My gaming career started in 1985 when I was 4 years old and my dad brought home a new toy that would completely change my understanding of the word "fun". I still remember how he sneaked home and hidden it in a closet, telling me not to say anything to my mom. I don't know how much he must have payed for it, but I sure knew it would piss my mom a lot.
Anyway, one day when my mom was working he took out the hidden package and took out a keyboard with a rainbow sign on it. After few minutes he connected it with all kind of different cables and devices, then he started typing on it while giving me a satisfying wink. Suddenly some lines started appearing on the TV and there were horrible noises comming out of this strange machine. The lines slowly seemed to draw a picture on the TV and after few minutes I saw a cartoon with my dad moving the character on the screen. I was stunned. I couldn't believe what I have seen! It was a door to completely new world and it looked like pure magic to me.
I later found out the toy was called ZX Spectrum and that you can play video games on it. Whatever, I thought. I just wanted to be that jumping cartoon character in this new world.
So my gaming career started and it is really funny how much fun I had with those games that people today would laugh at. Even more surprising was my dad, who played them with as much enthusiasm as me.
The system featured just 8 colors and despite that it still somehow looks magical to me. I just can't believe how much imaginaton the developers had to use to create such beautiful worlds using just 8 colors. So let us start.
Kokotoni Wilf
Now here is a game that brings back sweet memories. I believe this was the very first game I ever played. Elite was a company whose first game was Kokotoni Wilf and to me it is still one of the best games I have ever played on ZX Spectrum.
Kokotoni Wilf is the name of the hero you play in great game which features 63 locations and incredible 8 color graphics. I really had no idea what the story is about, because there is no intro in most of ZX Spectrum games, and you are just thrown into action. Anyway, by Crash online edition the story has it that several hundred years ago in a province of Northern Europe there lived a Great Magician, who discovered that there had once existed a Dragon Amulet, fragments of which had been scattered throughout time. The Great Magician wanted to recover all the fragments, but by the time he had made the discovery, he was too old to undertake the mission himself. So he summoned his athletic protege, Kokotoni Wilf, gave him a pair of wings, and sent him off in search of the fragments. First of all, the Magician sent Wilf back more than 500 million years to a time when Dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Your mission is to search for the various pieces of the amulet, which resemble glowing Stars of David, some 63 pieces, and then when all the pieces have been found and collected from one time zone, the Magician has enough strength to create a flashing timegate which Wilf must find and enter it to get to the next time zone.
There are six time zones — 965BC, 1066, 1467, 1784, 1984 and 2001, and between 10 and 12 locations within each time zone, which are linked in a maze fashion. Each time zone has its own distinct graphics from the period. In the first there are dinosaurs, pterodactyls and saurians, etc. In 1066 there are Conquerors, long bows and warriors; alchemy makes an appearance also, followed by the Spanish main period. 1984 is represented by townscapes starting off with Trafalgar Square. And 2001, of course, is full of Moon stations, shuttles and space paraphernalia.
You move your angel with 3 buttons. Left, right and fly button. Using those commands you have to avoid everything that moves, and you should also avoid colorful objects like yellow or red. Enemies just walk same routes over and over, and you have to find a way to avoid them. If they touch you, or if you touch a wrong object you will lose a life. I never managed to finish the game, because it was just too hard, and sometimes avoiding the enemy seems almost impossible. Add no save or load option and you will see why I could never finish it. All in all, one of the best games on ZX Spectrum I have ever played.
The object of the game is to search for the various pieces of the amulet, which resemble glowing Stars of David, some 63 pieces, and then when all the pieces have been found and collected from one time zone, the Magician has enough strength to create a flashing timegate which Wilf must find and enter to get to the next time zone.
There are six time zones — 965BC, 1066, 1467, 1784, 1984 and 2001, and between 10 and 12 locations within each time zone, which are linked in a maze fashion. Each time zone has its own distinct graphics from the period. In the first there are dinosaurs, pterodactyls and saurians, etc. In 1066 there are Conquerors, long bows and warriors; alchemy makes an appearance next, followed by the Spanish main period. 1984 is represented by townscapes starting off with Trafalgar Square. And 2001, of course, is full of Moon stations, shuttles and space paraphernalia.
I never managed to finish this game, because it was just too hard. Some obstacles seemed almost impossible to avoid and apperantly Elite was giving free copies of their next game to first 100 people who finished Kokotoni Wilf. I guess that is why it was so hard.
Atic Atac
This was also one of the games I grew up with. Personaly I believe this game was one of the indications why I will one day fall in love with RPG genre. The analogy almost seems silly, but Atic Atac allowed you to chose one of 3 characters, you had a dungeon full of monsters and you also had varios objects, keys and doors which helped you in your quest. I know those are not RPG elements, but the atmosphere alone and some ideas got me so hooked up with this game I used to dream what would happen behind some locked doors. I imagined I would find someone to talk to, or maybe find a new weapon, or something else. Those imaginations of a 4 year old kid would later make me search for real RPG games that apparently had things I used to dream about.
In this fast pace action exploration arcade game your character is thrown into a dungeon with only one way leading out. In the first room where you appear there is a huge door and you have to find a key to be able to open it and escape the dungeon. Unfortunately the key is broken into 3 parts and scattered through the rest of the dungeon filled with monsters. To make things even harder, to be able to get to all 3 parts of the large key you will have to find smaller keys of different color which let you pass through doors of the same color as that key. So if you have a blue key, you will be able to pass only through blue doors, but you can only carry 3 items at a time so you will have to drop some keys to be able to pick up others and then return to pick them up later in order to finish the game. Confusing I know.
You also have to constantly search for food which restores your health and the biggest problem wont be just killing hordes of enemies, but maintaining your health which drops even if you don't get hurt by the enemy, because of stravation. Later in the game food gets really scarce and you will probably die of starvation quite often. The dungeon is filled not only with monsters that constantly appear out of nowhere, but also with monsters which can only be killed with certain items you find in the dungeon. For example, Frankenstin can only be killed with a wrench, Vampire can be chased away if you have a cross in your inventory, etc..
One other thing that makes this game one of my all time favorites on ZX Spectrum is randomization. Not only does the game randomize items through the dungeon every time you play it, but it also allows different characters different shortcuts to secret rooms. So the knight character will be able to go through seals, wizard will be able to go through bookcases and thief will be able to go through barrels if I remember correctly. Note however there is no other difference between characters, except appearance and weapon of choice. The knight will throw axes, thief will throw short swords and magician will throw magic balls into the enemies.
In recent years someone also made a remake of this game, with all new and flashy graphics so you might as well try it out. I didn't finish this one either
SKool Daze
This is probably my favorite ZX Spectrum game of all times. It had all those things you wanted to do in the school but you couldn't. The best thing was that I had the Croatian/Serbian version of the game with insults that would just crack me up. The Croatian/Serbian version was much better because unlike English version it used the F word quite often. That with combination of cocks and mentioning your mom screwing the profesors in the atic of the school. LOL
You start the game by giving the main characters and teachers names. I remember giving teachers silly names like Dr. Fatso, or Mr. Shithead which made me laugh quite often when I was a kid. After that you stat the game by comming to school. I never figured out what the hell you were supposed to do in the game and I just played it for lulz, but from the remake that was made few years ago, you were supposed to hack into headmasters computer and erase your file which could get you kicked out from the school. To do that you were supposed to get some shield items which gave you hints to what the password was and then use it on the computer. The remake is a bit different and more complete from original, but the gameplay is the same.
Anyway, when the game starts you can begin to play your character in anyway you like. You can for example be a goodie nerdy boy who goes to all the classes, who doesn't get into fights and avoids any kind of trouble. Of course you can also be a bully that abuses other kids and jumps all over them, shoots teachers with slingshot, writes insults on the boards and skips the lessons. The more trouble you cause the closer you are to getting kicked out from school, and that is one thing we want to avoid. I mean all the fun is in school right?
The school wouldn't be a school if you didn't have bullies, troublemakeres and snitches. One of the most annoying characters in gaming history was Einstein who was a perfect little student who always knew all the answers and who snitched at every little thing you did in the game. For example if you write on the board, the teacher will get upset about it and he will ask who did it. At that time Einstein will say: "I cannot tell a lie Mr. Asswipe, Mareus wrote all over the board.". Then I will kick his ass after the lesson and he will run to the headmaster and snitch again how I hit him in the face. No matter how many times I play that game I always end up smashing his face. LOL
Whenever a teacher sees you doing something bad, or whenever Einstein snitches on you, you will get lines, and after you get 10000 lines you get kicked out of school. The most funny thing I came up with was setting other students little traps so they took the blame for my misdoings. You can for example shoot a teacher with slingshot while Einstein or some other student is near them, which will cause the teacher to yell at them instead of you. In Croatian/Serbian version the teachers were yelling insults I can't even translate on English, but they were something like this:
"Goddamit, you little fuck! How many times do I have to tell you not to hit people in the face!"
"I fucked your mother in the atic you little shit! I wanted you to know this before I kick you out of school!"
"You little dipshit! Stop using that slingshot!"
LOL
I had loads of fun with this game. This one is a real gem, and I would suggest you get a remake and have some fun. In the remake you can also change what the teachers are saying in the .txt file that comes with the game. This game is a pure win and I don't see how anyone could not have fun with it.
------
This is so far. I will add some other games later when I find the time. Other games to be reviewd:
Alchemist
Scuba Dive
Popeye
Robin of the Wood
Manic Miner
Jet Set Willy
Goonies
Fist
Bruce Lee
Toobin
Tanks
And many others. If someone has a request for a review you can add it.
Anyway, one day when my mom was working he took out the hidden package and took out a keyboard with a rainbow sign on it. After few minutes he connected it with all kind of different cables and devices, then he started typing on it while giving me a satisfying wink. Suddenly some lines started appearing on the TV and there were horrible noises comming out of this strange machine. The lines slowly seemed to draw a picture on the TV and after few minutes I saw a cartoon with my dad moving the character on the screen. I was stunned. I couldn't believe what I have seen! It was a door to completely new world and it looked like pure magic to me.
I later found out the toy was called ZX Spectrum and that you can play video games on it. Whatever, I thought. I just wanted to be that jumping cartoon character in this new world.
So my gaming career started and it is really funny how much fun I had with those games that people today would laugh at. Even more surprising was my dad, who played them with as much enthusiasm as me.
The system featured just 8 colors and despite that it still somehow looks magical to me. I just can't believe how much imaginaton the developers had to use to create such beautiful worlds using just 8 colors. So let us start.
Kokotoni Wilf
Now here is a game that brings back sweet memories. I believe this was the very first game I ever played. Elite was a company whose first game was Kokotoni Wilf and to me it is still one of the best games I have ever played on ZX Spectrum.
Kokotoni Wilf is the name of the hero you play in great game which features 63 locations and incredible 8 color graphics. I really had no idea what the story is about, because there is no intro in most of ZX Spectrum games, and you are just thrown into action. Anyway, by Crash online edition the story has it that several hundred years ago in a province of Northern Europe there lived a Great Magician, who discovered that there had once existed a Dragon Amulet, fragments of which had been scattered throughout time. The Great Magician wanted to recover all the fragments, but by the time he had made the discovery, he was too old to undertake the mission himself. So he summoned his athletic protege, Kokotoni Wilf, gave him a pair of wings, and sent him off in search of the fragments. First of all, the Magician sent Wilf back more than 500 million years to a time when Dinosaurs roamed the earth.
Your mission is to search for the various pieces of the amulet, which resemble glowing Stars of David, some 63 pieces, and then when all the pieces have been found and collected from one time zone, the Magician has enough strength to create a flashing timegate which Wilf must find and enter it to get to the next time zone.
There are six time zones — 965BC, 1066, 1467, 1784, 1984 and 2001, and between 10 and 12 locations within each time zone, which are linked in a maze fashion. Each time zone has its own distinct graphics from the period. In the first there are dinosaurs, pterodactyls and saurians, etc. In 1066 there are Conquerors, long bows and warriors; alchemy makes an appearance also, followed by the Spanish main period. 1984 is represented by townscapes starting off with Trafalgar Square. And 2001, of course, is full of Moon stations, shuttles and space paraphernalia.
You move your angel with 3 buttons. Left, right and fly button. Using those commands you have to avoid everything that moves, and you should also avoid colorful objects like yellow or red. Enemies just walk same routes over and over, and you have to find a way to avoid them. If they touch you, or if you touch a wrong object you will lose a life. I never managed to finish the game, because it was just too hard, and sometimes avoiding the enemy seems almost impossible. Add no save or load option and you will see why I could never finish it. All in all, one of the best games on ZX Spectrum I have ever played.
The object of the game is to search for the various pieces of the amulet, which resemble glowing Stars of David, some 63 pieces, and then when all the pieces have been found and collected from one time zone, the Magician has enough strength to create a flashing timegate which Wilf must find and enter to get to the next time zone.
There are six time zones — 965BC, 1066, 1467, 1784, 1984 and 2001, and between 10 and 12 locations within each time zone, which are linked in a maze fashion. Each time zone has its own distinct graphics from the period. In the first there are dinosaurs, pterodactyls and saurians, etc. In 1066 there are Conquerors, long bows and warriors; alchemy makes an appearance next, followed by the Spanish main period. 1984 is represented by townscapes starting off with Trafalgar Square. And 2001, of course, is full of Moon stations, shuttles and space paraphernalia.
I never managed to finish this game, because it was just too hard. Some obstacles seemed almost impossible to avoid and apperantly Elite was giving free copies of their next game to first 100 people who finished Kokotoni Wilf. I guess that is why it was so hard.
Atic Atac
This was also one of the games I grew up with. Personaly I believe this game was one of the indications why I will one day fall in love with RPG genre. The analogy almost seems silly, but Atic Atac allowed you to chose one of 3 characters, you had a dungeon full of monsters and you also had varios objects, keys and doors which helped you in your quest. I know those are not RPG elements, but the atmosphere alone and some ideas got me so hooked up with this game I used to dream what would happen behind some locked doors. I imagined I would find someone to talk to, or maybe find a new weapon, or something else. Those imaginations of a 4 year old kid would later make me search for real RPG games that apparently had things I used to dream about.
In this fast pace action exploration arcade game your character is thrown into a dungeon with only one way leading out. In the first room where you appear there is a huge door and you have to find a key to be able to open it and escape the dungeon. Unfortunately the key is broken into 3 parts and scattered through the rest of the dungeon filled with monsters. To make things even harder, to be able to get to all 3 parts of the large key you will have to find smaller keys of different color which let you pass through doors of the same color as that key. So if you have a blue key, you will be able to pass only through blue doors, but you can only carry 3 items at a time so you will have to drop some keys to be able to pick up others and then return to pick them up later in order to finish the game. Confusing I know.
You also have to constantly search for food which restores your health and the biggest problem wont be just killing hordes of enemies, but maintaining your health which drops even if you don't get hurt by the enemy, because of stravation. Later in the game food gets really scarce and you will probably die of starvation quite often. The dungeon is filled not only with monsters that constantly appear out of nowhere, but also with monsters which can only be killed with certain items you find in the dungeon. For example, Frankenstin can only be killed with a wrench, Vampire can be chased away if you have a cross in your inventory, etc..
One other thing that makes this game one of my all time favorites on ZX Spectrum is randomization. Not only does the game randomize items through the dungeon every time you play it, but it also allows different characters different shortcuts to secret rooms. So the knight character will be able to go through seals, wizard will be able to go through bookcases and thief will be able to go through barrels if I remember correctly. Note however there is no other difference between characters, except appearance and weapon of choice. The knight will throw axes, thief will throw short swords and magician will throw magic balls into the enemies.
In recent years someone also made a remake of this game, with all new and flashy graphics so you might as well try it out. I didn't finish this one either
SKool Daze
This is probably my favorite ZX Spectrum game of all times. It had all those things you wanted to do in the school but you couldn't. The best thing was that I had the Croatian/Serbian version of the game with insults that would just crack me up. The Croatian/Serbian version was much better because unlike English version it used the F word quite often. That with combination of cocks and mentioning your mom screwing the profesors in the atic of the school. LOL
You start the game by giving the main characters and teachers names. I remember giving teachers silly names like Dr. Fatso, or Mr. Shithead which made me laugh quite often when I was a kid. After that you stat the game by comming to school. I never figured out what the hell you were supposed to do in the game and I just played it for lulz, but from the remake that was made few years ago, you were supposed to hack into headmasters computer and erase your file which could get you kicked out from the school. To do that you were supposed to get some shield items which gave you hints to what the password was and then use it on the computer. The remake is a bit different and more complete from original, but the gameplay is the same.
Anyway, when the game starts you can begin to play your character in anyway you like. You can for example be a goodie nerdy boy who goes to all the classes, who doesn't get into fights and avoids any kind of trouble. Of course you can also be a bully that abuses other kids and jumps all over them, shoots teachers with slingshot, writes insults on the boards and skips the lessons. The more trouble you cause the closer you are to getting kicked out from school, and that is one thing we want to avoid. I mean all the fun is in school right?
The school wouldn't be a school if you didn't have bullies, troublemakeres and snitches. One of the most annoying characters in gaming history was Einstein who was a perfect little student who always knew all the answers and who snitched at every little thing you did in the game. For example if you write on the board, the teacher will get upset about it and he will ask who did it. At that time Einstein will say: "I cannot tell a lie Mr. Asswipe, Mareus wrote all over the board.". Then I will kick his ass after the lesson and he will run to the headmaster and snitch again how I hit him in the face. No matter how many times I play that game I always end up smashing his face. LOL
Whenever a teacher sees you doing something bad, or whenever Einstein snitches on you, you will get lines, and after you get 10000 lines you get kicked out of school. The most funny thing I came up with was setting other students little traps so they took the blame for my misdoings. You can for example shoot a teacher with slingshot while Einstein or some other student is near them, which will cause the teacher to yell at them instead of you. In Croatian/Serbian version the teachers were yelling insults I can't even translate on English, but they were something like this:
"Goddamit, you little fuck! How many times do I have to tell you not to hit people in the face!"
"I fucked your mother in the atic you little shit! I wanted you to know this before I kick you out of school!"
"You little dipshit! Stop using that slingshot!"
LOL
I had loads of fun with this game. This one is a real gem, and I would suggest you get a remake and have some fun. In the remake you can also change what the teachers are saying in the .txt file that comes with the game. This game is a pure win and I don't see how anyone could not have fun with it.
------
This is so far. I will add some other games later when I find the time. Other games to be reviewd:
Alchemist
Scuba Dive
Popeye
Robin of the Wood
Manic Miner
Jet Set Willy
Goonies
Fist
Bruce Lee
Toobin
Tanks
And many others. If someone has a request for a review you can add it.
