Kim Justice's Top 100 ZX Spectrum Games of All-Time

[Music] so hello everybody it's time for another top 100 and after the awesomeness of doing one on my favorite system the Mega Drive it feels right that I do one on my first system which is of course is in Claire's attic spectrum I got my spectrum back in 1989 1990 or so first system that I got and it is one that stuck with me forever since I kind of feel low for the most part with videos on the spectrum these days I've been kind of covering games like super gran or our feeder zone pits all the great space race games that don't necessarily show the system in a good light and so with this top 100 what I intend to do is show the best games of the spectrum the weird and wonderful selection that makes it a computer that almost stands entirely on its own now you'll probably find a lot of games here PAP's on necessarily the greatest not necessarily the most well known so I'm gonna kind of flat out weird but then that's kind of a consequence of the time that I go into the spectrum which was pretty late on in its life you're perhaps find a lot more one to 8k games here than you would in other lists but there's plenty of classics to be had and plenty of cool stories along the way so without any further ado let's do this so first up hats number 100 we have a game called American turbo King a budget title for master tronic is it a good game no really it's a perfectly okay top-down way so you do some jumps here and lay you trying to avoid getting blown up by helicopters and planes that are chasing you for some reason I've always cars that will blow you up and take one turns even and try not to take one turns although you can't really predict where you're going to go all the time it's not a great game but it's one that I played a lot back in the day and the same applies to number 99 a super stuntman another budget title from codemasters which is basically exactly the same game as American turbo King only this one came out first and is therefore Lee original and is their fully original so as far as cheap budget top-down racers go this one's better than American turbo King which is clearly Justin super stuntman repop both of these games are perfectly okay they're nothing to write home about but there were five minute distractions and you can't say better than that for $2.99 Kenya at number 98 we have Andy Capp for mirrorsoft this is one of those spectrum games where quite frankly you play it and you don't really have a much of an idea of what's even going on you play a zone dekap Lee cloth caps scrounger and wide boy who was in the pages of the mirror you have to avoid your wife either wise you'll get into a fight with her you have to avoid the cops because you'll probably get into a fight with them you have to find your gyro you have to put some bits on try and get into the pubs have a drink all sorts of stuff like that it's all very stereotypical 1980s stuff but it takes me back number 97 Biggles the secret weapon this is a based offer quite terrible UK film I believe that is also based off the classic comic featuring the dashing pilots you have several minigames in this one there's the main game where you pilot a biplane and try and bomb some stuff there's another game where you jump all over some buildings and try to avoid getting caught and then there's a kind of shooter game as well to go along with it as sort of one and gonna none of these games are particularly good but this was a game that I got for him totally free of them one of the cover tapes I think it was only your Sinclair one if memory serves me right and the cover tape wars with all the many games that used to come on the tapes every month was one of the big parts of my spectrum fandom so you'll find a lot of games like this one that unnecessarily great but I played them a lot because well I got them for free 720 degrees is at number 96 this is a arcade conversion by US colder I don't think it's a particularly well liked somebody is one that I enjoyed back in the day I've always had a soft spot for seven twenty years in arcade game you go and you try to avoid the Flies um do these little courses here and there some down hills some slalom some jump tracks gradually upgrade your skater Tony Hawk's it is not but it was a fine little bit of duderino action back in the days number 95 enduro racer now this is actually a really decent arcade conversion as far as the spec he goes this is a great little wonderful man Activision I think did this one obviously from the Sega arcade some people would probably write this one a lot Highland number 95 I think the only reason why it's kind of down here is because I'm terrible at injury so I can when you say anything bad about this game as far as specky arcade conversions go it's pretty top draw but I'm just kind of bad at this game but the quality of it the nice music and the actual conversion of the arcade game itself means the orcs have a place on the list at number 94 we have another master tronic budget game a game called angle ball angle ball is kind of a strange take on Pauling that you have this weird angular table and you have different combinations of the balls that you have to get down in a certain amount of tries try not to miss too many and so on and so forth if you've ever played the nice game lunar portal which is a perfectly good game this is kind of similar in that it's less of an actual pool game and more of a puzzle in how you actually get these balls down in time decent little game a nice effort from the shorts money it costs and so we move on to number 93 our first appearance out you know our second appearance from Codemasters in this list monte carlo casino it's a casino game you've got your blackjack you roulette craps yeah poker and your slot machine none of it is particularly special but this game does kind of have a place because I do think if I remember what the-- this might just have been the first spectrum game that's I played or at least the first one that I remember playing I certainly remember it being one that I got very early on again like a lot of Codemasters games it was a budget title you picked these games up from a corner shop he played cup liquid and this was definitely one of the first to them I think was even less or I don't know something like postman pat by alternative but that games terrible and this game is just an average casino game but those memories it been right up there as one of the first picky tiles I played gets a place on the list at number 92 we have booty often called a bit of a spooky classic in some circles this game by Firebird is a game where you play as a pirate sort of fellow you've smuggled your way on a ship and you've got to get the keys in a certain fashion to unlock the doors and get yourself as much booty as possible without being getting caught by any of the other swashbuckling sod so on the ship and it's a bit of nice arcade fun nothing that sets the world on fire but a very nice title screen mind you pretty nice though 48k an early time I think this is one of the first left Firebird or telecom soft or whatever you'd wish to call him I think this is one of their first ones that they ever released and it was a quite a hit back in the day if memory serves at number 91 Rockford Rockford is a it's a balderdash clone it's a border dash clone where you can play in four different worlds I think you've got a hunter you've got a chef you have a cowboy and you have another one it is a balderdash clone but it's the main balderdash game that I used to play on the spectrum there were a couple of others as well I suppose there was lost caves which was by players but that was more of them that was more of a rep Tom clone than a balderdash clone there was a lot of Rep Tom crowns on the Speccy this is more in the classic balderdash fashion and I remember this one because it was one that we used to play a lot as a family and my ax mum and dad used to enjoy the kind of balderdash style of play as well we had balderdash itself but we tended to play this a lot more than any official first star version of balderdash there there wasn't a spectrum so it has a place at number 90 we have our first appearance of dizzy on the list and it comes with quick snacks this is a kind of a puzzle game where you have to collect me various fruits that are around and you generally do this by pushing a lot of these sort of tiles about try and make sure you get rid of all the enemies because they will snap you off put it quickly if you don't and yeah then just try and click the fruit it's kind of fast-paced it's a 128 K game with pretty nice graphics and some decent speech samples which is something you often got the codemaster games you've got something that quick snacks actually surprisingly clear for the spectrum considering some of the other ones and yeah it's a fun little add-on to the dizzy series it's the first time we've seen him on this list and it will certainly not be the last at number 89 we have the curse of Sherwood's curse of Sherwood is a pretty good one it is one of those kind of games that you don't really get on many other places aside from the spectrum you could call it an arcade adventure in practice these games are often top-down the fierce and the often games where you run about and have kind of simple puzzles to solve and you kind of have to get your bearings like for a lot of the time you don't really know what you're doing until you kind of grasp like how to get around the sort of maze that this game gives you saberwolf by ultimate play the game a game which we most certainly will be seen later is one of the main examples in this his ultimate static attack as well this is not as good as those games but it's a perfectly good to the game of that sort that's not my ultimate perfectly fine number way to another game I used to play a lot as a kid another master tronic budget title wonks Street cop this is a game that you could play using even the light gun all your keyboard considering the quality of the speck you like gun it's probably better on the keyboard there's not much else to say about it other than it being just a bit of a fun shooting gallery but again I've played this a lot there were a lot of these budget games that pretty much no one probably knows anything about them now that I used to play and this is one of them and so it has to be in the top 100 it's got training sections it's got you know beating people in a robbery you know getting some hostages trying to avoid shooting old ladies in the face what more could you ask for from a rogue's gallery it's nice number 87 speaking of games where you don't necessarily know what you're doing design designs Dark Star is one of the more unique games on the system kind of a precursor in many ways to not less so the games like a Liva all those games like Captain Blood lower in set in space but really weird it's kind of free roaming with a shooter but there's also these squares that you kind of have to travel through layers planets that you have to liberate and there is that really weird laser sound do you get that that kind of like a commonly described is one of the weird and more more definitive sounds that you can find that as it expansion the main thing that probably anyone remembers it moves really fast for a 3d sort of a game on the spectrum as well one of those things that the spectrum actually did quite well when it came to like process and whatnot and for some people this is a classic and it's certainly in the top 100 number wait six how he attack by um Joelle I believe might just be one of the most basic shooters you can come across you dine one here it's written entirely in basic it's very very simple in how it plays in that you've only got a small gun and you've got enemies that kind of just follow you in a very direct fashion but this was a game that was played by a lot of people when it was released in what 1983-1984 it has a place in my heart I mean this is certainly again that when I play today I kind of think well it's not held up that well but it is one that that is definitely inspired a lot of other same as games like penetrates when I suppose but this is the one that I used to play whether than penetrator another way to five we have shockwave rider this is a mate's period game I believe by an FTL faster than light it's an interesting game it's another game that erm came for free off a cover tape it was this is probably about 1991 we're talking about this is a strange game basically you go around these tracks and you kind of have to keep jumping from track to track of wise you will get killed and you fold bricks at leas I mean the game says they're alien characters but to me they really just look like old ladies in motorbike helmets but you throw a brick at their face and kill them before they do the same to you fun little arcade game nice graphics for the system quite cartoony in its own way yeah I always find this to pull little game and again it's a game that almost nobody knows these days eighty-four hate this is a game by a gremlin and it's erm it's kind of a zaxon type of affair you have that isometric 3d type of you the Oh main gimmick here that differentiates it from something like Saxon is not only do you have a plane to fly around in but you also have a tank on the ground you pick up the various little beacons as you go from stage to stage and just try and avoid getting killed simple arcade fun something that the spectrum in the right hands did really well next up we have a couple of takes on the pac-man formula 83 Oh mummy is an often regarded as a classic of these sort of early spectrum days this take on the pac-man formula is all about wrist wart you've got your Explorer you go through the tombs you Traverse you know you circ what's the word I'm looking for that you go around each square you're looking for the mummy and you're looking for the key and you also looking for any other loops that you can find along the way it's a totally simple basic game but even though I've often said all this games were an entirely new basic there's a lot of cases where just because the game is written in basic doesn't mean it isn't very good and own mummy is certainly very good it has a nice arcade appeal so much so someone even we made it for the Mega Drive a few years back and so it's got an Aston appeal another way to is another game from my childhood and another appearance by dizzy fast food this take on the pac-man formula is a bit more traditional basically you play as dizzy you've got different fast food items to get you have to avoid some ghosts there's a more power-ups here than there would be in pac-man but you even get some little cutscenes in between every couple of stages the same as you would in pac-man and it has of course a classic Oliver twins voice sample for something like that speaking of the Oliver twins their first game for codemasters is in at number 81 super Robin Hood's dizzy hadn't really come into play yet but this game kind of set up Lee Oliver twins arcade adventure formula you've got various Finn's to collect you've got an hero with some fine animation and in this one you can actually shoot things being what I do you have a bow and arrow and you can certainly be shooting some of the bastards that you find along your way it was a very popular game one that kind of set me Ollie's stall out early as a pretty top developer on the spectrum which is most certainly what they would become one they sort of 1990 or so when they were responsible for I think they said about a third of this budget sales from the spectrum they did quite a lot and this was one of their first and number 80 we have Gries or obviously better known as contra you wouldn't think that the spectrum would have a decent version of grizzle or contra but this is actually a good arcade conversion it's pretty fast like the original there's nothing slow about it it actually Scrolls as well really nicely and you did not often get horizontal scrolling on the spectrum it's pretty intact there's no stages missing or anything like that you've got the horizontal stages and you've got the sort of third person stages as well you know you've kind of got all of contra stuff you've got in-game music and you've got decent play so really as far as the spectrum goes this is muddy got a conversion of grizzle it's obviously not as good as Vaness contra but it's good for the system the Oliver twins are back again at number 79 BMX simulator fast and furious game this there's a few games like this that the Oliver twins made Grand Prix simulator is one championship jetski simulator is another BMX simulator of those is the one that sticks out to me is it the weirdness of the bikes is it the actual really nice look of the stage as you know you've actually got the sort of ramps and hills and inclines there's a lot of things about this that I enjoy perhaps more so than the more basic Grand Prix simulator Warley kind of a bit too tiny jet ski game it's a good one you tend to crash a lot which can be annoying but I like it number 78 putt-putt the first game by Java Smith this is the one in that commercial breaks documentary you see a young Jaffa demonstrates here and he looks so afraid of the camera bless him but this is a good and weird game I think the main thing most people remember about this I mean is kind of just a basic action-adventure type game but you do have a lot of awesome joins as well you have you know Jaffa says our IP lis broken ZX spectrums that can of zap and all the different other weird creations that came from the mind of Jaffa and the game itself is not half bad either not his greatest he would certainly make better one but it's good we're going back to the Oliver twins yet again for number 77 AB first football simulator just another impression of the voice sample they're pinball effects this is not but this is the first pinball game that I ever played and the ball physics ours basic as they come the table is pretty damn basic as well makes Ness pinball look like pinball dreams but it's addictive as a lot of decent basic fast-paced pinball games are you know you just put this on and you're chill with it for ten minutes you probably won't beat it because there's some weird goals to do that are kind of annoying and hard so you know you might not bother with that but you'll certainly have fun with it for the short time that you get it and that's what you want however Codemasters budget title absolutely brilliant as they used to say for every freakin game they ever released at number 76 ping pong ping pong is probably mostly remembered for Lee in the music which had the own famous put plop engine which was created by Java Smith and sounded damn good on 48k and also the other sound effects they had the actual game itself is a fine conversion of a pretty basic and nondescript Konami arcade game which are actually Java tended to end up being involved with quite a lot he was involved with this one and obviously there's others that he programmed which we'll be seeing later the large static shouting at the end of every point is certainly something that a lot of people are familiar with people might find it quite annoying these days but when you're kind of used to just single-digit beeps something like this was a something that stood out from the crowd number 75 we have leaderboard and leaderboard a good classic relaxing golf simulator this is undoubtedly a game that's more famous on the commodore 64 but i used to play it quite a bit in the spectrum and it really came in a nice package you know you had almost anything you would need to get on an actual govern you had all the yardage and big maps of the course a sort of lovingly created back package for what is by nowadays standards a quite basic but actually still very playable golf game not bad at all number 74 another game that's would mostly be described as a classic saboteur and it is a classic it's moody it's dark it's got that kind of stealth nature about it and a lot of games where you float tend to end up throwing bricks to knock people now they tend to be pretty good there's always something satisfying about Rick in an enemy in the face and of course this game is made by one Colin Townsend and I'll never forget one time at play expo Blackpool having a cigarette with Colin and him and instead of talking about saboteur as most of people probably would with him we ended up talking about his work on the gamegear Canon version of wires of the robust so that's kind of how I know Colin spans in more than this legendary game that he created that was one of the most popular and most critically acclaimed spectrum games ever released but lovely guy and a damn good game number 73 flying shark another really solid arcade conversion a great little shoot-'em-up erm converted by graft gold but the only thing about this game that's not necessarily great is that you wish it kind of had a bit more in the way of music but still having all having said that the game is so playable and it certainly hits the spot a lot more than a lot of other shoot-'em-up if it's still on this system this is a really good one at number 72 we have rock man the first P person people might think when they see this game is Mike God is it garish seriously the colors are just so bright but once you get past that which may not be to everyone's taste first have a fine little sort of load 1s type game collect all the mushrooms and try not to die at the hands of any of the ghosts or skulls that are roaming about the place and again a game with a lot of nostalgia to me I think that this and Rockford both came on the same tape actually so Oxford was side a Walkman was side B two similar games for three pounds you can't go on and us as a family we love playing both for them so that's why Walkman really sticks out to me number 71 gremlins Jaclyn nipper Jaclyn if has such a cool concept you know it's one of those concerts you only really get on the ZX spectrum you play as a little baby and you have the chance to just be a total that's the whole point of the game you need to go around bother people break stuff leave your home cause all sorts of terror out on the road you're a little bastard and it's fun that's the whole point I'm sure if it's not necessarily a game that people would be running their hands over back in the day I'm surprised they didn't they think in all this is teaching kids to behave terribly but I hope no one really raised a stink Backlund maybe they would have now number seventeen quaza Tron positron that is a very interesting one again this was a game that I'm used to that would played on a cover tape back in the day and it was released again in an another your Sinclair one and it's basically the Commodore 64 version of paranoid paranoid in itself is generally regarded as a c64 classic and quasi Tron on the spectrum is kind of a similar game in many ways but also different in that you have the isometric setup and there's a bit more sort of well the graphics are much more uniquely spectrum you still have these strange fights that you have with the other droids that are prowling around the grounds and it is another one of those games where you kind of have to play a few tons to really know what the hell is going on but once you do you find something with a nice moody atmosphere and nice gameplay to go along with it number 69 cookie is the first appearance on this list from the almighty ultimate to play the game this is not one of their best known titles it's one of their earlier ones but it's it's a game that really shows off their arcade sensibilities like ultimate came from an arcade background even before they started doing ZX spectrum stuff and the game plane this is super simple you've got these bits of food flying around and you've got to shoot them into the bowl without getting all the other crap in there and it's really this is very playable like anyone can grasp light as a concept anyone can have fun with it it's bloody hard but it is one that you kind of possibly keep coming back to quite a lot number 68 we have the first proper dizzy title Prince of the okk folk this one is an interesting one because generally you'd think Prince of the OFI oak folk would be quite obscure it wasn't a game that at first was only released on something called the dizzy collection which was a collection of all the other dizzy tiles and then Prince of the oak folk came as an extra and yet surprisin if we'd be in something like that you'd think maybe it'd be like a bunch of scraps from other dizzy games it's actually a bloody really good dizzy game one of the better designed ones and one of the ones that's really kind of stuck out in people's minds over the years it did also get a port onto the nests it has had other ports over the years thanks to the Oliver twins it's surprising that you know it wasn't released as a title in its own rights at least not at first because it is one of the better dizzy games certainly better than crystal Kingdom dizzy which was the game that came out after it definitely one of the ones to check out in the series number 67 we go back to shooter land for st. dragon which is one of the few erm of the I suppose like calm I dunno draggin him up there's you have these kind of dragons shooter games where you play as a dragon and kind of one of the main differences is that you have a tail that you can also control with your character and you can use that to block shots and you kind of have to do it all the time this is a conversion via sales curve I believe of a arcade game that is pretty damn obscure it was not one you to see back then and it's certainly not one you'd see now no one women the same dragon except me I think and I used to love this game I used to love playing the demo he used to have a unique vibe that a lot of other spectrum games didn't necessarily have it's got great music at least on the title screen and it's a bloody tough cookie as well came in an awesome package had a I also liked games that had nothing else on the title screen but a picture and this was one of them this is another thing I kind of remember about here and for shoots on the system he actually plays fast and well it helps that it's one sweat Kay but yeah it's a good one once checkout Berlin own dragon breed which is the other spectrum game in this sub-genre number 66 a more famous shoot so we have fast in the Nights lightforce this is probably one of the first shooters that people spectrum fans would think of when it comes to a top-down vertical shooters mainly in this game you destroy a whole lot of asteroids you've got ships that come at you in some really nasty patterns you have a basis that you need to destroy and generally your ship is incredibly underpowered and the game's hard as bollocks but I got it's not it's one of those games that I can't not mention it is a highly regarded classic of the spectrum of shoot-'em-up genre some people who've played other shoot-'em-ups that aren't on the spectrum might like a listen think it doesn't look all that hot mate but honestly this was a good one back in the day number 65 we go back to the archives of Jaffa Smith for hyperactive this is one of his more obscure games basically this was a throw away that appeared on a and crash cover tape I believe it was something that advertised the other games that special effects were doing and the actual game itself that comes with it is this erm it's a nice little defender clone Jaffa really liked to explore the defender formula there's some little twist lists that make it kind of good live dragon stage as the different sort of waves that you go through to make things fresh and like a lot of Jaffa games it just can't help play but play good it may well have been a throw away that he only together with night a few days but the graphics are fun the gameplay itself is brilliant it's just one of those tiles duffer's one of those guys who at some points just couldn't really put a football in this system it was his system of choice after world number 64 again that's perhaps quite infamous and certainly as in good but I have so many memories associated with it Grange Hill Grange Hill is not a good adventure game it's got really silly and Quincy parts like you know Lee just say no moment where you take drugs off the pusher and you get a long description about how you die you've got holo who doesn't follow you who just tends to stop every couple of screens and you constantly have to jog him and say come on all oh come on although for heaven's sake come on although you've got some annoying puzzles you've got the glass eyes that are on the edge of the screen so that as soon as you step into the screen you step on them and you die you've got all these fins that make it a not good game and yet this was a game that I played with my dad so much and for that I have these very fond memories I have a love and astadia for Grange Hill and again like this even if looking back on it it's really not very good loads of memories are irreplaceable so it has to be on the list number 63 we have without question the greatest darts game ever made 180 180 has a very simple system about it that's generally easy to get to grips with but you can still end up screwing up you've got the hand the disembodied hand that moves diagonally across swinging you carefully have to put it into position just at the right position to make sure that you hit that treble 20 or that double that you're going for I find this system even though it's probably not the hardest to learn it's certainly a lot better than having a system where you know you've got this really shaky hand that's just kind of a bit stupid really and just makes the game a bit of a random affair 180 is a hell of a lot more playable and that it's got that kind of 80s puppy visi kind of vibe about its graphics and these wolfing is that I like and I have a lot of good memories of so yeah it's the best stars game ever made nothing else has ever come close to it there aren't that many dance games but it's still a good one mark my words I suppose number 62 might be a surprising one considering it is one of the iconic most influential spectrum games Knights law now night law is certainly not a game I'm ever gonna say isn't a massively influential one this was huge back when it was at least there was virtually nothing like in that kind of cinematic isometric adventure type of feel it really was something special you know the metamorphosis between man and wolf the puzzles that you had to do all of these are good Finn's the only reason and it's a totally personal one why games like this don't come too high on the list is because I am absolutely god-awful at them seriously I've played so many of these games and in 95% of them I honestly have no idea what I'm doing in the slightest so yeah it's a great game it clearly is a brilliant game but a lot of these games whether it be night law or The Great Escape or alien a I just have no clue what I'm doing at all I just don't have the brain for them they I get lost in them so easily so there you go that's the only reason why this game probably doesn't get the ranking that it would deserve in most people's eyes and it's entirely my shortcomings as a games player so a number 61 Highway encounter by vortex software I am acosta Panahi game who actually he also did hate which we saw earlier not many games like this one exist basically it's a escort game you play as one of these beacons I forget the actual name of them they have some sort weird name and you have to escort the other beacons along to the end of the course you do this by going in front shooting up any of the enemies that you see that might destroy the convoy and sorting out any other little puzzles along the way and as your guys die the convoy gets set a shorter as another one comes off the line to try and get the convoy to the end for whatever it ends up being worth okay there's really not many games like this one this is one of those totally ZX Spectrum games that you don't get anywhere else and from that and for the fact that despite the totally unique premise it also plays very well this is definitely getting a place on my team at number 60 we have Firefly now Firefly was a Jaffa Smith's personal favor of all the games that he made for the spectrum and he made a lot of good games as can tell perhaps by the ranking it's not my favor of his games but it is a very creative one it's the main game I think he was so happy with because this was on a game that he released when he was in special effects and this was kind of Jaffa really making something original as opposed to making great conversions of games by Konami and Capcom what have you and so obviously I think that is why it had a big spot in it's a great little top-down game very intense action wise you know a lot of arcade appeal you've got these bases that you kind of have to go in and destroy and you have them kind of a weird sort of mechanics that home base that you've got huge explosions as well when you die this is definitely Jaffa flexing his muscles and saying you know I can produce really good original games to this and all great arcade conversions so top marks professional ski simulator is at number 59 we're back with Lowe's Oliver twins again the main thing I like about professional ski simulator it's kind of an irritating game to play now it's one of those where you have to handle a button in order to get this skier moving but it's got such a nice look about it the look of it even though it has such a simple color palette it's just so in wonderfully wintery there's this sort of you know this hand drawn or kind of crudely handled graph paper drawing I suppose would be more accurate look of this game that's again something that you get on the spectrum you don't necessarily get it on other systems like all the sort of micro computers have their house styled like there's a definitive spectrum look there's a definitive and Strad look there's a definitive c64 look and the spectrum is my favorite of all these looks even if it doesn't necessarily if the color that a lot of Amstrad and c64 games have there's I don't know it's like it's more of a drawing and that's something that really appeals to me and weirdly lists cheap little codemasters budget game by the Oliver twins is one of the first games that comes to mind on that one I just wink you don't get a game that looks like professional ski simulator on the Amstrad or the commodore 64 so that's why that games on here number 58 another specky classic in fact again that got ported to quite a lot of places cybernoids by Raffaella kettle I can never have no habit Alan check Cho check oh why fire check home I'm totally butchering his name but you know I'm talking about a guy who responsible for many really strong arcade adventure style games and this is no exception this and its sequel but my husband the original one awesome music for a start that always helps awesome effects all over the shop and gameplay is really strong this is a fast-moving game this is not like kind of your average spectrum action title this is really smooth and yeah this was a game that got ported so I think most every other computer format and it was on the Amiga as well it even made its way to than this and not many spectrum games did and I think generally on most of those platforms the people have played it tend to like this game a lot for good reason it's not my favor of his games on the spectrum though that one's gonna be coming later I wonder if you can guess what it is at number 57 Roberto this is another one of those games that I don't think I ever hear anyone talking about and yet it's another game that I used to enjoy back in the day I think it was a budget tile I forgot to have a look at who actually did with Berto I can't remember this is one where you kind of glide about a lot with your robot and you have to destroy all these little things and finally X and there's some really intricate movements that you have to do it's bloody difficult in other words and it's maze-like as well which obviously doesn't help me as you know you've got collect Finn's and as always and try to find the way to the exit which is going to be the most convoluted and most difficult route possible it's bloody hard but again I played this game a lot and anything that I used to play when I was a kid is gonna get points is it the best game of this type will no I mean compare this to something like cyber annoyed but I suppose the difference is I played this one more back in the day cybernoids is something I've played a bit more later on so it just nicks it number 56 we go to more shooting action with Chronos a tapestry of time this is probably even though there are certainly shooters that are high on this list this is the one that back when I was a kid I think I played the most again it was another budget title again I think it's another master taluk one I seem to buy a lot of those games there always seemed to be a lot of the master tronic games in that the corner shops and what-have-you yeah act like the master tronic ones you had the codemasters ones he had alternative and probably the best ones you had slightly budget releases from hit squad or kicks ocean and us Gold's labels and all the other stuff like that master tronic ones often used to have quite cold covers so they would often be the ones that got picked up Chronos is probably mostly remember these days because it is a pretty basic shoe twin kind of the average II kind of are typisch form it's not brilliant the main thing that people remember this game for is Tim Holland Italy music Fritz Tim fallin did this amazing theme for the game on the spectrum 48k it sounds otherworldly out-of-this-world like some awesome progressive rock solo it's just completely like how on earth is this on a 48k game when you know most of these soundtracks are like people people people boob or whatever you know how does this even exist who knows black magic you can't do ishutin the following was actually around in the retro community these days code because maybe he could explain how he did some of the music that he did for there's an explosion and this isn't the last example of that we'll see bloody great the game itself not as gray as the music but one night later not daily Thompson's decathlon number 55 certainly a game that is a highly regarded spectrum classic the only probably reason why it's down here is because there is another game that's very similar that's also a lot better and you can probably guess what that game is but it wouldn't have existed without Dave Thompson's decathlon it's basically a conversion of track and field by ocean it has pretty much all the same events you've got your hundred meters you got your 110 meter hurdles long jump javelin you've got to get to 45 degrees waggle your joystick break your joystick smash your keyboard up all that sort of things just to get a better time then whoever is you're playing against or indeed the computer set those records everyone loved this game back in the day it was massively popular it was one of those games that really put oceans software on the map and help them on their way to becoming the biggest software house in the company in Europe one of the biggest in the world by the end of the decades good bloody game we're sticking with ocean for number 50 for a much later conversion of theirs we have pan-pan got a fantastic conversion on pretty much all of micro computer formats to be fair it's not exactly an if isn't it's a game that's not easy to screw up I mean you've got these ball that bouncing around and you just gotta blast them to kingdom come it's so simple it's brilliant you know how can you really screw this up and they certainly didn't screw this up on the spectrum it's one of the finer conversions of the game sure again the graphics aren't necessarily the same as other versions but the gameplay you cannot go on there you go another conversion from the arcades and perhaps not one that's quite as well remembered as pan number 53 Bionic Commando or as Leto screen called it bone commandos now that might not seem like a good sign but seeing as I get the title one on the freakin title screen but this is a fine conversion it really shouldn't be seen as it's won by us cold and - it's by dear Tex and also a lot of people don't seem to really like the arcade bond commando that much the next game has certainly eclipsed - in many people's minds I'm one of those weird people who actually does really like the arcade Bala commando I think it's a perfectly fine you know platformer with you know the unique gimmick of having in the grappling hook and it plays really fast and it certainly plays fast in this spec version this is very smooth and another big plus point for this tilt valen does the soundtrack for this one - Tim funding provides some fantastic versions of the classic Bionic Commando theme songs it's it's brilliant music all the way through just a shame that there's no version of heatwave because I'd have loved to hear that but a lot of the classic music is here and there's multiple theme music as well which not it's not something you often go on a spectrum so for all those reasons and more this is a game that's really hiring me I played this one not attack attack is number 52 another one of those diehard spectrum classics it's an arcade adventure again it's not necessarily an you might play this game and think what the hell am I even supposed to do here but you'll still have a lot of fun with it because like a lot of ultimate games it is so damn fast like ultimate games are perhaps faster than any other games that anyone will install the system seriously you can just blitz through this game at lightning speed when you consider a lot of our games were just so damn janky especially in the urn here it'd like 1983-84 especially in that period when ultimate made most of their classic games games like haddock tank were kind of a different league so here plops - laughs and this is what was one of their finest ones it has a lot of personality it was massively inspirational to a lot of people he obviously deserves to be on this list a lot of people would probably think this should be high but there's a lot of personal stuff on this list that kind of ends up he can this one just just outside the top 50 speaking of personal stuff number 51 how to be a complete bastard what a title for a start and this is a game that again came off a cover tape of one of the your sinclair cover tapes this one and I'm the funny story I mean I must have been about six years old when this game was on the cover tape five six years old and I'm just reading the magazine as you do and I like to read aloud I like to eat fizzle out and so you know what I'm reading out the name games the names of the games on the demo tape and what do I say in front of my parents how to be a complete bastard boy what are you doing slap well actually I'm not slagging happen my parents never used to hear me but they certainly gave me a bit of a Bulacan for that one and it's just what it says and I didn't know what the word bastard means I don't know that's a swear word I'm I'm five years old you know I'm just innocent despite this they still allow me to buy your sink low and crash so you know it wasn't all that bad in the end the actual game itself is a weird one where well you do exactly what it says on the tin you play as Adrian Edmondson because it's based off his book and you cause havoc you burn fins you erm take different things and you know you poke people in the ass with scissors you eat curry and then farts to clear when you squeeze your zits in the mirror you urinate in a bush all these terrible things happen at this house party and your response before it's get drunk have a fire fart everywhere generally just burn the place down bad taste an 80s classic so we get into the top 50 and we started with moon cuesta now this might be quite a simple arcade game already a few years old vote on this spectrum conversion came out you know it's kind of a space invaders Gallagher type thing but it's still quite a pretty damn accurate conversion especially considering the spectrum I mean you've even got the proper fonts and everything so how can you really go on with this one nice bit of arcade action end pretty damn well done for the spec II that's number 49 now another classic kick-starts - sadly no Peter Purvis in this game but you do get a bit of a the spec ease take on trowel biking there's all these sort of oil drums park benches telephone boxes that have been broken by some jobs all that sort of thing even at the odd bit of fire that could flame you I don't think that letting the TV show but they certainly have that in the computer game you can be set on fire any way you ace your opponent to the end of a track you can even create your own if you so desire had a lot of fun risk and just pick some random tracks and just to try and beat the opponent to the finish language usually end up being quite easy the computer wasn't very good in this game but still great game at number 48 football manager I mean football manager maybe again that's written entirely in basic but you know that's not always a bad thing this is a game that will what can you say it inspired a whole sub-genre like a whole genre of football management games would not exist without this one and you've even got you know Claire great players of the day the likes of Syl Regis and Glenn holder that you can put into your south and United team and perhaps most memorably for everyone you've got the highlights of matches as well it was some nice presentation in this basic title this was the first football management game ever pretty much so yeah I mean it can't not be on the list I love football management games certainly of my era and this was the game that inspired them number 47 is commando now commando on the spectrum does kind of lack though when that kind of makes the c64 version more memorable it doesn't have the web hub and soundtrack what it does have over the c64 version is being a lot faster and I like a commando game that's really good and fast this has always been an arcade game that I've enjoyed because it is one that you can quite just warm through which you can't often doing top-down games like this it's short it's just a insane blast for the time that it's around and this spectrum version of commando to me gets that a lot better than the c64 version does even if it doesn't have the music so good stuff Elite well done number 46 horse goes skinned now horse one of the first real spectrum mascots this glorious blue blob of a thin met several games back in the day hungry horse horse cow skin horse and the spiders mostly kind of reports of things like pac-man a lot and this horse go skiing of course has the big elements of Frogger as you cross the road and try to get your skis without being run over by an ambulance I want it clear enough and then will you do that and you just go through like sinski and try not to smash your poor blue blob on twenty trees these were very popular games back in the day level remains some of the most memorable specky games in the eyes of many it's a shame that we don't really know what happened to their creator William tan one of the first famous specky creators made these games then apparently got sick and then well let the business never did anything else who knows here's an interesting one for number 45 a day in the life this is a what's weird about this one I cannot think of many games that actually allow you to play as a systems creator on other machines like where's the you know the game that allows you to players I don't know guy from Nintendo and I forget is one name or you know wears something that allows his players I don't know you Suzuki from Sega no such games really exist but on the spectrum you can play as Sir Clive Sinclair in not just listen but civil games this game is a particularly fun one is its kind of amazing style game where you control circle I've Sinclair in the day of his life specifically a day where he's going to get knighted by the Queen but not before getting on a train grabbing his ft having a sneaky little pint all that sort of good stuff first it's a very very British I like this game it's quite amusing number 44 ATV simulator another game from back in the day this is a lot like kickstart - actually that just came before but this game is probably a fair bit better Codemasters budgets how this one not done by Lee Oliver twins for change this was coders by a guy named Tim Miller and I can remember them and I can remember that guy's name but I can't them on the head of Nintendo's name oh well anyway Tim Miller created a very good game here where you take your quad bike and try not to savagely injure yourself on Angry Birds and seals who are gonna try and throw a beach ball at you and all the various other obstacles that you have to take on with your all-terrain vehicle I used to be so addicted to this game and I still whenever I play I still desperately try to finish it it's been 30 years maybe that I've been playing this game I still never managed to quite finish the bugger it's not even that non or even that difficult but I just can't manage it yeah maybe one day speaking of games that are hard at number 43 Abu Simbel profanation this is a Spanish title by um dynamic software I have to confess I'm not overly familiar with a lot of these Spanish spectrum tiles them they're kind of a blind spot for me but I know that a lot of them are pretty damn good and well recognized as such this is one of the best sort of platform games that you can find on the system you know that classic microcomputer specky style very hard very exact pinpoint jumps no maneuverability in the air that's sort of thin it is very difficult but it has a kind of Indiana Jones vibe like what if Indiana Jones had been turned into this we had bull like creature and now you have to try and win him back to normal that's kind of whatever Simbel profanation is and that title is awesome as well so ya got to be on the list number 42 we have Mikey another classic from the mind of Java Smith again Java Smith takes a arcade game by Konami a very obscure arcade game by Konami I don't think I've ever seen a actual arcade of Mikey anywhere not sending one of their greatest and he makes some magic out of it he makes this game where you play as Mikey a classic you know he's a pupil he's a kiss stealer he's got to give kisses out to all the other guys in the class before the teacher grabs him and I don't know beats him up and puts him in the hospital there's various other a multitude of levels that you have to go through all the while avoiding these teachers who want to beat Mikey up it is great arcade fun with a few nice little secrets as well to be getting on with and lots of personality and also Beatles a hard day's night on the soundtrack couldn't get away with that now number 41 we go back to the isometric adventure type games for head over heels again head over heels does fall into the category in one of these games and first not again that I'm any good at at all but it is pretty much regarded as I mean Knight law was the game that kind of started these fins off head over heels is probably the one that's recognised as the best it's John Richman and Bernie Drummond two legendary programmers from the day it has all of personality it's a long satisfying adventure for the people who've played it it's a game that I've certainly watched been played a lot and I enjoy watching it being played I enjoy watching it being played because I can I feel I get it more than what I do when I actually play it a massive hit game on the spectrum and on most every other format that it came on can't not be on the list another specky icon at number 40 you've seen him you know him already it's dizzy again dizzy to Treasure Island dizzy the first dizzy game was good it was a pretty damn good game it had a nicely premise you had this egg rolling about and everything did Treasure Island dizzy where was the game where the Oliver twins kind of lived you know that fun game wasn't a fluke this is the game where you think oh actually dizzy is gonna be a proper series and you can make a whole lot of games out of him it's one of the tougher dizzy games and that you only get one life and you kind of have to memorize you know where a lot of the instant-death stuff is or you know get used to the men you don't accidentally drop your snorkel when you're in the water because otherwise you know what's gonna happen you're gonna drown poor old diseased egg like lungs will be filled up with water when you'll suffocate don't want that to happen so erm yeah just make sure you get your bearings on that front but what you have here is you've got a classic dizzy adventure it's the first wheel and I think that the wheel a classic one there is another one still to come on this list but Treasure Island dizzy is definitely a favorite of mine number 39 batty batty is amazing let's face it I mean it's a a nap you know it's a breakout style Gaiman very much an Arkanoid style game with a lot of the sort of similar power-ups that when that game that ends up being a lot better than any of the arkanoid actual official arkanoid games that well on the ZX spectrum and the arcade conversions were not bad on the spectrum but batty well not live into a cocked hat you may as well just not bother playing those because Betty's here is so fast it's so involved and so fun to play there's just like this is the spectrum zarkan odd game and the craziest thing about it is that this game was given away for free on a undercover tape this was on a cover tape this was never actually at least not at first released in the shops which considering how good a game Betty is is is pretty mad let's be honest I mean that's a missed opportunity I suppose but there you go batty I mean I think most would agree this is probably the best of all the cover tape games and saying you're going to argue for anything else at number 38 and we're going back to John Wittman and Bernie Drummond and indeed back to low isometric games for Batman now I've said various times I'm not that good at these games this is the exception I suppose this is the one that I have played far more than any other it's one of the few in fact perhaps the only Batman game that's actually based off the 60s TV Batman with that sort of theme music and all that and that sort of feel about it it's one of the harder isometric platformer games even which makes me wonder why I don't devote my time a bit more to some of the other ones that on this list but yeah I always love this game I've played this game quite a lot I've never actually completed it because as I said it is quite difficult but I've certainly got further in this one then I have in Knight law which definitely counts for something and why is my favorite of these isometric games just beaten out head-over-heels 37 where first came in a double bill of Colin Jones games for Codemasters late period stuff slightly magic slightly magic is kind of in a similar form to a lot of Codemasters games that when these days you know after dizzy was such a success obviously you know maybe doing more platform adventure type games hour he won't slight Lee magic I forget his name sadly but he may not wall around like leg but he can cast some magic he's got various puzzles to solve with various items that around the place he'll die if he touches some water you know in classic European platform of fashion really cool theme music I think this might have been a David Whittaker job not sure that alone is possible possible that it was him behind it very good composer this is a really good one so aka game actually I mean by the time we get to the last couple of years of the spec his life which this kind of game came at him Codemasters were kind of swamp in the marquee at games like this and prince clumsy spike in Transylvania Captain Dynamo night they were responsible for so much of the system's output by the end and this is one of the best ones of that later periods definitely a Gooden and we're sticking with the same guy Colin Jones for Rockstar ate my hamster at number 36 a game that played so much walk straight my hamster is a classic parody of a whole offens parody of 80s music stars parody of kinda Only Fools and Horses type wheeler-dealers parody of chasing publicity and big tabloid newspapers with breasts on the front of them all that sort of thing you know you get your band of rock stars you make up some incredibly rude titles for their sons and you try to get them into the charts you do publicity stunts that will probably end with your guy dying in an orgy and his it's really funny in a kind of vis eighties you know alternative comedy near very immature kind of way and yet it's not the best music simulator on the system and that's coming in a bit but this was the one I played more when I was a child so definitely in the list number 35 matchday two a game that actually proves that you can get a damn decent football game one the system like still this is still a really fun game to play again John Whitman was the guy behind this please he seems to be appearing quite a bit because he's a very good programmer you have a classic 40 action you've got a power ball that instead of that one that you control yourself you kind of have to make sure you release it at the right time you can even score headed goals if you want in this game which is almost unheard of in any other specky football game certainly a hell of a lot better than World Cup Carnival is that's for sure that just missed out on the top 100 this is fun fun football action still holds up pretty well today it's not the fastest football game but the play gameplay is still there number 34 Lords of midnight if I didn't have this game on the list people would go apeshit let's be honest Mike Singleton's masterpiece I mean we had I mean obviously when I reviewed great space race not long ago that game was am trying to say oh wow we can create a cinematic experience on the spectrum you know we can do this and then it ends up being a load of shitty drawings and portraits and lot of midnight was the game that actually did it it had this glorious landscape it had kind of real-time elements very strategic please beautifully written descriptions of the characters who are just you know immediately familiar even if you've not even played the game that much you remember names like Luxor Moon prince and Paul if the Fae you remember that they're on this journey to defeat the evil doom dog obviously it's very fantasy very Tolkien beautifully done game it's a it's one of the best spectrum games ever made even even if this game isn't your fin it's one of the best spectrum games ever made very few games on the system were quite as ambitious as Lords of the myth as Lords of the midnight Lords of midnight was and it was a brilliant start to earn Mike Singleton's Clare was one of the top games designers out there I'm sure we'll have a video on him coming soon 33 technicians head technician Ted could just be seen as a ripoff of more successful games I suppose it certainly looks and plays a lot like Jet Set Willy but it has its own take on Finn's as a lot of these games though you play as a man in the chip factory a technician called Ted shockingly enough and you have to do these various tasks over the course of a working day lest you get fired by your nasty-ass boss it's a even harder than Jet Set with years which earned jets it really is a pretty tough game this makes it look like Thomas the Tank Engine and the controls are excellent they're so tight as and I mean I love a lot of these games these platform games I've kind of picked the best ones from my list and after Abu Simbel profanation technician Ted had to be as there as well before of course we eventually get to the two big ones you probably know who on those games are already 32 saberwolf we've had various games already like saberwolf we've had likes of them curse of Sherwood stuff like that that kind of takes place in that top-down perspective there's a lot of action involved and all that sort of in saberwolf was kind of well lit an attic attack both by alternate really original and the thing about this game is just how fast it is compared to a lot of the other games you play a saver man you have your sword which you kind of regular enemies and try desperately to kill them because they'll kill you in one here you have all these plants you can take that help you on the way and of course you have a map that you need to click so that you can find your way out of this jungle maze it was a game that I think wasn't it the first game that ultimate decided to sell their antenna and that was certainly a decision that played paid off limb because this game was an a huge huge success so big props to them on that one end obviously a game that still very remember today wonderful paperboy in at number 31 another great conversion by elite they didn't do too many but some the ones they did were really damn good this is right uglier it's pretty much I mean this is what I kind of think of when I think of paperboy I don't really so much think of the arcade version because this is the one that I played so much more again like a commando before with the thing about this conversion it may not have the graphics but it's fast it's really fast and it's got all the other general fund features of the game you know it's fun to throw newspapers at houses maybe you get them in the mailbox maybe you smash them straight through someone's window either way you know paperboy delivers well that house only may not necessarily see it that way but it's just such a fun game and this conversion is top-notch so gotta be on there number 30 we have after several dizzy games we have leads hop dizzy game it is fantasy world dizzy tough decision for me between this one and Treasure Island dizzy love dizzy these are the ones that I've played quite a lot dizzy free I think was kind of the first that really cemented the dizzy formula you have the coins that you had to collect you had the us of the yolk folk made an appearance this one you know you had all of those you know little eggy stereotypes you know Denzil dozy door and of course Daisy you have more of you know the fun action here and there it's not quite as ridiculously unfair as Treasure Island is he wasn't that you've got more than one life it's erm it's the proper dizzy formula this is the one that after this one all the other games would be going with so for me that's why fantasy world is he just about managed to pimp the rest of them to the post great games I love the whole series but this is the top one for me number 29 Solomon's key Solomon's key is a game I mean it's an arcade game originally not necessarily the sort of in that I would ever want to play in an arcade but here on the spectrum well this is a perfect platform for this mind-bending and really quite challenging puzzle game you've got all sorts of timing that you have to get into there's some really weird and hideous solutions to some of the rooms it's a challenge and but so damn damn good game this spectrum is a really great format for this perhaps more than any other format that this game came on a bloody good game generally regarded as a classic great here Arcadia at number 28 I think it's safe to say this is by far the best game that the original imagined produced this razón Dave Lawson's superb creation way back in the days when there weren't all that many games available for your specky here's this arcade e-type game it obviously has the kind of Gallagher style formula the main thing here is that you can also take your ship up the screen which is quite essential of the times in you know trying to get through like the endurance of all these different enemies that you have to take on it's fast and it's really got a lot of fun for a game that was released tonight 1982 like really early spectrum game a lot of the other games that the original imagined released were not that great but this one definitely was so at least there was that at least that justified all the racing team and super plush officers and fields of Porsches in their car park number 27 another elites conversion bomb Jack bomb jack is just a damn fun arcade game to begin with I mean it's an arcade game that I've always liked it's a classic on there and it's a classic on the spectrum too again simple formula you've got mr. Baum Jack he glides right up the screen you try and defuse all the bombs try and defuse them in some sort of all to avoid all the enemies simple stuff so so much fun and again is one of those classic arcade conversions Phyllis Becky where even if the graphics are most definitely not there the feel is and that's the important thing that's what we'll find with a lot of these arcade conversions now here at the top end of the list the spectrum could actually be and some people might not necessarily think of it because of how weak the system could look compared to others but you could get some damn good arcade games on here this is the top one as is number twenty six renegade renegade in facts is a game is another ocean game or released under the second imagined label when they got control of it it's a game that in the arcades wasn't necessarily any good it is kind of important as a releasing that it set up whole franchise in Japan anyway Liam kunio-kun franchise not necessarily that good on the arcades better on home systems brilliant on the spectrum and other computers just fit so well on here it's a simple enough beats mammoth you've got whole box for enemies to kill followed by a boss it's very satisfying to knock people off the edge of platforms I find in this game and the control scheme just tends to work a lot better here and then it did in the arcade that's just something about this conversion very kind of punky in its own way and it was a massive success one of the most celebrated specky games of the time 25 we go much later Batman the movie Batman the movie is ocean when they really had their licensed tying game formula down you get a game that's perhaps more ostensibly an action game more than any other websites falling levels in there you have a few minigames and a few different styles of play you've got the drive in sections here for example and that one little puzzle section and it's generally a really good package here multiple music which is always good you didn't even I find that often in the spectrum not even in one to eight K games like this one and this for me is the best conversion of this particular game which was very popular back in the day more popular on the Amiga land here but on the Amiga the drive-in sections and especially the back wins action is to me virtually unplayable here it's a lot easier so I always go for the spectrum version of this game over the Amiga one even if the Amiga one was kind of with a Batman back on the a500 more important to that computer than this was but this was one of the first kind of big spectrum games I remember getting and I used to love Batman and had all like the Batman merchandise Batman toys and all that had the Batmobile like a lot of other people so naturally I was always going to love this game 24 hyper sports we're back with Java Java's conversion of hyper sports has it's all really everything that was in the arcade conversion it's kind of like daily Thompson's decathlon that we had before only the events are much more varied you know you've got things like the skeet shooting and Lee and archery and the weightlifting and all these different styles of play you've got a lot of personality as well as a lot of Jaffa conversions had perhaps you know they were damn good arcade conversions but the personality actual character was also near as well as much they could be on the spectrum it's not for nothing that this is often thought of as one of Java's best we have a couple that have picked it to the post here but and I think you probably know what those are already but hyper sports what conversion undoubtedly in the top reaches 23 Spy Hunter a lot of people probably wouldn't say that this is a particularly good conversion of a game but again it's one that I used to play a lot as a kid its title screen for many as perhaps the most memorable part of this just something about that toes been very very eighties in its own way the actual game itself you've got your car you run it down no music so you kind of have to hum the Peter Gunn theme in your head but your car changes into a boat when you get on the water you shoot fins smash bikers into oblivion even though they're not doing anything to try and avoid the cars with spikes on their wheels it's a lot of fun and of course you've got the chopper you've got the oil stick you've got all these different little things you can do it's not exactly the best made of games and it's a kind of more typical u.s. gold converting conversion but it's it's fine as far as the arcade game goes and nostalgia just I played this a lot 22 Cobra back with Java again Cobra is a weird one it said it's a movie licensed I'm not an arcade game for once wouldn't offer he had the choice do you want to do Cobra or do you want to do Top Gun he did it much like Ava film before out dude Cobra and then I'll make something weird out of it he described it as kind of his effort to make him a sort of Mario style platformer on the spectrum and in doing it he always had been incredible parallax well now it's a great technical achievement this game cuz you really got horizontal scrolling this good on the ZX spectrum it's full of action you've got all these different weapons that you need to pick up you've got a damsel to save at the end of every level it's hard hard as balls I keep saying that a lot but then spectrum games are hard genuinely and it's just a lot of fun it bears virtually no resemblance to the actual Cobra film I mean there's it's literally nothing like the film whatsoever but then the films are pretty average action there so that's not necessarily about Finn there's also some fun references to other Sly Stallone films there's a lot of rocky references in here for example yeah it's great it's a brilliant gang bell in the film number 21 if you watch the top 100 Mega Drive list you know buddy that I really love gauntlet and glob that had a cracking spectrum conversion this was done by gremlin list conversion and it's not got the graphics or anything and it's not got like infinite levels or whether like the arcade game has hey-ho but again it has a what a lot of Spectrum conversions make up don't having graphics they make up for in speed and then it's not that great it's not like gone that is a graphically intense game anyway so it just works perfectly here and this is a superb conversion by gremlin a great studio in their own right that we've already seen several times and yeah it's called that a fine conversion of God no not necessarily God that for level but as good as that a lot of the original conversions of the game used to get and so now we enter the top 20 and we start the top 20 with targets renegades now because renegades the arcade conversion that imagine released was such a success on the spectrum and other systems and Konami weren't particularly interested or what a tecmo were not particularly interested in doing too much more of it Oshin decided to kind of take the whole bit in their own core and do some conversions or do some sequels for any gate for the home market and target renegade is a really great secret it is the best sort of beaten up on the system it's like as good in our cave betta my place you're really gonna get on the spectrum it's not Streets of Rage to anything but it's got all like the moves it's got different weapons that you need to get it's certainly a hell of a lot better than the spectrum conversion of double dragon which is god-awful and a lot of like the other ones that kind of came out later like conversions of Golden Axe final fight shadow warriors and all that that just weren't really saying much this is undoubtedly the best of them you know it kind of paid for them to take the renegade formula and do their own weird fin overboard with it that was kind of completely different from what it went onto in Japan when it went onto kunio-kun so not a fantastic sequel and I'm so glad that renegade at least managed to get one great sequel I mean - there was - brilliant when he gave games on the computers the original and tagua negate and it's a shame that they just didn't release any other you know there wasn't there wasn't another when he gave game there wasn't some horrible thing you know we're renegades went and did time travel into the prehistoric eras and for dinosaurs and all that that game just didn't exist and so at number 19 we have cabal again by Jim Bagley or a conversion by Jim Bagley one of the nicest guys in the whole of the retro gaming scene one of the kind of classic programmers for the system who came on a bit later was in the special effects and did a couple of cracking arcade conversions that naturally were going to be seen in cabal great arcade game to begin with of course you won across the bottom of the screen try to avoid bullets and blow up everything in what more do you want from an arcade game let's be honest and yeah it works perfectly on the spectrum it really does again the feel is there what more do you want great graphics as well great big text and all of that really a fun game on the system number 18 then Dan dare pilots of the future another one of those classics that I used to play a whole bunch as a kid by some guys called the gang of five the basic premise of this side-scrolling action is that you control ii almighty classic British hero Dan doe in his fight against the Mekong you go on his base you have to defeat the mean shrines get all the different components to initiate a self-destruct sequence and then happily escape and all of this within two hours it's quite tough especially when you get to the later stages when you get the twins that if they'd actually touch you you get taken out um and all sorts of other things kind of a war of attrition type game and a damn fun one a lot of fun there was quite a few damn dare games mostly by the same people and this is for me the best one much better than Dan dares to awfully all that weird Commodore 64 game this is the one that I played the most by far I had all of them but yeah this was most definitely the one for me a really good side scrolling action game at for the Speccy number 17 the biz the other great music game on the system but this has an amazing story behind it again it's a game that was written entirely and basic released by virgin and it's all about sleaze struggles of forming a band getting shitty gigs all over the place trying to release singles competing with a rival band all sorts of different things happening on the way you can get addicted to drinking drugs you can lose your van you can write songs get yourself a drives machine to up your presentation all these little things it's kind of a a darkly comic game in many ways and it has an amazing story this game was written by a-1 Chris CV fresh out of his experience with the fleshies he decided to write this game almost about his own experiences in the music business Chris CV is a man much missed late great Chris savvy has he would go on to become Tim please number one comedian the bloody fantastic Frank Sidebottom but before that he did this and that's one of the quite fun stories I feel of the whole microcomputer age a classic game I mean one that I I mean it's a legitimately quite fun management game I've played this game for hours trying to get my band anywhere I mean walks toyed my hands to when I was a kid used to be the top who came like this for me I've got to biz a bit later on but yeah this kind of knocks Rockstar into a cog hat great game at number sixteen we have midnight resistance another fantastic arcade conversion another one by Jim Bagley this is one of the great late period conversions I think it's a yeah it's pretty much I mean mid my resistance is kind of a weird arcade game in many ways in how it controls it all that and somehow this spec you version manages to get it across kind of brilliantly like better than any other version I've played of this game and and it was widely a huge success like this is one of those ocean conversions there's some really great ones especially not the kind of 1988 to 1990 period a lot of them are just top-notch and this is one of the best of them number 15 we have back to school it's worth I have to talk about back to school here before I talk about the original game that it was based on which is a bit higher than this but back to school is of course the end sequel to school days and essentially it's more of the same that was in school days it's erm a bigger school to schools in fact seen as there's a boys school and a girls school all your favorite coaches are there you can troll Eric out here oh you've got a deal with Einstein mr. whacker mister with it and his uncut nunim untucked t-shirt because he's down with the kids and there's a lot more different there's a lot more variation these things you actually have to do in order to complete this game so a bit more involved as an adventure and school days is the better game and we'll be seen that a bit later on but back to school is a bloody fantastic sequel if you like the original one which I can't wait to talk about then you got playback as well to be honest number fourteen trashman again I covered quite recently a sort of game that really you don't get anywhere else except the spectrum done by Malcolm Evans who was previously famous for freedom monster maze which has game that people often think might just be the first survival horror game ever created this game is something more different you play as a trash man you collect bins you put them in the trash compactor you try and do that without getting run over and killed you occasionally go into people's houses and you get some nice little comic interlude where you might play a bit of ZX spectrum or get drunk in the pub all sorts of stuff that it has a very very nice graphics Kyle I mean Malcolm Evans a lot of his gamers were quite free debased kind of trying to do that sort of in on the spectrum when not many people were and there's a little bit of that here in the way that the streets of barf actually feel quite alive and pretty well done it's not just a load of flat surroundings it's a really poignant game and the premise I mean what other game allows you to play as a trash man and not only allows you to play as a trash man but instead of it just been some weird novelty it's actually a very damn fun game it's bloody brilliant in other words go player number 13 another brilliant arcade conversion so many of them on this list are type our type is again that when it came out for the spectrum kind of beggars belief I mean this was a pretty fancy damn shooter by that you know the standards of the time that it came at hand here on the spectrum this conversion has a hell of lot of stuff all out the big monsters and in play all a great surroundings and the gameplay is it's pretty much all net like this was a superb conversion you did get quite a few really good conversions of our type but for the platform that it's on this spec version really kind of stands out in how complete is I mean compared it to something that I don't know nemesis is a example of a similar shooter that had got a really bad conversion that's just like wow earth would you play this our type though is a game that actually is really worth the world and is many people's favorite shoot them up on the system as a result of that but not mine just Pippin it to number 12 silkworm anyone knows me knows that I love silkworm it's not necessarily as a flashy ER game as our type is certainly not in a spectrum but it's thought that it's called that just sort of right level it's a simple enough side-scrolling shooter not the hardest game in the world or anything but sir action-packed for the time that it played and and again it's kind of a similar story on a lot of other micro careers you can play a great version of this on the Amiga or the Amstrad or pretty much anything really this game just seemed to drive so well with the micros and especially this spectrum aversion this was always my favorite shoot him up and it was hard to kind of choose between this and r-type as the best one but like my favorite for me on the system which is why they're so close together art right for many would be the best but my heart just belongs with silkworm so there you go number 11 just outside Lee all classics top 10 chase HQ and probably one of the first names people would think of when it comes to great arcade conversions on the system chase HQ got em staggering microcomputer ports both this one and also I have to say the one for the Amstrad as well much love to that one they're both superb conversions of a pretty good arcade game but again here on the spectrum it just it really has it's got all the speed that you'd want from a racing game which you certainly don't often get again compare this to something like out one only omnium on the ZX spectrum and it's a different league it's you got all the turbo boost in all out the fun just kart racing and gradually smashing the villains car to pieces all of you know the little banter is all there it's such a good conversion of the game one of oceans finest hours number ten were into the top ten now all these games are damn great and then all arcade conversions some of them are our first one certainly isn't exelon oh this game exelon is a classic via welfare check Oh probably not quite as famous as cybernoids cybernoids certainly got a lot more ports per turn exelon is my favorite it's fantastic it's earned the flick screen action sort of game where you kind of have some puzzle elements to it and some quite along with that the fairly frantic action elements that it delivers to you from screen to screen as you gradually try and make your way through make sure your time your orkut so carefully while also trying to avoid getting blasted because sometimes this game can quite easily overwhelm you if you're not on your toes great graphics some of the best graphics that you'll find on the spectrum . i mean it was a once wake a game to be fair that it was brilliant yeah excellent is I mean graph early checker is one of them generally regard as one of the best programmers for the system and to me this is his masterpiece over cyber annoyed and over storm Lord which was a bear game on this microcomputers then it was on by the Mega Drive great game number nine we have Chuckie egg Oh Nigel audit ins Chuckie egg a great example of something that was obviously not a conversion from the arcade to anything but has so many great arcade sensibilities all in place that you could almost think that it could be a conversion from the arcades this game is one that was brilliant on a law format so a lot of people would say that this is bail on the BBC micro to me the spec in BBC micro versions of this are about the same fantastic you know rush about collect all the eggs avoid all the birds you know you're gonna hit some it's a shame you know chicken egg farming isn't anything like this in real life if it was it'll be certainly a job that everyone would want to do even despite the risks involved of being picked to death or falling down of random elevator shaft and this game is so addictive so so much fun number weights jet sets Willie yep we had to get to these games eventually Matthew Smith's classics shits at Willie again the sequel doesn't quite come to the original which is a kind of weird dynamic but here we go Jetson Willie was obviously a massive advance of everything that manic miner was instead of having just a different single screen levels you now had an entire mansion to explore full of these weird enemies weird Guardians as they used to be called in all these classic room names and that everyone remembers you know the security guard Naaman Looney we must perform a quirk of League and all the other different things that Merkel and minor Willie's mansion it is a mad game and one that was by all accounts incredibly stressful on Matthew Smith to the point where he doesn't really like talking about it these days and yes the original release was very buggy to say the least to the point where you couldn't even finish it but there's no doubt it's one of the most classic games ever to release Phyllis Vikki number 7 Robocop Robocop I just memory you know the classic on the big box that it came in just four starts I used to love Robocop back in the day I mean who didn't when that Soph came down the pike the story of how ocean managed to get the license for this game as well is kind of something they got Robocop pretty early on for almost nothing cause no one really thought the film was going to be as a massive here as it was they ended up collaborating with de twist which is why listen the arcade conversion is so similar and the game's brilliant and it was such a huge seller as well seriously I mean this was a game that was on top of the or in that there's Becky chance for years it really was and widely so because as a side-scrolling game with a few other little quirks in there a few little puzzle fins it's great it's one of the best action games you'll find on the system it kind of set up Ocean in terms of like the endless tie-ins that they would do and almost became like a fin fin of parody when some of them were not necessarily that great afterwards I thought that this was the one that they knocked out of the park on and it's setting them up I made them one of the biggest software houses going so yeah you can't not have Robocop here at number six we have the top Ultimates play the game game and it's jetpack jetpack one of their very first games a game in such a tiny spaceman we just a single screen and just a load of frantic action as you try and destroy your monster as well gradually assemble in your ship and then fuel it up enough to get yourself to the next screen it's so simple in its execution but again this is a game by people who even before their spectrum times were kind of doing stuff in the arcades and that sort of experience really comes out when you have a game like jetpack coming compare this going to a lot of the other like crappy like clones of space invaders that you could find on the system back in the time that this was released like 1983 it's a different level entirely listened arcade you were like wow okay this is this is a different school and why do you classic so we enter the top five and we start the top five with school days probably my favorite spectrum game when I was a kid too this ends the one that eventually hits number one on this list would be my two favorites back from when I originally had the spectrum again kind of like trash man before its school days is the sort of in you almost can't envision it being anywhere else but this spectrum has such a beautiful premise you play as Eric you have to hit all the shields and then find the code to get you a port while also going through a regular school day you've got to show up to lessons you've got to avoid get in lines you've got a generally try to behave well and then do the bad things like jump and get the shields or hit your catapult off teachers heads well they're not looking as much so that can then be blamed on someone else there's often other little tasks you have to do like try and stop Einstein from telling on you or try and avoid angel face because he's got the mumps so beautifully I DS the characterization as well I mean I mentioned a lot of them when I talked about back to school but all those people are here and they're just so wonderfully observed in that kind of haiti's or we're almost going before that like that classic like British School Book sort of way you know there's certainly some sort of archetype that anyone will recognize at least one of them and when they play school days I certainly did an absolute classic really really wonderful number four for me Jet Set Willy is just picked out by manic miner manic miner is Matthew Smith's original of course probably the game he's generally most proud of I mean when he when you tried to talk about Jet Set Willy with man in mind he gets me clammy when you talk about money c'mon it's him he can't stop talking about it this is certainly the game that he prefers and it's the game that I prefer I just kinda find it and I mean I love like the mansion whole like the open layout of jets say Willy but for me this is just such a tightly focused experience and there's something about almost every level in this game that there's something quite fun talking about whether it's and Eugene's there and it's reference to Eugene Evans a guy who we've talked about in the past actually goes like the forests of Endor and it been 1980 forever no one got sued over it or 1983 even and doing all these different weird fins or you know it's a tough game and it's kind of really tough to get to the end especially once you get to that the last levels I'm the solar power generator and all that it's so really hard game but it was a game that inspired so many I mean obviously Matthew Smith himself was inspired by a miner 2014 I know on his beloved trs-80 but this game you know if it wasn't for this game there be so many specky games that wouldn't exist so manic miner is wily a classic number three rainbow islands I love this game generally I love it in the arcades I love it in almost all the versions that exist of this game but he'll miss Becky I don't know it's just this is the best version to me it may again it may not have the graphics or anything like that but gameplay wise like having the soundtrack as well sure there's some slowdown because this is really pushing the specky to its limits this game and but it's got all like the colorful surroundings even if it doesn't necessarily have them in great fidelity and is such a fun game to I just go up you know each level and smash everything with those glorious rainbows collect all like the gems and fruits that you can it's great arcade fun I mean I love Bubble Bobble enough I mean Bubble Bobble hasn't made it onto the spectrum this because there's other platforms I want to showcase that one on that I'd put thirds on this one but when Bo islands on the spectrum is just somehow a match made in heaven that's why it's number three number two and this was a really really close one between two games as to who was actually going to get the top spot as it often is with these top 100 number two ended up being Green Beret for me the best game that Java Smith was ever involved with not sure whether he would have necessarily agreed with that one he always thought that they were could been other things that he could have done with it but there just wasn't enough time but again it's another game by Konami as a lot of his conversions ended up being games from Konami that just seems to work so well on the spectrum and even if it doesn't necessarily have like the smooth scrolling as like the c64 does this is just a manic manic action game there's enemies coming at you just from absolutely everywhere and almost any time that you have one of the jump in and then he's come this thing giving or how you've just it's one of those games where you just constantly have to think that how am I gonna deal with what's coming to me next and it always keeps you on your toes there's never any single moment of where spikes and that was kind of the thing that Java really loved to create in video games he was he arcades was in his blood he was never much for like having games without big stories or anything like that he loved simple arcade experiences and to me that's why Green Beret is for me his definitive work and that's why it's number two probably the best programmer on the spectrum for my money this is his top game and so yeah it was very very close to being number one but as I perhaps expected would eventually be the number one ultimately it's the game that has been my favorite for the system since well pretty much almost since I've got it Def chase Jeff Chase is a a simple game in many ways it's a 16 K game like not even a forty-eight K game this is a 16 K game from 1983 and by a man named Mervyn escort who released a few games from the system and then kind of again just disappeared he's not a person who's around today at least not in the retro scene who even knows what he's doing but he made Def chase Def Chase is a 3d game ostensibly kind of a little bit ripped off from Return of the Jedi in that it's basically the own bike chase Fuli forests of Endor only you take the perspective of the guy who's got to shoot the other bikers down you shoot them with an infinite supply of missiles and all a while you're dodging your way through these trees it starts off pretty bare but then once you get through the sector's whoo hoo boy this becomes as intense and as simple and as perfect again as you will ever find it's just there's just something so high adrenaline about rushing through all the trees trying to get a shot off on these bikers and then once you actually get one especially once it's taken when it's taken a while it's actually get that shot it is so satisfying perhaps more satisfying than any other spectrum em and ultimately it's that satisfaction that has always made Def chase my favorite specky game it's not it's not a controversial choice by any means this was number one back when you're Sinclair did their all-time top 100 of specky games this was the number one then it has always been regarded as one of the species greatest games and it is my favorite there's just nothing on the else on the system that's like 3d def chase as perfect an arcade game as you're going to find in all of 16 kilobytes and so it's number one oh and that about does it for list top 100 I'm glad that you were able to join me on this journey through my first computer my first system the system that well if it wasn't for the ZX Spectrum he wouldn't be here on YouTube you know gabbing about video game so you know props to the zelich spectrum for that little did no parents know what they've done they probably followed I like many parents for that they were getting this headaches spectrum so I'd be able to learn stuff on it and then I discovered games and that didn't happen same old story so thank you for enjoying this top 100 please do like it if you if you did like it please do shout at me in the comments if I missed your favorite came out or gave your favorite game to lower-ranking or something like that anyway perhaps I shall see you again for another one of these videos because I really like making these and I like that people generally enjoy them even though I don't script them and kind of ramble on and on forever as I'm doing now so with that I think I should just put it to a cease and say bye for now bye for now thank you so much for watching this video if you liked it then wait why don't you like it and subscribe and have a look at my social media follow me on Twitter or Facebook or whether the social media things I have and there are all if you really want to get the reaction is you could get to my patreon and join this list of awesome people here Alexa Jones Gonzalez and Jude Alton and he kept a sobic 1dx Hawaiian henagar Kris Kris pod Cody Spooner Conrad Prichard DS a Leo Rim one suitor Daniel bricks dave cook David rose din T 76548 Dustin Cooper garrison Maiden Jordi Alex Ian Roberts James Brown Jason Stevens Jason Alexander Jeff Ladd Lee noise lucas coley Gorski Matisse grams of Martin Pataki Potter Marshall Ren beam on rusty Kelly Sania Alomar Saif Robinson Simon Gulliver Tim wold will bow yuck operator and Zack watch and all the rest of the community thank you and goodbye

Channel: Kim Justice

Views: 149,313

Keywords: zx spectrum, zx spectrum games, spectrum 48k, best spectrum games, top spectrum games, top 100 zx spectrum, zx spectrum all-time, greatest spectrum games, sinclair spectrum, spectrum 128k, kim justice, kim justice spectrum, kim justice top 100, kim justice games, kim justice retro, kim justice video, top 100 games, best computer games, best 80s games

Id: cEZvUWdAtA0

Length: 100min 45sec (6045 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 09 2019