Certainly one of the most instantly identifiable. If you're thinking of something a bit more modern then there's just tooooo many to chose from to pick an all-out best.
If it's something that hasn't yet been released on real-media yet, I'd say that Zombie Calavera would be high on the list.
Zombie Calvera - As you mentioned, great platform game. Very nice graphics
Invasion of the Zombie Monsters - One of my favourites, Ghost n Goblins style game
Genesis - The shoot em up recently released, excellent game with some great levels
Horace in the Mystic Woods - Conversion of the Psion game, very good graphics and levels.
Farmer Jack in Harvest Havoc - Excellent Mr Do! type of game, the other farmer jack games are excellent
Rallybug - By Jonathan Cauldwell, very good platform game, keeps you coming back for more.
GameX - By Jonathan Cauldwell, lots of mini games in this one.
Bipboi - fun shoot em up
Egghead 5 - Great platform game
Ghost Castle 1 - Great puzzle game
Ghost Castle 2 - Very good Sabre Wulf type of game
Jet Set Willy 5 - ZX Heroes - Different graphics for every screen from different Speccy games
Kommando II - Okay not true homebrew but a great version of the original Commando gam
Miles Mad Mission - Created by Boozefreak and named after our very own Miles ! A lot of thought put into those screens
Stranded - Very good puzzle game
Wizard of Wor - Very good conversion
W*H*B - Nice 3d puzzle block game
UWOL - Quest for money - Love this game, Bombjack platform style game
Gloop Troops - Great looking platform game
Heart Stealer - Another excellent platform game
Many many great games over the years. Been spoilt when it comes to homebrew
My top 5...
1) UWOL - Quest for money
2) Zombie Monsters
3) Genesis
4) Rallybug
5) Horace in the Mystic Woods
Me too, have got a lot still to get through but have yet to play a bad one. Still haven't played all of the Mojon ones either.
For me Horace in the Mystic Woods stands out just because I was getting seriously addicted to it a short while back. Finally finished it a few weeks ago with the aid of snapshots...
? I thought by homebrew he meant non-commercial? Still, recommending Manic Miner is always good, I suppose, as it is a genuinely classic and eminantly playable game.
Anyway, I'd say (for homebrew games)
Farmer Jack in Harvest Havoc (the best Mr Do! type game on the Spectrum),
Banger Management,
Batteries Not Included,
Egghead 4 and 5,
Thieves School,
123 Maze,
Slubberdegullion,
Mushroom Man,
King's Valley,
Albatrossity,
splATTR,
W*H*B,
Ken Ken,
Quantum Gardening,
iLOgicALL,
BioHELL,
Zombie Calavera Prologue,
and a lot more, and various Jetset Willy and Manic Miner fan edits, such as:
ZX Heroes,
Willy's Afterlife,
Maria vs. Some Bastards,
Willy the Rogue,
Eugene: Lord of the Bathroom,
Manic Miner 3,
Willy the Hacker,
Bizarre,
Still Stealing,
Frosya,
The Time Hole,
Ultimate Manic Miner,
Miles Mad Mission,
? I thought by homebrew he meant non-commercial? Still, recommending Manic Miner is always good, I suppose, as it is a genuinely classic and eminantly playable game.
I remember a discussion some time ago about it -what does homebrew really mean.
Is it something that you write at your home in your free time as opposed to doing your paid company job in the office?
But what if you try to sell it to somebody later, will it stop being a homebrew?
And what if commercial means selling about 20 copies, like in case of Cronosoft games?
As you can see, the definition of homebrew isn't sharp.
I really enjoied that sort of point & click game that showed up at the forum 1 year ago, about a doomed building... can't remember the name of it, but really had fun playing that one!
I really enjoied that sort of point & click game that showed up at the forum 1 year ago, about a doomed building... can't remember the name of it, but really had fun playing that one!
That was Ralf's (one post above yours!) Skyscraper of Doom ... excellent game and I thoroughly recommend it.
Zombie Calvera - As you mentioned, great platform game. Very nice graphics
Invasion of the Zombie Monsters - One of my favourites, Ghost n Goblins style game
Genesis - The shoot em up recently released, excellent game with some great levels
Horace in the Mystic Woods - Conversion of the Psion game, very good graphics and levels.
Farmer Jack in Harvest Havoc - Excellent Mr Do! type of game, the other farmer jack games are excellent
Rallybug - By Jonathan Cauldwell, very good platform game, keeps you coming back for more.
GameX - By Jonathan Cauldwell, lots of mini games in this one.
Bipboi - fun shoot em up
Egghead 5 - Great platform game
Ghost Castle 1 - Great puzzle game
Ghost Castle 2 - Very good Sabre Wulf type of game
Jet Set Willy 5 - ZX Heroes - Different graphics for every screen from different Speccy games
Kommando II - Okay not true homebrew but a great version of the original Commando gam
Miles Mad Mission - Created by Boozefreak and named after our very own Miles ! A lot of thought put into those screens
Stranded - Very good puzzle game
Wizard of Wor - Very good conversion
W*H*B - Nice 3d puzzle block game
UWOL - Quest for money - Love this game, Bombjack platform style game
Gloop Troops - Great looking platform game
Heart Stealer - Another excellent platform game
Many many great games over the years. Been spoilt when it comes to homebrew
My top 5...
1) UWOL - Quest for money
2) Zombie Monsters
3) Genesis
4) Rallybug
5) Horace in the Mystic Woods
? I thought by homebrew he meant non-commercial? Still, recommending Manic Miner is always good, I suppose, as it is a genuinely classic and eminantly playable game.
Anyway, I'd say (for homebrew games)
Farmer Jack in Harvest Havoc (the best Mr Do! type game on the Spectrum),
Banger Management,
Batteries Not Included,
Egghead 4 and 5,
Thieves School,
123 Maze,
Slubberdegullion,
Mushroom Man,
King's Valley,
Albatrossity,
splATTR,
W*H*B,
Ken Ken,
Quantum Gardening,
iLOgicALL,
BioHELL,
Zombie Calavera Prologue,
and a lot more, and various Jetset Willy and Manic Miner fan edits, such as:
ZX Heroes,
Willy's Afterlife,
Maria vs. Some Bastards,
Willy the Rogue,
Eugene: Lord of the Bathroom,
Manic Miner 3,
Willy the Hacker,
Bizarre,
Still Stealing,
Frosya,
The Time Hole,
Ultimate Manic Miner,
Miles Mad Mission,
and a load more.
bring back the ban hammer none of mine in that list ;)
Lots of good stuff have been done lately. By heart, the ones that I liked most are (in no particular order):
.Zombie Calavera Prologue
.Uwol, quest for money
.W*H*B
.Mushroom Man
.Skyscrapper of Doom
.Homebrew
.Invasion of the Zombie Monsters
.Black Horse
.Miles Mas Mission
.Ghost Castle 2
.Heart Stealer
I have left out all the games from our eastern friends because I just can't remember the name of any of them (sorry, I'm getting old) but some of them are very good. I remember the one whose loading screen is an owl and you are inside a castle. Or the airplane fight one (I beleive this one and other came from a games competition, and some of them were quite good).
Surely Mr J Cauldwells published games don't count as homebrew, yes?
oh bollocks I thought this was that gametm thread.
Yeah, that's why my reply to the thread was a lil hesitant.
For me, Homebrew might refer to the fact that a game was created and published by just one person, as Manic Miner was (But even that was sold to a 3rd party at a couple of stages.) If that's the case, then there are loads of better examples of these from 1982, when the game was published by the author. Modern releases by Cronosoft and Cez, etc may not necessarily fall into this category, as the publisher is still an external party. I'm not too convinced about it though, as they have indeed been published and maybe homebrew refers to the non-published games, or those that are etheral releases for download into PCs.
Yeah, that's why my reply to the thread was a lil hesitant.
For me, Homebrew might refer to the fact that a game was created and published by just one person, as Manic Miner was (But even that was sold to a 3rd party at a couple of stages.) If that's the case, then there are loads of better examples of these from 1982, when the game was published by the author. Modern releases by Cronosoft and Cez, etc may not necessarily fall into this category, as the publisher is still an external party. I'm not too convinced about it though, as they have indeed been published and maybe homebrew refers to the non-published games, or those that are etheral releases for download into PCs.
Dunno.
I guess i'm talking about the sort of games being made today purely for fun. I would include games published by Cronosoft but not Manic Miner. Whether that's the true defintion of homebrew or not, that's what I was meaning. Played Mad Miles Mission and Rebelstar the Ion gun last night and thought they were both excellent.
I guess i'm talking about the sort of games being made today purely for fun. I would include games published by Cronosoft but not Manic Miner. Whether that's the true defintion of homebrew or not, that's what I was meaning. Played Mad Miles Mission and Rebelstar the Ion gun last night and thought they were both excellent.
Cheers fella ;)
Yeah i thought homebrew was anything in the non-commercial years, would never think of Manic Miner as homebrew.
I must admit i cant get into some of the homebrew stuff which is written in BASIC, way too slow and 'clunky'. But there honestly have been a lot of great new games created for us, we're very lucky when you see other sites for retro machines and they dont have as many.
Plus 2010 seems to have been the best year for homebrew. When the poll comes up some point in the next few weeks we need to have multiple choices as choosing just one will be impossible
Yeah i thought homebrew was anything in the non-commercial years, would never think of Manic Miner as homebrew.
The definition that some people use for homebrew is limited to games that have been hand tooled onto cartridge, i've seen folk frowning upon other uses of the word at Atari Age if memory serves. i've sort of drifted into using the word "homebrew" because of the job, but i'd rather refer to what's being discussed as "indie" personally and Manic Miner fits neatly into that category to my mind.
The definition that some people use for homebrew is limited to games that have been hand tooled onto cartridge, i've seen folk frowning upon other uses of the word at Atari Age if memory serves. i've sort of drifted into using the word "homebrew" because of the job, but i'd rather refer to what's being discussed as "indie" personally and Manic Miner fits neatly into that category to my mind.
"Indie" is one of the things I got right on the wireless a few weeks ago. Yes, I prefer that, as do most indie coders, innit?
I guess i'm talking about the sort of games being made today purely for fun. I would include games published by Cronosoft but not Manic Miner. Whether that's the true defintion of homebrew or not, that's what I was meaning. Played Mad Miles Mission and Rebelstar the Ion gun last night and thought they were both excellent.
I suppose if no one can agree on a definition for "retro", or "platform game", or even "survival horror", then it's no surprise if we can't all agree on an exact meaning for other terms too.
But my definition (non-commercial) doesn't hold up, as Beanz says, so I'd have to rethink it, but first I'll do some "research". By which I mean I'll play Batteries Not Included and some other stuff (still not played that new shooter yet, for a start) and pretend I'm doing it for the good of the Speccy community!
Comments
Certainly one of the most instantly identifiable. If you're thinking of something a bit more modern then there's just tooooo many to chose from to pick an all-out best.
If it's something that hasn't yet been released on real-media yet, I'd say that Zombie Calavera would be high on the list.
Zombie Calvera - As you mentioned, great platform game. Very nice graphics
Invasion of the Zombie Monsters - One of my favourites, Ghost n Goblins style game
Genesis - The shoot em up recently released, excellent game with some great levels
Horace in the Mystic Woods - Conversion of the Psion game, very good graphics and levels.
Farmer Jack in Harvest Havoc - Excellent Mr Do! type of game, the other farmer jack games are excellent
Rallybug - By Jonathan Cauldwell, very good platform game, keeps you coming back for more.
GameX - By Jonathan Cauldwell, lots of mini games in this one.
There is also (plug !) a book about all the homebrew games, features over 200 reviews... http://www.spectrumgamesbible.co.uk/book6.htm ;)
Looking through the index...
Bipboi - fun shoot em up
Egghead 5 - Great platform game
Ghost Castle 1 - Great puzzle game
Ghost Castle 2 - Very good Sabre Wulf type of game
Jet Set Willy 5 - ZX Heroes - Different graphics for every screen from different Speccy games
Kommando II - Okay not true homebrew but a great version of the original Commando gam
Miles Mad Mission - Created by Boozefreak and named after our very own Miles ! A lot of thought put into those screens
Stranded - Very good puzzle game
Wizard of Wor - Very good conversion
W*H*B - Nice 3d puzzle block game
UWOL - Quest for money - Love this game, Bombjack platform style game
Gloop Troops - Great looking platform game
Heart Stealer - Another excellent platform game
Many many great games over the years. Been spoilt when it comes to homebrew
My top 5...
1) UWOL - Quest for money
2) Zombie Monsters
3) Genesis
4) Rallybug
5) Horace in the Mystic Woods
For me Horace in the Mystic Woods stands out just because I was getting seriously addicted to it a short while back. Finally finished it a few weeks ago with the aid of snapshots...
? I thought by homebrew he meant non-commercial? Still, recommending Manic Miner is always good, I suppose, as it is a genuinely classic and eminantly playable game.
Anyway, I'd say (for homebrew games)
Farmer Jack in Harvest Havoc (the best Mr Do! type game on the Spectrum),
Banger Management,
Batteries Not Included,
Egghead 4 and 5,
Thieves School,
123 Maze,
Slubberdegullion,
Mushroom Man,
King's Valley,
Albatrossity,
splATTR,
W*H*B,
Ken Ken,
Quantum Gardening,
iLOgicALL,
BioHELL,
Zombie Calavera Prologue,
and a lot more, and various Jetset Willy and Manic Miner fan edits, such as:
ZX Heroes,
Willy's Afterlife,
Maria vs. Some Bastards,
Willy the Rogue,
Eugene: Lord of the Bathroom,
Manic Miner 3,
Willy the Hacker,
Bizarre,
Still Stealing,
Frosya,
The Time Hole,
Ultimate Manic Miner,
Miles Mad Mission,
and a load more.
If that's the case all the stuff sold by Chronosoft doesn't qualify.
W*H*B was nice, as was Miles Mad Mission. Don't play a lot of homebrew though.
I remember a discussion some time ago about it -what does homebrew really mean.
Is it something that you write at your home in your free time as opposed to doing your paid company job in the office?
But what if you try to sell it to somebody later, will it stop being a homebrew?
And what if commercial means selling about 20 copies, like in case of Cronosoft games?
As you can see, the definition of homebrew isn't sharp.
That was Ralf's (one post above yours!) Skyscraper of Doom ... excellent game and I thoroughly recommend it.
Thanks people, there is going to be a second part of it in not so far future ;)
pffft no mention of point5 :-P
bring back the ban hammer none of mine in that list ;)
.Zombie Calavera Prologue
.Uwol, quest for money
.W*H*B
.Mushroom Man
.Skyscrapper of Doom
.Homebrew
.Invasion of the Zombie Monsters
.Black Horse
.Miles Mas Mission
.Ghost Castle 2
.Heart Stealer
I have left out all the games from our eastern friends because I just can't remember the name of any of them (sorry, I'm getting old) but some of them are very good. I remember the one whose loading screen is an owl and you are inside a castle. Or the airplane fight one (I beleive this one and other came from a games competition, and some of them were quite good).
And I surely forget lots of them...
Very enjoyable game!
oh bollocks I thought this was that gametm thread.
Yeah, that's why my reply to the thread was a lil hesitant.
For me, Homebrew might refer to the fact that a game was created and published by just one person, as Manic Miner was (But even that was sold to a 3rd party at a couple of stages.) If that's the case, then there are loads of better examples of these from 1982, when the game was published by the author. Modern releases by Cronosoft and Cez, etc may not necessarily fall into this category, as the publisher is still an external party. I'm not too convinced about it though, as they have indeed been published and maybe homebrew refers to the non-published games, or those that are etheral releases for download into PCs.
Dunno.
Sorry !
Trooper: Point 5
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0024968
Excellent Jetpac style game
Homebrew
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0023797&loadpics=3
Do love this game, it just plays and looks like an early Ultimate Cookie/Psst type game
I guess i'm talking about the sort of games being made today purely for fun. I would include games published by Cronosoft but not Manic Miner. Whether that's the true defintion of homebrew or not, that's what I was meaning. Played Mad Miles Mission and Rebelstar the Ion gun last night and thought they were both excellent.
Cheers fella ;)
Yeah i thought homebrew was anything in the non-commercial years, would never think of Manic Miner as homebrew.
I must admit i cant get into some of the homebrew stuff which is written in BASIC, way too slow and 'clunky'. But there honestly have been a lot of great new games created for us, we're very lucky when you see other sites for retro machines and they dont have as many.
Plus 2010 seems to have been the best year for homebrew. When the poll comes up some point in the next few weeks we need to have multiple choices as choosing just one will be impossible
Regards,
Shaun.
The definition that some people use for homebrew is limited to games that have been hand tooled onto cartridge, i've seen folk frowning upon other uses of the word at Atari Age if memory serves. i've sort of drifted into using the word "homebrew" because of the job, but i'd rather refer to what's being discussed as "indie" personally and Manic Miner fits neatly into that category to my mind.
Regards,
Shaun.
I'm so controversial :-P
But yes, you're right, of course.
I suppose if no one can agree on a definition for "retro", or "platform game", or even "survival horror", then it's no surprise if we can't all agree on an exact meaning for other terms too.
But my definition (non-commercial) doesn't hold up, as Beanz says, so I'd have to rethink it, but first I'll do some "research". By which I mean I'll play Batteries Not Included and some other stuff (still not played that new shooter yet, for a start) and pretend I'm doing it for the good of the Speccy community!