Home Computing Weekly


Winning Games On The ZX Spectrum
By Ellis Horwood
Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Home Computing Weekly #94

This is a compendium of no less than 20 games! All unprotected, and written in Basic. They are very unsophisticated in commercial terms, though they do demonstrate that sometimes maligned Spectrum Basic can produce acceptable games. The standard is similar to the 'Understanding Your Spectrum' type of book.

Everything under the sun is here: Space Invaders, Breakout, Zombies, Skiing, Horse racing, Helicopter Rescue, Fruit Machine, Treasure Hunt, Lunar Rover, Code Breaker, Blackjack, Duel, a space trader game, balloon flight simulator and six more!

Whilst they are good for Basic, they are crude in comparison to machine-coded games, even those priced at £1.99. You must decide what you want for your money. Is it quality or quantity? For the price of one sophisticated game, you get 20 crude ones! They are reasonable to play, but quickly boring, particularly having seen much better implementations. A large library of different games at low individual costs: for me, the cost doesn't compensate for the lack of sophistication.

D.M.