 Welcome back to Classic Replay. This video is to celebrate the best computer games between 1981 and 1984. This list concentrates more on arcade star games, ports and clones, which are among some of my favourite, but nonetheless all of these games mentioned are still highly playable. And let's not forget, this is set across all the popular formats of the time and not just the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. What better way to kick things off than with Ant Attack on the ZX Spectrum? I'm one of those early herds of nerds that enjoyed computer games. It's crazy really when you think about it. Whilst gaming had crashed in the US, here in the UK back in the day, these were very special times in gaming. Ant Attack's greatest attraction lies in its brilliant three-dimensional graphics. The programmer Sandy White has created an absolute masterpiece here, with the aim of the game to rescue ten victims of the ants, stranded on various buildings. Arcadia is a space invader's inspired clone. The ZX Spectrum version was long amongst the best-selling games. The player's ship has twin guns and can move vertically halfway up the screen, as well as horizontally. The aliens fly across the screen, bombing as they go, and once one batch is dispensed with, a whole set of different creatures appear. The game's appeal is to those who like hectic, relentless shoot-em-ups. D64 version has superior sound and graphics, provides more levels of play, but damn, it takes 18 minutes to load. Astro Tracker is still a great little game for the BBC Micro. It's a wonderful, fast, and difficult game in which the asteroids shatter into more pieces than the usual, and purposefully crash into the player's ship. The aliens, too, are swift and small, enough to be difficult to hit. The key use for firing is inconvenient, not a problem under emulation, but on real hardware, after prolonged use of it, which is highly necessary in the game, can become really tiresome. Still, this is a pleasant game from DinoDini. You can also change the foreground colour and background colour. Attic Attack is still superbly detailed. It takes the treasure-seeking, monster-hunting attributes of an adventure game and transfers them into arcade action. There's a sequence of rooms spread across five floors, where the aim is to find three hidden pieces of a key that will unlock the front door and allow you to escape from the haunted castle. A scroll at the side of the screen contains details of treasures discovered, time taken, score and energy level represented by a roast turkey. When the birds' bones are picked clean, your man is dead. Aztec Challenge is a seven-level test of swift reactions. On the first level, you control an Aztec running a gauntlet of spear-throwing warriors to the comparative safety of a temple. On the next level, you must climb the temple stairs whilst dodging falling rocks, then navigate a booby-trapped corridor, traverse poisonous creatures, then you have to cross a room with booby-trapped tiles, swim across a piranha-infested lake and finally cross a narrow bridge that is missing most of its slats. The music is eerie and there's a choice of one or two players. This could have been the ultimate Indiana Jones game. Elaborate instructions aside, accompanied by folksy music tell a tale of a nuclear destruction and the end of civilization. Despite all this, the game is still pengo. The player can choose three different mazes within which to do battle. This clone has some slight variations over the arcade original. The main difference is that the blocks bounce back if they do not encounter a crack at, so that it's essential to move out of the way quickly after pushing one to avoid being crushed on the rebound. It makes for hard and a tough game. This was one of the great games of the BBC Micro, which crams amazing detail in just 20K. The look and feel of the arcade original is retained, although as you can imagine for the time the graphics had to be massively simplified. The sound effects, albeit loud and brash, are still excellent. It's a difficult game, possibly even more difficult than the arcade original. Fortress is a fantastic game from programmer Matt Newman. Some games need no introduction. At the time it was hailed in the US as one of the best Commodore 64 games ever made and I believe its quality is due to the varied action it contains. Beachhead is basically an anthology of battle games. The game also has a practice mode that allows the player to try out any level. Bruce Carver, the programmer, produced something really special here. And although the second game is highly playable, you just can't beat this original. Animations and sound on all levels are fantastic and without question this is the flagship version. To the untrained eye, this is basically Choplifter. For those that don't know, Choplifter is an American arcade game in which the player guides a helicopter through heavily guarded territory to rescue hostages. There are five different missions to survive, with the final challenge being to destroy almost immediately a nuclear reactor that suddenly appears. You'll need a steady hand and clever manipulation of the keys. The game still plays excellent and it still looks great. This is yet another great arcade clone of bump and jump. The purpose of this car racing game is not so much to win as to destroy as many opposing vehicles as possible, either by bumping them off the track or taking flight in the air and landing on top of them. Music and sound are slightly inferior to the arcade original, although it can be turned off. There's a one or two player option and it's slightly easier than the arcade original, which is great for me and great for the kids. This is an absolute classic from Jeff Minter. This is a game that set the standard for all games to come. Set across 42 screens of bizarre action. There's a choice of one or two players and 12 levels of difficulty based on the distance the camel has to survive before reaching the next level. Your trusty camel can fire in eight different directions, sit down, walk or jump. You have five lives and you're going to need them. This one from Mirasoft has exceptional animation. It's a simple cat and mouse game set inside a well-stocked kitchen. It's a clone of the arcade game Burger Time, where the player controls the cat, easier done with the joystick than from keyboard, in catching the mice, carrying them to the door and dumping them through it. It's a fantastic little game on all formats. I'm not sure if this is a clone or an authorized version, but it's visually identical to the Electron version and the Commodore 64 and VIC-20. But I like this version the most because the controls are tight, you can use a joystick. And the sound for me is slightly superior to the other versions. If you're a centipede fan, this is still the one to play. Now this one appeared on almost every platform known to man. Rushing up and down ladders along platforms, you must collect as many golden eggs as possible before three greedy roving ducks consume piles of corn. As you can imagine, contact with the ducks is fatal and there's a bonus for corn left. So in between stages, whatever you do, try not to collect it. The whole game is set across eight levels and if you use a hardware add-on, the ZX Spectrum version comes with speech. Sometimes I'll take the kids to the park, naturally with all those green fields. I'll often hum this song because of this game, set in deepest suburbia to the sounds of an English country garden. The game is ridiculously amusing and in essence it's a variation on the theme of painter. In this game, the guy has borrowed his neighbour's lawn mower and now the neighbour is chasing the guy to get his lawn mower back. It's another classic from Jeff Minter. Programmer Dean Lough created an absolute classic for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. Aided by the adrenaline pumping sound of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyrie at the more hectic moments, this was once considered one of the best air battle games for the Commodore 64. You're on the world's deadliest mission to destroy defence systems on eight enemy islands before bombing an airfield. There's an excellent targeting system and the game still feels great to play today. Thank you Doug Anderson, the programmer behind this game. I played the absolute tape out of this back in the day. I thought this was brilliant as a kid. You even have to dock with the mothership to refuel and replenish ammunition. The weapons are ferocious and the shield will absorb lots of hits. Also, you have to make sure that you destroyed the aliens before docking to refuel with the mothership because whilst refueling the mothership would take punishment. What's brilliant is you can enter your score into the top 50 and save it. Almost definitely inspired by the speed of chase through the redwood forest in the movie The Return of the Jedi. The game puts the player in the seat of a powerful motorcycle. You race between trees and shoot fleeing motorcyclists and the occasional helicopter or tank. Once two cyclists seen twisting amongst the trees ahead are killed, the scene switches to a night patrol. There are eight levels to conquer before the game reverts to the first level. As you can see for the time, graphics are amazing with a fantastic sense of speed. This game left a massive impression on me. This is an authorized version, faithful to the original, with pleasant sound and graphics. This is one of the post Pac-Man games depending on a degree of cuteness for its appeal. Our hero is a little white robot attempting to protect a vegetable garden from two pests. If you didn't know already, Dig-Dug can destroy enemies two ways, either by pumping them with air until they explode or by burying through the earth and dropping a rock on their heads. I still play it. Programmer Paul Norman created an absolute gem of a game. More like a horror movie than a computer game. There's a complex soundtrack fitting of a film score and until the head shop in Barbarian from Pali Software this featured some of the bloodiest death scenes to be seen on a television screen. It's a fantastic game and if you haven't played it on both the Atari and the Commodore 64, it's an absolute gem. I guess you could say Fred is slightly inspired by Donkey Kong but it's a maze game that I first played on the Amstrad CPC and was notable for its scroll and graphics. The player plays out the role of an archaeologist trying to discover treasures from a tomb and quite simply the aim is to reach the surface but it's not easy as you'll have to avoid monsters which include rats, chameleons, ghosts, mummies, vampires and skeletons. It's an absolute classic. Fruity Frank is an absolute classic for the Amstrad CPC. I believe this also appeared on the MSX but don't quote me on that. The harvest is here and it's up to you to collect all the fruits on the screen. However, watch out, there are numerous bad guys out to get you. Armed with your powerball, you can throw this at the enemy to instantly destroy them. Collect all the cherries and it's on to the next level. The only difference between this and the arcade sensation Mr. Do is that you don't collect the letters of the alphabet. Matthew Smith did himself proud once again with a sequel to the brilliant Manic Minor. It provides an excellent challenge and graphics that really have stood the test of time. There are some moments that are reminiscent of the game Hunchback but there's over 60 different screens. You control Willie who has to visit all the rooms of the vast mansion cleaning up all the debris of the previous night's party. This is as close to an adventure game as things get and you'll need a pen or paper to map out the mansion. It's still one of the best said expects from games ever made. Ultimate Play the Game produced one of the best alien zapping games. The player controls a jet propelled astronaut who on his first level has to assemble his spacecraft from bits lying around on the screen and then fuel it by collecting fuel packs that drop from the sky. You'll be constantly put under pressure from the alien lifeforms. There are five types of aliens to combat and as you can imagine each wave becomes harder than the one before it. The graphics are still excellent and well detailed and there's an option for one or two players. This is all the proof you need that fancy programming or dazzling graphics does not guarantee the best games. The graphics and animation look crude at best. All the player has to do is control a stickman and get him to get to the top of the levels. Miss the gap in the platform and you'll bump your head and be momentarily unconscious but once you pass the first level obstacles from trains to witches and dinosaurs begin to roam along the lines. Believe it or not it's still a challenge. For a while Killer Gorilla was a close copy of the original. Like the arcade original this clone features four levels with the main difficulty being found on the third level. Nothing beats the home port of the ocean software Donkey Kong arcade conversion but until that came along this is all we had. It's a version that doesn't stray from the original with good use of colour and half decent sound. It's time to load this one up and bring down the scaffold. The love and obsessive care that has been lavished on this game is evident from the moment it begins to load. The instructions are provided to a delightfully out of tune Blue Danube and a picture of suburban bliss in the 1930s. Set in a mine the game is simple to play as there's only three keys left right and jump. This is a game all about pixel perfect timing. You must navigate platforms collect keys and make your way to the exit. Whatever the version Manic Miner is among the great achievements of popular culture for the 1980s. This absolute classic is by the legend Don Priestley. In the days when the ZX81 was virtually the only low-cost micro available one of the best games for it was Mazogs. This is the spectrum's answer to it. With better colourful graphics and bigger and a bigger maze. Our hero has to find the gold, dig it up and bring it out. Once you have the gold the return journey is more hazardous as you can't hold a sword or gold at the same time. This is a fantastic classic with four levels of difficulty. Pac-Man undergoes a sex change and he or should I say she is all the better for it. This is the definitive conversion from the arcade original and although the change is more cosmetic the game requires different reactions and tactics from the arcade original. The result is another classic game for the Atari computer. Back in the day I'd have recommended this one without reservation. Atari Soft really did know how to handle arcade conversions. Probably the best micro computer version and possibly the best of all the arcade games available for the BBC machine. It is a tough, tricky and fast game using seven keys to control movement and firing and one that takes considerable practice to master. As you can see for the time sound and graphics are excellent. If you're a fan of the arcade original you'll not tire of the BBC version of Planetoids. The graphics vary according to the machine. We're probably the Commodore version the best. These machines copy as best as possible the style of the original arcade with large sprites and fluid animation but unfortunately they give a jerky motion whilst cornering. It's appeal has certainly survived the process of translation and although it doesn't look great today I still can't recommend it enough. This one might just be a little bit too basic for some though. Believe it or not this is one of the games that set new standards of graphics for the ZX Spectrum. Our protagonist Robbie the Robot has to guard a flower against attacks by various pests which he can kill by picking up the appropriate spray. You need to use a different spray for each individual insect. If the insect touches you you lose a life. The aim of the game is to allow the flower to bloom. Very addictive. This is the authorised version of the game faithfully reproduced for the BBC Micro and other 8-bit computers. Special mention must go out to Cybertron for the Commodore 64 because it's as good and at the time it was much cheaper. As with the arcade conversion you can use two joysticks, one to fire in your chosen direction and the other for movement. So all in all a close copy of the original excellently adapted to the requirements of home play. A glossy colourful copy probably the best available for any micro back in the day. It sticks as close as possible to the arcade original adding nothing nor taking any away. It includes a Hall of Fame for the top scores. It's also amongst the most difficult versions of the game. Sadly this was only ever released for the BBC Micro. Such a shame. Sound and graphics for the time both reached high standards. Jeff Minter strikes again with this absolute classic Sheep in Space. This one combines a speedy battle in space with some strange adversaries. In this game the player controls a flying mutant sheep in a world that exists above and below it. The one the mirror image of the other. Your sheep will lose energy quite quickly and the only way to revive this is by landing and eating grass. There are 48 levels of play and the game may be started at any one of the first nine. With outstanding sound and graphics this creates as good as any version of Cuba to be found outside of the arcades. Our hero Slinky, a spring, has to jump over the squares and around them to change the colours. There's some nice little touches in the game. If Slinky clears a level without losing a life there is a high speed instant replay of all the moves taken. But the best of all is that success is greeted with a large firework display. Among the hardest of all space battle games this remains engrossing partly because of its difficulty and partly because of its unpredictability. The game looks strangely familiar using black and white graphics with the spaceships drawn as white outlines against starry space. The command is unpredictable. The player needs a score around 70 points to be granted another ship but sometimes a score of 50 will suffice and at others a score of 80 will not be enough. You'll be outnumbered and outgunned right from the start just the way we like it. Wow, this is an early game by Jeff Crammond. The invaders differ slightly from the usual figures but otherwise this is an excellent copy with sound that is close to the arcade original. As one might expect there are three levels of difficulty. On the second if the player fails to shoot the mothership as it goes past a force field is added and the aliens move faster. On the third level the aliens bombs home in on the player's laser base. Sadly only ever released for the ZX Spectrum this webrunner clone is equal to 600 times the area visible on screen any one moment. Across the expanse the player drives a red racing car to collect eight gold cups whilst being chased by rival black cars that will attempt to crash into him. It is also necessary to refuel the car at any given opportunity with the display showing a map of America which marks the towns containing petrol stations and also indicating the position of the red car. An absolute triumph when you consider it was all crammed into 16k. We've already covered a zaxon clone but this is the official port. For the time as you can see this has splendid graphics and is a near damn close copy to the arcade original. If you look closely the spacecraft cast the shadow as it flies which allows the player to judge the height they're flying at. There's also the option of a two player game this is a fantastic arcade conversion by Peter Adams. I had to finish with this excellent classic from John Gibson a complex battle with three different settings open country, desert and sea. As you can tell the player's view is from the cockpit of a fighter and the aim is to protect the refugees. If you look closely they even stopped a wave. The player's craft is armed with guns and missiles. The game combines variety and excellent graphics as you can see full of tiny little details tremendous stuff. I hope you've enjoyed this video. If this gets enough likes views and comments I'll do another that focuses on 1984 to 1986. If you'd like to see this channel grow please don't forget to subscribe. Until next time BYE