My Favourite ZX Spectrum Games

It’s a made up date named #SPECtember, yet another pretend celebration of our favourite consoles, movies and games but this one I will celebrate because the ZX Spectrum is held in such high regard by myself and any discerning retro computer fan of repute and renown. It is my nostalgia machine but its also the best 8bit computer (also see MSX).

What better way to celebrate than to list my personal five favourite games on the system. Give some information on release and a quick reason why I love it so much. Feel free to leave your top 5 in the comments or on my Discord.

#1 Deathchase

A 1983 vehicular combat game written for the ZX Spectrum by Mervyn Estcourt and published by Micromega in 1983. You control a special Motorbike that is armed with a forward facing cannon of sorts and you ride through the forest you are protecting from poachers. For some reason the poachers also have tanks and helicopters which you can also destroy. Released after a certain Return of The Jedi you can certainly see where Mervyn got the idea. It is fast and furious and a lot of fun and pushes the 16k to its limits with its speed. Simple controls and simpler graphics but neither detract from the experience, in fact I would say it improves due to the simplicity. Go for Hi-Scores or furthest level and compete with mates.

#2 Manic Miner

Manic Miner is a platform game written for the ZX Spectrum by Matthew Smith. It was published by Bug-Byte in 1983. Yes, Manic Miner and not Jet Set Willy. I am tired of people thinking Jet Set is the only game in the series. Bloody mister users have no clue! Before he became rich, Willy was just a normal Joe working down the mines where he found the remains of an ancient city filled with robots and loot! A somewhat difficult game that is very learnable therefore very playable. Tight controls via keys or Kempston Joystick with suitably annoying music and an intro that can wake the dead. Colourful, fantastically tight game-play and such fun to master. The first level is VERY easy and I think Mathew only pretended it was hard to make the player learn after a bunch of fail-hards kept dying!

#3 Jetpac

Jetpac is a shooter video game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game and released for the ZX Spectrum and VIC-20 in 1983 and the BBC Micro in 1984. It is the first game to be released by Ultimate Play the Game, the company which later became Rare. Chris Stamper coded it and his brother did the graphics. You control a spaceman with a jetpac, jetting around picking up parts of his crashed ship and then fuel etc to blast off and continue your five year mission to explore strangely similar moons and planets. OK maybe that was cheap Star Trek pun but its essentially true. You blast off and then land again on what could well be the exact same place and repeat all over again. Do it enough and you suddenly have to fix the Space Shuttle instead whilst various evil and mean space aliens, space rocks and space trash try to kill you and you use your laser to blast them all to hell. Sounds simple because it is simple and once again this is why it is amazing and fun to play. Difficulty increases over time and its one hell of a dodge them game later on. Again, great colour and graphics combined with its simple to play yet hard to master game-play and we have another childhood winner that I still play today.

#4 Horace Goes Skiing

Horace is a video game series created in the 1980s by William Tang and published by Beam Software. The series consists of Hungry Horace, Horace Goes Skiing and Horace and the Spiders. In 1983 Tang produced Horace Goes Skiing, in which Horace must cross a dangerous road teeming with traffic, à la Frogger, to rent a pair of skis, then get back over the road and successfully navigate a ski course. The other two games are pretty trash with some awful game-play but the second in the series is half gaming nightmare and half gaming perfection. The Frogger styled section is where 99% of players just quit at the first hurdle but once you cross that road, twice… You hit the perfection part. Controlling that great big thing, nobody knows what Horace is, down the slopes, between the flags whilst hopping moguls and dodging trees is some of the best game-play I have ever experienced. Load that tape, find the music for the UK Ski Sunday TV Show and ride those slopes with the biggest grin on your face as you Sunday Grandstand like a teenager. Utterly brilliant.

#5 3D Seiddab Attack

The Seiddab Trilogy is a series of video games designed by Steve Turner (as Graftgold) for the ZX Spectrum and published by Hewson Consultants. It consists of 3D Space-Wars (1983), 3D Seiddab Attack (1984), and 3D Lunattack. All three games were later published together as The Seiddab Trilogy by Hewson for the Rotronics Wafadrive. The series name is derived from the word “baddies” being spelt in reverse. 3D Seiddab Attack is my favourite in the series and is graphically amazing. You control a tank of sorts that roams a fully lit 3D city filled with skyscrapers at night traversing the various city blocks hunting down Alien space ships whilst dodging incoming fire. You have a mini-map to help track the baddies down and it becomes quite the chase as you try and cut them off at one junction only to find another force coming up behind you. Whilst the 3D is rudimentary it works really well and you do get the feeling your pushing limits for 1984. The game-play is simple once again but you can employ tactics and they are not really optional once the games gets in a few levels if you want to survive. Another, like the rest of my top 5, that are being played 40 years later and are still fresh.

So, what about you?