This PC remake of the classic ZX Spectrum game, Tranz Am, was first released in 2008 by Retrospec. It is a reasonably faithful, “enhanced” conversion of the overhead racing game originally published by Ultimate Play the Game in 1983.
Tag Archives: Ultimate Play The Game
Pssst Retrospec Remake, PC
A twenty one year-old remake of a thirty eight year-old game… John Dow‘s Pssst PC conversion was originally released in 2000 for MS-DOS and it’s not a bad effort, with decent enough graphics and responsive controls. The game was later ported to work in Windows, but there is a problem with that (see below).
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.
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.
Martianoids, MSX
Martianoids was released in 1987 on three different formats: ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and this MSX conversion. All three are pretty much identical in terms of gameplay; they feature a robot, walking through nine sectors of a scrolling landscape, fighting off alien robots that are trying to destroy a computer you are defending.
Martianoids, Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC version of Martianoids is arguably slightly better than the ZX Spectrum version, because it has a couple more on-screen colours to play around with. It plays the same as the Spectrum version, but looks a little better. The scrolling and control responsiveness seem a little slower, though.
Martianoids, ZX Spectrum
Ultimate Play the Game‘s 1987 release, Martianoids, is another US Gold attempt to recreate the thrills and spills of a genuine Ultimate game and failing miserably.
You can find some indication of this if you type “Martianoids longplay” into YouTube and seeing that there aren’t any videos. Almost every other Spectrum game has someone playing through it on YouTube; definitely every other Ultimate game, but not this one.
Bubbler, Commodore 64
***CANNED GAME***
There is a story behind the Commodore 64 conversion of Bubbler, but to condense it into just a few sentences: the game was being converted in 1987 by an intermediary company for Ultimate, called Lynsoft, but was canned before release because it wasn’t fast enough.
Bubbler, MSX
The 1987 MSX conversion of Bubbler is arguably better than the Spectrum original because the speed is more consistent during play, which makes it more playable. In fact, it’s a game that borders on being superb, which is unusual for the later US Gold/Ultimate games which are generally considered to be inferior to Ultimate‘s earlier titles.
Bubbler, Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad version of Ultimate Play the Game‘s Bubbler benefits from some extra colour, but plays pretty much the same as the ZX Spectrum original (ie. it’s playable, but insanely difficult).
The King of Grabs 