ZX Spectrum Software Catalogue.

I dug these up the other day after finding  them sandwiched in between some old computer magazines. It’s a software  catalogue that was included in the box of a ZX Spectrum I brought many years ago…although I can’t remember if it was  the 48k Spectrum or the Spectrum + ?

 

Uncle Clive sure had a cool looking man-cave.

Inside are a range of double backed cards providing information on a whole range of software titles by genre. I bet there wasn’t too many kids leaving this section lying about the house for their parents to find and mistake  educational software for the latest arcade hit!

I must admit though, I’m loving the 80′s Sci-Fi styling on some of the covers like ‘Forth’ & ‘Micro Prolog’.

Games, that’s more like it!

I remember reading all the hype about the planned expansion hardware like the Microdrive unit and the huge storage potential they offered and at the time I often wondering if I’d picked the wrong computer (VIC-20). Short-lived though as it turned out, they were a bit naff after all.  It’s one bit of Speccy kit I’d still like to own now though.

These were also amongst the magazines as well.

I think I only ever keyed in a few of the VIC20 programs back in the day. I liked  these particular books because they explained what portions of the  program listing were actually doing and therefore could be modified or used as subroutines in other games.

Maybe I’ll have another go someday?

My Gaming Week #8

Last weekend I was shifting, sorting and dusting down a few older computers, consoles and  games and had started to amass a collection tapes, discs and cartridges on my ‘to play’ pile. Here’s a few that’s been fun to play this week.

First up, is a Megadrive conversion of an arcade game that was a sequel to a huge favourite of mine -phew!

Rolling Thunder 2 – Sega Megadrive (1991).

RT2 Japanese cover as my European cover is just. quite frankly, awful!

The first time I played  Rolling Thunder 2 (and Rolling Thunder 3 on the MD) I thought, meh…it’s not a patch on the original and it wasn’t long before it was shelved. Playing it again this week and after a few sessions on the original courtesy of Mame and am starting to warm to it a little more. It’s still an average run and gun type game, but it does look very nice and still contains elements of the original game mechanics like the make or break jump from lower to upper platform (or vice versa), the limited gun ammo, the high difficulty and those frantic moments were you just make it out alive.

The Megadrive version adds a few extra anime style cut scenes and a few extra levels compared to the arcade version. It certainly is a nicely polished game.

So, it appears that the Geldra organisation is up to no good again and decided to take out earth’s orbiting satellites. As agent Albatross (or additional agent Liela is you wish) of Special Task Force – Rolling Thunder, it’s up to you to track him down and give him what for. To Miami Airport it is then!

The original Rolling Thunder arcade game was said to have been set around the 1960′s but it appears that the sequel is quite a few years into the future judging by some of the visuals.

Forget the mission, I want to drive this truck!

I’ve been running, jumping and shooting my way through this game all week but I can still only reach  level 3. Thankfully there’s a handy password system so at least  I don’t have to restart from the beginning again, and with any luck will make it to the end of the game soon wipe the smile off his greenish himself.

Now for something less challenging!

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Contra (or Gryzor over here…or Probotector) – NES (1988)

Less challenging? Contra is certainly not.   I’ve always wanted to  get into  Contra but could never really got very far past the first level. Being an essential NES game I was eager  to seek out this for my  collection many moons ago, but on playing it,it was quickly boxed and has rarely comes out these days.

However, this week I was feeling lucky…..how did it do? Well, I’ve seen this screen so many times and nothing much past it

So, I was about to shelve it again when I thought….what the heck, lets cheat to buggery and you know what, with the Konami code entered to give you a  whopping 30 lives, it really make gives you chance to try different things out and learn a few attack patterns, . It’s still hard as nails and even with this many lives you still have a hefty challenge on yout hands but one that is almost reachable….who am I kidding, I suck at Contra

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Hunchback – Commodore 64 – (1983)

Hunchback, a real classic on any platform, be it the C64, BBC Micro, Amstrad, Speccy or even Oric-1, it’s a great game and thirty years on I’m still playing it.

Move over Pitfall Harry, it’s Quazzy’s turn. Run from left to right  jumping  and swinging your way to the bells and on to rescuing said damsel in distress (alleged). Don’t hang about for too long though as there’s a Knight on your tail who after the side order of hunch rump…..ew!

One of the fifteen odd screens you’ll encounter. This one is an easy one , jump over the guards at the right moment or  feel the pointy end up your tights. Later on this level is repeated often but adds flaming cannon balls and arrows to the mix.  

Get your timing right and swing to the other side, get it wrong and it’s down to your doom. Top tip, I find that if you jump when the rope is around about the 7 0′clock position, you should make it o.k.  If not, there’s always the Konami code

…and if you want something a little more modern, how about this remake? Are those guards from an Asterix game?

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This next one isn’t a game of sorts but bags of fun for Lego fans, old and new.

Lego Digital Designer - http://ldd.lego.com/

Once you’ve downloaded and installed the software (Mac/Windows/PowerPC) you can then use the simple editor to build virtual Lego models just like you used to do as a kid. There’s 100′s of bricks to choose from  in all manner of o colours and sizes  including many from the classic  Lego era.

But that’s not half the fun, having spent a few minutes browsing around the forums, it appears that there’s a whole community based around recreating many of the classic Lego models. I found many old favourites that you can import into the application or build using digital scans from the original model instructions.

 It was my birthday yesterday and quite fitting to find the model below, which was a birthday gift from a late aunt I received so many many years ago.

6681 – Police Van

I remember this model being so cool for many reasons. Firstly, all Police sets were cool, secondly, it had many moving doors including a hinged cockpit roof. Thirdly, this was one of the first models to have those uber-cool Police walkie talkies and finally, look at those large off road tyres…you can imaging how many other vehicles I created used these.

..and here’s the virtual model…just trying to figure out the correct tyres.

You can also place a model in a 3D environment allowing you to pan and zoom around at leisure. Here’s another of the vintage space sets that I had back in the day.

918 – Space Transport

It’s missing a few details but oh does this bring back memories! It’s not as impressive as it’s bigger brother with the opening cargo bay/lunar buggy but believe me, this Space Transport did some mileage. The hinge tool can be used to manipulate the two hinge bricks, so for example on this model, I can raise the cockpit roof..Good job, the pilot had his helmet on.

What model I’d love to find (or digitally build myself) is the best Lego Space set I ever owned.

6970 – Beta 1 Command Base.

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Back to gaming and this weeks lunch time gaming has been an online version of a classic…with an unexpected twist.

Final Fight – Web/Flash - http://toork.com/classicgames/final-fight/play2

You only get to play as Guy, but who cares, it’s Final Fight and you get to smack Mad Gear and his gang around online.

Right here we g….wait a minute, you lot aren’t familiar, are you new recruits?

I was expecting the odd metal pipe or sword to use as a weapon but look what I found!…this is embarrassing, I’m a hardened Street Fighter!

Aha, the golden doors, time to fight Thrasher…..wait one gawdamn minute, what’s going on here? What are you doing here Ken…oh you do do you, well bring it on then.

Hmm, this is not a part of Metro City that I know…someone forgot to mow everything? Eek, mini raptor and I’m pretty sure that not Roxy or Two-P that’s sneaking up on me.

Driving around in a Cadillac is so much better than the dingy tube.  Woo, what’s the gun for?’

Eek!

It’s a strange game all right, cool, but bizarre. They should call it Final Street Fight Cadillacs and Dungeons.

Happy Gaming….and and btw, Albatross is one cool name.

Happy Birthday ZX81

A very Happy 33rd Birthday to the Sinclair ZX81.

Still loved, still used and with the talent of dedicated fans the ’81 just keeps on giving. Here’s myself messing around with one and the awesome-ness that is the ZXpand interface board.

So, happy birthday again ZX81, may you continue to entertain us for many more years to come, and hopefully not retired to this kind of duty

My gaming Week #5

Another retro gaming week flies by. Here’s what I’ve been up to.

Gyruss – Atari 2600 (1980)

Usually, my go to system for a spot of Gyruss (other than the original/Mame version) is the conversion written for the Commodore C64, but this week, thanks to a bundle of eBay VCS carts (The Harmony cartridge is great, but I do love my retro box art!) , I’ve be enjoying the simple delights of the Parker Brothers Atari 2600 release. Basic it might look, but for a 2600 game it’s surprisingly nippy and has one of the best musical scores I’ve ever heard on the VCS.

In Gryuss, you move your ship through 360 degrees around the perimeter of the screen and blast away at the enemy ships fanning out from either the centre of the screen or from the left or right – Think Galaxians wrapped around a tube.

I think that grey blob is me…honestly it looks better when it’s in motion

Intense tube blasting calls for an intense soundtrack and compared to other conversions, Parker Brother have cranked up the tempo on the 2600 with Bach’s signature tune.

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I’ve also been checking out the Gyruss on another system too and it’s a version I’ve not actually played until this week.

Gryuss – Nintendo NES (1988)

Compared to the Atari 2600 this one certainly looks a stunner with its colourful and chunky Konami threads. The NES version also adds a few new elements not found in the arcade original including boss attack rounds, a new super weapon and a remix of the original soundtrack. It’s a cracking version of Gryuss all right, even if somewhat on the easy side. However, I’ve only scratched the first few planets so lets see if it has the same lasting appeal of the original.

 

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Another early game from Jeff Minters and one you’d usually see playing on my Vic-20 or C64 but this time around, I found the crisp visuals on the ZX Spectrum version simply too good to miss.

Voidrunner – ZX Spectrum (1987)

I found this version of Voidrunner purely by accident really as I was messing around with iXpectrum, the ZX Spectrum emulator on my iPad and needing an example game to play around. Because I’d been dipping in and out of Jeff Minters Llamasoft website recently (I’m keeping an eye out for more news on the soon to be released follow up to Goat Up) I found myself at the software library area where Jeff has many of his early games available as free downloads.

 

Voidrunner is a arcade shooter that shares similarities with Gridrunner and Matrix (which itself take influence from the the arcade game Centipede). The game contains a centipede like trail that makes its way down from the top of the screen towards you at the bottom. As you fire on it, the centipede breaksinto smaller pieces which travel in different direction making the whole task of destroying it ever more difficult. To make life even more difficult, there’s a horizontal laser beam that cuts down from the top of the screen to destroys you if your ship happens to cross it’s path.

It’s been fun to play on my iPad but I’ll be digging out one of my Speccys soon as this one deserves a proper joystick.

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Lunch break gaming this week has been so absorbing at times with this next game that I’ve actually forgot to stop and eat my lunch.

Zombotron – PC/web

http://armorgames.com/play/12000/zombotron

Guns, Zombies, Robots, ragdoll physics and unscripted moments of sheer awesomeness, you can’t help but have fun with this one.

‘Welcome to the planet «Zombotron», inhabited by human-mutants or just stupid zombies. Nobody knows where they come from and what they eat. But we know one thing – they are ready to destroy everything that moves.’

You control our hero via W,A,S,D with mouse for aim and mouse button for shooting, plus the E key for inventory. I’m still a Q,A,O,P type of chap but as I play more and more of these web games I’m getting kinda used to them bit by bit…I just wished more web games would have redefinable keys!

 

The aim of the game is simple to survive the ten levels and get from the start to the finish. Along the way you’ll need to solve a handful of puzzles as well as take out a fair share of squishy zombies and not so squishy robotic defense systems. Kills and opening treasure chests will reward with gold coins which can be used to purchase weapons, ammo, medkits and armour.

You start off with a puny pistol, but it’s not long before your packing shotgun, assault rifle, grenade launcher and rail gun. Ammo might seem a bit stingy at first but once you reach some of the later levels ammo conservation doesn’t become such a problem. Besides, although it’s fun to simply blast everything in sight, each level is littered with items that you can use (or not) as make shift weapon or trap. For example, push a crate from above on to the heads of an unsuspecting zombie, roll an explosive filled barrel down a slope mowing everything down in its path or shoot it in mid path at the right moment to cause maximum, and gory, damage. Alternatively sit back and watch zombie vs robot duke it leaving you to pick off any survivors.

There are also bonus missions to complete too – although not necessary to complete a level, including collecting certain things or doing certain actions. For example complete a level using minimal gun ammo.

I’ve had (and still am) having so much fun with Zombotron and now that i’ve completed it i’m hungry for more….woo, sequels!

Here’s the trailer.

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I round this week up with a pocket collection of classic Atari arcade games that have been given a new paint job.

Atari Classic Collection – Nintendo DS

This DS cart comprises of some pretty accurate arcade ports -

Centipede

Lunar Lander

Gravitar

Pong

Breakout

Missile Command

Warlords

Asteroids

Dragster

Tempest

Each game has also been made to take advantage of the DS touchscreen and stylus control which apart from Missile Command/Breakout pretty much sucks – Tempest with a stylus is just plain awful! However, you an still use the D-Pad and physical buttons which work perfectly (apart from Missile Command) and having a pocket version of Gravitar, Lunar Lander and Asteroids is why I brought the cart and much better than say Mame on my iPhone.

But thats not all. The thing I like most about this collection compared to other Atari compilations is the remixed graphic mode for each game.

Asteroids

Gravitar

Breakout…oh wait, that looks the same.

Happy gaming!

My Gaming Week #4

Quick and fun games are the order of this week as the continuation of a rather hefty I.T. project at work has left me with very little downtime again. Thankfully, we can see light at the end of the tunnel (or is that tunnel vision due to lack of sleep?) and I can get stuck into something a little more involving soon as I’ve been promising myself a return to either the land of Midwinter or the seas of Carrier Command.

First up on the list is a some vintage fun and a very early title by Mr ‘Yak’, Jeff Minter.

Centipede – Sinclair ZX81 (1981)

 

Over the past few years, I’ve become quite fond of Uncle Clive’s little black box and it’s game library which still provide snippets of fun despite it’s meager hardware limitations (and even more fun when you throw in a ZXpand unit). Centipede might not look much and missing a few things from the arcade original but that doesn’t stop it from being a damn fun retro game as you aim even higher to best your own and your mates highscore.

OOOOOOOO vs “

Choose from 20 speed settings (20 being the slowest  and 1 being well, quite frankly, insane!) and select 1-5 lives. Personally I’ve been starting on speed 20 with one life and after clearing each stage, the game speed increases.

Make it past Wave 3 and OOOOOOOO starts firing “.” fullstops at you….very unsportsmanlike of him too!

 

Yay, I beat Jeff’s highscore!…oh wait….dammit.

 

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The next two games I’ve been playing an awful lot of this week  are a couple of PD releases on the Commodore Amiga.

First up, we have a remake of one of my favourite arcade games.

Depthcharge – Commodore Amiga (1994)

 

This is a cracking remake of the 1977 game by Gremlin. Apart from the upgraded graphics (in colour too..woooo!), it’s pretty much on par with the original (bottom left).

 

The key difference with the Amiga version is the  overall speed in which the game plays.  Those subs dash around underwater a hefty odd rate of knotts whilst releasing a barrage of mines and torpedoes to the surface. The original arcade game had a much slower pace and required accurately timed release of your depth charges.  I think I still prefer the original, but this Amiga version is still great fun and the lack of timer means you can blast away until you get hit.

 Do you get bonus points for making your own sonar ping SFX’s?

 

Depthcharge can be found on the Assassins PD disk #165 which you can download from Back to the Roots website – http://www.back2roots.org/Get/Assassins%20Disk%20165%2C1/

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Next up is a remake of Thrust

Fleuch (v.2)  - Commodore Amiga (1993)

 

 

I’m loving the chunky retro look to Fleuch and it plays just as well as most other Thrust clones. Key layout is just perfect.

 

Incoming  from those gun turrets can often be accurate and relentless which certainly makes for one exciting gravity game.

Do I sneak down and collect the orb ASAP or take out the gun first? There’s not much room down here to do either! Steady as she goes.

Moving around  in the tunnels can be a bit tricky, and things get even trickier once you’re towing the orb.

Fleuch can also be dowloaded from BTTR via Assasins PD disk #166 - http://www.back2roots.org/Get/Assassins%20Disk%20166%2C1/

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Lunchtime gaming has quite literally been a blast with this rather cool mouse driven arena shooter -

Death vs. Monstars (Flash/Web).

http://armorgames.com/play/3307/death-vs-monstars

Simple yet fun. Move auto firing Death (you) around the screen and destroy the invading Monstars. Holding down the left mouse button will lock your gun position to so you can strafe the suckers if things get a little hot. Pick up the coins and stars  left behind as you’ll need these later.

Each kill increases a meter at the bottom of the screen. Once full, double click the left button to release a smart bomb. Handy when things get even hotter.

Alternatively, if you’re getting pummelled and find yourself in bullet hell, press and hold the space bar which will activate a Matrix style slow-mo bullet time. Very handy for getting oneself out of a jam and outflanking Neo style.

After killing the required number of Monstars (countdown at the top left), you finally get to spend all that lovely dosh on upgrades.

You’re going to need them!

Aaaaggggghhhhhhh

Happy gaming

 

 

 

 

My gaming week #1

Here’s a new section for my blog (see I’ve even created a shiny new category for it on the right hand side) which will list some of the games that’s been keeping me entertained over the previous week.  I wanted to start something like this here at the beginning of January but, well with one thing and another, time just slipped by.

Most of the games listed will be pretty much from older computers and consoles as well as the odd  indie games, low-fi causal games and those from the homebrew scene for classic systems. I don’t really play any modern PC games or own any modern console hardware and much prefer those with chunky pixels as you’ve probably gathered if you’ve been catching some of my posts on my blog.

These lists aren’t  going to feature huge reviews or anything like because quite frankly I can’t spel Maybe a few words and the odd picture or video in the hope that you’ll want to investigate further via a proper website or indeed jog the old noggin into thinking about and old classic you haven’t visited in a while.

Right here goes.

Friday saw the release of  an update to Capcom’s Street Fighter X Mega Man game and if you missed it and  happen to be a NES Megaman fan then you’re in for a treat….a treat that also happens to be free as well.

http://www.capcom-unity.com/mega_man

Now I totally suck at Megaman games on the NES (in fact, is anyone good at these games?) and I remember the Nintendo Gameboy version getting quite a bit of verbal abuse back in the day.

Street Fighter X Megaman is just as balls hard as the originals and I’m finding that I’m not getting very far at it at all…..yet, I just can’t seem to put the thing down, it’s so addictive

Top tip, the level against Blanka seems to be a good starting point as this (and Blanka) is fairly easy to complete.

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Carmageddon – DOSbox/iOS

Still causing Max Damage with the re-released by GOG edition of the classic PC games as well as the updated  iPad edition. The first level is still the best and gruesome of them all

Pitch invasion!

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Nano Ninja – web

http://www.newcave.com/game/nano-ninja

A fun little flash game which uses just one control and with it you must guide your ninja left & right and try to figure out how best to utilise this one control to overcome  each obstacle.

Moon Buggy – Commodore 16

I’ve played so many versions of Moon Buggy and it’s numerous clones on many systems but am thoroughly enjoying the simple yet hugely playable version on the Commodore 16….and for a C16 game it actually looks and scrolls pretty damn smooth too.

Solar Quest – Vectrex

This plays much better on the real hardware with it’s analogue joystick but my Vectrex is tucked away at present so I’ve been messing around with Solar Quest via the iPad Vectrex app and my iCade. It’s a simple game where you shoot, avoid and collect your bounty all under the gravitational pull of the centre star.

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Moderate Retribution – ZX Spectrum

A brand new game released for never ageing Speccy and quite a nice little shoot em up it is too.

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0028022

Crash Magazine #19 Kindle Edition

Yay, after a very long pause this time around, the Crash Online team have released another bumper issue of ZX Spectrum magazine – Crash- in it new shiny Kindle format. If you haven’t seen these before and/or happen to have recieved a sparkling new tablet/e-reader for Christmas, download the Kindle app and then head on over here to download the latest issue (you’ll also find previous editions 1-18 here too ) -

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http://www.crashonline.org.uk/

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Issue #19 from August 1985 contains a nice uplifting summer cover from Oli Frey – perfect, as it’s all drab, damp wintry skies out there today

Highlights for me this issue are -

Software reviews of Clumsy Colin/Action Biker (a game I’ve only every played on the C64 so it should fun to see how it fairs on the Speccy), Nodes of Yesod, Hyper Sports and many more.

There’s the final part in the series charting the ‘The Sinclair Story’ which ends with a look at the C5.

Hardware review of one of the ZX Speccy’s extended family , the Timex 2068.

A look at oftware companies Mirrorsoft and CRL

Even though it’s donkeys years old, for the retro gamer, these magazines are still relevant today and pure fun to read.

Lets hope, Crash online don’t leave it as long before issue #20 is released. Boy i wish someone would do something similar with Zzap64. Maybe I could do some myself?

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El Hobbit – ZX Spectrum

I’ve just been catching up on the latest game releases for the Sinclair Spectrum via WOS and am currently enjoying a little old school platform fun with EL Hobbit which was released a few days ago.

El Hobbit, as you can probably guess is loosely based on J.R.R’s book – The Hobbit,  although the short intro appears to be from Lord of the Rings and had me laughing when I first  saw it. Superb!

Gandalf and the Hobbit’s race to exit, the Mines of Moria visitors centre is about to close!

 

The Dwarves had tunnelled too deeply and unearthed a demon , eek – the Balrog. With commanding cries of ”Stop’ and/or  ’You shall not Pass’, Gandalf the Grey makes a final stand and smites the Balrog o’er whence he came.

Miffed Balrog,   catches Gandalf with his whip and they both fall down into  the darkness below. Da da daaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

El Hobbit is a simple platformer and despite some frustratingly difficult jumps, it’s actually rather good. Movement are classic Q,A,O,P and M will activate whatever object you might be carrying in your inventory. I’ve got no idea what the story is behind level one but our hero (Bilbo?) has got to make his way from his home and duck past the giant pipe to reach the door at the end. Giant Pipe you say?, it must be a some sort of magical and no doubt evil, pipe mind you.

Here’s the first level.

Right, I need to get up there although I can’t reach the moving platform above. I’ll head on right to the next screen to see if there’s a way up.

Fantastic, a set of platforms that will take me up. Back to the first screen, timing my jump onto the moving platform and then up, up and away to the next screen. That pink flying thing is quite happy to take a bite out of Hobbits so  better use the ‘A’ key to duck down until he’s gone. That shiny green key is what I’m after.

Now that I’ve got the key, I can unlock the RED door. I just need to hop over another flying flappy thing. Dammit why did I forget to pack ‘Sting’

Eek, the giant evil Pipe, I better avoid it and press the lever to open the door below. Eek, he’s spotted me…ruuuun, you fool.

…and so end level one..lots more pixel perfect jumping to follow.

Basic looking it may be, but actually rather fun and well worth taking a look at it. You can download for  free at -

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0027993

Retro Remake: 3D Starstrike.

Back in the days of the old republic, if you wanted to play a recreation of Atari’s Star Wars vector arcade game at home and you happened to own a ZX Spectrum, then 3D Starstrike was the one to play. It wasn’t an official licensed Starwars game but was one damn fine clone.. all thought, not of the Boba Fett type, which was pretty much spot with the arcade original considering the hardware it was running on. It would be another 5 years until Domark released an official home conversion which, to be honest, was far to late and pretty much sucked on most of the platforms .. although the Amiga version was pretty good.

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3D Starstrike for the ZX Spectrum was released only few years after the arcade game, contained stimulated vector-like graphics and although the sound was terrible, it had all the elements of the arcade original including the dog fight space battle, skimming along the surface of the Death Star (sorry something that sounds like Death Star) whilst shooting the top off the the defence towers and on to the final run down the trench in the hope of hitting the exhaust port and ….well, you know the story. Suffice to say it’s tough, and Capt Solo won’t have your six this time around.

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A PC remake of the Starstrike 3D was completed a few years but kinda dropped off the radar and as the authors website is no more I’ve located another copy via CNET (link below). It plays just the same as the original Speccy game and as you can see from the screen it looks flippin amazing but wait until you see it moving!

Definitely a moon and NOT a Space Station

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‘Lock S foils into att….oh, right, we don’t have any of those’.

‘Stay on target’

Torpedoes away now lets run like hell, she’s gonna blow!

Weeeee, this bit is very trippy!

Dim the lights, prep your x-wing fighter,  don’t hum that Movie theme tune and any mystic voices heard during gameplay are probably not of jedi origin but of obi-wife telling you to get off the computer, use the force and get that yard swept’

http://download.cnet.com/3D-Star-Strike/3000-2095_4-10920433.html

Old and new, 3d Starstrike Spectrum via iXpretrum (iPad) and the remake on my PC.

 

Retro Gaming Weekend at Derby – Sunday.

Back in Derbyshire for day two of retro gaming and a more gentle start to the day compared to yesterday. After meeting up with chaps and chatting over a morning coffee, we fired up the machines and awaited our visitors.

During the morning I got to take another look at batch of Atari Jaguar games and one in particular was really fun to play. It was a Pinball game called – Ruiner.

Two tables are on offer which span over two or three screen. This is the first table and is based around 1950 cold war era of nuclear war and Defcon shenanigans. Plenty to shoot for to keep you entertained and some brilliant spot FX. Gameplay is a little slower that most pinball games but somehow this makes it more of fun to aim the ball.

The second table is similar to Dungeons and Dragons and again, rather fun to play. I did, however, prefer the first table and it’s this one that I’d really like to play more of in the future.

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There was also some pretty impressive Commodore hardware on show to and we were treated to a look at the SID chip addon board for the Commodore Plus/4 (have added one of these to my list to Santa!) and literally jaw dropping demonstrations of a Commodore 128D (a very nice machine in itself) which has outfitted with a SuperCPU expansion board.

A stock Commodore 64 runs at about 1 Mhz, so imagine multiplying this by 20 times and you’ve got one powerful machine which is technically faster than the Amiga . That’s what the SuperCPU does and with game like Driller which you probably know runs at about one frame per seconds on a standard c64, now runs just like a modern FPS game at +30 frames per second….fullscreen!

C128 in C64 mode…how much RAM!

In addition, it’s owner, and event co-host Shaun was able to demo some of the software specifically designed to show off the capabilities of a fully pimped C64/C128 including games like awesome-ness that is Metal Dust.

Never thought I see a C64/C128 running a game that looked so impressive, using the full colour pallette with so many objects and scrolling sprites, huge textured rocks, awesome soundtracks and digitised speech all running without flicker or hiccup. Note the FD-2000 Floppy Drive. This was one hellava setup!

I tried to capture Metal Dust on my camera but the monitor sync refresh was producing way too many lines on the recording so here’s a. Youtube video of the game in action.

The SuperCPU is a highly sought after item and can easily fetch up to £2000 so my research leads me to believe. It certainly a piece of Commodore tech that i won’t be owning but rather generously, Shaun has offered to loan his setup for our next RCM event! I can’t wait to take another closer look at it and sample some of the games that have been modified to take advantage of the hardware, such as Stunt Car Racer, Test Drive and Castle Master.

Shaun also demonstrating to Andy, few program tips like this simply three line code on the C64 to produce a very impressive maze display.

I also spent a lot of the BBC Master today, especially some of the arcade ports and was quite amazed at the quality on the ol’ Beeb. Galaxians, Joust and Moon Cresta were particularly fun and on the pin sharp image of the Cub monitor they looked even better.

Also, I’ve never played Thrust on the BBC before and have to say, it’s one of the nicest versions I’ve played to date..even if the controls were a bit odd.

I also spent quite a bit of time on Andy’s Amiga 1200 which has a rather daper 68030 board with 32mb ram, a 4GB CF HDD and plenty WHDLoad funtastic software.

A great afternoon on Sensible Soccer, Chaos Engine, Deluxe Galaga to get the wrists aching and then Pinball Fantasies high score tournament to give them a rest again

Dear Santa, please can I have some Ram for my A1200 please?

We also though it would be run to play on the Nintendo Virtual Boy until our eyes began to bled and them immediately moved on to bright whites on MB Vectrex. I’m glad I wasn’t driving straight until later…the shapes burnt on to my eyeballs were taking time to dissipate

Lots of ‘woo’s ‘ and probably a bit of drooling from Dr Phu and Max in the corner, what’s going on?

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Mmm, Commodore C128D in the nude….purdy!

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Whilst Andy pumped out some classic SID chiptunes on the C64, I had one last go on Turmoil on the Vic-20 before waving the last visitor goodbye and we set about dismantling everything and moving it down to our parked cars. We were a little short on hands compared to Saturday but we still managed to get everything pack up quite quickly and into three cars plus my MPV.

Thanking our hosts Chris & Shaun for a great weekend, we made the journey back to HQ and thanks to entering the ‘shortest route’ on my Satnav, i took the harrowing route through twisty, narrow country roads with not a street light in sight. A fun drive when you’re lugging 20 odd TV’s and crates of retro gear!

After the ‘rally stage’ and back at HQ, we unpacked and got everything set up again ready for some European visitors who were attending the museum the next day.

Wary but content, we said our goodbyes and headed home.

That was one helluva great gaming weekend and one that also raised a nice amount for charity too. Chris is looking to do this again on a six month basis and I for one will be back again.

The retro gaming doesn’t stop there though as we have our own members weekend event coming up in two weeks time and is always a laugh when the admins, volunteers and RCM members get together. Better get my Dreamcast out, I’ve got some practising to do!

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Pace Setters – Clive Sinclair

Following on from my previous Sinclair themed post, I wanted to post this video I picked up from a friends twitter feed and is a recording of a early TV show that focuses on Sir Clive Sinclair during the days of his early inventions leading up to the ZX80 computer. The flat screen TV tube is particularly interesting as too is the footage showing the ZX80 production line – check out the piles of those highly prized ZX80 white cases. A brilliant interview that ends with a hint at the next revolution – the electric car

Get the kettle on, this is great viewing.

Playing new on old – ZX81 games

At last weekend Play:Expo, I met up with fellow RCM admin and friend Mike who has recently attended Eurocon in Karlsruhe and had picked up a couple of new ZX81 games for the museum. Knowing I was heading down to RCM this weekend, I offered to play postie and take them down with me.

Both game have been released by http://www.revival-studios.com/ who produce new homebrew games and demo for classic computers and consoles.

Mayhem and Down are the second and third releases by Revival Studios for the Sinclair ZX81/Timex TS1000.

Both games are obviously simple being ZX81 games, but are extremely fun to play.

After we’d finished with the Mame cabinet, we tried both games on one of the Zx81′s and had a look at the other, and first release from Revival Studios – Avalanche.

Mayhem, in particular is really a fun game as you dodge the ever expanding flying debris and collect parts for points. I think 32 was the highest score we could get.

The ZXpand comes in handy for this arcade games like this as it provides joystick support.

I also read with interest that there’s a VIC-20 port of Mayhem being released. I’ll definitely get a copy of that if it’s as playable as the ZX81 version. Head on over to the Revival Studios shop for details including options for digital download.

It still amazes me that games are still be produced for vintage systems such as the ZX81, especially when they’re as fun to play as these two.

Sinclair QL testing pt2

Hopes for a working QL floppy drive expansion board were dashed when visiting the Retro Computer Museum yesterday as trying it on the Sinclair QL setup showed nothing, nader and zip

When connected, the QL simply refused to boot.

It’s a shame really and these things appear to be quite expensive to replace judging by eBay. There’s one listed now at £69 and another at £149.

Jim fancied a poke around inside so after removing the plastic covering and surveyed the circuit board, we discovered, on the bottom side, what appears to be some sort of minor repair job. It was a bit of a mess and so we headed into the (delete where appropriate) ‘restoration room’, ‘technicians delight’, ‘cave’, ‘uber geek den’ and fired up the solder iron.

Returning to the QL we had somesuccess. It booted, a GUI was loaded from a rom cartridge but that was about it.

Back at the bat cave, Jim didn’t like the look of the voltage regulator and so he swapped this out with a spare. He also swapped out a dodgy looking ram chip and swore at the others in the event that they also decided to rebel.

Still nothing and this went on for about about another hour including a chip shop run for lunch. Attached to the expansion card is what appears to be a daughter board sitting on top of it. I’m not sure what is is without researching but we removed it and tried again.

Well, whaddaya know it worked and was able to load a game from floppy disk.

Well, it worked on that particular game, most of the others didn’t for some reason. these appeared to be games that had more colour, more on screen sprites and generally a lot more going on than the basic game that worked. Maybe the daughter board is some some of failed ram?

I had one of my QL’s with me and so Jim has taken the lot home with him for further testing. Fingers crossed!

One other project we thought we start whilst we were there is to turn one of the arcade cabinet shells into a classic Mame cabinet.

The donor is a gutted Taito Space Chaser cab that’s been sitting at the museum gathering dust. Originally a vertically mounted monitor we thought we’d keep this aspect to run all vertical classics like Moon Cresta, Phoenix, 1941 etc.

Apart from a shot screen, bust marquee and dodgy controls, the rest of the cabinet is in pretty good condition including the impressive stencilled side artwork.

Jim is going to work on the screen whilst i prep a PC and look at the controls. I have plenty of spare buttons etc and we’ll be using another ipac to interface with Mame. The coin door and mechanism appear to be in ok-ish condition so with a bit of TLC we might be able to get this to work with Mame too.

I’ll be back with more on this as we progress.

Many thanks Jim!

Sinclair QL testing.

 

It’s an interesting computer the Sinclar QL, well interesting to me because it’s an underdog. Commercially a failure and a bitter disappointment to gamers at the time hoping that the word ‘ Quantum’  and uber-fast microdrives would equate to a box of awesome-ness and excel  Spectrum entertainment to new heights.

….but, the QL was wasn’t a computer for gaming, it was ‘a’ serious computer’ ‘ to quote a line from the BBC’s Micro Men. Well, we all know what happened to the QL don’t we and it’s a shame really as it’s surely  one of the coolest looking Sinclair cases of them all?

I remember the TV advert above which see’s super Sir Clive taking his giant Quantum Leap and also the many articles about the QL in Crash magazine. Being just a wee lad at the time with only a paper round after school to fuel the sugar rush, the QL was waaay out of my league financially and besides, I was still Commodore through and through.

I did, however get my first QL about 4 years ago which was kindly given to me by a now retired IT collegue of mine who had brought it from new back in ’84.  It was boxed and had been kept in beautiful  condition complete with prestine manuals, software and and various brochures. Certainly one of the nicest looking examples of an old computer I have ever seen.

I gleefully took it and played around with it for a bit but in all honesty it sat in it’s box….unused and unloved again. Shame on you StiGGy! That’s no way for a computer to be kept and so after a quick chat, I decided that it would be better if  I donated to the Retro Computer Museum where it could  be used again and accessible to all.

Over the years, I’ve kinda grown fond of the QL and although mock it we do at RCM  (because it really does make a nice door wedge,  hammer and/or cricket bat)  it does  grows on you bit by bit the more you see it. The hunt for another one was on and so to eBay I went.

Flippin eck! it looks like these are becoming quite the collectable these days judging by my search results. Maybe it’s the underdog/cool factor similar to the Nintendo Virtual Boy, Sega Nomad or even MB Vectrex which has increased the price?

Well, whatdoyouknow…fate I guess but just the other day I got chatting with two colleges at work who both have old and untested QL’s sat in their lofts and said that I could have them….’as you’re into all that old computer junk’ Woot woot!
I took my small LCD TV to work with me so that we could test them and also to  let my co-workers check out the new cardboard prototype pinball machine i was putting together’ (see previous blog post – http://stiggyblog.wordpress.com/2012/08/26/cardboard-visual-pinball-model/ )

The first QL, given to me by Luke our IT Helpdesk chap, simply refused to display a picture on screen. The power LED was lit but that’s about it. There’s no ‘start-up’ whir from the Microdrive unit and likewise no motor noise when inserting a Micro cassette.

That one requires a little more attention so we placed it to one side and moved onto the other.

The next one is from Ian, one of our software developers and it sprang into life immediately with the familiar red boot screen in glorious shaky RF on my TV (must get/make myself an RGB to Scart cable).

Luke’s QL came with a whole bucket full of Micro cassettes so we set about loading up exciting arcade titles such as…erm…’Abacus’..well, it might be an arcade hit?

Sadly not, but that’s o.k we’ve got plenty of other exciting titles to try such as ‘Gas Bills’, ‘Math’, ‘Addresses’ and ‘Letters’ – Hmm, it appears that the original owner of this particular QL actually was using it for serious things after all :)

Hunting through the many cassettes I finally found one labelled Games Collection and was rather excited to see after a short whirl of the Microdrive the following games menu displayed on screen.

Starting from the top we loaded each in turn. All but one failed after about a minute with ‘load error at line 130′ or ‘line 250′. It did make us smile after waiting a good five minutes only to recieve ‘loading error at line 3′.  Only line 3 after five minutes!

The game that did work was called Zfred and appears to be a clone of  QBert. The keyboard controls are just terrible and so is the game but heh, I’m happy to see at least something work.

We tried a few more Micro cassettes but again, most failed to load. I suppose after all these years of non use we were  lucky to get something to load especially as the Microdrive system wasn’t exactly renown for it’s reliable.

Going back to the games collection cassette, I tried it again and again but  each time it failed. However,  it seemed to fail at different lines of the game code and so with a determined fierce stare…a bit of swearing, and a ‘gentle’ tap on the QL case we ‘willed’ the cassette to load….and it flippin well did. I don’t think i’ve ever been so excited about a game of Breakout

Let the competition begin. Left/Right cursor to move, CTRL to launch the ball and Up cursor to make your bat move quicker. It’s a flipping hard game too…very hard…in fact, our top score between myself, Neil and Rob was…erm hmm…20 points!

It didn’t matter though, it was working and a fun QL lunchtime was had by all.

So, going forward what next?

Well, the faulty QL actually came with a floppy drive expansion board and if  it works then this provides a few more options to play with.

Interestingly, Dr Phu demonstrated  how to connect a standard PC floppy drive to work with the QL and read software directly fro 3.5″ 720k disks. It’s an interesting idea and one I’m keen to try if the interface does indeed work. I’ll be take it down to the Retro Computer Museum to further testing.

Here’s RCM’s setup and floppy drive we had during last months gaming event.

Which, as always prompted a bit of a mini competition with some of the other RCM staff members.

Mike showing is keyboard skills with the gawd awful but strangly addictive QL port of Scramble called – Death Strike.

Death Strike is one of a handful of games belonging to a game pack that was released only a few years ago –  Don’t you just love the retro gaming scene that keeps the classics computers alive.

Oh and final thing I want to mention about the QL….it doesn’t need RetroBriting!

Comp modded ZX Spectrum.

Am back from our week away exploring Manchester, the Lake District and Liverpool and whilst in the area ‘up north’, I popped in to see my good mate JT and also to take a looksee at his latest retro gaming goodies.

Not only having a one hellava monster Jamma cab, JT now has a lovely new/old Silent Scope gun. Couldn’t shoot for buggery with it myself therefore had to hand it back to the marksmen to see how it’s done

Whilst sampling TMNT 2 on JT’s Capcom Impress cabinet (which might I add, is a pleasure to play on and am seriously thinking about getting one of these cabs myself), modifications on my 48k Speccy began.

Composite modding and the results compared to RF is amazing. Thank you very much mate.

Now maybe JT can explain how this works much better on his own blog than i can, but was hugely impressed with a conversion of the Mega CD FMV classic Road Avenger playing on a standard SNES!

Sd2snes cartridge.

I also collected my MB Vectrex and a few other bits whilst i was thetcance I’ll be testing out my DIY colour overlays before I send it down to the Retro Computer Museum.

…but before that, I still have a few days off work and intend to hook up my DivIDE to my modded Speccy for some static free gaming – thanks again JT!