Parodius: Non-sense FantasyIf your a regular reader then you’ll already know that Konami’s Gradius shoot-em-up series is just amazing and the second game, Vulcan Venture, is my all time favourite shoot-em-up. It should therefore come as no massive surprise that I also adore Parodius Da! on the SNES.
The soundtrack is a brilliant mix of re-arranged classic music and musical theme’s from other Konami games. It’s a wacky soundtrack, but it’s also a wacky game.
Star PawsAttack of the Mutant Zombie Flesh Eating Chickens From Mars – Starring Zappo the Dog.
After releasing Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy, Matthew Smith went all quiet and then this game was announced and apparently completed but Smith wasn’t happy with the finished game and it never got released. A year later it reappeared as Star Paws – completely rewritten by a different coding team and released on various formats. Tim Follin did a great job adapting Rob Hubbards C64 music to the ZX Spectrum.
HydrofoolThe sequel to Sweevo’s World. I loaded it up on my 128k ZX spectrum expecting a fab title tune but all I got was the same old 48k Beeper music from the previous game. Gutted. Still, when you actually start the game the real soundtrack kicks in – and what a soundtrack. Rob Hubbard is back once again with a very vibrant and watery track that completely suits the game. It’s a joy to listen to.
Kwik SnaxA stunningly good game. There were many spin-off’s from the main Dizzy series but this one is by far the best one. The 128k ZX Spectrum version has so many enhancements over 48k version; such as a colourful introduction, cut screens and in-game music but by far the most impressive enhancement is the title screen. If you have only ever played the Amstrad CPC version or the vastly different Commodore C64 version then you have missed something very special. (more…)
The Gradius SeriesGradius I & II are the simply the best arcade shoot-em-ups ever created. With the iconic weapon selections, the Vic Viper ship along with a great soundtrack and varied environments you have a killer gaming series.
FireflyFirefly is a shoot-em-up but it’s not a normal shoot-em-up. None of this forced scrolling like other games. You are free to whizz around in any direction you please which is great as the levels can be very maze like! A fun shoot-em-up with some tricky mini-games that rely heavily on a sense of rhythm and timing.
The two title screen tunes are brilliant. Some amazing coding to produce high quality music from the 48k beeper along with an on screen keyboard showing what notes are being played!
RemixesSome people would argue that remixes of of original works shouldn’t be allowed and detract from the original piece as it deviates from what the original composer intended it to sound like. Some would also say that this a fair argument. In some ways I agree with these people as a bad remix of an original piece can detract from the original and, if people haven’t heard the original, put them off listening too it.
Once again I’ve made a few changes to the blog that aren’t noticeable unless you go hunting for them so I thought that a quick update would a good thing.
In my last news feature I mentioned that I’d purchased a space upgrade and outlined a few things that I had planned for the site. One of these features was to create a musical archive page that features all of the music found in the main blog entries – well this has been completed and is available to view under the ‘Retro Archives’ menu.
Another feature I was keen to do was move the music from using YouTube videos to having all of the music hosted on the blog itself. While I now have the music available on the blog I am still updating the older posts to remove the YouTube videos and replace them with the actual music. This should be completed by the end of this week.
I’ve also updated the Ringtones section of the blog. I have significantly expanded the range available and there are now over 50 ringtones available with more to come.
I have a couple of ‘Special Feature’ blog entries in the pipeline – Remixes and Jean Michel Jarre – these are looking quite interesting.
Thanks for reading and listening!!
Dave
Donkey Kong CountryThis game blew my mind back in 1994. Stunning graphics and music to go with a great game. The stunning soundtrack was composed by three, yes three, people – Dave Wise, Eveline Fischer and Robin Beanland. For my money Donkey Kong Country contains some of the best music heard on the SNES.
Well, this is the final part of my week long look at all things Spectrum. I hope that so far you’ve enjoyed the week and that you’ll find this part equally enjoyable. For this seventh and final part I am going to look at the ZX Spectrum on the internet.
From various websites to old adverts and interviews and also a selection of scene demos.
I am going to start this final part by looking at the most important Sinclair ZX Spectrum website on the internet – the World of Spectrum.
In October 1991 thru to February 1992 Your Sinclair ran a feature on the Top 100 ZX Spectrum games of all time. Following on from the this list in September 1993 Your Sinclair posted the readers Top 100 games. Both lists significantly differ in the ordering of the top 100 and while I personally don’t agree with either choice it is interesting to have a quick look.
Below then is the Top 20 games from both lists, I’ll let you have a look at this list before I give you my own personal Greatest Sinclair ZX Spectrum game of all time. It’s difficult to pick the best, the elite, the pinnacle, the greatest of anything but for me nailing my top one game on the ZX Spectrum was really easy as their was no question in my mind about my choice, it’s not just the greatest game on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum – it’s the greatest game of all time. Forget Skryim, Halo, Mass Effect and Wii Sports(!!) none of these games can come close to being as good as this game. Never, ever.
The end of the week is getting closer and today in part five, I am going to look at the hardware of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. I’m going to try and not to get to technical as I don’t want this post to confuse people but in places I won’t be able to avoid the technical stuff.
I’m not massively into the technical side of the ZX Spectrum anyway so the research for writing this particular blog entry was quite fascinating. Hopefully some of my readers might also be intrigued by what actually went into the humble rubber keyed ZX Spectrum that was the brainchild of Sir Clive Sinclair but it was designed by Rick Dickinson and engineer Richard Altwasser.
Thirty years ago they created what would become the UK’s Number One home computer.
Together we will discover the technical secrets of the ZX Spectrum and what made it a great machine and I promise we are going to have fun doing it to!*
It’s the fourth day of my journey back into the mists of time as I look back at the ZX Spectrum and what made the system great. For the first few posts I’ve looked at a selection of games that I used to enjoy playing and also some newer titles. When I have the chance I still like to play these games although these days I tend to use an Emulator.
Many people are purists and do frown upon the use of an emulator. While there is nothing like playing on the original hardware there is also the convenience of playing using modern technology. For me this doesn’t detract from the gaming experience, it probably should, but it doesn’t perhaps it’s because I am getting older.
Because this is quite a contentious issue I decided that the best people to ask about this subject were my fellow Specchums on the World of Spectrum forums.
Retro Game Music 