Inspired by the Video game thread. My mind was cast back to the days of popping a tape in a player, waiting for half hour watching garish colours, and listening to horrible noises, only to be faced with the awful words
"syntax error"
Some people are too young, some people won't care, but it's an argument that has raged on for years, and even had a couple of my mates fighting once.
Spectrum or Commodore, which one are you?
SPECTRUM!
I can barely remember the Spectrum enough. I've still got one in the loft but it doesn't work.
So I'm going to have to say the Commodore, Ohhh the colours! I remember Dizzy, wow i really felt like an adventurer.
Commodore 64. My mate had a BBC (i think that's what it was called?). we'd spend hours playing football manager - basically three stick men playing up front for ipswich. oh yes.
then we progressed to elite.
I had Elite for the Acorn Electron. That was the "fun" BBC computer. Education and sh!t games - great.
God bless my mother, she thought she was helping me.
Repton was cool on it though
Commodore 64.
Loved it!
Specky. The variety of games far surpased the 64. Lunar Jetman, Orbiter, The Holy Grail, Lords of Midnight (Best Game Ever!!!!!)
I was lucky enough to have the ZX81, an Oric, a Sinclair Spectrum (a whopping 48k!), the Commodore Vic20 and C64... a BBC (Model B) and later the Atari 800XL...
Out of all of those early home computers, the Speccy is my fave (combined with the Quickshot II joystick, naturally!). And one of my favourite Speccy games was 'Manic Miner'... oh, and 'Jet Set Willy'! Mind you, 'Atic Atac' and 'JetPac' were brilliant too!
I collect the things now. Only in mint or near-mint condition though. I have an old Apple IIe as well as the stalwart Apple SE30... and the first Atari console (the 2600).
Curently looking for a decent ZX80, Jupiter Ace and Dragon32.
Hmmm... maybe I need to get out more!
Not all Darren, not at all.
My first comp was, as I mentioned, the Acorn Electron. I then got a second hand 48k rubber key, which later was replaced by the Spectrum + 2, which I'm sure you are aware had the revolutionary built in datacorder. No more changing the frequency thingy on tape players.
Got to agree with Rosco too. Your 64's had all the colours and graphics, but where was the soul?
Plus the speccy had cool mags like Crash! and Your Sinclair.
You can get all these on emulators to work on your PC.
Quote: Ginger Jesus @ July 11, 2007, 3:47 PMI had Elite for the Acorn Electron. That was the "fun" BBC computer. Education and sh!t games - great.
Nevermind playing, did anyone else spend time programming any games on it?
Quote: Leevil @ July 11, 2007, 5:19 PMYou can get all these on emulators to work on your PC.
Yeah... it just isn't the same though.
Quote: Aaron @ July 11, 2007, 9:26 PMNevermind playing, did anyone else spend time programming any games on it?
I'd sometimes type in all the machine code from one of the Speccy mags... it'd take blinkin' hours and all you got was a reeeeally bad platform or spacehip horizontal/shooter game. And in a lot of cases, it wouldn't work at all due to an untraceable typo in the magazine!
Quote: Aaron @ July 11, 2007, 9:26 PMNevermind playing, did anyone else spend time programming any games on it?
Yeah, you'd sit for hours typing out, it would tell you there's an error on a certain line, you'd look at it, and it'd be perfect! What do you do?
I think if I remember I made an N/S/E/W type adventure game, like the Hobbit once. It was shit.
And a little dragon thing I made once that I could run around an empty scree. Classic gaming.
Some top Games on the Spectrum that you may or may not remember (obvious classics aside)
Chaos (Anyone ever play this - Excellent multiplayer game, but very simple)
Lazer Squad
Silk Worm
Nemisis
Renegade/Target Renegade
Crikey... I don't recognise any of those! This means that there were gaps in my games library... damn!
Quote: Darren Goldsmith @ July 11, 2007, 4:53 PMOut of all of those early home computers, the Speccy is my fave (combined with the Quickshot II joystick, naturally!). And one of my favourite Speccy games was 'Manic Miner'... oh, and 'Jet Set Willy'! Mind you, 'Atic Atac' and 'JetPac' were brilliant too!
No spectrum was complete without a Quickshot!
I completed Manic Miner (I think?!?) But did you manage Jet Set Willy - That was a pretty big game if memory serves?
Quote: Darren Goldsmith @ July 12, 2007, 8:21 AMCrikey... I don't recognise any of those! This means that there were gaps in my games library... damn!
Seek them out!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Squad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Target_renegade
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_%28video_game%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silkworm_(arcade_game)
Ahah.. great links, Ta!
I did finish Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy too. JSW took ages though because, yes, it was a bloody HUGE game.... or at least it seemed so at the time. I think when they first released JSW, there was a prize of a holiday, for the first person to complete it.
Matthew Smith was a genius!
Here's a link to the Java version of the game:
http://www.mjwilson.demon.co.uk/jsw.html
You can opt for 'infinite lives' and 'fall from any height'... lol!