My New ZX Spectrum Collection

As I've said elsewhere, the first videogame machine I ever owned was a rubber-keyed Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k, received for Christmas 1983. I'd played my brother's Pong-a-like Binatone TV Master prior to that but this was the first that was a) mine and b) any good.  For the next 5 or so  years, the Spectrum got some heavy usage and a fair amount of wear and tear (and that was just from Daley Thompson's Decathlon).  I still owned it (and it still worked, miraculously)  up until the late 90s, when, like a great many other 8-bit computer owners I'm sure, I was told by my Mum that "You've moved out of my house, can you now shift all of  your old junk, please, thanks very much?".  At the time I was living in a small starter home and, despite (I'm sure) an understanding wife, had nowhere to stow my Spectrum and its games and so had to give them away  - my loss was Warnham Church jumble sale's gain (and some lucky proto retro gamer, no doubt).

The collection in full (well, as it was a couple of weeks ago, anyway...)

Fast forward 12 years (and two house moves) and I'd been thinking about buying a Spectrum again for a while. Not a rubber-keyed wonder - I fancied getting a 128K version, so I could give those larger games I'd missed out on back in the 80s a go. Most Spectrum games were only available on magnetic tape and, as I've not had a tape recorder for about 15 years, I decided to go for a 128k +2 , which came with a built-in tape recorder. This machine was produced after Amstrad bought out Sinclair's computer range in the mid 80s and has a passing familial resemblance to Amstrad's earlier  CPC464, bar the numeric pad.

Best. Joystick. Ever.

The 15-year old me actively disliked Baron Hardup-esque businessman, the-then Sir Alan Sugar for his buying out seemingly friendly*, if slightly inept at business, inventor Uncle Clive Sinclair. In that young man's eyes, I've probably sold out by getting an Amstrad machine (even the copyright message when you boot up is 'Amstrad', rather than 'Sinclair Research Ltd' [sniff]). Still - and you'll have to take my word for this - the 15-year old me really talked a load of old cobblers.

Beyond made some absolute classic games

Over the past few months, I've been harvesting eBay for the cream of Spectrum releases from the 80s and 90s. I'd initially decided to only buy great games that I'd not owned or played back in the 80s, such as  Elite, for example, or maybe 128k versions of games either not available (or hosting cut-down, inferior versions) on my old 48k machine (like 128k-only Where Time Stood Still, or the 128k version of Glider Rider). However, over the weeks after my initial purchase of the 128k, I became aware of games that I'd not known about back in the 80s, or that were released after I stopped playing an active interest in the scene (around 1987/88). The fabulous online resource at www.worldofspectrum.org lists thousands of Spectrum games and links to contemporaneous reviews and, through that, I discovered (and subsequently bought on eBay), a number of great games that I'd never heard of before.

I'm a fan of 2000AD, but these games (box-art apart), aren't much good

And that brings us to another question - are these actually great games, or am I playing them for nostalgia reasons alone? I'd be lying if I said nostalgia played no part in my enjoyment of these games but, equally, there are some Spectrum games that are intrinsically great games, regardless of the era. I would argue that their relative simplicity is present in many successful iOS games, though with the Spectrum this simplicity was caused by constraints of the system, rather than the input control method, or the throwaway (given the price points) of many iOS games. Games like Green Beret, Skool Daze, Batman, Bobby Bearing (a sequel to which is available on iOS), Gyroscope, West Bank and many others are still very enjoyable to play.

In any era, these games originally developed by Gargoyle, would be considered excellent

One of the things I found surprising in my trawl through eBay was how many games associated with later, more powerful systems, were also released on Spectrum. Games like Smash TV, Lemmings, Sim City were all developed for the Spectrum (and now owned by me). I suppose this is similar to how games like FIFA or the Harry Potter games were released on PS1 and PS2, long after the focus of mainstream gaming had moved on to subsequent generations. And for the same reasons - if there are gamers gaming on them, there's money to be made for publishers from selling games to them.

Another facet of  late-era Spectrum gaming, was budget-priced re-releases

It has been great to see the works of long-standing names from the UK games industry, which disappeared in the 90s, again.  Chief among those was Ocean Software, a UK behemoth in the 80s, that  was bought out (like another great old developer, Gremlin Graphics) in the 90s.  Great Bob Wakelin artwork on many of their games, they were best known for licensed games (films and arcade games), though my favourite of their games was an original IP, Match Day (if football games can be considered original).

A small selection of the games Ocean released in its life

For the last few generations platform holders have exercised a degree of control over game cases. Other than special edition steelbooks, game cases are pretty uniform. Even big limited editions will generally have a DVD-style 'normal' box secreted in them somewhere. In the Spectrum era there was no such control and boxes of all shapes and sizes were released, from sensible single cassette boxes to big ugly VHS-rental style boxes.  I was surprised, particularly having become used to this uniformity, of how many different styles of cases there were, even in the small selection of the over 10,000 games released on the system that I have purchased.

There are some fugly boxes there

Sports games have always been big business, dating back to the minimalist look of Pong and the Spectrum was also graced with some great sports games (the hours I put into Match Day...). Sports games, like driving games, rarely date well, even between single generations, and that is certainly the case for the Spectrum sports games I've picked up and shown below. Definitely a 'nostalgia only' section of my new;y-obtained collection (I'll own up to still loving Match Day though - nostalgia rules).

Sir Trevor Brooking  was my childhood hero; I had no idea he'd lent his name to a game :)

I've really enjoyed bidding on, winning, owning and playing on my new Spectrum collection and, while I've slowed down my purchasing over the last couple of months - I've got most of the games that I really want now - I think that I'll be scouring eBay for a while yet.  My postie delivered my factory-sealed (though not for long - games are for playing) copy of Sim City only yesterday (together with Solomon's Key, Cybernoid II and Trap Door)  - I'm sure there are plenty more  great Spectrum games out there.  Time to log onto eBay again.

Such quality here

* maybe not completely friendly (if you're Acorn's Chris Curry), though 'fucking buggering shitbucket' is one of my all-time favourite insults http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2009/oct/09/micro-men-sinclair-curry

Dynamite Dan II - ZX Spectrum/iOS

As it says in my bio, I've been playing games since 1983, when I received the seminal UK micro, ZX Spectrum, for Christmas. Back then, it seemed like every other game was a platformer of one kind or another and two of the best were the Dynamite Dan games, programmed by Rod Bowkett and released on the Mirrorsoft label. They are now also available in iOS versions - the first game is available as part of the Spectaculator Spectrum emulator app and the second game is a 69p in-app purchase in that app or for the same price as a standalone game (the photos here are from the latter app).

The second of the two DD games, Dynamite Dan II: Dr Blitzen and the Islands of Arcanum, was one of my favourite games on the system (which is saying something on a system that had 10,000 games released for it over its lifetime).

On iPad, the lower half of the screen is given over to the joystick/fire button

It was a flip-screen platformer, set across the titular Islands of Arcanum. In true 80s computer game style, there was a hokey, probably tacked on, plot linking all the onscreen action together. Series bad guy, Dr Blitzen, was enslaving the youth of the world by putting subliminal messages into vinyl pop singles (possibly commentary on the mid-80s rise of the PWE stable of singers? Or probably not...). You have to shut this evil enterprise down by - of course - finding a record on each of the islands and then playing it on the Island's jukebox, before grabbing a jerrycan of petrol to refuel your airship to travel to the next island.

In the 80s, that use of colour on Spectrum was like witchcraft

DDII featured a lot of innovative elements that are still being used in games today - health bar rather than lives, different coloured baddies having a different effect (e.g. a magenta enemy, when touched, would remove fuel (also magenta) from your inventory; a white enemy removing white bombs and so on); different enemy designs on different islands; secret passages that were only available if a particular object was held - which bears testament to its forward-looking approach. It also had - for a BEEP-y Spectrum, anyway - great sound.

The car park island.  As far as I got in the 80s

In common with pretty much all games of this era, it was insanely difficult - I only ever got to the sixth of the eight islands when playing on Spectrum in the 80s and I played it *a lot*. Back then, once you died, the player would have to go back to the very beginning of the game, to island 1 (very frustrating when you'd been on island 6). That type of game dynamic is unacceptable in the molly-coddled world of 21st Century gaming (thankfully) and the iOS version allows the player to manually save as they go along. Saves games can be reloaded after each (inevitable) death, making the game much easier (but still not easy) to complete.

As a result of playing the app I have now discovered, 25 years after I'd originally played the game, that the game is impossible to complete as envisioned in the instructions! Those instructions state that, on the last island (The Pressing Plant) after the record has been played on the jukebox, Dan must find a bomb and plant it in Dr Blitzen's (Pete Waterman's?) office, in order that the Doctor's nefarious plans cannot resurface. I played the record, found the bomb and what I took to be Blitzen's office (gold records on the the wall) but there's no way of planting or detonating it! I did wonder if I was doing something incorrectly but after a quick look around the internets, I saw it confirmed that the game could not be fully completed. I don't blame the programmer, Rod Bowkett, for who DDII was to be his last game before becoming a full-time musician/sound designer. He must have struggled considerably to put such game as there is into the Spectrum's 48k. No, I blame Mirrorsoft owner and pension-plunderer, Robert Maxwell. Just, y'know, because...

Rod Bowkett still has a public profile now (no mention of DD, sadly). It would be great if premier old games magazine 'Retro Gamer' could interview him regarding these games (and why the ending never made it into the finished game).

This screen features a VERY annoying shortcut

Despite the anti-climax at the game's end, it is still a very playable and enjoyable game, even today - I was playing DDII on iPad in preference to playing on my PS Vita while my family was watching The Voice - and great value for money. After 'completing' DDII, I found myself top of the worldwide Game Center leaderboard for the game, the first time I've been top of anything. Admittedly, there are only 33 entries in the leaderboard but still...

Retro corner - Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Gamecube)

I received Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door as a Christmas present shortly after  it was first  released some years ago.  I completed it at the time and thought it was one of the best games I'd played in years.  Engaging characters and locations, excellent graphics and spot-on gameplay, coupled with a genuinely funny script.

Such is the speed of the  progression of games technology, games that were thought ground-breaking when released, or of having eye-popping graphics, a few years later can play like the Burnley back four and look like Shane MacGowan after a night on the town.  I think videogames' speed of change is unique in popular culture - it took years before people realised the Charlie Chaplin's films were dreadful, for example  - and there's always the risk, when returning to an old favourite, that it's not actually that good.  I loved Gran Turismo on PS1 when it was released (an engagement present from my wife!) and the graphics blew me away; going back to it today is like someone has thrown grit into your eyes.

I've recently played through Paper Mario TTYD again, this time in tandem with my daughter, and there was no such problem as it had stood the test of time very well, both with the graphics (which look better, to me, than those in the Wii update, Super Paper Mario) and in gameplay (similarly, better than the update).

Paper Mario TTYD is an RPG with turn-based battles, itself a follow up to the N64 game Paper Mario (and kind-of a progression from  Super Mario RPG on SNES).  It also shares a lot in common with the 3 Mario & Luigi games on GBA and DS.  RPG staples such as amassing experience/levelling up, equipping status-altering items (known as 'badges' in the game), wandering monsters and accumulating party members are all present but with none of the po-facedness often present in RPGs.

Mario finds out the hard way that Peach is a Twilight fan

The 'Paper' of the title refers to Mario's (and everyone else in the gameworld) status as, well, 2D paper characters in a 3D world (appropriate, given Mario's 2D origins, I suppose).  As the game progresses, Mario gains powers (or 'curses', as they are referred to), to utilise  his 2D shape to turn into, among other things,  a paper dart, a tube and a boat.  Each curse allows Mario to reach previously inaccessible areas.  Additionally, as the game goes on, Mario collects a motley band of characters to join his party, each with unique powers (only one fights alongside Mario at any one time though) that need to be used to solve puzzles and also to access new areas.

It probably won't come as a surprise to read that the story revolves around Princess Peach being kidnapped.  Not by Bowser though - the big bad this time around is called Lord Crump, who has an army of X-Nauts but, to be honest, if you read that as 'Bowser' and 'army of Koopas', you would have a good idea of their role in the story. Bowser does appear, sometimes as a (giant) playable character,  as a kind of comic relief.  And 'comic' is the right word to use - as I said above, Paper Mario TTYD is genuinely, laugh out loud, funny.  Whoever did the translation from the Japanese original did an excellent job.

Rogueport - you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.  No, wait a second - that's somewhere else

The game is a bit of a slow starter - there's far more 'Press 'A' to continue' than active gameplay in the first hour or so - as the storyline is laid before the player.  This revolves around the Thousand-Year Door of the title and how it imprisons a demon who, a thousand years ago,  despoiled Rogueport, the town that acts as the game's hub.  Lord Crump wants to open it and Mario, aided by his band, wants to keep the demon locked up.  This being a Mario game, this involves  collecting stars, with both sides trying to get  the seven available.

Both my  playthroughs took around 48 hours - this is a long game - but is well worth the effort.  As I said in my introduction, this time around I played it with my daughter (following up our play through of the N64 Paper Mario on Wii Virtual Console) and she thoroughly enjoyed it, often badgering me to play it with her (on occasion, waking me up to do so). After initially being upset - there were tears -  that Paper Mario TTYD had different party members than its predecessor, she quickly became engrossed in the story and in the new characters.  Like any Mario game though, don't be put off by the cartoon visuals - it is not an easy game - and a young child would have difficulty in playing it solo (I did all the battling).

It didn't sell many copies back in the day - an RPG on a not particularly successful console isn't going to set any sales records in Europe - but it is reasonably simple to pick up a copy on eBay, usually for around £20.  As with all Gamecube games, it can be played on the Wii and is easily better than 95% of all games released on that console to date (and I'm being charitable to the Wii with that proportion).  After all, what would you rather spend £20 on - Paper Mario TTYD or Just Dance?

No, Iceland - we said send us your CASH

I've always quite liked Lava levels in games - Mario's had a few, in platformers and karts, as has Crash and Ratchet & Clank. They can have lovely, intricate lighting effects and an attention-focussing 'imminent death-ness' about them.

Lava and, particularly,  ash, in the real world, however, royally suck.  This weekend I was due to fly to Belfast for a Gaming Weekend with a friend. I think I've said before that, as good as Xbox Live multiplayer is, it is no substitute for trash-talking, junkfood-eating local multiplayer.  In the olden days, local multiplayer (aka playing with your mates after school) was the only way to play videogames with friends.  These days (the 'new-den days', as my daughter calls them) Xbox Live multiplayer is undoubtedly more convenient  and my opportunities for the local variety, other than with my daughter (and smack-talking a 7-year old would probably be considered bad form) are few and far between.

So, this weekend, after weeks of planning,  we were all set up - 

The best laid plans........

Only problem - an Icelandic volcano that hadn't erupted for two hundred years. All flights grounded in UK airspace and my bags resolutely left standing in my hall. I blame Bowser - he was always a fan of lava.  Arrgh.

A packed bag, never to be used.  Can you feel the pathos?

So, we had to resort to Xbox Live and the Splinter Cell Conviction co-op missions, where we learnt that I truly suck at stealth games.

ZX Spectrum travel card holder!

My Oyster (touch-in - touch-out London Transport payment system) card holder fell apart a couple of weeks ago and I found the ideal replacement, pictured below, in the adverts at the back of Retro Gamer magazine.  Transport for the 21st Century (though that is a bit of a stretch for parts of the Tube network), delivered by technology from the 1980s!

Available through www.retrogt.com.

Feel the power of its 3.5Mhz processor

For all your small plastic card holding needs

Retro corner - Super Mario Kart, a personal view

Super Mario Kart. Three words (hereafter referred to as SMK) that probably stole more hours of my life, over as long a span of time, as any other game.

Picture the scene. November 1993, in a tiny indie game store in Old Bethnal Green Road in the heart of London's East End. Sunken-cheeked crones, pearly kings, tousled-haired urchins and opium-addled drabs littered the street (there may be a degree of poetic licence here but - hey - it's my flashback). The shop was a stone's throw (from a particularly burly urchin, anyway) from my university hall of residence and £25's worth of birthday money was burning a hole in the pocket of my flatmate. He picked up the blue box of SMK, handed over the cash and going to bed at a civilised hour instantly became a thing of the past.

Not an exaggeration - we often played that 'one more Cup' until the dawn chorus was well under way, neither of us wanting to quit as a runner up. If I'd have put the hours into my degree that I put into that cartridge, I might have got a First.

SMK was essentially a horizontal-split-screen two-player game, where 8 Mario-universe characters in go-karts negotiated cartoon-style racing circuits, which featured a number of Mario themes. Two player was undoubtedly the focus of the game - in single player the screen was still split in two, with the lower half taken up with a side-on map, around which the karts raced. This map had no real purpose in the game and it was as if Nintendo had tagged on the single player as an after-thought. Maybe that was another example of Nintendo being ahead of the market?

SMK laid the foundations for all the Mario Karts that were to come in terms of structure. 8 karts (up to 12 by Mario Kart Wii), three cups - in order of difficulty Mushroom, Flower and Star - with Special Cup unlocked when the other three are completed. Each cup had five races, not the four of later versions (a weakness of those later versions, I think). Each race had 5 laps (cut to three now but I think the modern tracks are longer) and each cup had three difficulties, 50cc, 100cc and the unlockable 150cc. And that was pretty much it (well there was Battle Mode but I never really played that).

Written down, it doesn't seem that impressive but, as with all great games, that greatness was borne out by extended play. It was a game that rewarded skill. Unlike, say, the Wii version, you couldn't get a sequence of events that would allow a novice player to beat a veteran. When you were good at this game, you were 15 seconds ahead of the field - no blue shell levellers here.

The powersliding was possibly the best realised in the whole series. You could skim a corner so tightly that, on particular occasions, Lakitu the cloud-dwelling race marshal, could momentarily dance around your screen, convinced that you were in reverse, before you sped off, with a tenth of a second advantage over you opponent and with Lakitu eating strato-nimbulus (possibly).

My flatmate and I quickly built our own SMK lexicon, added to during extended play. 'Bowser poo','onions' (gold coins), 'Yoshi egg' and 'Luigi you cheating flashy bastard' were all used frequently. We even had a Cup victory song - 'Who wants to dance, who wants to sing, who's gonna be the flat Mario Kart King' (to the - mangled - tune of 'Who wants to be the Disco King', by The Wonderstuff). Particularly effective smacktalk when halfway around the final lap of a Cup's fifth race...... Sixteen years, two marriages and three children later, we still sing this song when we meet up and (to?) play SMK.

The game has stood the test of time, in two player anyway. It is probably the only game from that era that I still play regularly. Later versions have been easier - 3 laps instead of 5, respawning item boxes, Cup progression without a top 4 finish, rubber banding, blue bloody shells - but probably more playable for a beginner. I think, in what some might think as heresy, that all things considered, SMK isn't the best all-round version of the game. I love Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart DS and they have, arguably, surpassed the original, in that the single player game is better realised and there's online play. When it comes to local multiplayer though, against a player of a similar skill level, SMK still reigns supreme.