Tag Archives: Carol Ward

Cookie Retrospec Remake, PC

This remake of Ultimate Play the Game‘s ZX Spectrum classic, Cookie, is unfortunately completely unplayable on modern PCs. It just runs way too fast to be playable and the only way to slow it down is by using a throttling app, like Advanced Game Launcher. But even then it’s still not very playable, so is a bit of a lost cause. Your only option would be to play it on very old, slow hardware to get it going at the right speed.

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Jetpak Solar Crisis, PC

Jetpak Solar Crisis is a homebrew remake of Ultimate Play the Game‘s classic Jet Pac, made by Retrospec and released for free in 2004. While not all Retrospec remakes are good games, this one is actually pretty decent.

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Gunfright, Commodore 64

This C64 homebrew conversion of Ultimate‘s 1986 ZX Spectrum hit Gunfright was developed by Rod & Emu and released in 2017, and it’s another decent modern port of a thirty year-old game.

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Gunfright, MSX

The MSX version of Ultimate Play the Game‘s Gunfright is identical to the Spectrum original, except for the lack of a loading screen. It was initially released in 1986.

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Gunfright, Amstrad CPC

The Amstrad CPC received a conversion of Ultimate Play the Game‘s Filmation II game Gunfright in 1986 and it unfortunately suffers from the same problems that the previous Amstrad Filmation II conversion (Nightshade) did, namely: colour issues and slowdown problems.

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Knight Lore, Commodore 64

This 2019 Commodore 64 homebrew conversion of the classic Knight Lore is arguably even better than the brilliant ZX Spectrum original. Spectrum owners will not want to hear that, but – being objective – this port does make the game more enjoyable to play. I also managed to get further into the game than I ever managed on the Spectrum, although I did use quick saves (but no cheats).

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Underwurlde, Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 version of Ultimate‘s classic Underwurlde was developed by Softstone and published by Firebird in 1985. It is a faithful recreation of the Spectrum original.

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Dingo, Arcade

Dingo is a 1983 arcade game created by Ashby Computers and Graphics Ltd. (A.C.G.) and manufactured by Jaleco.

For those who don’t know: A.C.G. is the name of the company who would later develop and publish a series of classic games under the Ultimate Play the Game banner, including Jet Pac, Atic Atac, Sabre Wulf and Knight Lore (among others). Dingo is one of their first ever video games.

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Atic Atac, Commodore 64

Wow… This is arguably the best modern remake of an old video game that I’ve ever seen!

This beautiful 2020 homebrew rendition of Ultimate‘s classic Spectrum game comes courtesy of three individuals: the code was written by Tomaz Kac of Nostalgia, the graphics were created by Steven Day (aka Ste), and the music by Saul Cross.

All three of them deserve some serious credit.

After 37 years the C64 finally gets its own version of Atic Atac,” says Tomaz Kac, “I hope we did the game justice. We tried to make it very special, not just by getting as close to Spectrum version, but by expanding it quite a bit. We hope you like it!

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Alien 8, MSX

The MSX version of Ultimate‘s classic isometric action adventure, Alien 8, is almost identical to the ZX Spectrum original – including slowdown caused by sound effects playing and lots of on-screen movement.

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