Tag Archives: speccy

Dizzy 3 and a Half, ZX Spectrum

Dizzy 3 and a Half was released for free on a Crash magazine cover tape (issue 84, January 1991) and basically serves as an introduction to (and a sales device for) Magicland Dizzy, the fourth Dizzy adventure.

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Magicland Dizzy, ZX Spectrum

Magicland Dizzy is the fourth Dizzy adventure game and the first game in the series not designed and coded by The Oliver Twins. Instead it was designed by Neal Vincent and coded by Big Red Software, with The Oliver Twins retaining creative oversight.

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Fantasy World Dizzy, ZX Spectrum

The third Dizzy adventure, Fantasy World Dizzy, was again designed by The Oliver Twins with graphics by Neil Adamson. It was published by Codemasters in 1989, initially for the ZX Spectrum, but also later for all the major formats at the time (Amstrad CPC, C64, Amiga, ST, and MS-DOS).

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Treasure Island Dizzy, ZX Spectrum

Treasure Island Dizzy is the second game in the Dizzy series and was first released by Codemasters in 1988. It was again designed and coded by The Oliver Twins and once again features everyone’s favourite anthropomorphic egg, Dizzy.

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Dizzy: The Ultimate Cartoon Adventure, ZX Spectrum

The first Dizzy game, and featuring a walking, talking egg that would become synonymous with “cartoon adventures” on the ZX Spectrum, and also budget releases from British software house Codemasters.

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World Class Leaderboard, ZX Spectrum

The more fully-featured sequel to Leaderboard on the Spectrum is better than its predecessor, but not without its problems.

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Ikari Warriors, ZX Spectrum

The 1987 conversion of Ikari Warriors is bit of an “auteur piece” on the ZX Spectrum. What I mean by that is: one guy made it on his own. He programmed the game; created the graphics, and did the sound. That man was David Shea, and the truth be told: he did an excellent job of it – managing to squeeze in most of the arcade game‘s features. Which is pretty impressive on a Spectrum.

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Hunchback: The Adventure, ZX Spectrum

Rather than produce another platform game, Ocean Software chose to make a graphical adventure for their third Hunchback game. Which was an unusual choice.

Hunchback: The Adventure again features Quasimodo trying to rescue Esmeralda, this time from the evil Cardinal of Notre Dame. It’s a three-part game, requiring the same number of loads. In part one Quasimodo must escape from Notre Dame itself, and from the Cardinal’s many guards who are trying to stop him. In part two he must make his way under the city of Paris until he reaches the Cardinal’s mansion. And finally, in part three, he must challenge the Cardinal and escape with Esmeralda in tow.

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Hunchback II: Quasimodo’s Revenge, ZX Spectrum

The sequel to the hit game Hunchback was released in 1985 by Ocean Software. Hunchback II is another platform game where you control Quasimodo on a mission to collect bells and survive through seven screens of conveyors and climbing ropes. Make it to the end and again rescue Esmeralda as she waits patiently for her green-coloured hero.

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Hunchback, ZX Spectrum

Hunchback is a conversion of the 1983 arcade game by Century Electronics. It has been written that Hunchback is loosely based on the 1831 Victor Hugo novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, because it features Quasimodo running along a castle wall, trying to rescue Esmeralda from a tower at the end, but that is disputed by some who claim that Robin Hood is the main influence. Regardless, at least in this conversion the main character does actually look like Quasimodo

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