“Retro-what??”
I hear you scream!
“Who wants to know about crappy 8 bit computers??” I hear you proclaim!
Well,
to be honest…..the old 8 bit machines that many of us (well, kids of the early
1980’s anyway) first cut our teeth on, are
still as fondly
remembered and used today, as they were twenty-odd years ago.
When I was a kid, you
were either a Spectrum owner, or a Commodore 64 owner….the two sides
practically locked in mutual
competition with each other over who had
the best graphics, the best sound, the most games etc..
The truth is, home
computers of yesteryear are crap compared to the modern Pentium/Pentium clone
PC’s of today in terms of speed,
graphics capabilities
and software…..but why are they still so regarded as being bloody good??
Simplicity is the answer…..the computers
were simple to use, and to a certain extent…easy to use too…..and as for the
software, the best
games of the period, were the ones with
the simplest gameplay.
Here are a few examples of what you may have found
plastered all over home computer magazines of the time…
Model: BBC
Microcomputer Model:
ZX81 Model:
Spectrum (128k version shown)
Manufacturer:
Acorn Computers, England Manufacturer:
Sinclair Research Ltd Manufacturer:
Sinclair Research Ltd
Year Released: 1981 Year
Released: 1981 Year
Released: 1982 (128k – 1986)
O/S: BBC
BASIC/Acorn DFS O/S:
Sinclair BASIC O/S:
Sinclair BASIC
Memory: 32Kb Memory:
1kb (expandable to 16kb) Memory:
16kb/48kb/128kb
Colours: 16 Colours:
None. Monochrome only Colours:
16 (8 normal, 8 bright)
Sound: 3 Channel Mono Sound: None Sound: 1 Channel Beeper (128k had 3 channel mono)
Price on release: £399 Price
on release: £45 Price
on release: 16k - £99.99, 48k - £129.99, 128k
- £179.99
Personal
Rating: 7/10 (Not a bad machine) Personal Rating: 5/10
(Great to get started) Personal
Rating: 10/10 (Ok, so I’m biased. I had one of these!)
Model: Electron Model:
Commodore 64 Model:
Dragon 32
Manufacturer:
Acorn Computers, England Manufacturer:
Commodore Manufacturer:
Dragon Data Ltd
Year Released: 1982 Year
Released: 1982 Year
Released: 1982
O/S: Acorn
BASIC/Acorn DFS O/S:
Commodore BASIC V2 (ROM) O/S:
Dragon DOS/BASIC (ROM)
Memory: 32Kb
(expandable to 96kb) Memory:
64kb Memory:
32kb (expandable to 64kb)
Colours: 16 Colours:
16 Colours:
8 Colours
Sound: 1 Channel Mono Sound: 3 Channel Mono Sound: 1 Channel Mono
Price on release: £179 (I think) Price
on release: Unknown Price on
release: Unknown
Personal
Rating: 6/10 (Poor mans BBC Micro) Personal Rating: 5/10
(Not as cool as the Speccy) Personal
Rating: 0/10 (Urrghhh! I HATED these things!)
Ok, so the sceptical of you are sitting
there laughing and scratching your heads thinking, “What a load of old
crap”..but trust
me, these machines were
(and still are) cool!
The most popular of the
above machines were quite easily the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair
Spectrum….and, to a certain extent
The BBC Micro.
BBC Micro’s were
essentially school computers designed and produced in a union between the
British Broadcasting Corporation, and
Acorn Computers Ltd in
Cambridge, England….initially for school kids to get into using computers and
computer programs.
However, the C64 and
Spectrum were essentially much better for home usage (cheaper too!) and
although there was a vast amount
Of competition between
Spectrum and Commodore owners, both machines took games playing beyond the old
bat-and-ball games
Produced by people like
Atari.
Personally, I owned a
Spectrum…and so therefore the rest of this page is going to be completely
dedicated to saying how damn cool
The Spectrum was (and
is) and how splendidly spiffy the games are!!
Although limited in
the way of sound capabilities, and a palette of 8 colours which clashed nastily
whenever you tried to blend them, who
Could deny that, even
for its day, the Spectrum had crisp, clear graphics that kept users enthralled
for hours!
For example:
Game: Jetpac Game:
Sabre Wulf Game:
Knight Lore
Publisher:
Ultimate Play the Game Publisher: Ultimate
Play the Game Publisher:
Ultimate Play the Game
Year Released: 1983 Year
Released: 1984 Year
Released: 1984
Memory Required: 16Kb Memory
Required: 48kb Memory
Required: 48kb
Price on release: £5.99 Price
on release: £9.99 Price
on release: £9.99
Personal
Rating: 7/10 (Kept me enthralled for hours!) Personal Rating: 8/10 (Cool, but
bloody hard!) Personal
Rating: 10/10 (The COOLEST graphics on the Speccy!)
Game: Cookie Game:
Lunar Jetman Game:
Atic Atac
Publisher:
Ultimate Play the Game Publisher: Ultimate
Play the Game Publisher:
Ultimate Play the Game
Year Released: 1983 Year
Released: 1984 Year
Released: 1984
Memory Required: 16Kb Memory
Required: 48kb Memory
Required: 48kb
Price on release: £5.99 Price
on release: £5.99 Price
on release: £5.99
Personal
Rating: 6/10 (Simple, but HARD!) Personal Rating: 8/10 (Again, very
simple, but hard!) Personal
Rating: 8/10 (Simple idea, brilliantly executed!)
Ok, so I’m kinda
biased towards games made by a certain publisher…but just remember this…Ultimate
Play the Game were revolutionary
In their time…..and
indeed now – Currently, they are called Rare, and are producing such
delights as Banjo Kazooie, and more recently
Perfect Dark. Everyone’s got to start somewhere!
Here are few more examples,
just to prove that many other publishers brought out some fantastic games.
Game: Jet
Set Willy Game:
Renegade Game:
Way of the Exploding Fist
Publisher:
Software Projects Publisher: Imagine
Software Publisher:
Melbourne House
Year Released: 1984 Year
Released: 1987 Year
Released: 1984
Memory Required: 48Kb Memory
Required: 48kb Memory
Required: 48kb
Price on release: £6.99 Price
on release: £7.99 Price
on release: £5.99
Personal
Rating: 8/10 (Great and original platformer!) Personal Rating: 7/10 Personal
Rating: 7/10
Game: Monty
on the Run Game:
Head over Heels Game:
Knight Tyme
Publisher:
Gremlin Graphics (now Gremlin Interactive) Publisher:
Ocean Software Publisher:
M.A.D Games (Mastertronic – now Virgin)
Year Released: 1985 Year
Released: 1987 Year
Released: 1987
Memory Required: 48Kb Memory
Required: 48kb Memory
Required: 48kb/128kb
Price on release: £6.95 Price
on release: £9.99 Price
on release: £2.99
Personal
Rating: 8/10 (frustratingly hard!!!!!) Personal Rating: 9/10 Personal
Rating: 9/10
Plus!!!……it wasn’t long
before us Speccy users had in-game heroes too!!
The characters of the
games were famous throughout the land!!
(ok, ok…so I’m going over the top…..this is just an excuse to show more
piccies!)
Monty
Mole Miner Willy Magic
Knight Sabreman Jetman Horace Alien 8 Robbie Robot
Ok, that’s enough 8 bit
Speccy-mania….I’m off now before you all think I’m a really sad bastard…(too
late.. – Ed)
For further
information on retro-gaming, and the booming PC Remakes scene, try the
following links :-
A
fantastic site – containing virtually every
Snapshot
of every Spectrum game ever!
(psst..
you’ll need a Speccy emulator to run
them
though..so it’s lucky that they’re
on
this site too!)
Retrospec
are the dogs-dangly bits when it comes to remaking
old
classic 8-bit games for the PC, often improving on the original
with
better sound and graphics, or creating un-official sequels to Spectrum
(and
other) classics!
Ok, as you may have noticed, I’m somewhat biased
When
it comes to games on the Speccy (not that I
Don’t
appreciate the other classics too) but, just so
You
can see what I’m raving about, go here to Robsofts
Ultimate
Appreciation Site and enjoy!
Borgar
Waade’s remakes listing site, which (when it’s updated)
gives
you a pretty decent idea of what’s going on in the
world
of retro-gaming.
The
Spectrum Adventurer is a site dedicated
To
Spectrum games that involved a little more thought
Than
games that simply involved blasting anything
That
moved! (and what’s wrong with that?? – Ed)
