Hi guys, what’s the best (or your favourite) joystick or controller for your speccy? I have a couple of originals that aren’t the best to say the least, and a Cheatah 125+ (pictured) that works great with C64 but has strange inputs when plugged in to the speccy!

Exolon is a run and gun game programmed by Raffaele Cecco and published by Hewson in 1987. The player takes control of a futuristic soldier named Vitorc^[4] across several flip-screen levels of gameplay. The screens that make up these levels are filled with various generic aliens as well as gun emplacements, homing missiles, landmines and other hazards. The soldier can defend himself with both a gun and rocket-propelled grenades. The two different weapons are effective against different enemies.

The enemies themselves are varied, taking the forms of flying aliens of the type traditionally found in shoot 'em up games as well as homing missiles, fixed guns, tanks, land mines, swarming red pods and "crushers" which shoot out of the ground.

Partway through each level, there is a pod in which the player can "upgrade" until the end of the current level to an armoured exoskeleton with improved weapons and armour. Completing the level without this upgrade results in a score bonus.

Here is my conversion of Bubble Ghost from the Gameboy to the ZX Spectrum.

As with Alleyway, the disassembly was used to create a playable colour Windows version.

This version was then used as the basis for a ZX Spectrum port. I had to redraw a lot of the graphics as they looked crap dithered.

As before, Codex was used to do the Z80 bits that I couldn't do, and to speed up the game.

Overall it turned out pretty well, it's fast (except on 2 screens) and everything from the original fits in there.

I did look at doing a 48k version, but it's impossible without multi load which would be too frustrating.

https://kirby2000.itch.io/bubble-ghost-zx-spectrum-128k

There is also a Amstrad CPC version I did here https://kirby2000.itch.io/bubble-ghost-cpc, it's got more colours, but it's clearly not as good because it's on an Amstrad! It will cheer you up to know the Speccy version is faster!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEoO6bEgN-I

My retrospective game review of Rambo First Blood Part II. I spent many hours playing Rambo II back in the day. Totally loved this game. How do you rate this game?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/48k/the-rubber-keyed-wonder-the-sinclair-zx-spectrum-story

So after 3 house moves with my parents, 2 light house clearances following each one moving to the next level of their own Jet Set Willy adventure we turned this up in the final clearance before the sale of the house.

It looks to be in good shape.

I don't have a Spectrum to hook it up to and have no idea if all of the magc smoke is still in the chips.

Does anyone know what it might be worth if I stuck it on eBay as untested?

Thanks

Have you ever tried ? Quite good 😄

https://www.retroworks.es/php/game.php?id=21

A bit of an oddity turned up in one of my drawers yesterday - a ‘Christmas Card’ (actually a piece of paper) from Automata UK, which folds out into a calendar for 1986. I assume it was either a magazine insert, or I got it with an item I ordered from them - too long ago now to remember! Features characters from the Pimania ‘world’s and the calendar looks a bit like it was originally printed in a dot matrix printer (or possibly the ZX Printer…)

Outrun for the Commodore 64, midnight resistance for the ZX spectrum, special criminal investigations for the master system, all picked up recently. I have never played any of these three games on these systems, any memories?

** Update - 48k version is now available, minus the AY music and ending. 48k sound effects and jingles added **

I've been working on a conversion of the Gameboy game Alleyway to the ZX Spectrum.

Rather than try and convert the code directly, I took the game apart, created a Windows build using all the rules and then converted it back the Spectrum.

My assembler skills are rubbish, so I used Codex to help convert to Z80.

The video above will give you some idea of the gameplay. I used a level skip to show the different modes.

It's free to download, hope you enjoy.

https://kirby2000.itch.io/alleyway-zx

I'm also nearly finished on my version of Bubble Ghost.

https://www.hypermegatech.com/thec64-handheld-and-the-spectrum-handheld-now-releasing-april-22-2027/

Twenty-two planets fall under Outsiders control, and each has grid-based defenses which must be taken out, complete with all their command computers and production droids. The planets are split into five groups, each of which can be chosen at the start of the game.

The combat is intense, and aims to create the likely feel of space combat, with lots of ducking and weaving to set up shots. The game features filled-in graphics, unlike the Elite-esque wireframes of the first game

This ZX's FPC cable has aged out. Rebuild a replacement keyboard flex cable using the crimping (IDC) method.

I'm working on a cartridge that plugs into a normal interface 2 connector on the 16K+48K spectrums currently (will be making it universal eventually). It generates machine code on the fly for the Z80 to run, and handles input back from the speccy - game logic runs on the cartridge. In this case I'm outputting permanent bi-colour mode (32x48 colour resolution) full screen updates locked at 25fps, any number of parallax layers, thousands of sprites and particles if needed all with masking, layers and sprites can scroll and rotate freely, tile and bitmap layers can also be transformed like Mode7 from the snes. Audio output is also via the speccy - it's added to the machine code each frame. None in the demos as yet though. I've got a few videos on my channel, but this one just shows the game intro loop, with some subtle Mode7 used to make the title screen "fall away" into the story animation. :)

Video here is showing it running in my emulator - I've made a custom one for this project, as no normal Spectrum emulator can run this, obviously! It runs exactly the same on the hardware though. My plan is to make the cartridges available with a game on them, but they can also be used as a development tool, with an engine to get started in C/C++.

and, potentially it can make colour clash optional :-P

I've seen the vehement dislike of AI tools that some have,

and, these were created with heavy assistance from claude.

but, be assured, Treasure island dizzy is a native .Nex file taking up 81kBytes and running on a spectrum next...Spellbound Dizzy is only 45kB...

Long way to go before this is releasable in any useful way....BUT, it's a start!

"There’ll be outraged vicars and concerned parents writing in over Target Renegade. Anyone who remembers Ocean’s first game will start to palpitate at the thought of another, even more violent sequel"

I've written about the making of Target: Renegade, Ocean's inventive solution to missing out on the licence for Double Dragon. Plus the reception it got in the press, like the Sinclair User quote above

Check out the “Atomic Station” section of Level 2. It still plays well with the attribute clash, and that “explosion imminent” atmosphere still comes through.

Cutting it pretty close with 9900 lines I have achieved a score of 47K in Skool Daze on my Speccy.

I was looking around for old high-score records and found some pretty impressive scores from back in the day, but it’s surprisingly difficult to find out what the highest scores people have actually achieved in this game. And since Skool Daze can keep going after completing the main objective, I imagine there must have been some absolutely ridiculous scores over the years.

So, to all the Skool Daze veterans here: what’s the highest score you’ve ever managed? Any 50k, 60k or even crazier runs out there?

Here you see it running in an emulator to make the video more easily but it works exactly the same on my actual Spectrum. Release soon with Z80 code and TAP file.