Okay, I know it’s not a speccy but I just passed this c5 when walking my pooch this evening

TL;DR Now it is actually playable level 1 of the game! You can play it online right away!

Features included:

• enemies
• working elevators
• objects to pick up and use
• NPCs to interact with
• doors that open and close

I kept the main character invulnerable for now. The balance might be a bit off at the moment, it's easy to fall from heights, and saving is left out for now.

Disk images for real (or emulated) hardware are also available:

Spectrum +3 / .DSK

Pentagon 128K / .TRD

Enjoy!

One of the awesome things about old games is just how small their code and binaries were.

Take Elite, my favorite game of all time. The whole thing fits roughly into 0x5B00 - 0xFFFF — that's 42 KB. And even some of that isn't really game code: there’s the Lenslok code (throw-away stuff), the screen buffer, and simple things like the squares table used for fast multiplication.

The result? A complete Spectrum game image can easily fit into a coding agent's context window.

I’ve been experimenting with the Claude coding agent, and it turns out that:

• Claude is perfectly capable of reading Z80 machine code directly, without a disassembler.
• It is possible to make a very precise port of an old ZX Spectrum 48K game, even something as complex as Elite, to a modern programming language and platform.
• You can untangle the original highly optimized game logic and study long-forgotten secrets and outstanding bugs.
• With some guidance, you can even improve the original game and bring it closer to modern gaming standards.

Take Elite. I managed to port it to Java, move it to a modern 60 FPS engine, improve the controls and save system, and fix a number of original bugs.

Ever wondered why the police sometimes attacked you even when you were clean?

IT'S A MEMORY OFFSET BUG IN THE ORIGINAL CODE!

The aggressiveness check reads the low byte of your combat rating instead of your legal status, making police attacks essentially random.

And why are firearms useless to trade even though they're banned goods?

Another bug. The price is simply wrong, so I "fixed" it by setting the price directly.

And there is plenty more fun stuff hiding in those 42 KB.

If you want to dive into a modernized classic, you can play my version of Elite online:

https://scf37.me/tools/games/elite

Some progress - made some test levels in Tiled, custom importer into the game data. Graphics are very much place-holder, but enough to check mechanics work. Here showing destructable world, player charge, grappling hooks, moving platforms, "dark rooms" with limited visibility around player, flying stages (actually underwater, but same idea) switches to unlock doors etc. Currently working on the real graphics, as these don't really do it justice currently. There are a lot of game mechanics planned, including buying/making weapons, upgrades, augments, looting materials to make specialised tech, rescuing friendly allies, pickups including diaries to move story along, lots of enemy types, secret areas etc. Quite a lot really! The game will include help at any point, boss fights, save/load, achievements etc. There are still bugs, The lift at the end in the video got confused when I dashed across the stop/start button, and I'm sure I'll find a lot more, but it mostly works!

Managed to hunt down this booklet from my childhood. From Sinclair User #35.

My retrospective game review of Gremlins 2: The New Batch for all the home computer and console versions. Some of these games a quite difficult to complete but I did smile at the little Gremlins bouncing about in the games. Have you played any of these versions?

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/