I always thought that the artist could have drawn a better circle in ghostbusters, especially top right. Also the ghosts body seems to be sliced in two and separated.
That always annoyed me:
agree, I really don't know why that is so bad :(
Lots of games on the Spectrum had terrible graphics, but there are a few that stick out because the graphics could have been a whole lot better, and the terrible graphics ended up detrimental to the game (these were the times when I was gobsmaked at good graphics, and they alone could keep me glued to the screen).
California Games springs immediately to mind. No need whatsoever for that badly drawn, badly coloured mess. It could, and should, have looked wonderful with big chunky well drawn sprites on top of colourful backgrounds. (Winter Games looked great for example).
Ocean's Donkey Kong - horrible
Mario Bros - needlessly horrible
Track & Field - so so so bad, did they look at Hyper Sports?
I'm going to be controversial and say the graphics in Bubble Bobble were a huge letdown to. Very dreary. I'd have preferred loads of colour and some colour clash (Rainbow Islands looked great for example).
And er, Outrun;) (see Chase HQ for how it could have been done).
Many other games had much worse graphics than these, but these games were, or should have been, triple-A, showcase games. And they looked rough.
Track & Field - so so so bad, did they look at Hyper Sports?
No they didn't - like someone else wrote before, it was a quick and dirty job made just because that ancient coin-op had never been converted for the Spectrum and that hole in Game, Set and Match 2 had to be filled somehow. Looking at the final result, it would have been better not to fill it at all!
I'm going to be controversial and say the graphics in Bubble Bobble were a huge letdown to. Very dreary. I'd have preferred loads of colour and some colour clash (Rainbow Islands looked great for example).
Hmm... To be honest I didn't like them madly myself, but on the whole it was a pretty good conversion, not among the best but absolutely not something Spectrum users could be ashamed of.
And er, Outrun;) (see Chase HQ for how it could have been done).
But the Chase HQ coin-op itself is much simpler than Out Run in terms of graphics - the wildly different scenarios of Out Run are nowhere to be found in it (if I remember correctly). I reckon the conversion of Out Run is, overall, the best we could get when considering the enormous gap between the coin-op and the Spectrum. And by the way - did you ever play the C64 version? ;)
Aw come on. OK, Golden Axe's graphics are not the best I've ever seen in a Spectrum game, but they are far from being the worse. Did you forget the appalling super-deformed squashed sprites of the 48K version of E-SWAT? Or the stick men of Track'n'Field running around like cockroaches on a track which is just two black lines on a green background? Or did you ever come across this?
Seems that anything involving SWAT teams will turn horribly awful on the Spectrum.
I was going to post this! Yeah it's possibly the worst game ever made on any machine. It was probably knocked up during an afternoon by some bored coder:smile:
I was going to post this! Yeah it's possibly the worst game ever made on any machine. It was probably knocked up during an afternoon by some bored coder:smile:
Yeah! It's so hideous I have a bash at it sometimes, call it taste for the horrendous maybe - one of those games so bad you actually enjoy them:D
Yeah! It's so hideous I have a bash at it sometimes, call it taste for the horrendous maybe - one of those games so bad you actually enjoy them:D
:o I had entirely removed it from my memory, but you made it surface again! Now I won't be able to sleep tonight! :eek:
The cover art made the game look exciting with things getting blown up but the game is as dull as an episode of 'Last of the summer wine' without the humour.
There's a few I know of ported from C64/CPC without any effort applied to the graphics. The fat pixels are just swapped for stipples. That Dream Warrior is probably the worst I've seen. For a while I thought this port of C64 Leviathan was the worst:
Though perhaps not quite so dreadful as at least the sprites are against a clear background. Amstrad owners didn't get it easy either, as although they got this in colour, they got the game windowed into 128x192 fat pixels to match the Speccy screen area, with that score board taking up the top 64 rows just like on the Speccy version.
Flight Path 737. The 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' of Spectrum games - the graphics are sooo bad - when you are trying to take off it doesn't even move!
An utter, utter turkey of epic proportions that should never have been released as it was.
The most surprising thing for me is that Flight Path 737 had actually been a bit of a hit on the Commodore computers. It's not like the game plays any better on them either; there's some nice David Dunn music, I suppose, but other than that it's pretty much the same.
I can only guess that it must have been the only fish in a small pond. Still, porting such a primitive game to the Spectrum when we'd already had Psion and Digital Integration's excellent efforts for over a year was asking for trouble.
The most surprising thing for me is that Flight Path 737 had actually been a bit of a hit on the Commodore computers. It's not like the game plays any better on them either; there's some nice David Dunn music, I suppose, but other than that it's pretty much the same.
I can only guess that it must have been the only fish in a small pond. Still, porting such a primitive game to the Spectrum when we'd already had Psion and Digital Integration's excellent efforts for over a year was asking for trouble.
Yeah - my mate had this game on his Amstrad CPC. I played it on his computer and thought it was pretty crap too - but as crap as it was - it was still better than what we were given on the Speccy. I remember the mountains looked nice on the CPC.
You are right about the Psion and DI games (flight sim and fighter pilot) which were (for the time) good flight simulations. Even Nite Flight was bloody marvellous when compared to this.
I mean - I could have written this pile of dog-turd in BASIC back in the day - to be fair it wasn't even a fully completed program - and I was famous for never completing my programs!
There are literally thousands of primitive games, often in BASIC, from the early years (say 82-84) which look ten times worse than what has been mentioned so far ...
There are literally thousands of primitive games, often in BASIC, from the early years (say 82-84) which look ten times worse than what has been mentioned so far ...
By which I mean, a 1983 type-in listing can perhaps be forgiven for having bad graphics, as can a 1984 Quill-ed, where memory was very limited. But a 1985 or later commercial platform or race game doesn't deserve such considerations.
There are literally thousands of primitive games, often in BASIC, from the early years (say 82-84) which look ten times worse than what has been mentioned so far ...
I agree and surely they count too, Harrier Attack plays okay but lets face facts it looks like poo,also another game i used to play that is even worse was Mission Omega (Pulsonic 1983) http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0010598
And last night I was playing batty....maybe it's just me but having the bat as the same color as the background sucks and spoils it. /gets coat.
agreed.
Roadrunner and Wile E Coyote is the same, very tough to see what you're doing
you can barely even make out roadrunner onscreen there and that's a non cluttered screen compared to some of them
I would not call this 'bad graphics' per se though
There are literally thousands of primitive games, often in BASIC, from the early years (say 82-84) which look ten times worse than what has been mentioned so far ...
for sure; but I think graphics become offensively bad when they ruin a game. I mentioned it before, but California Games is a good example. The C64 version still looks amazing after all these years (I would say it is the best looking version on all formats); whilst the Spectrum version is appaling. So, for me, at least, that's why Spectrum's California Games has worse graphics than a simple BASIC type-in.
that moment kept on being re-defined. They put out some utter ****e on the Spectrum.
Even in their latter years I don't think they ever topped Flak. I wouldn't have minded the graphics too much if the gameplay hadn't been equally appalling.
I agree and surely they count too, Harrier Attack plays okay but lets face facts it looks like poo,also another game i used to play that is even worse was Mission Omega (Pulsonic 1983) http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0010598
That looks suspiciously like a game that was on the Cascade 50 tape, it wasn't called Mission Omega though, but i can't remember its name, it was something like Bomb Town or City Bomber.
Yeah, i know that Cascade 50 game! What's even more spooky is that if you reset the tape counter to zero at the start of the tape, the city bomber game starts at 911.
Yeah, i know that Cascade 50 game! What's even more spooky is that if you reset the tape counter to zero at the start of the tape, the city bomber game starts at 911.
Comments
agree, I really don't know why that is so bad :(
Lots of games on the Spectrum had terrible graphics, but there are a few that stick out because the graphics could have been a whole lot better, and the terrible graphics ended up detrimental to the game (these were the times when I was gobsmaked at good graphics, and they alone could keep me glued to the screen).
California Games springs immediately to mind. No need whatsoever for that badly drawn, badly coloured mess. It could, and should, have looked wonderful with big chunky well drawn sprites on top of colourful backgrounds. (Winter Games looked great for example).
Ocean's Donkey Kong - horrible
Mario Bros - needlessly horrible
Track & Field - so so so bad, did they look at Hyper Sports?
I'm going to be controversial and say the graphics in Bubble Bobble were a huge letdown to. Very dreary. I'd have preferred loads of colour and some colour clash (Rainbow Islands looked great for example).
And er, Outrun ;) (see Chase HQ for how it could have been done).
Many other games had much worse graphics than these, but these games were, or should have been, triple-A, showcase games. And they looked rough.
Hmm... To be honest I didn't like them madly myself, but on the whole it was a pretty good conversion, not among the best but absolutely not something Spectrum users could be ashamed of. But the Chase HQ coin-op itself is much simpler than Out Run in terms of graphics - the wildly different scenarios of Out Run are nowhere to be found in it (if I remember correctly). I reckon the conversion of Out Run is, overall, the best we could get when considering the enormous gap between the coin-op and the Spectrum. And by the way - did you ever play the C64 version? ;)
I was going to post this! Yeah it's possibly the worst game ever made on any machine. It was probably knocked up during an afternoon by some bored coder:smile:
Yes, but I was referring to one particular game wasn't I?
Anyway, here's one no-one's mentioned yet, Dream Warrior:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0001518
Check out the map for level 3 :o
Magenta icon
The cover art made the game look exciting with things getting blown up but the game is as dull as an episode of 'Last of the summer wine' without the humour.
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0002477
that loading screen is awesome!
Hehehe ... and there is something seriously wrong with how that one guy's leg bends
I actually thought that looked pretty good compared to some of the stuff - guessing it doesn't work on the move?
This footballer from the loading screen looks like a fat lady wearing a Roman tunic :lol:
There's a few I know of ported from C64/CPC without any effort applied to the graphics. The fat pixels are just swapped for stipples. That Dream Warrior is probably the worst I've seen. For a while I thought this port of C64 Leviathan was the worst:
Mr Heli is pretty ropey, done the same way:
Though perhaps not quite so dreadful as at least the sprites are against a clear background. Amstrad owners didn't get it easy either, as although they got this in colour, they got the game windowed into 128x192 fat pixels to match the Speccy screen area, with that score board taking up the top 64 rows just like on the Speccy version.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
Flight Path 737. The 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' of Spectrum games - the graphics are sooo bad - when you are trying to take off it doesn't even move!
An utter, utter turkey of epic proportions that should never have been released as it was.
How about The Legend Of Kage - that was a pretty mediocre game with really gash graphics.
Yes, but the scene where Harry literally gets his head shot off makes up for it. :grin:
The most surprising thing for me is that Flight Path 737 had actually been a bit of a hit on the Commodore computers. It's not like the game plays any better on them either; there's some nice David Dunn music, I suppose, but other than that it's pretty much the same.
I can only guess that it must have been the only fish in a small pond. Still, porting such a primitive game to the Spectrum when we'd already had Psion and Digital Integration's excellent efforts for over a year was asking for trouble.
Yeah - my mate had this game on his Amstrad CPC. I played it on his computer and thought it was pretty crap too - but as crap as it was - it was still better than what we were given on the Speccy. I remember the mountains looked nice on the CPC.
You are right about the Psion and DI games (flight sim and fighter pilot) which were (for the time) good flight simulations. Even Nite Flight was bloody marvellous when compared to this.
I mean - I could have written this pile of dog-turd in BASIC back in the day - to be fair it wasn't even a fully completed program - and I was famous for never completing my programs!
Quoted from the OP:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0001380
And last night I was playing batty....maybe it's just me but having the bat as the same color as the background sucks and spoils it. /gets coat.
I agree and surely they count too, Harrier Attack plays okay but lets face facts it looks like poo,also another game i used to play that is even worse was Mission Omega (Pulsonic 1983)
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0010598
Roadrunner and Wile E Coyote is the same, very tough to see what you're doing
you can barely even make out roadrunner onscreen there and that's a non cluttered screen compared to some of them
I would not call this 'bad graphics' per se though
Not only appalling graphics but a utterly terrible game to boot.. US Golds worst moment.
for sure; but I think graphics become offensively bad when they ruin a game. I mentioned it before, but California Games is a good example. The C64 version still looks amazing after all these years (I would say it is the best looking version on all formats); whilst the Spectrum version is appaling. So, for me, at least, that's why Spectrum's California Games has worse graphics than a simple BASIC type-in.
that moment kept on being re-defined. They put out some utter ****e on the Spectrum.
reminds me that I was always gutted that the Spectrum never got a decent Zaxxon game.
Even in their latter years I don't think they ever topped Flak. I wouldn't have minded the graphics too much if the gameplay hadn't been equally appalling.
That looks suspiciously like a game that was on the Cascade 50 tape, it wasn't called Mission Omega though, but i can't remember its name, it was something like Bomb Town or City Bomber.
BIGBIGBIGBIG.....
Really? Now that is seriously spooky!