3D Monster Maze is probably the most memorable pieces of software on the ZX-81, and maybe one of the most important (ground breaking) games ever - this and 3D Defender, two J. K. Greye games on the list, the man had skillz!

@ZXRetroGaming

3 жыл бұрын

absolutely, still enjoy playing 3Dmm

@leocomerford

Жыл бұрын

With its combination of first-person action and humorous writing and art-charm with a touch of menace-I feel that it’s also a precursor to Valve’s first-person games in some ways.

My strongest memory from watching this is from that last pic at the end - I suddenly felt that thrill of heading down to WHSmith Saturday morning after being paid for my paper-round to see if there were any new games to buy. less than a year later I got a spectrum for Xmas and never looked back..

@ZXRetroGaming

3 жыл бұрын

Glad it stirred something :)

@blobbypants2

3 жыл бұрын

Saturday morning up to WH Smiths - buy game - go home and copy - back to Smiths saying it didn't work and swap for another game - repeat all day !

Thanks for the great souvenirs we have had with our Zx81 !!! I remember a game named " Cosmic Cockerel " in hi res ... ;-)

I like the Star Trek Game - which was turn based strategy from memory . Shields, Phasers, Klingons and Star Bases - brilliant. The 1K Chess !

Wow, never saw that 3D defender before. Flight Simulator brings back memories, it made me want to be a pilot!

@ZXRetroGaming

6 ай бұрын

Yeah 3d defender was a great game but not easy. I did like Flight Simulator at the time. Nice photography website btw

Me and a buddy just finished our DonkeyKong clone we started in 1983 lol. Get it on Sinclairzxworld.

@ZXRetroGaming

3 жыл бұрын

great game. I made a playthrough video. Sorry I suck at Donkey Kong :)

My first experience of a computer was a friend's zx81, I remember it with affection, I saved up and bought a 16k Spectrum a few years later, I distinctly remember lunar Lander and scramble

i always liked "Maze Death Race" and "Tai" very much.

@ZXRetroGaming

5 ай бұрын

Tai looks very good, will have to track it down

that restyled zx81 is the king of x81s.

@ZXRetroGaming

8 ай бұрын

Lol

Given the massive technical limitations of the machine some of these games were remarkable…especially 3D Defender

There was a game called "Merchant of Venus" by Crystal software which I rarely see mentioned but I was fascinated by. I think Crystal had gotten the idea from "Elite" on the BBC micro and tried a similar idea set on a single planet. The player would have to pilot his "lander" over the landscape to various trading posts and mining instalations to conduct business. This was easier said than done as it was VERY hard to land at destination without A crashing or B landing so hard that your ship was effectively wrecked. The graphics weren't hi res but they were lovingly crafted and if it wasn't for the difficulty curve in piloting the ship, it would be a pretty compelling game...

@ZXRetroGaming

13 күн бұрын

@@Rendell001 interesting. I haven’t heard of it but will see if I can find it

@Rendell001

13 күн бұрын

@@ZXRetroGaming I noticed an emulator site with a large collection of games you can play via the browser and Merchant of Venus was on there. Had a bash but it’s the “Lunar Lander” segment that drives me scatty! Will dig out the link a little later!

@ZXRetroGaming

12 күн бұрын

@@Rendell001 I found the game. Yes as you said the lander seems quite difficult to control. I kept crashing 😀

@Rendell001

12 күн бұрын

@@ZXRetroGaming the cassette inlay gives important hint about the ships - each one has different total cargo and the more laden the ship, the worse it handles! The thing that fascinated me as a kid was that on rare occasions when I could get to another trade post, each one was different and I wanted to see them all. I particularly liked the “oil rig” out in one of the plains.

Great choices; I also had a tape with Galaxians/Gloops; with Gloops being a Pac-Man clone but with multiple mazes :-)

@ZXRetroGaming

3 жыл бұрын

They look like great games. Thanks for watching :)

A very nice vid showcasing many of the top games but as someone else has pointed out, please review SABOTAGE and also Kevin Tom's FOOTBALL MANAGER next time around. I realise these might not be from your actual recollection(s) but they are both very very worthwhile and playable titles for the most wonderful 1980s Sinclair monochrome creation.. ever! :-)

@ZXRetroGaming

4 ай бұрын

Noted. Glad you enjoyed the video

Gauntlet I liked

Nice selection. Brings back lots of memories. I had forgotten just how many arcade ‘conversions’ there were. The one game that jumps out as missing is probably the one you said you never had. The Trader trilogy by Pixel productions. Elite before the BBC - although the graphics weren’t 3D the animated cut scenes were amazing. Another genre that did well on the ZX81 was text adventures. I spent many an hour was on them!

@ZXRetroGaming

3 жыл бұрын

Cheers Mike, yes Trader was one game I really wanted to play. Maybe I'll have a look at it in an emulator one day. Fun times, thanks for watching!

@MikePerigo

3 жыл бұрын

@@ZXRetroGaming If you wanted to settle for seeing what you missed Peter G has videos of all 3 parts... kzread.info/dash/bejne/eJx5zsadiMiydLg.html kzread.info/dash/bejne/oIWhlZKAmJOdabA.html kzread.info/dash/bejne/g42ZzsyggZDScqg.html as well as some of the other classics.

@ZXRetroGaming

3 жыл бұрын

I’ll have a look, cheers !

And wow I remember all these games !

Super Glooper was my favourite.

I remember buying a decent machine code version of a game similar to Space Invaders complete with hi-res graphics. I can't remember the name of it, though.

I remember I had a tape with 4 games: scramble 1 and 2, fungaloids and 3d defender. One thing that intrigued me was the fact that in 3d defender ( 5:26 ), sometimes, comets appeared on the screen that had a very thin "tail". Something that was much smaller than the graphic plots that the machine provided or combinations of special ascii characters. I'm still curious to this day: how could they do that?

@northernbloke

2 жыл бұрын

Good question. Late on in the Zx81s development, hi res games started appearing but I don’t remember that in 3d defender

Good list! Rocket man, Lunar Lander were good. I never got to play Rocket man in the day, but plays very well on an emulator, great game.

@ZXRetroGaming

3 жыл бұрын

will have to give them a try. Thanks for watching

Gun Fight. I'm surprised you didn't mention the central graphic resembling a bird's eye view of the starship Enterprise!🤣

It's amazing what you can do with very little 🙂

@bettyswollocks1670

2 жыл бұрын

reminds me of my wedding night

I loved Sabotage

@ZXRetroGaming

3 жыл бұрын

I'll have to give it a try

So terribly great

@ZXRetroGaming

3 жыл бұрын

I think (hope) there's a compliment in there

@Corsa15DT

3 жыл бұрын

@@ZXRetroGaming of course. these are the beginnings, we have to respect them for what they are.

What's up with the cross hairs in 3D Defender? I don't remember that bottom cross hair to be like that, but hey I probably remember wrong :) Maybe it's a quirk of this Dutch translated version? But anyway, this game was such an astonishing achievement back in the days: 1st person 3D, quite fast and these huge graphics wizzing past. Games that I also remember fondly are the Quicksilva games: Generally really fast and responsive versions of arcade classics with amazing artwork on the cassette inlays to boot.

@ZXRetroGaming

3 жыл бұрын

possibly, the spaceships don't look right either for some of them

Mazogs -> the later ZX-Spectrum version Maziacs

@ZXRetroGaming

3 жыл бұрын

yes, I've never played Maziacs. Will have to give it a go one day

@robtherelic510

10 ай бұрын

I loved mazogs, played it for hours. When I moved on to the spectrum and played maziacs I was a little disappointed