Specvent Calendar Day 5 - Test Match

Test Match (CRL, 1983)

This is the first entry I'm not going to recommend you rush out, download and play, because frankly you'll be bored silly. There's not much to do, most of the choices you do make are fairly obvious, and there's not even any AI, so unless you can find a like-minded soul to suffer through 400 overs of occasionally pressing Y or N or selecting a bowler you were pretty much playing with, erm, sorry, against, yourself.

It's included as my Day 5 for three reasons; first, because to a stats geek like me any form of cricket is golden, and I somewhere still have the scorecards to prove it, and second because it did in all honesty form a large part of my playing time over several years.

Or at least it did once I'd completed Reason 3 -  remaking the game. Oh, yes. 90% of the game was written in BASIC, and it was very easy to break into, edit and then resave. Originally I'd done this just to save having to retype updated teams in every time, but then I started looking at the logic, which was of course all based on random numbers, and started to correct some obvious faults. For instance the batsmen's likelihood of getting out was based on his number in the lineup and fatigue as measured by his runs scored in the inning, such that a number 5 batsman who has just scored a century would be as likely to be out next ball as a number 9 who's yet to score. Arrant nonsense, and it led to the chances of a double ton being next to none. And once that was adjusted, there was the bowling stats to fix, then maybe adding in a little bias on the relative strength of the teams, and so on and so on... in fact I spent more time tinkering with the engine than I ever did playing the blessed  thing!

As such, reviews are next to irrelevant, though various round ups noted that for all its flaws it was still a better cricket sim than the other attempts out there (I played them all and they were all unplayable.) Now I'm off to see if old Pringers can weasel one of the Aussie openers out or if it's Edgbaston '89 all over again...

Specvent Calendar Day 4 - Chequered Flag

Day 4 - Chequered Flag (Psion, 1983)

Yep, it's another 1983 game, and another chance for me to rave about the early days of the machine. My first encounter with Chequered Flag was the computer department of WH Smith in Liverpool - it took me 30 seconds to know that this must be mine. In an era when road racers might acknowledge the existence of physics mostly by completely ignoring them, this was my first experience of an actual simulation. It might not look like much, and in case you were wondering, there were no other cars on the track, this was strictly a time trial affair, but - and I can't emphasise this enough - you could Drive. A. Formula. One. Car. Round. Real. Tracks.

Well, not quite - the car you see above is a McFaster Special - but it really did feel like you were driving a car round a track, rather than a sprite up a screen. If you didn't brake for a corner, you would crash; none of  those namby concrete run-off areas of today. But take it steady, learn the course, take the apexes and accelerate judiciously and you would take a precious second off your lap record (I managed 87 seconds round the Hatch from a standing start tonight, so aim for 70 or so...) There were two more powerful cars to choose as well, but I always stuck with the McFaster because it had an automatic gearbox, and when you're dealing with 4 keys for steering (hard & soft for each direction) you don't need to be worrying about gears as well... arguably it wasn't until Nigel Mansell's Grand Prix some 6 years later that there was a rival to this for serious racing fun on the Spectrum.

Only 71% from Crash, who regarded it as too serious to be addictive, further evidence of just how far ahead of its time it was, I think... 4 stars from Your Computer though, they always approved of more serious fare...

Specvent Calendar Day 3 - Spectipede

Spectipede (R&R Games, 1983)

R&R Games may have originally released it (as a freebie on the b-side of their pretty impressive Pacman clone Gnasher, according to WoS in the above link) but it came to me courtesy of the Speccy software equivalent of (two) Poundland, Mastertronic. Indeed this was my introduction to the world of budget games, purchased on a whim from the old Jet petrol station in Chester (there used to be three petrol stations on the one road, now there's none - what happened, did petrol become too cheap to sell?!?)

No prizes for guessing the inspiration here, but what does impress is how accurate the gameplay is for 1983; character-based movement, yes, but fluid nonetheless. The mushrooms disappear in sections, scorpions, spiders and fleas are all present and correct, and the spider is jsut as annoying as in the arcade. All that's missing really is the trackball...

Again, Spectipede predates the dawn of Crash, but the Mastertronic rerelease does make the hallowed pages and garners 72% and the comment "the cheapest Centipede... is also the best around", though none of the reviewers seem to realise it's the same game already described in the Living Guide as, well, "the best Centipede game around"... Sinclair User also found it "exhilarating" though HCW rained on the R&R release by claiming that "graphics and sound are not up to present standards" - not sure what they were playing back then but I think they were possibly mistaken!


Specvent Calendar Day 2 - Computer Scrabble

Computer Scrabble

Advent Calendar Day 2 - Computer Scrabble (Psion, 1983)

Make no mistake, for 1983 this was a massive achievement - a fully-fledged implementation of Scrabble, with an 11,000 word dictionary, packed into the humble 48K Speccy. With 4 skill levels and the ability to see the computer thinking, you could happily sit back and just watch the game play itself, but at the highest levels it played a challenging enough game to satisfy the keenest word nut (literally so, in the game I'm currently playing it's challenged almost every word I've entered, though it's gracious enough to accede to my confirmation that FLOUTING (76 points - yay!) is OK. It even has a B&W TV option, with the coloured squares replaced by patterns. You can rearrange your tiles, or have them randomly jumbled in search of inspiration, and the input method - cursor keys to the start of your word then A or D and type - works like a dream.

At £15.95 on release it was possibly the most expensive single game cassette release for the machine, but I've yet to find a contemporary review saying it wasn't worth it - it predated Crash but its Living Guide noted  "if you enjoy playing Scrabble, you’ll love the Spectrum version — even if you don’t like Scrabble, you’ll love the Spectrum version!" It was also one of the few Spectrum games that worked well on my old N-Gage emulator...



Specvent Calendar Day 1 - On The Run

A Speccy Advent Calendar

What with it being the 30th anniversary year for the dear old ZX Spectrum (although I've only been in possession of one for a little over 29 and a half years, having got one for my 14th birthday) I though this might be a good idea... an advent calendar of Speccy games. Not necessarily the best games, thoguh some of them certainly are, but the ones I played back then and the ones I still play today. So, no Manic Miner or Jet Set Willy, as I wasn't good enough at them! But a much more personal list, which kicks off with

December 1st (screenshot to follow)

On The Run (Design Design, 1985)

Firmly in the Arcade Adventure genre, On The Run has your impressively large astronaut sprite navigating a large mutant insect-packed maze armed only with a jet pack and a bug spray, with just one hour to find six flasks essential to the continued wellbeing of humankind. Contact with bugs is not immediately fatal, but does sap your energy - no energy, no astronaut, and no extra life. You can though pick up mushrooms to restore a little energy.

With over 300 screens to explore, and barriers that you need key objects to pass through, that one hour time limit is literally a killer - thank goodness for the occasional smart bomb to clear some space!

91% from Crash, 67% from YS and 3 stars from Sinclair User, so middling reviews but it had me and dad addicted for nights on end, though I don't think either or us got near to finishing it, and firing it up again tonight I collected one flask and survived about 6 minutes...

Gallifrey Base iPod MP3 Picks Chart July/August 2012

Finally the inevitable has happened, with the Beatles taking over at the top of the overall chart following their 5th successive stint at the top of the bi-monthly chart. Big news this period appears to have been the Offspring, 5th with 11 picks sending them up 39 places to #46 overall.

July/August Top 25:

1	1	The Beatles	24
2	10	Iron Maiden	18
3	10	Queen	13
4	3	David Bowie	12
5	NE	Offspring	11
6	6	Duran Duran	10
6	4	Muse	10
8	RE	Foo Fighters	9
9	RE	Blur	8
9	RE	Johnny Cash	8
9	17	Pink Floyd	8
9	NE	Rise Against	8
13	NE	Black Sabbath	7
13	5	Cardiacs	7
13	RE	ELO	7
13	NE	Guns and Roses	7
13	NE	Kate Bush	7
18	NE	Anthrax	6
18	NE	Linkin Park	6
18	RE	Madness	6
18	NE	Megadeth	6
18	10	OMD	6
18	NE	The Cure	6
18	NE	The Jam	6
18	NE	The Rolling Stones	6

Overall Top 100:

1	2	The Beatles	205
2	1	David Bowie	193
3	3	Queen	120
4	4	Pink Floyd	89
5	6	Iron Maiden	88
6	5	Duran Duran	81
7	7	The Clash	70
8	8	Metallica	66
9	10	Blur	58
10	9	The Levellers	57
11	11	ELO	54
12	14	Muse	52
13	12	Pulp	49
14	22	Foo Fighters	46
14	13	The Bee Gees	46
14	17	The Jam	46
17	21	Cardiacs	45
17	14	Depeche Mode	45
17	19	Madness	45
17	14	Marillion	45
21	17	Manic Street Preachers	44
22	19	The Pogues	43
23	23	Ultravox	39
24	24	AC/DC	37
24	26	The Beach Boys	37
26	33	Johnny Cash	36
26	28	OMD	36
26	28	The Cure	36
26	26	U2	36
30	28	Led Zeppelin	35
30	24	Scissor Sisters	35
32	36	Kate Bush	34
33	36	The Rolling Stones	33
34	33	Coldplay	32
35	40	Blondie	31
35	31	Gary Numan	31
37	36	Tears for Fears	30
37	31	The Who	30
39	36	Joy Division	29
39	44	New Order	29
39	46	Slipknot	29
42	44	Elvis Costello	28
42	33	Frankie GTH	28
42	40	John Lennon	28
42	48	T Rex	28
46	85	Offspring	27
46	48	The Buggles	27
48	69	Guns and Roses	26
48	40	REM	26
48	40	Status Quo	26
51	48	Bjork	25
51	48	Radiohead	25
51	48	The Stranglers	25
54	58	Green Day	24
54	46	The Ramones	24
54	48	White Stripes	24
57	61	Adam & The Ants	23
57	54	Chumbawamba	23
57	54	Helloween	23
57	54	Ian Dury	23
57	54	Korn	23
57	76	Linkin Park	23
57	61	Smiths	23
57	61	Tori Amos	23
57	58	Wings	23
66	85	Anthrax	22
66	92	Black Sabbath	22
66	61	Fleetwood Mac	22
66	58	Kinks	22
66	85	Megadeth	22
66	61	Oasis	22
66	69	Police	22
66	NE	Rise Against	22
73	61	Cradle of Filth	21
73	69	Jimi Hendrix	21
73	76	Specials	21
73	61	Super Furry Animals	21
76	92	System of a Down	20
76	61	Toyah	20
78	73	Lynyrd Skynyrd	19
78	69	Soft Cell	19
78	76	Take That	19
78	73	Thin Lizzy	19
84	73	Ash	18
84	85	Bob Dylan	18
84	92	Elvis Presley	18
84	92	Slayer	18
84	76	Therapy?	18
89	76	A Ha	17
89	76	Bruce Springsteen	17
89	92	Elton John	17
89	76	Killers	17
89	85	Kylie Minogue	17
89	NE	MarilynManson	17
89	76	Pet Shop Boys	17
89	76	Undertones	17
97	92	Bob Marley	16
97	85	Franz Ferdinand	16
97	85	Lou Reed	16
97	92	Ocean Colour Scene	16
97	NE	Prodigy	16
97	NE	Small Faces	16
97	92	XTC	16