ZX Spectrum: 35th Anniversary

35 years ago, on April 23, 1982, ZX Spectrum appeared - a wonderful home computer that introduced quite a few people to programming. In the first half of the 1990s, these 8-bit compact devices were very popular in Russia. In fact, ZX Spectrum 's filled the niche of budget game consoles, but at the same time allowed to write full-fledged programs in Basic (and not only). In honor of the anniversary, we decided to recall the brightest games that won the hearts of many users of the ZX Spectrum.

If you were too young, or did not catch the ZX Spectrum at all, you are unlikely to understand the nostalgia of the owners of these small computers. At that time, PCs were too expensive for the vast majority of Russians. And the ZX Spectrum didn't even need a monitor - they connected to TVs. Moreover, a tape recorder acted as a boot device, and the carriers were regular audio tapes. Only a lucky few could boast of drives connected to the ZX Spectrum.
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You connect the computer with wires to the TV and tape recorder, turn on the last one, and wait a few minutes until any game is loaded into the 48 or 128 kilobyte memory of the computer. At the same time, the process is accompanied by an unforgettable psychedelic cacophony of sounds. It was very similar to the sounds made by modems. Here is the classic ZX Spectrum boot screen. The game Manic Miner was flooded from the cassette into memory for three minutes.



Today we are spoiled by incredibly realistic three-dimensional graphics and gorgeous special effects in games. Even on smartphones. And at the time of the 8-bit ZX Spectrum, millions of people flirted with games with such graphics, which today will satisfy perhaps the unpretentious representatives of younger preschool age.

Elite

Probably many fans of air and space simulators will be puzzled by the fact that the Elite game was one of the most popular on the ZX Spectrum. This is a space simulator in which the player plowed through the vastness of the vacuum, fought with pirates and traded all sorts of goods, flying from planet to planet. With experience and combat victories, the player grew up in rank. Very few managed to reach the title of Elite. Personally, I only reached the title Competent .



These are screenshots with real resolution of the ZX Spectrum: 256x192 pixels. All objects in space were “wire” - stars and other objects could be seen through them.

R-Type

The R-Type game was a two-dimensional classic shooter in which it was necessary to control some kind of aircraft and shoot all the oncoming. Naturally, it was possible to pick up modules-upgrades flying out of enemies, significantly increasing the capabilities of your pepelats.

Chuckie egg

Chuckie Egg is a steal and escape game. Some plump muschschina in a dashing hat named Harry runs through the maze and collects eggs of some overgrown geese. Common sense? No, not heard.

Manic miner

Manic Miner ("Crazy Miner") - one of the first platformers. The game won the broadest people's love from the owners of the ZX Spectrum. The name of the game was saying: the miner explores all sorts of mysterious catacombs in search of keys, dodging along the way from unfriendly fauna and insane objects.

Chase hq

If you had a ZX Spectrum, then you probably wound a lot of kilometers in the racing simulator Chase HQ The gameplay was very straightforward: you had to go through different parts of the route in time on a police car Porsche 928.

Knight lore

The first in the history of the quest in isometric projection was the game Knight Lore . The main character sneaks through the insidious maze of castle chambers, corridors and basements to get a magic potion that will remove the spell from him.

Head over heels

Another hit game - Head Over Heels was very similar isometric graphics. In fact, it was a set of puzzles that needed to be solved and moved towards the plot goal.

Saboteur!

On a wave of interest in Saboteur ninja ! can be considered a classic of the genre. The action-style game developed by Clive Townsend and released by Durell in 1985 on the ZX Spectrum, was later re-released for Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Commodore 16 and Plus / 4 gaming platforms. And to this day, it remains the favorite game of thousands of Spectrum.

Robocop

If you come from the 1970s-80s, you hardly need to tell how cultural the film RoboCop has become. The eponymous series of games on a variety of platforms, including the ZX Spectrum, is no exception. How many boys with pleasure played the role of a cyborg police officer Murphy!

3D deathchase

Born riders really liked the 3D Deathchase motorcycle chase. Yes, today the eye bleeding begins from this spectacle, but for 1983 it's a great game!

Super Hang-On

Super Hang-On motorcycle races didn’t look so brutal, and were perhaps more popular among the spectros.

Boulder dash

Boulder Dash is a game for real extreme diggers. The main character is some kind of humanoid creature making its way through the depths of the ground, collecting diamonds hidden in the depths and dodging falling cobblestones.

Lode runner

And what is the owner of the ZX Spectrum did not like the platform Lode Runner ?! In this game, everyone could feel the most intelligent, clever and cunning, trying to outwit the faceless robots and trying to get to the golden treasures.

Lunar jetman

Another megapopular on the ZX Spectrum platform has become Lunar Jetman . The militaristic future of the moon - the astronaut had to collect bombs to destroy alien bases.

Dizzy

The top of the best games for the ZX Spectrum included a platformer Dizzy - you managed a sort of Humpty Dumpty, a man-chicken-egg, moving around the game world and solving problems.

Target: Renegade

In Target: Renegade, thousands of boys flirted. Street wadding simulator: pumped up alpha males in vests, some in motorcycle helmets, some with hammers and other improvised weapons, knocked the spirit out of each other in urban surroundings. I remember in my hometown at the very beginning of the 1990s several home-grown entrepreneurs rented a corner in one of the cinemas, where they put several tables, four pieces of ZX Spectrum with TVs, and sold playing time to local boys. If I'm not mistaken, 15 minutes of the game cost 1 ruble. I really liked to play Renegade, and not on buttons, but on a primitive joystick, maybe even a homemade one.

The way of the exploding fist

The Way of the Exploding Fist - fans of movies with Bruce Lee and Jean-Claude van Damme sat behind this game for hours on end. And you did not argue with classmates, who of them will beat whom?

Sim city

You'd be surprised, but even Sim City was ported to the ZX Spectrum. True, it looked very abstract, like a flowchart of the developed application.

Operation Wolf

Born warriors enjoyed on Operation Wolf a ZX Spectrum shooter-action movie. The screen moved independently of the player, and you had to manage to destroy the enemies so that they did not have time to open fire on you. The special forces hero had not only ammunition, but also grenades. By the way, I played the PC version - as I remember, grenades were thrown by pressing Enter. With all the dope, I thrashed the keyboard, compensating for the lack of accuracy with the power of a young press, smashing the enemies at the computer in the accounts department of the factory where my aunt worked.



If you want to remember the youth and drive into the games for the ZX Spectrum, then you can use any of the many emulators created for every imaginable platform.

PS All these games fit in either 48 or 128 KB of RAM.