Where is MikroGen? :o So little company that it have to go with "Others"?
Mikro Gen are definitely a contender for me - I awaited the release of each new Wally game with an excitement only matched by the possibility of a new Microsphere game.
In spite of some dissapointing titles, in general, they made an outstanding work, the graphics, the gameplay, even the artwork... some of their games are classics: Sabre Wulf, Knight Lore, Atic Atac, Jet Pac.
Others very good companies: Ocean, US Gold, Dinamic...
This is difficult because I don't think any one publisher was significantly better than the others. My favourite games are all by different publishers.
Their excellence was short lived (Jet Pac to Underwurlde/Knightlore was an suprisingly short period).
But in the 1983/4 era which was characterised by mostly amateur output Ultimate were true professionals. Quality oozed from their product.
Sure, they were over-taken by other software houses, and by better machines with better software. Lets face it, by the time the C64 hit its stride, the quality of games for it were better; its power and capabilities more obvious. Then came the Japanese consoles and 16 bit machines.
But for those two years, Ultimate+ZX Spectrum was the business.
Same here. I remember loading up Sabre Wulf and being amazed at how colorful it was. It also made a long lasting impact on me. Love the atmosphere of the jungle it portrayed. Maybe it's not one of their best games (at least from the technical point of view) but I enjoy it anyway. Come to think about it, every game that they published had a distinctive atmosphere.
My vote goes for Others as Hewson, TopoSoft, Gargoyle Games and Quicksilva, not forgetting Ultimate, too. Their games, at least more than a half of them, are so good for me, innovative and playable.
I guess it would have to be Imagine; they didn't make the VERY best games, but they DID make good games consistently with very few (if any) turkeys.
It was Ultimate that really put the Speccy on the map though, and along with Durrell showed what the Speccy was capable of - and what the C64 wasn't. Seeing the travesty that was Turbo Esprit on the C64 was almost as enjoyable as playing it on the Speccy.
gotta go for "Hi-Tec" . love their hannah barbera platform type stuff. probably not everyone's cup of tea but some of them are my favourite speccy games. there were a few duds in there too (top cat, roadrunner and wile e coyote) but hey...
Tough one. I went for Ocean as overall they published the better quality games IMO. But, I was also very fond of Mastertronic as at ?1.99/?2.99, their games were far more affordable to me as a kid, so I had more of their games than any other publisher (I think). They also had some great games in their own right anyway. Curse of Sherwood is one that instantly springs to mind as it The Devils Crown.
I know that Codemasters games were also bidget and of decent quality, but I found those hard to find in my local newsagents (who always had a rack of Speccy games in them). I had to make the trip to the big Woolworths for those games as my loacl one didn't stock many games at all :(
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Ive decided for Hewson, because they were all original software and with a very high standard of quality.
I find they were for the Speccy what Psygnosis were for the Amiga.
Just Hewson were more futuristic metalic, and Psygnosis were more fantasy. In general.
In spite of some dissapointing titles, in general, they made an outstanding work, the graphics, the gameplay, even the artwork... some of their games are classics: Sabre Wulf, Knight Lore, Atic Atac, Jet Pac.
Others very good companies: Ocean, US Gold, Dinamic...
Games List 2016 - Games List 2015 - Games List 2014
Firebird/Silverbird did a lot of good stuff too.
Same here, and sadly they are missing from the list :-(
I was quite late coming to the Speccy and these guys were releasing probably the best stuff in that era....
Their excellence was short lived (Jet Pac to Underwurlde/Knightlore was an suprisingly short period).
But in the 1983/4 era which was characterised by mostly amateur output Ultimate were true professionals. Quality oozed from their product.
Sure, they were over-taken by other software houses, and by better machines with better software. Lets face it, by the time the C64 hit its stride, the quality of games for it were better; its power and capabilities more obvious. Then came the Japanese consoles and 16 bit machines.
But for those two years, Ultimate+ZX Spectrum was the business.
Hewson were also awesome.
It was Ultimate that really put the Speccy on the map though, and along with Durrell showed what the Speccy was capable of - and what the C64 wasn't. Seeing the travesty that was Turbo Esprit on the C64 was almost as enjoyable as playing it on the Speccy.
I know that Codemasters games were also bidget and of decent quality, but I found those hard to find in my local newsagents (who always had a rack of Speccy games in them). I had to make the trip to the big Woolworths for those games as my loacl one didn't stock many games at all :(