magazine

dizzY
1991 spellbound
the
1992 turbo tortoise
DEVELOPER: Big red Software GENRE: adventure DEVELOPER: viSual iMpact GENRE: platforMer
Owners of 48K models needn’t
have worried about Ocean’s
decision to overlook them as most
publishers continued to support the
original machine. This was particularly
true of the budget publishers who began
to pick up the slack as the number of
full-price releases noticeably declined.
Codemasters was the king of budget
publishers and Dizzy was its prince. This,
the fifth in the main Dizzy series, was his
biggest adventure yet with 105 screens in
total (the original Dizzy had 52 screens in
comparison). It was also one of the best in
the series, featuring some strong puzzles
and fun sequences including a mine cart
ride. It was best played on a 128K machine
as it included AY music and extra character
animations, but the whole adventure
run perfectly on the standard 48K
iteration of the Speccy.
This year also saw a couple of
high-profile 16-bit releases ported
down to the Spectrum in Lemmings and
North & South. Both were decent versions
and showed that the Speccy was still a
viable platform for the latest hits.
Another year where budget titles
outshone full-price releases. Ocean’s
Space Gun and The Addams Family were
pretty solid, as was US Gold’s Indiana
Jones And The Fate of Atlantis, but the big
publishers were clearly focusing on the
16-bit market now. Codemasters was still
reliably cranking out budget games like
Captain Dynamo and Wild West Seymour,
yet it was this brilliant little platformer
from Hi-Tec Software that stood out.
Turbo The Tortoise was obviously riffing
heavily on Sonic The Hedgehog, although
the game had more in common with
Super Mario Bros. in terms of gameplay
and presentation. As Turbo, you bounded
through six horizontally-scrolling stages,
disposing of baddies by jumping on their
heads (or shooting them with a handy
gun). Waiting at the end of each stage was
a large boss which you had to defeat, and
there were a number of bonus levels to
find, too. Turbo The Tortoise was release
twice – first by Hi-Tec, which went bust
soon after, before being picking up and put
out again by (guess who…) Codemasters.
1993
dalek attack
DEVELOPER: 221B Software
GENRE: platforMer
In the UK releases reduced to a trickle this year. The
titles were Nigel Mansell’s World Championship from
Gremlin and this, Alternative’s long-awaited Doctor Who
game (which was due out in 1992 but kept slipping).
Bizarrely it was a run-and-gun platformer but it was fast
and mostly fun. Dalek
Attack was the last
game to feature on the
cover of Your Sinclair
magazine which closed
this year, along with
Sinclair User.
1996
of prince persia
DEVELOPER: entropy
GENRE: platforMer
This story behind the belated release probably needs its
own article. Having converted Jordan Mechner’s hit game
to the SAM Coupe, the programmers shopped around a
Spectrum port in 1993 but there were no takers due to
the shrinking market. Three years later this version was
somehow acquired and sold commercially in Russia! It
really is a great version of a classic game, and such a
shame it wasn’t put out properly in 1993.
1994 towdie
DEVELOPER: the Balara BrotherS
GENRE: adventure
While the Spectrum was effectively finished in the United
Kingdom, this was not the case elsewhere. Ultrasoft,
from the former Czechoslovakia, continued to release
commercial titles in Central Europe, including the
puzzle game Quadrex and the arcade adventure Towdie.
Although heavily indebted to the Dizzy series (of where
there were many unofficial mods), Towdie was a
great-looking game in which you played a tiny troll on a
mission to slay a dragon.
1997
black raven
DEVELOPER: copper feet
GENRE: real-tiMe Strategy
The Spectrum remained hugely popular in Eastern
Europe and there was strong demand for new software.
This RTS game from Russian developer Copper Feet
was definitely not Stonkers, being based instead on
Warcraft. Despite the monochrome graphics, it played
really well and was
popular enough to
spawn a mission
disk and an isometric
sequel (which sadly
never progressed
beyond a demo).
1995 twilight
DEVELOPER: ultraSoft
GENRE: point-and-click adventure
Subtitled Land Of Shadows, this was another impressive
release from Ultrasoft that successfully implemented
a point-and-click adventure on the Spectrum. You play
an astronaut returning to a barren Earth in the distant
future. It doesn’t feature too many locations and can be
finished quickly, but
it was an admirable
achievement. A
version of the
game with the text
translated into
English was later
released.
1998 headball
DEVELOPER: Zx MaSterS
GENRE: SportS
This was a fairly lean year in Spectrum land with just a
steady flow of Russian games to keep things ticking over.
The highlight of the year’s output was this entertaining
sports game from ZX Masters. Featuring nice chunky
sprites and colourful animated backdrops, two players
headed a ball (and later a bomb!) back and forth over a
net, trying to keep it in the air for as long as possible. Not
sophisticated, but a lot of fun – with some nice AY tunes.
48 | RETRO GAMER