Incredible to think Sinclair’s classic ZX Spectrum is a whooping 30 years old yesterday and even more incredible to think I was just 6 years old when my parents blessed me by buying one for me and my sister for Christmas.
The Sinclair Spectrum was seen back then as the height of technology and although its technical capabilities seem amazingly weak by today’s standards, it marked the beginning of the real start of home computer gaming. The keys were made of rubber, games did not come on discs but on cassettes, Graphics may never have stood a chance, there were no cut sequences, no insertion of video and photo- mapping was unheard of. But that did not stop it from becoming a home favourite. What programmers had to focus on was real gameplay, interesting storytelling and making one fire button count for everything. Join us as I give you the run down on games that were incredible to see on such a small rubber button keyed home computer.
Daley Thompson’s Decathlon (1984)
Back in 1984, Daley Thompson was a national sporting hero so it’s no surprise he ended up the star of his own game. Inspired by Konami’s Track & Field, Daley Thompson’s Decathlon featured ten sporting events over two virtual days and was probably the cause of more fractured wrists and broken keyboards than any other game. Yes to play this game you had to erm…waggle the joystick from side to side.
Competing in events like the long jump, pole vault, javelin and 1500 metres. If you did manage to complete the game though you would find yourself it was right back to the start to do it all over again.
One of the biggest-selling games of 1984, it enjoyed two equally frenetic follow-ups in the form of Daley Thompson’s Super Test and Olympic Challenge. For some though it created uproar – a black athlete portrayed as a white character. Nothing personal cried the programmers the humble Spectrum only had a palette of 8 colours and the black, well…it was just too dark to really be useful in play.
Street Fighter 2 (1993)
Yes, you heard me correctly the mighty Street fighter 2 had a port to the ZX Spectrum. A computer running at not even a fraction of console let alone the arcade hardware, perhaps what’s more incredible is that although it had a loading time to begin with it had no loading screen. Perhaps even more incredible is that it received high acclaim. The one fire button had to count for everything with the space bar alternating between kicks and punches. Incredible. Gameplay was obviously slower than its counterparts but to see the game moving is still remarkable to see.
Chase HQ (1989) 
Based on Taito’s sit down in the cabinet racer, Chase HQ was a game where you hunt down criminals with the aim of shunting them off the road before the time limit expired. Boy it was fast, boy it was frantic but was it ever going to fit into a Spectrum? Well, yes and it worked even if the Spectrum’s rather limited hardware did turn everything an unsightly shade of cyan and yellow.
Operation Wolf (1988)
Operation Wolf was perhaps one of the most well-known and iconic arcade games of all time. Basically, the game is pretty much a movie conversion of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Commando, only without the funny quips and one-liners. The experience begins as you dared to even approach the coin-op machine; an Uzi gun positioned on top just screaming ‘if you are not a man step away from the cabinet now…’. Essentially this was an ‘on the rails’ shooter that set the precedent for further games to come spawning three sequels: Operation Thunderbolt (1988), Operation Wolf 3 (1994) and Operation Tiger (1998). Many of which appeared on the Spectrum. So how was this was game achieved? Well you controlled the cross-hairs on-screen but later when the Spectrum released the 128k and +3 disc versions, a light gun was released which further increased the playability.
Elite (1985)
David Braben’s much-loved space trading and exploration game was packed with innovations and is rightfully heralded as a classic. With wire-frame-style 3D graphics and a vast, open-ended universe to uncover (featuring no less than 8 entire galaxies with 256 planets each), optional missions, space ship upgrades and elaborate trading rules, Elite was technical triumph of its time. It spawned two official sequels but its influence on the space exploration genre remains far-reaching even today.
Shadow Dancer (1991)
Out Run (1986)
Another arcade game released by Sega. Designed by Yu Suzuki and developed by Sega-AM2. This game was a critical and commercial success, becoming one of the best-selling video games of its time. Most noted for its innovative hardware (including a moving cabinet), pioneering graphics and music, innovative features such as offering the player choices in both soundtrack and non-linear routes, and its strong theme of luxury and relaxation. So in retrospect one could be forgiven for thinking the Spectrum could possibly have bitten off more than it could chew, I mean, the memory is not big enough on the 48k to load everything (48k being an average bit rate per second for a common MP3 by today’s standards!) So how did they do it? Well with great difficulty. I had the tape version which meant you had to load each stage by hand, forwarding to the necessary ‘point’ which was very fiddly on a cassette. As for the music, you were required to turn over the tape which was a ‘music side’ to play a pre-recorded soundtrack of the game and this just condemned the game to confusion. However this did not deter game players and sales of this title went through the roof
Yie Ar Kung-Fu (1985)
An arcade fighting game developed and published by Konami. It was and still is considered by many gamers to be the basis for all modern fighting games. It pits the player against the now familiar variety of opponents, each with a unique appearance and fighting styles. So why is it here when the mighty Street-fighter 2 is on this list? Well the player could perform up to sixteen different moves, which, back in 1985 was practically unheard of. Note too the energy bar and the KO counter in the centre of the screen and the detailed backgrounds. Look familar? These facets are now common in fighting games thanks to this title and its success.
Skool Daze (1984)
You think of school and you think that would make a good game, hey lets just learn French and German all over again, lets find that girl who cheated on me, lets avoid those bullies and hey, let’s try it on with that cookery teacher all over again right? Well, we thought so. In this 1984 classic though, you’re on a quest to swipe your report card from the headmaster’s office. Trouble is, school keeps getting in the way and you have to attend classes, placate teachers and steer clear of the school bully if you’re going to avoid expulsion before your job’s done. It’s like Grange Hill but with the actors singing ‘just say yes’ and not only did it spawn a sequel ‘Back to Skool’ but also was the godfather of ‘Bully’ another school game for the PS2.
The Lords of Midnight (1984)
My penultimate entry in the how-the-hell-did-they-pull-this-off is Lords of Midnight; a fantasy game with ground-breaking ‘3D’ visuals and an incredibly rich mix of classic adventuring. It was possible to win the game in one of three ways, all focused on the destruction of Doomdark the Witchking of Midnight. You could play it as a straightforward adventure, as a strategic war game where you’re tasked with recruiting lords around the land to defeat the evil forces or through a combination of both. The graphics do not look much hack but it was incredible to play and when you think of RPGs today such as Final Fantasy and the upcoming Dragon’s Dogma they all have a lot to thank titles such as this one.
RoboCop (1988)
A run and gun and beat ’em up…hybrid arcade game based on the movie of the same name. I personally owned this (although I was too young to see the movie…obviously and good thing too, it would have given me nightmares…) However, the technical inefficiencies meant the Spectrum had a less than faithful port that only loosely followed the arcade version. In addition to a different soundtrack, the boss battles were replaced with a screen where the player must shoot a man holding a woman hostage (without hitting her). However this did not stop the game receiving critical success, a CRASH Smash award from CRASH, 94% in Sinclair User and Your Sinclair gave 8.8 out of 10 placing it at number 94 in the Your Sinclair official top 100. The overall opinion was that this game was better than the original arcade game. Its capture of the original material, smooth scrolling and animation, sampled speech and sound effects were huge bonus points and the playability of the game was fantastic.
And so ends our list – Happy Birthday to The Spectrum! Now…how does that loading noise go again….