spelling?

Considering this was released in the 1980's, the graphics are pretty good.

[1moe7]

wow ur an idiot

[lord35ar]

looks faster than normal speed, right ?

[gabicuesta]

I record it using an emulator without acceleration. I don't know if the emu speed up the game, I think that not.

[navesele]

definitely faster than the original

[SechsFluegel]

I still occasionally play this old gem.

The speed seems to be just like the original on the ZX Spectrum.

The fast movement is created by really diligent and clever use of character graphics.

This trick for speed can also be seen on the C64 quite frequently, especially in the background. See Space Harrier on that machine and look at the obstacles hurdling your way.

[fashiontesse]

no its the right speed, its a fast game on the speccy

[Kinitawowi]

It's quite tragic that these days most people won't recognise that this amount of gameplay and arcade accuracy (and graphics) on a machine with less processing power than the average modern washing machine, less memory than the average Word document and the most finicky display layout imaginable, took some phenomenal coding skills.

[togalogs]

Yeah and for all that I probably had just as much fun playing it then as I do today with all the modern shiney, bloomy, bouncey games. The days when gameplay ruled!

[rainxxxx]

@Kinitawowi i know, these people dont know their even born, it sickens me to know that this was great programing and processing power for its day but when a noob sees it, he will not understand!

[presidentegallente]

@Kinitawowi Agree! R-Type on ZX Spectrum and C64 is a tough task. The AMIGA version is closer to the original ofc. Actually the original is playable by MAME or iPod ported by EA. The iPod version seems to follow the original code. Some stuff is missing.

[denilson7777]

That was one unforgiving game. Lose the powerups, a harsh collision detection and the 48k+ had many a teethmark imposed.

[craneywatch]

Masta 686 Yamato, are you trying to compare high definition game with good meaning design? How old are you? 6? 7?

This game gave rise to many other shooting and slicing games which you play today. So, you'd better think twice before sending the message. I am 28 years old, and I know that classic games had distinguish flavor which modern game have lost nowdays.

[lastfortress]

Craney, I think I have understood, in part, what Masta tried to say. I think that the Nemesis series are better than the R-Type series... But he is totally wrong comparing Speccy with MSX. Do not care, Craney - He is just stupid. Anyway, I have never seen the R-Type in the speccy... I think it rocks a lot.

[Masta686Yamato]

The most crappy game ever made. This is even worse than Devil World for NES. Complete crap. If you want to play a good shmup, try the Nemesis/Gradius series.

[mitzibishi]

ive played them all. i still think speccy r-Type is a good if not one of the best conversions for awile

[julian52780]

trust me, the ZX spectrum made its look bad.

[craneywatch]

This game was modernized, but the old original is still better

[stupidiraqpeople]

should i get r types on us psn or raystorm on jpn psn?

[BurtWilson1]

I believe in miracles.

[CrazyTorqueAgito]

My Dad spent(no joke)hundreds of dollars on this game in the Arcades of Manhattan NY.

Hours til his freakin hands and fingers were calloused and he was near cardiac arrest.

This was great. Brought back my childhood and the years spent in Arcades when Manhattan was full of them.

Awesome!

[bazfanv2]

fairly nippy for a spectrum game, unless its speeded up via emulation.

[gabicuesta]

it isn't speeded via emulator, it is the real spectrum speed.

[vintage669]

@gabicuesta Yes. It is the real spectrum speed. I played the original. Thx! :)

[TheNumber4q]

Amazing...it's old and archaic but the gameplay is still there

[jkeelsnc]

Not better than the c64 version. The color is not as good and the scroll and sprites are not smooth. Though for an 8 bit machine that didn't have hardware sprites and scrolling this is pretty good. Too bad sinclair didn't see the necessity in equipping the spectrum with a half way decent sound chip in the first models

[navesele]

it is pointless comparing quality of games for Z48K to c64k, try zx128.. and compare it to c64.

[navesele]

What does that mean? Something you heard somebody else say? Or you're just angry. If you want me to consider taking you seriously, say something that I feel like corresponding to, fan boy. And for God's sake, it's Saturday night, go outside, fuck somebody.

[navesele]

Go to someone who gives a fuck about your opinion.

[Subtalvik2]

OHH how mature typical Z48K fanboy, jacking off to your comments again? Stop now, Jimmy, JIMMY! FUCKING NIGGER! Oh looks like you cummed on your monitor again, how about you get a life you fucking dike.

[Zecifer]

This game is the reason I hate Irem.

[uggla03]

anyone that thought this was better than the c64 version lol

[alaggan]

The sound let this conversion down. It should have featured AY 3 - 8912 128k music or at least sounds effects. The 48k beeper sounds actually detract from and confuse the gameplay. Superb technical achievement however.

[Nintega]

Sounds like rats were responsible for the sound effects in this version.

[maltadude]

lol yes

[ukmarkh]

The best Speccy game ever... C64 owners hate this game, really pissed them off that the C64 version was pants compared to the Speecy.

[justanotionX]

I never did understand how the end boss of the first level worked, what made it come towards you and how to kill it quickly. They made it much simpler on the gameboy version.

[johny8888888]

Yes. Spectrum version of this game was the best.

[jesusarnold]

i didn't notice any motion problems at all in this game, in fact this may well have been the best home port of r-type at the time, i have the master system version too and it's a joke compared to this.

[Kinitawowi]

A strong contender for the greatest technical achievement on the machine.

[walter0bz]

suprisigly good spectrum version

[portugal124]

one of the best games ever!!!!!!!!!! can't believe this was made so early!!!! i play without colors hahaha

[madderscientist23]

One of the most acccomplished titles ever released for the spectrum. Large playing area, smooth, colourful scrolling and superbly detailed and colourful sprites... Incredible. I doff my cap to the programmer/s

[MoViEmInE]

I had a c64 but my friend showed me his spectrum r-type game and i was very impressed.Wrong colours no music and glitchy motion but the drawings were accurate to the arcade as was the game play.This was the best version i played back then.C64 was okay too but a lot had to be changed on that.Great gaming history!

[scoutfree]

Qué bueno! a la sexta me llegaba yo (esos bloques eran imposibles :(

[MoViEmInE]

This pisses all over katakis on c64!

[portugal124]

english assol