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Best early arcade conversions

SpectorSpector
in Games
I was at Arcade Club in Bury where they had tons of the old arcade classics such as Space Invaders, Asteroids, Centipede, Galaxian, Zaxxon, Moon Patrol, Marble Madness, Discs Of Tron, Amidar, Berzerk etc etc etc. Wonderful. It makes me think back though on the Spectrum's take on these games. I don't remember too many versions of them that were playable, but I might be wrong. Here's your chance to show how wrong I am: of the games I listed, were there any good versions on the Speccy?
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Comments

  • morphmorph
    In the early years, the best conversion of Space Invaders was bizarrely a sub-game in Pyjamarama.
  • vanpeeblesvanpeebles
    Pheenix by Megadodo!
  • MouseyMousey
    Galaxians by Artic is a great version, and all in 16K!
  • PobbitPobbit
    Spectipede and Space Intruders were decent for early 16K games, although they both used single character graphics and whole character movement. Gyroscope was a good Marble Madness clone.
  • joefishjoefish
    edited December 2019
    Spectipede is very good. Compared to what else was around at the time, anyway!

    Apart from Asteroids and Space Invaders, I don't remember playing many of those arcade games anyway!
    Post edited by joefish on
    Joefish
    - IONIAN-GAMES.com -
  • NickNick
    Panic by Mikro Gen, which was re-released by Visions as Sheer Panic.

    Panic_2.gif

    Defenda by Interstella.

    Defenda.gif
  • dm_boozefreekdm_boozefreek
    Don’t know if it’s early enough, but I quite liked Star Firebirds, as an unofficial conversion of Pheenix.
    Every night is curry night!
  • RetrobrothersRetrobrothers
    Spectipede is a great shout!
    I spoke to the author a few years ago if anyone fancies a read:
    https://zxspectrumgames.blogspot.com/2013/10/spectrum-games-programmer-interview.html?showComment=1510513296406

    I was also a big fan of Missile Defence by Keith Burkhill. Very good version of Missile Command.
  • Maroc's Other ProjectionMaroc's Other Projection
    edited December 2019
    Penetrator is a brilliant Scramble clone. The level editor is just the icing on the cake. Outstanding for its time.

    Penetrator.gif

    Post edited by Maroc's Other Projection on
    Cheeky Funster (53)
  • JuanF. RamirezJuanF. Ramirez
    edited December 2019
    Agree with above posts as to Pheenix (brilliant!), Panic and Penetrator.

    Besides, Z-Man and Froggy (by the same company) are decent clones. Simple graphics but very playable.

    Comecocos+Froggy.gif
    Post edited by JuanF. Ramirez on
  • VampyreVampyre
    I rather enjoyed Planetoids as an early Asteroids conversion.
    Armageddon (Ocean) I got a lot of mileage out of too.
    ZXSR - Speccy Mags Reviews
  • RetrobrothersRetrobrothers
    Turtle Timewarp by Perfection Software (1984) was a pretty good version of Turtles.
  • Bluce_ReeBluce_Ree
    As a kid I was pretty convinced by both Cavelon and Hunchback as arcade conversions. Not sure how they hold up now.

  • RenegadeRenegade
    Pobbit wrote: »
    Spectipede and Space Intruders were decent for early 16K games, although they both used single character graphics and whole character movement. Gyroscope was a good Marble Madness clone.

    Space Intruders by Hewson?
    Didn't even know it existed, I would like to check it out but it seems to be missing.
  • dm_boozefreekdm_boozefreek
    edited December 2019
    Renegade wrote: »
    Pobbit wrote: »
    Spectipede and Space Intruders were decent for early 16K games, although they both used single character graphics and whole character movement. Gyroscope was a good Marble Madness clone.

    Space Intruders by Hewson?
    Didn't even know it existed, I would like to check it out but it seems to be missing.

    I see it's MIA, could it be the same game that was released by Quicksilva in the same year? If not could it be that Quicksilva released theirs first, and Hewson pulled the plug? Or possibly renamed their game?
    Post edited by dm_boozefreek on
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  • PobbitPobbit
    Renegade wrote: »
    Pobbit wrote: »
    Spectipede and Space Intruders were decent for early 16K games, although they both used single character graphics and whole character movement. Gyroscope was a good Marble Madness clone.

    Space Intruders by Hewson?
    Didn't even know it existed, I would like to check it out but it seems to be missing.
    It was the Quicksilva game that I was referring to - I wasn't even aware of a Hewson game of the same name.

  • paranoid marvinparanoid marvin
    Depends what you class as early? Moon Cresta and West Bank (Bank Panic) are probably the best conversions of an arcade game on the Speccy in1985. Starstrike 3D is a brilliant unofficial cover of Star Wars (1984),
  • Ashley PomeroyAshley Pomeroy
    Jon Ritman's Cosmic Debris is a solid early Asteroids clone. I remember that it took almost no time to load despite supposedly being 48K only, and it's one of those oddball early games where you had to type LOAD "" CODE.

    In fact 3D Combat Zone is a decent Battlezone. This Jon Ritman chap obviously had some talent.
  • jonathanjonathan
    edited July 2020
    vanpeebles wrote: »
    Pheenix by Megadodo!

    I worked with Martin Ward of Pheenix fame at JPM some years ago. Very nice chap. He used to write a lot of code for video game products that were popular in pubs in the early 2000s, titles like Hangman, Lunatix and the original Who Wants to Be a Millionaire machine. Alas, I moved on in 2005 and JPM went the way of Maygay and Barcrest in 2013.

    Martin told me he had an unpublished Spectrum game, I think he said it was called Fagan. Maybe that's one to add to the "Missing In Action" list. Given how good Pheenix was it would be interesting to see his other Spectrum work.
    Post edited by jonathan on
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  • DavidBDavidB
    Been mentioned before - but Sheer Panic - one of my earlier purchases. Also agree with Pheenix.
    No one important.
  • dm_boozefreekdm_boozefreek
    jonathan wrote: »
    vanpeebles wrote: »
    Pheenix by Megadodo!

    I worked with Martin Ward of Pheenix fame at JPM some years ago. Very nice chap. He used to write a lot of code for video game products that were popular in pubs in the early 2000s, titles like Hangman, Lunatix and the original Who Wants to Be a Millionaire machine. Alas, I moved on in 2005 and JPM went the way of Maygay and Barcrest in 2013.

    Martin told me he had an unpublished Spectrum game, I think he said it was called Fagan. Maybe that's one to add to the "Missing In Action" list. Given how good Pheenix was it would be interesting to see his other Spectrum work.

    When you said went the way of Maygay did you mean making versions of Qix that had pornographic images in the background? Sad thing is from what I understand of these games they were mainly made for horrible tourist areas like Magaluf, and Ibiza :))
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  • Your Spec-chumYour Spec-chum
    Owning the Atari 2600 prior to Spectrum, I'm afraid I was spoiled by the official and optimized releases on the Atari. I use to find Spectrum versions slow and clumsy. I do appreciate them though, understanding they were written by a lone bedroom coders, which really kickstarted the gaming scene on the Spectrum.
  • Antiriad2097Antiriad2097
    Official and optimised releases on the Atari like Pac Man? :))
  • jonathanjonathan
    dm_boozefreek wrote: »
    When you said went the way of Maygay did you mean making versions of Qix that had pornographic images in the background? Sad thing is from what I understand of these games they were mainly made for horrible tourist areas like Magaluf, and Ibiza :))

    Spain is a totally different market, each region has its own rules and most are a little more liberal when it comes to displaying flesh on screen or on cabinets. I was just reflecting on the sad situation that not one of the original "big four" UK manufacturers is making one-armed bandits any longer.
    Still supporting Multi-Platform Arcade Game Designer, currently working on AGD 5. I am NOT on Twitter.
    Egghead Website
    Arcade Game Designer
    My itch.io page
  • dm_boozefreekdm_boozefreek
    edited July 2020
    jonathan wrote: »
    dm_boozefreek wrote: »
    When you said went the way of Maygay did you mean making versions of Qix that had pornographic images in the background? Sad thing is from what I understand of these games they were mainly made for horrible tourist areas like Magaluf, and Ibiza :))

    Spain is a totally different market, each region has its own rules and most are a little more liberal when it comes to displaying flesh on screen or on cabinets. I was just reflecting on the sad situation that not one of the original "big four" UK manufacturers is making one-armed bandits any longer.

    Yeah now that I think of it the last Maygay branded Arcade Machine (At least I think it was Maygay?) I remember seeing was a Coronation Street quiz machine, that one of the pubs round my way had in their pool room. This was probably about 1999 maybe?...It was Windows based, and touch screen. Sadly it appeared that holding 1 finger on the side of the screen, and tapping the screen with another finger would minimise the game, and you could mess around with the PC inside to a certain degree.

    Not that me or my friends ever did such a terrible thing :))
    Post edited by dm_boozefreek on
    Every night is curry night!
  • Your Spec-chumYour Spec-chum
    Antiriad2097 wrote: »
    Official and optimised releases on the Atari like Pac Man? :))

    I don't think it was a bad game. I used to play it for hours when I was a young'un. It gets a lot of flack for causing the video game crash in the USA, well that's what most of the celeb Youtube retro gamers like to rubbish it for. It's basic but playable. The ghosts flicker about a bit, but don't that just make it more challenging.

  • RobeeeJayRobeeeJay
    I used to enjoy Pac Man on the 2600 as well, it wasn't very hard (when I was 10 anyway!). I know what you mean, the 2600 runs at 60 fps whether you like it or not!
  • SpectorSpector
    Your Spec-chum wrote: »
    Owning the Atari 2600 prior to Spectrum, I'm afraid I was spoiled by the official and optimized releases on the Atari. I use to find Spectrum versions slow and clumsy. I do appreciate them though, understanding they were written by a lone bedroom coders, which really kickstarted the gaming scene on the Spectrum.

    Whatever you say about these old arcade conversions on the Atari, they certainly weren't optimised for PAL TVs!

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  • Your Spec-chumYour Spec-chum
    edited July 2020
    Spector wrote: »
    Your Spec-chum wrote: »
    Owning the Atari 2600 prior to Spectrum, I'm afraid I was spoiled by the official and optimized releases on the Atari. I use to find Spectrum versions slow and clumsy. I do appreciate them though, understanding they were written by a lone bedroom coders, which really kickstarted the gaming scene on the Spectrum.

    Whatever you say about these old arcade conversions on the Atari, they certainly weren't optimised for PAL TVs!

    I would of been 6 or 7 years old when I had Atari. I'm afraid I was too young to understand or cared about all technical guff and if I'm honest I really don't care now. I just played the games for fun and enjoyment. Then when I got a Speccy I honestly found the early arcade conversions just not to be as good as on my old Atari. There were better games on the Speccy.

    Post edited by Your Spec-chum on
  • SpectorSpector
    Your Spec-chum wrote: »

    I would of been 6 or 7 years old when I had Atari. I'm afraid I was too young to understand or cared about all technical guff and if I'm honest I really don't care now.

    I'm not talking about obscure technical differences here. British Atari games play 17% slower than American ones. 17%! You wouldn't play a pop single at 37rpm would you?

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