Anyway.... One day my dad went out and bought the "Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128K". At last I had access to the same computer my friend had. I could get "Cauldron" and "3d Starstrike" for it and games were regularly available and cheap. Now I know it was a popular machine and had many classic games, but for me personally, I just didn’t like it that much. Graphics were very often monochrome because of colour clash and the sound was pitiful. Oh and lets not forget how frustrating it sometimes was to get a game to load properly. It would always fail after you sitting there patiently for 15 minutes, only for it to reset itself. Grrrrrr.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF JOPS - PART TWO
A bit later than anticipated but onwards and upwards as they say (I think).
Ok. Where were we? Oh yes, that’s right....the 80`s. I was still at school and was learning that a few of my chums also had "Commodore Plus 4`s" as well. It was getting increasingly difficult to find the games in the shops although in our travels we picked up a few more classics. My dad will fondly remember "ACE" (Air Combat Emulator). It was a pretty engaging flight simulation and had good graphics for its day. Another game me really enjoyed was "Mercenary". This was written by a chap called "Paul Woakes", who would go on to write several popular sequels. It started with you crashing on a planet called Targ and having to then survive. Loads to do and some really clever little tricks and in jokes made it a classic game which would be converted to numerous other computer formats. Again - for its day, it had pretty stunning 3d graphics and still plays well. Highly recommended!!
Most of the other games for the machine now escape me, which is a shame. It’s that age thing again!! I am currently dabbling with an emulator and have been scouring Ebay in an attempt to lay my hands on a machine and some games. As mentioned briefly in Part One, the adventure games we used to play are no longer around or at best very rare. Although saying that - I’ve recently been on holiday and found a shop which had a couple of the "Adventure International" games. These were the classic "Twin Kingdom Valley" and Scott Adam's "Spiderman".
"Twin Kingdom Valley" was a text adventure game written in 1983 by Trevor Hall and was one of the first games to have active Non-player Characters (NPCs) living their own lives. The NPCs were interactive with their own personality. Some were friendly and talked to you, following and defending the player, whilst others were hostile and wanted to bash you're brains in. I didn’t really appreciate just how clever it was at the time but after playing it recently on the "Commodore 64", It surprised me as to how advanced it was.
"Spiderman" was by Adventure International’s "Scott Adams" and came out in 1986. There was a series of similar text adventures written around the time by them based on Marvel Comic characters called "Questprobe".
We had the "Spectrum" for a couple of years before we decided to get the next big thing - a Commodore C64. At the time, I was reading multi-game magazines like "Computer & Video Games" and the C64 seemed so much better.
Piccies of Spectrum Pacland and Bubble Bobble
And it was. The "C64" was probably my all time favourite 8-Bit Computer. The graphics were colourful, the games were pretty reliable loading in - with loading screens and music to keep you entertained, they had great gameplay and as anyone who’s seen or owned one will testify - the sound on them is frankly amazing. To the point where there are musicians out there recreating classic songs and adding contemporary twists to them even today. We’d also got a musical keyboard that you overlaid over the computer. I can still remember the rendition of "Telstar" that it produced.
Just compare these C64 Piccies of Pacland and Bubble Bobble to the Speccy versions above
I can remember my jaw dropping the first time I heard the "Ocean" (an extremely popular Software House) loading music and the picture of "Head Over Heels" gradually building up on the screen. And then when the game started, my jaw just hit the floor. Wow!! It just so happened that the very first game we loaded up would wind up being a classic game (which has just recently been remade for the PC). The very next game we played would also become a classic. "Wizball". It took me ages to get to grips with and is time unique.
Above - screen shots from some classic C64 games
There are probably too many good games to mention here. I feel I will leave that for another article all of its own. In the meantime I would definitely recommend anyone interested should visit our "Need Input" section and look at the "C64" Links. There are some great sites dedicated to this machine.
I’d saved up my pocket and birthday money, gone down to "One Step Beyond" in the fine City of "Norwich" and Invested in an "Oceanic Disc Drive" and a copy of "Rocket Ranger" which Id seen running on a "Commodore Amiga" in another computer shop and was stunned by a piece where you were flying out over the Pacific Ocean to rescue a young lady for the clutches of the evil Nazi’s in a Zeppelin. You had to shoot the canopy underneath the Balloon and if you missed the zeppelin exploded and you fell to you're doom.
I’d saved up my pocket and birthday money, gone down to "One Step Beyond" in the fine City of "Norwich" and Invested in an "Oceanic Disc Drive" and a copy of "Rocket Ranger" which Id seen running on a "Commodore Amiga" in another computer shop and was stunned by a piece where you were flying out over the Pacific Ocean to rescue a young lady for the clutches of the evil Nazi’s in a Zeppelin. You had to shoot the canopy underneath the Balloon and if you missed the zeppelin exploded and you fell to you're doom.
An Oceanic Disk Drive for the C64 and Rocket Ranger
It was at this point in my "Brief History of Jops" that my Dad was about to spend the cash on a massive leap in technology and so, usher in the next generation of Computer.
Until Part Three then.
Article by Jops, June 2006.
