Feud – “For ‘erbs an’ stuff”

In 1983, Virgin Games paid £500 for a ZX Spectrum game called Ghost Town, a text adventure with some limited graphics and a gold rush setting. It was…

Gauntlet – “You have found a treasure room”

The August 1987 issue of Spectrum magazine Crash brought back an old feature “after almost three years in the cupboard”: the comparison test. The first one of these…

World Games – “Reflexes, agility, precision and control”

After the success of Epyx’s Winter Games, a UK #1 in 1985, there was a lot of interest here in what they would follow it up with. Following…

10 Computer Hits 3 – “Software & sweatshirt competition”

In December 1982, the London band Incantation had a UK #12 hit with “Cacharpaya (Andes Pumpsa Desi)”, an upbeat panpipe-based instrumental which the composer Michael Land may or…

Infiltrator – “Papers, please”

I’ve talked about many British developers who made their start by making home computer games based on arcade games, often Atari ones. This story will be a rare…

Fist II: The Legend Continues – “Meditation may strengthen mind and body”

One-on-one martial arts fighting game The Way of the Exploding Fist was the UK’s best selling game of 1985, and throughout my journey through 1986, its trendsetting status…

Paperboy – “It’s a rough job, but…”

For the fourth time in fewer than 25 posts, I am writing about an Elite Systems conversion of an arcade game. Paperboy followed Commando, Bomb Jack and Ghosts’n…

Go for the Gold – “Your name up there in lights”

When researching less well-known games, I can generally find something interesting and unexpected about their authors. Go for the Gold, though, stands out for just how wild the…

Super Cycle – “Leather style”

Yu Suzuki wanted to be a teacher. Then he got his first computers, a Zilog Z8 followed by an NEC PC-8000, and studied Electronic Science at Okayama University…

Speed King – “Lap 03”

In 1983, Mervyn J. Estcourt made the cult classic Spectrum motorbike warfare game Deathchase (also released in America under the title Cyclepath). He followed that up with the…