Tag Archives: speccy

Benny Hill’s Madcap Chase, ZX Spectrum

Benny Hill’s Madcap Chase is loosely based on the infamous Thames TV show, Benny Hill, made in the 1980s and featuring Mr. Hill, and his various cohorts, running around doing funny (or rude) things in the name of comedy.

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Wanted: Monty Mole, ZX Spectrum

Back in 1984 in the UK there was an infamous, historic miner’s strike that lasted for over a year and caused hardship for many communities. Rather than sit and spectate, young Peter Harrap wrote a satirical platform game about a mining mole and published it, with all the profits going to help the struggling, striking miners. That game was Wanted: Monty Mole, and it launched Pete Harrap on his career making video games, and also the Monty Mole ‘franchise’. Although I can’t really call it a franchise because it wasn’t. It was simply a series of games.

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Lode Runner, ZX Spectrum

Part of the later Software Projects UK releases, Lode Runner was first made available on the ZX Spectrum in 1984.

The small graphics and precise gameplay are perfectly suited to the Spectrum and as a result the game enjoyed some success on the system.

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Penetrator, ZX Spectrum

Penetrator is a side-scrolling shooter, developed by Philip Mitchell and Veronika Megler (as Beam Software) and published by Melbourne House in 1982.

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Grange Hill, ZX Spectrum

Argus Press Software released this licensed adventure game, based on the successful BBC TV series of the same name, in 1987. It is infamous for being one of the worst games ever made, and it truly is, for a number of different reasons…

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Questprobe 3: Human Torch and The Thing, ZX Spectrum

The third and final Questprobe adventure game, released by Adventure International in 1985.

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Questprobe 2: Spider-Man, ZX Spectrum

The second Questprobe adventure game – featuring Spider-Man – is just as difficult as The Hulk, and only marginally more entertaining.

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Questprobe 1: The Hulk, ZX Spectrum

Text adventures, with graphics and complex command parsers, were very popular back in the early days of home computing.

You would sit there, typing instructions into a fantasy world on your computer, climbing imaginary trees, and walking imaginary north. It was all “imaginary” because you had to have an imagination to play these games. Your average moron with no imagination would never play a text adventure, like they would never read a book. Because they cannot read the text and construct a world in their imagination.

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