Number of games released each year on the Speccy

Alarm · January 2011

1982 - 384
1983 - 1950
1984 - 2023
1985 - 1671
1986 - 1137
1987 - 844
1988 - 674
1989 - 647
1990 - 486
1991 - 392
1992 - 307
1993 - 195
1994 - 136
1995 - 165
1996 - 156
1997 - 119
1998 - 102
1999 - 98
2000 - 47
2001 - 41
2002 - 67
2003 - 74
2004 - 77
2005 - 92
2006 - 69
2007 - 70
2008 - 67
2009 - 64
2010 - 74

Alarm · January 2011

It is quite staggering that there were over 2,000 Speccy games released in 1984 (and nearly the same figure in 1983).

Dr BEEP · January 2011

Nice list, taken from WoS?

So not mentioned games on WoS are not there..

Alarm · January 2011

Yes, the list is the games found in Infoseek.

Pegaz · January 2011

Very interesting data, indeed..

Best speccy year is 1984, but just two years later there were nearly 1000 games less..

The worst year was 2001 (only 41 games), but 2005 with 92 games was very successful and best year in new millenium.

After 1999, was never made more than a hundred games per year.

In the first and last year of spectrum production, was made almost equal number of games.

mickmog · January 2011

Fascinating - many thanks!

Frankie · January 2011

Pegaz wrote: »

Best speccy year is 1984, but just two years later there were nearly 1000 games less..

Nothing unuseable about that. The demands got bigger, so the production got bigger, meaning less games, higher quality. 82-84 was also the best years for homegrown games, which by 1985 couldn't really fool anyone anymore :)

Grunaki · January 2011

The fewer number does reflect the shift from individual programmers of simple games to team-programmed complex & polished games, but also the 256K Atari ST came out in 1985 and had gone up to 512k and gained prominence by 1987, so the shift of importance to 16-bit machines had begun by that point.

Arjun · January 2011

Not bad for a computer that made its debut more than 25 years ago! :)

SnakeOilSteve · January 2011

Maybe we should try to aim for 100 game releases this year? Anyone willing to commit to releasing at least one game?

bobs · January 2011

SnakeOilSteve wrote: »

Maybe we should try to aim for 100 game releases this year? Anyone willing to commit to releasing at least one game?

Ok. ;)

mickmog · January 2011

bobs wrote: »

Ok. ;)

Is that per week or month, Bobs?

Still loving HITMW by the way :smile:

bobs · January 2011

mickmog wrote: »

Is that per week or month, Bobs?

I could do a game a week - but there'd probably all be pretty bad! Unless you all wish to pay me enough to give up my day job so I can focus on the Speccy 100% full-time...? :p

mickmog wrote: »

Still loving HITMW by the way :smile:

:smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile:

Alarm · January 2011

bobs wrote: »

Ok. ;)

Hurrah! I'll release a game this year too, I have one near completion that I've not worked on for years. Not to mention all my unreleased MM/JSW games... :smile:

Dr BEEP · January 2011

SnakeOilSteve wrote: »

Maybe we should try to aim for 100 game releases this year? Anyone willing to commit to releasing at least one game?

I am working on one right now....

EvilUncleBubba · January 2011

We have a couple in the works :-)

R-Tape · January 2011

Interesting stats.

Hoping to do at least another one this year.

I wonder how these stats compare to other 8 bit and 16 bit formats? I've found a few new ones on the web but there doesn't seem to be as many. Not that it's a competition!

STE'86 · January 2011

Frankie wrote: »

Nothing unuseable about that. The demands got bigger, so the production got bigger, meaning less games, higher quality. 82-84 was also the best years for homegrown games, which by 1985 couldn't really fool anyone anymore :)

yep, pretty much spot on assesment of the industry as i recall it.

'82 - '84 everyone and his dog was having a go. with "100% machine code" stuck on labels to actually impress :). bags of tat that people snapped up like the Cascade 50 games :)

come 1985 and the likes of Exploding Fist and the start of the Ocean/Imagine conversions and your product had to be slicker and longer in development. and the homebrew could rarely then sell except as budget.

then the inevitable decline of any system in the face of new tech.

Steve

Fizza · January 2011

R-Tape wrote: »

Interesting stats.

Hoping to do at least another one this year.

I wonder how these stats compare to other 8 bit and 16 bit formats? I've found a few new ones on the web but there doesn't seem to be as many. Not that it's a competition!

From Gamebase64 & Hall of Light respectively..

C64
1982 257
1983 1572
1984 2725
1985 1592
1986 1377
1987 1605
1988 1513
1989 1014
1990 863
1991 762
1992 602
1993 489
1994 425
1995 374
1996 215
1997 206
1998 150
1999 167
2000 136
2001 110
2002 249
2003 248
2004 120
2005 68
2006 89
2007 41
2008 51
2009 48
2010 n/a

Amiga
1985 9
1986 105
1987 245
1988 539
1989 728
1990 720
1991 838
1992 681
1993 602
1994 604
1995 332
1996 172
1997 78
1998 63
1999 26
2000 23
2001 9
2002 12
2003 9
2004 3
2005 2
2006 1
2007 0
2008 0
2009 3
2010 1

I think there were some releases in 2010 for the C64, although I'm assuming Gamebase just wasn't updated. The figures do tell a pretty interesting story though, especially the Amiga one, the releases dropped off pretty quick after Commodore folded although it seemed like release schedule was shrinking before even the A1200 came out. I'd like to see Atari 8bit, Amstrad & Atari ST also.

R-Tape · January 2011

Interesting, the Amiga stats are kind of what I would have expected, very few recent games. Presumably the closer we get to modern hardware the less enthusiasts there will be producing new games (harder to programme large games also?). This is why I thought there would be more Speccy than C64, as the former is more distinctive (graphically at the very least), but they look about the same number. Mind you, I suppose the C64 does have its own look.

Not heard of those sites before, ta very much.

Ralf · January 2011

Amiga retroscene sucks terribly in my opinion.

Basically they didn't accept that Amiga is a computer of the past and a nice toy from their childhood and are still struggling to create new "Amigas" that would compete with modern PCs and conquer the world one day.

So there are little companies that build some mutant PCs running some mutant Linux and they call it Amigas. All the companies fight with each other who is the true Amiga descendant. And the same is about Amiga fans. They are most active when it comes to flamewaring about which new Amiga and which new OS is most Amigan.

That's why we have no games for calssing Amigas :(

Ralf · January 2011

Going back on topic.

100 games would be a nice feature but if people tried to do so it would mean that they would release two games of worse quality instead of a good one. Do we really want it to happen?

Or maybe it would be enough to ask AER to increase his releases rate? He's already good at mass production and the quality cannot rather go down :razz:

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekadv.cgi?what=2®exp=AER&yrorder=1&year=0&type=0&players=0&turns=0&memory=0&language=0&country=0&licence=0&feature=0&publi=0&release=0&format=0&scheme=0&scorder=1&score=0&have=1&also=1&sort=1&display=3&loadpics=3

Dr BEEP · January 2011

Ralf wrote: »

Going back on topic.

100 games would be a nice feature but if people tried to do so it would mean that they would release two games of worse quality instead of a good one. Do we really want it to happen?

Define a good game. The game I am developping now has 2 pixel movement up/down and 8 pixels left/right. No bit movement but I think it will be quite new for the ZX Spectrum.

I myself thought that Shogun is a good game (and not just because it is coded in 1K).

It plays a good game of Shogun, whether you like Shogun or not. However someone thought that it was just a 1/10 value.

Alarm · January 2011

Ralf wrote: »

Going back on topic.

100 games would be a nice feature but if people tried to do so it would mean that they would release two games of worse quality instead of a good one. Do we really want it to happen?

Or maybe it would be enough to ask AER to increase his releases rate? He's already good at mass production and the quality cannot rather go down :razz:

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekadv.cgi?what=2®exp=AER&yrorder=1&year=0&type=0&players=0&turns=0&memory=0&language=0&country=0&licence=0&feature=0&publi=0&release=0&format=0&scheme=0&scorder=1&score=0&have=1&also=1&sort=1&display=3&loadpics=3

I had no plans to release any more games at all, so the game(s) I will release this year are a bonus. :smile:

As for our friend, a couple of his games aren't actually too bad. He has released a new game this year which I will convert and upload to WoS soon.

Alarm · January 2011

The third game of 2011 (Panic Restaurant by AER) has been converted, catalogued and uploaded. Expect it in the next update. :smile:

So, 3 down, 97 or more to go... ;)

Alex_Lux · January 2011

Speaking about "Quality per Year" I can add from Database with Marks/Ratings (which I'm up to make) this data [1]:

[1] 'Picture' is not complete, as so far, I estimate games [2] starting on letters from A to K (plus #), also I'll deal with text-adventures after I finish with 'non-txt-adventures games' :-)
[2] Just to add that I look on commercial games (with price) or at least mag-cover ones (I mean, 'to qualify' for mine Database, game must have enough 'quality' that someone ask money for it!)

1982 - 54 games, 56.82 % average mark
1983 - 219 games, 59.37 % average mark
1984 - 181 , 56.82 %
1985 - 151 , 62.03 %
1986 - 151 , 61.81 %
1987 - 180 , 63.04 %
1988 - 147 , 61.95 %
1989 - 128 , 61.20 %
1990 - 107 , 59.59 %
1991 - 79 , 62.56 %
1992 - 30 , 58.17 %
1993 - 4 , 71.63 %

1431 games in total. I expect to have approx 2900 games + Text Adv.s when finished.

For those, who know 'to read statistics' this tells a lot. I'll note this:

a) this supports Frankie's statement about home-grown games and rising demands after 1984, we never had 2000 commercial/quality games per year!;
b) don't be fooled with big numbers !!! (i.e. if average is good, it doesn't necessarily mean best SW was written in that year);
c) don't be fooled with small numbers either !!! (best example year 1993!)

To support this, here are (so far) Top 5 per year:

1983: Ant Attack 95%, Atic Atac 92%, Chuckie Egg 91.5%, Deathchase 91%, Halls of Things 87.5%
1984: Knight Lore 94.5%, Boulder Dash 91.5%, Jet Set Willy 91%, All or Nothing 88%, Avalon 87.5%
1985: Elite 97%, Back to Skool 97%, Doomdark's Rev. 95.5%, Chaos 90.5%, Dun Darach 90% (followed with Dynam.Dan 89.5%, Highw.Encounter 89%, Brian Bloodaxe 89%, Alien 8 88.5%, Commando 87.5%, Formula One 87.5% so you see 11th in 1985 is equal with 5th i 1983/84!)
1986: Heavy OTM 93%, Great Escape 92.5%, Batman 92%, Starstrike 2 89%, Cont. Sam Cruise 89% (Deactivators 88.5%, Jack the Nipper 88%)
1987: Head Over Heels 95.5%, Driller 92.5%, Bubble Bobble 88%, Gunship 87.5%, Jack Nipper 2 86% (Gauntlet & Enduroracer 85.5% ...)
......
1991: Jahangir KWC 90%, Hero Quest 87.5%, F-16 CP 86.5%, Dragon Breed 82.5%, Dizzy 5 82%

Now you see, excellent AVG for 1991, but nothing 'special' in that year !!!
And don't question my marks, I've completed HQ(uest) in many different ways, Won complete war (!!!) in F-16 CP, played & won all aspects and levels in Jahangir etc. so I really 'know' what I'm talking about! ;-)

STE'86 · January 2011

Ralf wrote: »

Amiga retroscene sucks terribly in my opinion.

Basically they didn't accept that Amiga is a computer of the past and a nice toy from their childhood and are still struggling to create new "Amigas" that would compete with modern PCs and conquer the world one day.

LOL that quote could quite easily be applied to certain factions of the Atari 800 scene too.

shame about the amiga scene really, as the ST and Amiga are realistically the last "real" home computers that people could indeed produce quality homebrew/garage games on WITHOUT the requirement of gigs worth of FMV and dozens of development team members and kit to do it.

It looks like my long held aim of doing Exploding Fist amiga won't come to fruition then :)

Steve

alex · January 2011

Alarm wrote: »

1982 - 384
1983 - 1950
1984 - 2023
1985 - 1671
etc.

Here's a handy chart.

Alarm · January 2011

What I neglected to mention in my first post was the number of games where the date of release is presently flagged as unknown: 1027
.
If we remove the number of games which status is "never released" (this is different from recovered unreleased games): 302 games, then the total of games in the archive which are/may be playable one day and are not a part of the statistics is 725.

By the way, if you know the release dates of any of these games (never released titles included), post them here and I'm sure Martijn will be glad to add them to Infoseek.

The statistics of course do not take into account games not yet listed on Infoseek, of which a few have appeared since my first post. :smile:

dm_boozefreek · January 2011

Maybe I can finally finish some of my outstanding JSW projects I've been promising sinmce about 2003? The SE's of The Down and Out Trilogy are about 8 years overdue :D

....erm and my boxset I was working on back in about october may come to life again this year?

But I'll be honest I really want to try something other than JSW for a change, maybe I'll finally get round to putting together Advanced WHSmith Nightshift Simulator?

Alarm · January 2011

A new page. For boozy:

As you know, I have a vault with several MM/JSW unreleased games in it. Perhaps I could let one or two loose this year. ;)

I do plan to release my ZX81 port this year, and perhaps the planned sequels and Speccy-fied versions.

Number of games released each year on the Speccy

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