Pacman's Partyzone
Games
ZX Spectrum
Released in 1982 this mighty powerhouse of processing was the first mainstream home computer to hit the market in the UK.
Running at 3.5Mhz and boasting a choice of a whopping 16/48/128k of memory this collection of silicon chips could actually do colour.
Remembered best for the rubber keyboard and rainbow motif, it evolved into many improved versions with many add-on expansions.
In 1985, Sinclair Research sold their computer range to Amstrad.
Software wise, like most of the home computers released in the 80s, programmes were distibuted originally via cassette tape. Games like Rebelstar and Jet Set Willy were Spectrum Favourites
Commodore 64
Coming soon
BBC Micro
My Dad bought one of these in 1983 (I think). Back in the good (bad) old days of loading games by tape. What fun that was, thank heavens for technological progress. Do you remember if you had a bad tape deck with misaligned heads you would constantly get 'Data? Rewind Tape' messages?
After spending 30 minutes loading in a game, you accidentally press the Break key after 5 minutes, its a surprise that most of them didn't end up flying out the open window.
The best part about the BBC was typing in games published in magazines such as The Micro User and then spending weeks debugging them. No really. Hands up who has made the mistake of typing in 1000 lines of assembly language, then running it before saving it? (This made it impossible to then save and you had to start again) It was far funnier watching your grandfather turning the computer off at the wall before your elder brother could save the several hundred lines of code he had just typed in.
They were built by Acorn Computers Ltd for the BBC computer literacy project. Although 12 models were built the first four are the models we refer to as BBC Micro. The latter 8 contained the Master and Archimedes series.
The Beeb was release late 1981, and was particularly popular in education and the UK as a whole. Demand exceeded supply. Eventually over a million units were sold.
The original Model-A had 16K of memory, the Model-B (which we had) a gargantuan 32K running a 6502 CPU at 2Mhz. The BBC effectively ran at 4Mhz due to the memory being clocked twice as fast
Acorn Electron
I got one of these for Christmas in 1986, and gradually got it added to with the plus-one expansion module and a disk drive with the P.R.E.S. Advanced plus 3 in subsequent years.
Released in 1983 as a cheap sibling to the BBC Micro, it was designed to compete with the ZX spectrum and Commodore 64 as a gaming computer. Eventually, sales for games on the Electron outstripped that of the BBC Micro.
It did have one advantage over the Beeb, each key on had a shortcut for BBC Basic commands which made typing in games much faster. It didn't make debugging any better though. I learnt to program in BBC Basic on my Electron, what a stimulating youth I had.
The electron had the 6502A CPU and 32KiB of RAM. Due to the sharing of memory with the video circuits it ran at 0.5897 Mhz and often more complex games had to load data into the video part of the memory which had the odd effect of displaying random colours on the screen around the gaming window.
The expansion units did allow the Advanced Disc Filing System to be used, which was an improvement on the BBC's original Disc Filing System.
Dragon 32
Coming Soon
Oric 1
Coming Soon
Amstrad CPC64
Coming Soon
Soda Stream
Coming soon
Games
Jet Set Willy
Coming soon
Elite
Bollocks to Sonic and Mario, in the face of Gordon Freeman and up the ass of Lara Croft as, frankly, this was the best game ever written. The wireframe graphics of this space shoot em up trading game pushed the envelope as far as computers could go in the first half of the eigthies. Start with nothing, trade your way up and arm your ship to the back teeth, and go pirate hunting. I made it to the rank of Elite twice, which was a whole lot of killing. Eight galaxies with hundreds of worlds, how did they cram that into 32k of memory? (I know the answer to this but its a bit sad) Written by David Braben & Ian Bell (not the sherminator lookalike cricketer) it was release by Acornsoft in 1984 for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron, eventually being ported to other computers. View Screenshot
Asteroids
The original Asteroids was released by Atari in 1979, the object was to shoot and destroy asteroids and UFOs by rotating and thrusting forward (no reverse gear)with your tiny triangle of a ship. The simplest of games with only 4 keys needed (5 if you count the hyperspace button), and stupidly addictive.
Your ship would be destroyed if you hit an asteroid or one of its fragments, or were blasted out of the sky by one of the UFOs with the annoying sirens.
I loved the way the screen wrapped round, with an asteriod drifting off one edge and back on the opposite - made the game more challenging. The hyperspace button was annoying though, you would always reappear in the path of a faster moving asteroid and was more of a liability than a help. The perfect Hyperspace button would take you far away from any asteroid field or hostile UFOs.
Asteroids was so popular that video arcade owners usually had to install larger boxes to hold all the coins this machine raked in.
View Screenshot
Visit the Atari website and play the game
Pac Man
If you think about it PAC-Man was some crazy shit. You run around a maze dodging ghosts eating pills endlessly without ever gaining weight until you eat a special pill at which point you then start chasing the ghosts; the hunted becomes the hunter.
It wouldn't surprise if the creator came up with the idea while high on LSD and intended it to be some sort of euphamism on dropping pills. Who knows, who cares?
What we ended up with was an iconic, original and addictive addition into the annals of history. Computers are here to stay and this was one of the things that helped form their popularity.
Later on a bow was added to the cheese cake shaped idol and repackaged as Ms Pac Man; lo and behold, an all new game. Do I sound sarcastic?
Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga........
View Screenshot
Galaga (Zalaga)
An updated and snazzier version of space invaders and sequel to Galaxian, Galaga was a scrolling shoot 'em up. Your enemies, this time various bug type creatures would conveniently line up for the obligatory mayhem as you blasted them with your mighty rocket. Inconveniently they would take it in turns to swoop down on you in kamikaze style runs while dropping bombs. They would then disappear off the bottom of the screen before magically reappearing at the top. Thank god the buggers couldn't figure out how to leave via the top and attack you from the bottom.
The added feature of this version was that the 'Daddy' bugs could capture your ships with a tractor beam. You could then kill said 'Daddy' bug and recover it, thereby having two rocket ships on the go at once. Every four levels there would be a challenge stage, where the alien bugs would form up without attacking the player. It was a bit like shooting fish in a barrel (which I've never tried BTW, is it as easy as its meant to be?).
When ported to the BBC Micro this game was named Zalaga.
View Screenshot
Donkey Kong
This all time classic was brought to us in 1981 by Nintendo, and was the first outing of the mustachioed short-arse Mario; he was originally called Jumpman, not for his willingness to risk life and limb for a byte of action from the damsel in distress of the piece, but because he could jump....over barrels thrown by an angry ape with issues.
Donkey (or Mr Kong), is mistreated by Mario in some undisclosed manner, escapes and kidnaps his girlfriend, Pauline. Mustachio then goes on his rescue mission, which involves dodging fire, leaping barrels, climbing ladders, riding elevators, and running up sloping platforms; oddly fearing nothing of an ape four times his size who could rip him limb from limb if they went manno y apo.
So, the name? I get the Kong reference, but why Donkey? At least it was enough to fight off a lawsuit by Universal Studios (who made King Kong). There is a common urban myth that he was due to be named Monkey Kong but was misintepreted due to a blurred fax.
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Commando
A really difficult and really bad game released in 1985 undoubtedly cashing in on hit movies such as Rambo and like-named Commando.
Dropped off in the jungle you scroll upwards with grenades and your gun with unlimited bullets shooting everything wearing a German National Socialist uniform (which seemed a little out of place). Upon reaching the end of a level you would then defeat millions of soldiers streaming out of their fortress, before being able to shoot the cowardly officer in the back. Call me cynical, but surely the point of a fortress is to stay inside and defend?
The Commodore 64 version of the games was programmed in less than 12 hrs. The game itself was thought out in less than 2 seconds.
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Bomb Jack
Coming soon
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1942
Coming soon
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Frogger
Coming soon
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Yie-Ar Kung Fu
An absolute gem, much more fluid and playable than The Way Of The Exploding Fist, the other 'fight' game of the time.
You are Oolong, raining Kung-Fu pain on the asses of up to 13 different adversaries (depending on your version of the game) with your bare knuckle style. You could jump, kick and punch in multiple ways, your opponents mostly used weapons to hurt you, cowards.
Being dished the beats by you were such mugs like, Buchu, a fat sumo wrestler, Nuncha (nunchucks), Pole (not the eastern european type) who fought with a ... pole, Chain (swinging a mighty chain), Fan (throwing steel fans), Sword and Feedle (Multiple attackers).
Better versions of the game had quite good backgrounds to fight against. The BBC version always crashed at random moments, so even if you did well you were lucky to reach the higher levels.
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