Although the Commodore 64 was not thought to be particularly well-suited to these types of isometric platform games, Head Over Heels bucks the trend by being arguably just as good – if not better – than the Spectrum original.
Thanks to the sterling efforts of programmer Colin Porch.
Jon Ritman did the programming and Bernie Drummond did the graphics. And the result was: Head Over Heels – an isometric platform game, published by Ocean Software, and featuring two different characters who can combine to become more agile.
DK’Tronics‘ 1985 release Popeye is notable for its use of large, colourful animated character graphics, the likes of which had not been seen before. At least not at the time of release on the humble ZX Spectrum.
Ultimate Play The Game‘s amazing Jet Pac is an early ZX Spectrum classic, first released onto an unsuspecting world in 1983.
It might look basic, but this early ZX Spectrum game is still a great game to play now.
Scuba Dive (Durell Software, 1983) features such a simple game idea, but one that works exceptionally well on the ZX Spectrum.
This unique and interesting game was developed and first published by Automata UK on the ZX Spectrum in 1984.
Deus Ex Machina was the first video game to feature a fully synchronised soundtrack that featured celebrity narration and music. The cast includes Ian Dury, Jon Pertwee, Donna Bailey, Frankie Howerd, E.P. Thompson, and Mel Croucher – the latter being the author of the game. The soundtrack was supplied on cassette, which was played while the game ran.
An early ZX Spectrum classic, Deathchase was first released by Micromega in 1983.
Although it doesn’t look like much (especially in stills), Deathchase was (and still is) an exhilarating game, and is something of a tribute to the speeder bike scenes in Return of the Jedi (which was released the same year as this, in 1983).
Quite possibly the maddest (and best) video game title of all time, Fat Worm Blows A Sparky was a critical hit back in 1986 when it was first released.
A weird, colourful, original worm-based race game on the ZX Spectrum, released by Romantic Robot in 1985.
Actually, Wriggler is less of a “race” game and more of a “crawl” game. The pace is not very fast at all.
