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Spectrum 48k Games

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Type LOAD "". Hit Enter. Press 'play' on your cassette recorder. Listen to screechy sound for 10 seconds while tv screen shows manic blue & red lines. Colours stop whilst screechy noise continues. Stop tape. Rewind to beginning. Adjust volume levels. Type LOAD "". Hit Enter. Press 'play' on your cassette recorder. Screechy sound continues & lines flash on tv screen for further 5 minutes. Cool-looking monochrome picture slowly appears centre screen. Screech stops. Screen blinks. Screen goes black, then white. Words appear. "Sinclair Research Ltd 1982". Rewind tape again. And we built a gaming culture on this? What an archaic thought.

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Do You Remember Spectrum 48k Games?

Do You Remember Spectrum 48k Games?

  • Anonymous user
    on
    I loved those adventure games, too, Carl - I used to type in words/phrases for things that I knew the computer wouldn't expect, just to see its reaction! Granny's Garden and Dread Dragon Droom were two others, though I could never get Droom for the Spectrum - it was only on the BBC Micros at school. I'm a writer now and I think I learned a lot about storytelling from find-your-fate type games. Reading this strand has brought back many happy memories - I had Disco Dan (can someone write an article on this, please, as I can't remember the first thing about it!), Crazy Golf which I'd totally forgotten, Oh Mummy, Caesar's Travels and Tintin on the Moon. I've submitted articles on these last three which I hope the editors will add here! Also: Pro Golf (?), a motorbike game, Scrabble, Blockbusters and one or two which I think hardly ever loaded correctly! These were all on the Spectrum +2 which had 48k or 128k memory. Most games used the 48k memory so were presumably the same as yours. I used to keep books next to the computer, to read while the tapes spooled through with that unforgettable noise!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Oh my goodness, those load errors used to kill me! And I had such patience back then, just rewind and repeat for hours. Those dastardly stripes around that centre square. My favourite game by far was The Hobbit. I was always trying to kiss Thorin, and invariably ended up with screaming wargs killing me. Bah.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    oh my gosh. why cant we just go back to all that and erase the stuff we have today. Disco Dan, Punchy, Crazy Golf, Treasure Island, Oh mummy... Memories!!! What I would give to have a sinclair again!!!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Ultimate became RARE, who made great games like killer instinct, and goldeneye!!!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I have fond memories of the Spectrum. Some of the games I remember are: Feud - defeat the enemy wizard by searching the realm for plants and making spells Sabre Wulf - an adventure game. I remember the black background and the bright maze borders comprised of flowers and plants Juggernaught - beind the wheel of a juggernaught. Fill up with fuel, find a telephone box and find your quarry... be it timber, or fruit and veg etc. Speed round the town but slow down for the police station. Pyramid - descend the Pyramid in the bubble-like vehicle. Collect the gems to unlock your way forward. Abyss - I found this hugely frustrating in the times that were allocated to complete the puzzles. I NEVER made it across the Abyss! Ship Of The Line - search the seas while in command of your ship. ENGAGE in battle and FIRE at your enemies. Beware of crew mutiny and return to Port if you must. Rockford/Rockman - of the two, I preferred Rockman. The little toadstool-loving character. Collect the toadstools avoiding the bouncing smiley faces and the skull-face rocks. I still remember the thud of Rockman's hammer slamming down to drop the stones into position... and his huge nose bouncing up and down as he ran. Jack & The Beanstalk - Unfortunately, I never got to finish this. Dad found some sort of bug in it and 'altered' the program... DUH! Talk To Me - strangely satisfying in trying to turn the computer into a psychologist. You had to answer simple questions that the computer asked you, which in turn, prompted you to elaborate on your answers. Simple fun. Oh, we had fun saying things to the computer that we really shouldn't be saying!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    ah the speccy!! what a great machine! it was the basis of my childhood till i was 10 years old, there was'nt a day i didnt play it. the first one i got was the old 16/48k rubber key beauty, first game that hooked me was DEATHCHASE! then after a couple of years, i got a 128k+2 action pack with lightgun. all the times we would put a game on to load and go out and play footie while it was loading up, only to find it had crashed after 30 seconds! favourate games include: slightly magic, seymour at the movies, murry mouse super cop, jetpac, transam, operation wolf, roadblasters, pssst, spy hunter, the dizzy games, and the first 2 star wars arcades that have vector graphics that still look impressive today, and last of all, barbarian: where else can you have an instant decapitation, and little goblin draggin' off the body in a game?BRILLIANT!!!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    We got about 6 games with the +2. One was Treasure Island (glad I didn't make it to the end now, what a let down!), another was leaping frogs on lilypads and another was a Pacman type game where you had to go around a grid, avoid the bad men and get out to the next level which just repeated at a faster speed. I played this game for that long that I'd play it in my head in my sleep. It was everywhere. Had to stop playing it in the end! I don't remember the other games.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I loved the adventure games. "You enter a room. There is a wardrobe and a bed." "Open wardrobe" "I do not understand open wardrobe" Hours of frustration. I remember one game, Terrormelinos, where it took me and my friend about half an hour to find the correct wording to enable the main character to climb up a step ladder.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I bl**dy loved my spectrum and still got it somewhere in the loft :-p makes me want to set it up again but good god the effort!! My favouites were sabre wolf by far but the tape never loaded properly unless i used a really good tape player! And chaos was brilliant! Anyone remember feud, whereu had to defeat the pink wizard by collecting plants and casting spells!! EEP i was petriied of the green man!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I remember completing Treasure Island, it took me weeks. Anyway, having never completed a game before I expected to have some sort of fanfare. What did I get?? The opportunity to play the game again but this time all the pirates moved like Ben Johnson on steroids. ahh, those were the days, no flash 3d graphics just good old fashioned playability.

Do you remember these?