I'm sorry to say it, but I found this video pretty bad. I couldn't get through it without skipping ahead...a lot.
Six minutes of drivel before you even get to the game - very unfocussed. And with an extremely mumbling voice that sometimes made it a bit hard to hear what was being said.
I guess it suits the game then - that's pretty bad too.
I'm sorry if that's you speaking there, Morcar. But for what it's worth I'd probably be just as bad at it. :lol:
The game? It's a demanding game made early in the Spectrums life by a mediocre team of developers. Odds are not in this conversions favour. No wonder it turned out as lacklustre as it did.
never played it. the game looks like someone's scattered a box of liquorice allsorts over the floor, I'd find it pretty tough to sound excited about this too!
Converting Zaxxon successfully to the Spectrum was a big ask, especially back in 1985. 4 years later, Costa Panayi was at the peak of his ability and we got "H.A.T.E", which was much nearer the mark as a technical accomplishment:
Yeah, the arcade game is pretty much style over substance. Shorn of its good lucks, the Spectrum port really dosn't have much going for it, and like a lot of early isometric games it's very difficult to judge the depth properly because of the lack of sufficient cues.
H.A.T.E. was clearly a much better game but then again it came nearly a decade after Zaxxon first hit the arcades.
Converting Zaxxon successfully to the Spectrum was a big ask, especially back in 1985. 4 years later, Costa Panayi was at the peak of his ability and we got "H.A.T.E", which was much nearer the mark as a technical accomplishment:
Blue Max and ROM are the best Zaxxon-esque games for the Speccy.
I guess by ROM you mean the airborne attack stage from Raid Over Moscow. Curiously, the same guys who converted Zaxxon also made the Spectrum version of Raid Over Moscow.
They obviously found it easier to implement a sideways scrolling shooter rather than bringing Zaxxon's diagonal viewpoint to the Spectrum.
I ended up getting Zaxxon by default. Crash were doing a subscription deal where you got two free ocean games for a years subs so I signed up for mikie and the still to be released Street Hawk. Well in sure you all know the story of that and so after several months of no show from ocean, news field offered Saxon instead.
It was rubbish
It was though better than the rubbish that finally got realised under the street hawk name.
Comments
Six minutes of drivel before you even get to the game - very unfocussed. And with an extremely mumbling voice that sometimes made it a bit hard to hear what was being said.
I guess it suits the game then - that's pretty bad too.
I'm sorry if that's you speaking there, Morcar. But for what it's worth I'd probably be just as bad at it. :lol:
The game? It's a demanding game made early in the Spectrums life by a mediocre team of developers. Odds are not in this conversions favour. No wonder it turned out as lacklustre as it did.
My games for the Spectrum: Dingo, The Speccies, The Speccies 2, Vallation, SQIJ.
Twitter: Sokurah
I quite liked the Arcade original, but the official version we got was pretty mediocre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N59iKo-3v8I
H.A.T.E. was clearly a much better game but then again it came nearly a decade after Zaxxon first hit the arcades.
Of the contemporary home versions, the Colecovision (1982), Atari 8bit/65XE and C64 versions were very decent.
That is really good and such an improvement over Zaxxon.
Paddy
I guess by ROM you mean the airborne attack stage from Raid Over Moscow. Curiously, the same guys who converted Zaxxon also made the Spectrum version of Raid Over Moscow.
They obviously found it easier to implement a sideways scrolling shooter rather than bringing Zaxxon's diagonal viewpoint to the Spectrum.
It was rubbish
It was though better than the rubbish that finally got realised under the street hawk name.
Not quite the same angle of viewpoint but similar mechanics. That sub-game was better than Zaxxon anyway.
US Gold were so hit-and-miss eh?
Agree. The only problem I've always found is it's a very easy level (in fact, Raid Over Moscow is a very easy game till the Kremlin level!)