ZX Spectrum Golden years — Part II
1987
Five years on from the launch of the Spectrum the next wave of serious competition arrived. From one direction came the Sega Master System and Nintendo Entertainment System, two games consoles which had been very successful in America and the Far East for a few years and were now being launched in Europe. The price of the games from the new consoles were three times the price of Spectrum games, but the advanced graphics and sound combined with fast load times were very tempting.
From the other side came the next generation of computers, the Commodore Amiga and the Atari ST, offering arcade quality graphics and sound. They were launched a couple of years back and initially very expensive. By the end of 1987, their prices had dropped into the top end of the home computer price range, and their games markets were starting to blossom as a result.
Trying to refresh the spectrum line of computers Amstrad launched the +3 in 1987. This had a 3” disk drive built in and an upgraded version of BASIC complete with a new operating system, +3 DOS . Unfortunately the +3 never really took off, the disks were much more expensive than tapes and it was mainly taken up by power users for whom tape storage didn’t meet their needs.
The Spectrum games were starting to reach their peak. The influence of the more powerful 16-bit machines also made developers look for new ways to excite the player, leading to an increasing use of larger and more detailed and colorful graphics.
Trantor is a good example of developers trying to impress the players with amazing graphics although the gameplay was severely limited in this case.
Best games of 1987
Head Over Heels — made by Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond, became the definitive isometric 3D game. It was very ambitious and included lots of devious puzzles, many screens to explore, and two distinctive characters for the player to control; each with their own special abilities. Heels was fast, but couldn’t jump, Head could jump but was slow but you could also combine them and use their abilities together in a complementary way. Head Over Heels is an unmissable adventure filled with charm and great ideas.
Batty — although it is clearly inspired by Arkanoid, it was developed in such a way as to make the most of the ZX spectrum. It had solid level design, the visuals were bold, chunky and very colorful. There were plenty of cool powerups and on top of everything it had a fantastic simultaneous two-player mode.
In 1987, programmers had a wealth of experience with the 8-bit wonder and were eager to get started with full 3D, which was not an easy task considering the computational power of the processors of the time. Incredible programming tasks that would chart the way forward were hit and as best examples we have:
The Sentinel — is a wonderfully abstract and creepy puzzle game. The visuals were stunning, with solid-filled 3D graphics. In order to handle the solid polygons you can only look around the environments but can’t freely explore them. You manipulate near objects to build another frame. Ultimately the player would gain enough height to absorb the level’s Sentinel, replace him, and progress to the next level.
Leaderboard — revolutionized golf games with filled 3D vector graphics. A great game coded by Jim Bagley of Cabal and the Spectrum Next fame. The game took a 3D view of each hole and included some nice scenery such as trees aligning the fairway as well as course hazards such as bunkers. It included features like being able to ‘hook’ or ‘slice’ your shots, the use of a proper full set of clubs and varying gusts of winds.
Driller — is one of the best Spectrum games ever. It introduced Freescape an early 3D game engine. The Freescape engine allowed the generation of complete 3D environments composed mostly of solid geometry . It took the evolution of 3D graphics on the ZX Spectrum one stage further and used them to form a true 3D arcade adventure.
Starstrike II — is another excellent and groundbreaking first-person space shooter, with impressive “filled” polygons. Starstrike II is much more varied than the first game too, and really pushes the ZX Spectrum to the limits.
It’s still a fairly basic shoot’em , but is still very enjoyable and well worth playing even now.
Arcade Conversions
Bubble Bobble — was one of the finest examples of cooperative gameplay. The game features Bub and Bob two cute bubble blowing dragons who jump around single-screen levels, capturing a wild variety of weird creatures inside their mouth-blown bubbles. Players had to be quick to pop these bubbles before the creatures escaped, and clear the level within a tight time limit. A host of power-ups and special items appeared on the screen. Playing Bubble Bobble is always fun and the quality of its Spectrum conversion is top notch.
Solomon’s Keys — is a platform game with both action and strategy elements. On each level your goal is to retrieve a key which can then be used to unlock the exit within the right time limit. Wandering around each level are a variety of enemies which will cause you to lose a life if you’re caught. Another perfect arcade conversion for the ZX spectrum aficionados.
Out Run — had made driving games the coolest kids on the arcade floor and topping its Ferrari-powered awesomeness would be extremely difficult.
Out Run’s speccy conversion was as good as anyone can expect but without the speed and
thrills of the arcade.
Flying Shark — is a top-down shooter developed by Toaplan and published by for the arcades Piloting a biplane, the player takes out enemy land, air, and naval craft across various environments. Certain waves of enemy airplanes produce bonuses when shot down, such as powerups, point bonuses, and extra lives. The game has five stages and then it loops from stage two indefinitely. The conversion to the ZX spectrum was handled by the excellent Graftgold team and aside from a few issues with the graphics (the enemy bullets sometimes blended into the background) it was a very good game for shoot em up fans.
Next : The ZX Spectrum golden years — Part III https://medium.com/p/c4fa1d17215b
