Spectrecular - 3 Shmups - on the ZX Spectrum (Sinclair Spectrum)

'Spectrecular'

A small series on my favorite games on the ZX Spectrum by Clive Sinclair. A z80 powered machine with a rubber keyboard, games loaded from compact casettes which could be found in a lot of kid's bedrooms in the early 80's. It was either this machine or a Commodore 64 back in those days. Although Amstrad CPC and MSX were also very popular.

Acorn Electron and the BBC were also well known systems back in the day and European multiformat games-magazines often featured screenshots of gamed for PC, C64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and the BBC.

The emphasis was on home computers and not so much consoles. Games on consoles often were far mor expensive than games on the Speccy or the other home computer systems back in the day.

I hope you like this first episode of the first part in this series on some of my favorite spectrum games and games that I re-discover on the Speccy. But also games I see for the first time.

I plan on doing this for more of my old home computer systems like the C64, Vic-20 and MSX. So stay tuned! :)

Disclaimer: This is a copyrighted original video of original content. All aquired material has been licensed out or is exempt because of "Fair Use". Modifying the output of the video, which includes covering up the content with annotations, is an infringment of the owner's copyright. This material is educational, newsworthy, informational and non-profit.

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• sinclair
• spectrum
• spectrecular
• z80
• 8bit
• speccy
• zx
• 48k
• 128k
• 8-bit
• home-computer
• computer
• gameplay
• videogame
• review
• show and tell
• hewson
• uridium
• zynapse
• imagine
• terra cresta
• shmup
• shooter
• shoot'm up

[mathowlett]

Zynaps was very well received when it came out. Lovely little game. Nemesis was also excellent on the Speccy. Uridium was pretty good on the Speccy, but superb on the C64 ! Check out Transmuter, Moon Cresta, Lightforce, Sidewize and Chronos too !! Some of my top Speccy SHMUPS aside from the one's you've covered..

[markvergeer]

@mathowlett Thanks for those suggestions. I think I have a couple of those games actually!

[rhodesy71]

the zx spectrum was my favorite computer till i got my amstrad cpc 464 with colour monitor and tape deck lol.also owned a zx81 they were the days

[rowdyrob3d]

Very interesting video, Mark. I have really never seen a Spectrum game, so your explanations of the technical limitations of the machine, and how the programmers overcame them, was very informative. These games actually look much slicker than I would have imagined!

How the heck did they do this without sprites or hardware scrolling? You hint at character sets, but the player "sprite" moves around the screen freely over the background. I don't know, but it seems impressive!

[nukinetix]

@LarryBundyJr  R-Type was great on the Speccy!

[nukinetix]

@markvergeer St Dragon was great, also try Exolon, Sidewize and Crosswize

[markvergeer]

@HardWarUK It's true that the C64 can create a better picture and better music overall and it is a machine I hold very dear to my heart. UKRetrogames (Mark) actually helped me out when my old brown breadbin died just recently. I have a C64C sitting permanently on my old 486DX4 system connected up to a CRT.

I am using a 1541 / SDCard solid state solution thingy and I transferred most of my disks with my 1541 to images for use on that card. It loads and acts like a 1541.

[markvergeer]

@HardWarUK LOL I think so. Well back in the day the only consoles that were in the house were an old orange pong clone and a Videopac / Odyssey2 which my parents actually got because there were ads stating it could be converted into a full computer - well guess what that never happened. So my mom ended up getting us a C64 for our birthday. The Spectrum was a gift from a relative so we were damn lucky.

[HardWarUK]

@markvergeer Well, don't get me wrong, I loved my Speccy with Trashman and Jetpac, but once there was a C64 in the house and I saw the graphics and heard the music.... Well, you know!

[markvergeer]

@HardWarUK The C64 with the 1541 and speedloading tapes had better and more reliable storage facilities in the end. The Speccy is tape only and the microdrives were prone to break and jam up. But no commercial games came out on microdrive if I remember correctly.

Both the Amstrad and the Speccy did offer 3" floppies but I'm not sure if those really caught on back in the day. My experiences are with the 48K tape loading model mostly.