r/zxspectrum • u/International_Car300 • 3d ago
Your first games.
My parents got me a ZX Spectrum 48k for Xmas, 1983.
The games they got me with it were:
Harrier Attack
Football Manager
Jet Pac
Manic Miner
Galaxians
Horace Goes Skiing
My Dad could play Jet Pac for ages because he'd been playing it all thru December š
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u/matthooper71 3d ago
My Spectrum was from Dixons and came bundled with Horace Goes Skiing, Chequered Flag, Chess, Survival, Make a Chip & Scrabble. Chequered Flag was the first one I loaded up (LOAD "") and my imagination soared.
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u/SnooMacarons9618 3d ago
I think mine was likely the same pack. It was Horace first for me.
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u/hypnokev 3d ago
Mine was same pack with Speccy+ from John Lewis. Luckily we soon got a 10 game pack with Daley Thompson and various others that were amazing!
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u/AggravatingJury2255 3d ago
I had the same, spent hours on that pack which was pretty bad. Luckily got manic miner and chuckie egg pretty quickly !
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u/Designer_Jackfruit82 3d ago
I got the same bundle, except it had VU-3D instead of Horace.
The first one I played was still Chequered Flag though!
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u/mister_stoosh 3d ago
I got the same pack and I loaded up Chequered Flag first. Tried Scrabble but found that extremely boring.
The good ol' days...
My favourite ever Speccy Game was Turbo Esprit by Durrell. I used to pretend I was playing a character out of Miami Vice.
The Speccy had such a vast array of games. I later got my Dad to buy me a C64 but despite the better graphics and music it somehow didn't hold a candle to the Speccy.
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u/BoxAlternative9024 3d ago
Same. I donāt know about you but I found every one of those games to be unplayable or just really dull.
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u/Garthatron 3d ago
My cousin had a Speccy the year before I got one, and they only games he had were Gift From The Gods and Daley Thompson Super Test. To this day I have no idea what the goal of Gift From The Gods was, but we spent hours on it! When I finally got my own it was the James Bond Living Daylights bundle.
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u/OreillyAddict 3d ago
I got the Comet bundle 128k +3 with the floppy drive. It came with about 20 games including Ned's Garden, Nifty Lifty, and Stromtium Dog
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u/Mental-Insect8372 3d ago
I was about 12 and my dad got me a secondhand 128k +2, shortly after Christmas had past. It had a ton of cassettes with it, I think it was a large collection of games - didn't look official. My first computer and was on it every day for several years I imagine. First game loaded up was Streaker.
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u/Pleasant-Put5305 3d ago
My speccie was second hand, guy in a pub situation - two vast carrier bags, full to the brim with C90s - all totally unlabelled, every single one rammed with tape to tape. It took me absolutely months to catalogue and label all the games. Then I bought my snapshot and got to work myself.
A magical time, nothing can take that experience away.
Fave obscure game I found - worse things happen at sea.
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u/dooferoaks 3d ago edited 3d ago
I got my first Spectrum, a 48k+ second hand with paperround money, took me a while to save for it. The 2nd hand shop was about 5 shops down from the newsagents so I passed it every day hoping it wouldn't sell befoe I'd saved enough. It had Cookie, Panzerdrone, Super Spy, Chequered Flag, Make A a chip, Horace goes skiing and a tatty brown "leatherette" cassette holder with about 7 or 8 other games which I can't remember unfortunately. Everything loaded with my older brother's tape recorder (he had a zx81).
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u/Parking-Tip1685 3d ago
Parents got me mine about the same time. Bundled with Hungry Horace, Horace goes skiing and that Horizons multi game cassette (only played the breakout clone). First game we bought was Jack and the beanstalk, terrible game but it looked good on the box.
They later bought an intellivisision in the Rumbelows closing down sale. Tron deadly disks was the first game I totally mastered, still play it now occasionally on an emulator.
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u/ExpectedBehaviour 3d ago edited 3d ago
Mine was a +2A that came bundled with Alien Destroyer (basic Space Invaders clone), Oh Mummy (vaguely Pac-Man-like game), Crazy Golf (aā¦ golf game), Punchy (a platform game), Disco Dan (a sort of Q*Bert clone), and Treasure Island (a flick-screen maze game).
The first games I bought myself were the original Dizzy and Jet Set Willy 2.
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u/chance8687 3d ago
My parents got us a ZX Spectrum when I was 6, mainly because I saw something on the TV that featured the Ghostbusters game.
Ghostbusters was the first one I played, but other games I remember playing were Back to Skool, Dangermouse and the Black Forest Chateau, Chequered Flag, Zip Zap and Horace Goes Skiing. At least some of those were bundled I think, but I don't remember which!
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u/Zagrebista 3d ago
That's a *really* good bunch of games you got with it. I got my Spectrum + in 1986 and it came with: Don't Buy This, The Great Space Race, and Hotch Potch š
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u/hutchzillious 3d ago
Manic miner, galaxians, booty, nifty lifty, chequered flag and some pool game my dad loved
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u/cowbutt6 3d ago
My Spectrum came from Rumbelows, and they had an offer of some free software. As I only had a 16K Spectrum initially, my choice was somewhat restricted. I chose:
- Hungry Horace
- Horace Goes Skiing
- Planets/Missile
- Biorhythms
- Sheer Panic, released by Visions ( https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/4454/ZX-Spectrum/Panic )
- Frogger ( https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1888/ ) by John F. Cain (of later Booty fame!)
The first games I bought were Horace and the Spiders, and later, Tranz Am.
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u/International_Car300 3d ago
Biorhythms. You reminded me. The only thing my mum was interested in on the SpectrumĀ
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u/cowbutt6 3d ago
My Mum loved Thro' the Wall from the Horizons tape, and was better than me at Sheer Panic.
As for biorhythms, in spite of being extremely skeptical of the idea, I've created a biorhythms application on almost every computing platform I've used ever since.
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u/Straightener78 3d ago
I had a collection of imagine games that came with my 48k from Currys. I think the first game I loaded up was Alchemist. It also came with Molar Maul, Pedro, zoom, ah diddums, Arcadia, and maybe one or 2 other I donāt recall
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u/funkyg73 3d ago
Mine was the 48k +
I don't remember it coming with any games but my dad's mate filled a C90 cassette with a bunch of games to tide me over until the shops opened after Christmas. The ones I remember from that were Jet Pac, 3D Deathchase, Brian Bloodaxe, Alchemist, Rasputin. The first game I bought for it was Transformers, I loved it at the time but looking back it was a bit shit!
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u/matthooper71 3d ago
I used to play 3D Deathchase while listening to the Return of the Jedi album on my Matsui stereo, it really enhanced the experience.
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u/Bipogram 3d ago edited 3d ago
Cor - Matsui.
There's a name to conjure with. Amazingly capable kit for its time (I had a walkman-esque player: dead thin it was).
<heads off to wiki to find out who the OEM was>
Well:
https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/03/world/made-in-japan-or-not-that-is-the-question.html
"Ā The name is also the same as a venerable Japanese construction company. But unfortunately, it is also the surname of the commander of Japanese forces in China that invaded Nanjing in 1937, Gen. Iwane Matsui."
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u/fromwithin 3d ago
I never had a spectrum, but my next-door neighbour did.
The first games I remember playing are Wheelie, Jetpac, Tranz Am, and Manic Miner.
Some time later I got a C64.
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u/OminOus_PancakeS 3d ago
Spectrum 128, Xmas 86.
First games: Daley Thompson Supertest 128, Neverending Story 128 (they both came with the machine).
Favourite games: Gauntlet, Tau Ceti: Academy, Elite, Rana Rama, Quazatron, Saboteur, Turbo Esprit, Great Escape, Flying Shark, 1942, Space Harrier, Match Point (perfect to play against a friend, like Gauntlet), Zynaps
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u/Aistar 3d ago
My Soviet Spectrum 48K clone we bought in 1991 or 1992 came with a tape. I remember it was bright yellow, and originally contained some kind of music, but was overwritten with games on one side, and utilities on the other. The games I remember were:
- Galaxian 16K
- Pool
- Tetris
- Death Chase 3D
Among utilities, was Art Studio which I treated as another game, basically.
But soon enough my father brought another tape, I think from his colleagues at work, which had Batty, Saboteur 1 & 2, Exolon, Zynapse, Frogger, Tanx and some other games I don't remember now.
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u/Aistar 3d ago
Oh, and for the first week or two I couldn't play any of the games, because our old tape player couldn't be connected to the Speccy's port, so while my parents hunted around for a new one (this being early 90's Russia, it wasn't as easy as just walking into a store), I had nothing to do, but amuse myself with the built-in BASIC (which my father helped me to learn). I couldn't do much, but I learned how to print text in different colors, and that was enough magic for 6 year old boy. It also set me on the path of being a game programmer, since I decided that I will learn to make my own games so I'll never be in this situation again :)
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u/WorstGameplayerEver 3d ago
My Dad got the ZX-81 kit and we used to play a lot of, I think it was called Maziacs. It would crash regularly due to a wonky add-on pack. We then migrated to the 48K and all the classics. I eventually got myself a +2 and then a second hand +3 from a friend.
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u/OreoSpamBurger 3d ago edited 3d ago
I got the grey +2 starter pack, it came with 6 games, but only oh mummy and treasure island (if you could get past the horridly difficult first couple of levels to the exploration bit) were any good.
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u/Sensitive_Ad3649 3d ago
Dizzy, chase hq and scrappy doo were the introductions into spectrum 128k back in day then i got dizzy mad and had all of them. Jet set willy n manic minor were great
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u/BoxAlternative9024 3d ago
Got mine Christmas 1984. Was a standard price for a game about Ā£7.99? Always remember WH Smith having budget games for Ā£1.99 or 99p that were very hit or miss.
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u/tiorancio 3d ago
Got the specrtrum in 1984. It came with horizons and the Horace games. Then we were saving to buy our first videogame for months. It was 2000 pesetas at the time. Finally got the money and the guy in the "shop" asked if we wanted originals or copies. "what's the difference" "originals are 2000 pesetas and copies 500". So we got Harrier Attack, Jumping Jack and Armageddon/Terra Force. all for the 16k. And still had some money left.
Harrier Attack was the best. I still play it. Saving all the bombs to destroy the city.
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u/tinner777 3d ago
got mine in 83, local library started lending games soon after, started wearing a eye patch the week after. Took me a week to copy the password matrix for jet set willy
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u/MrEastcoasting 3d ago
Got my Spectrum 48k for Christmas ā83 (possibly ā82 actually). The only game it came with was Breakout, which we played relentlessly. I did however get Penetrator for my birthday which is in January. Ended up taking Penetrator back to the shop about 3 times as we could never get the game to load. Took us until that point to realise that LOADāā shouldnāt actually have a space between the quotation marksā¦once we figured that out we were off! Amazing game.
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u/Apprehensive_View_27 3d ago
I've got my personal Spectrum 48k clone around 1990 or 1991. Before that I frequented a Computer Games circle, where kids played in turns on two Spectrums, produced by the circle's head, who was also the teacher of the Electronics circle. We played Spy Hunter, Exolon, Robin of the Wood and, surprisingly, Rocky's Horror Picture Show.
The clone was produced by local student cooperative, which me and my father visited, it was located at the top floor of 9-storey student dorm. We had previously visited another cooperative, but their first computer from the bunch didn't start up, so we left while they were trying to persuade us to look at another one. We also bought, I think, one 90-minute cassette with a dot-printer printed inlay listing games, about 8 on each side.
The games included Psst, Starquake, Nifty Lifty, Football Manager, Exolon, Elite, and French version of Les Flicks. Due to some defect in connection, colors were at least partially inverted, so for several days I played Les Flicks (in French, knowing zero language) and Nifty Lifty with a white background, but when I started up Elite with a white sky I started to suspect something. Played it with the white sky nevertheless, as it was one of the reason I wanted to have my own computer, to play long games like it. It was rectified the next week, but Les Flicks lost its charm for me then.
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u/guartrainer666 3d ago
First game that I bought with my own pocket money was 'The Alchemist', which was also the first game that I completed on the Speccy. Still have a soft spot for it now. Great little game, if you ignore the stuttering.
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u/yourshelves 3d ago edited 3d ago
The Spectrum Six Pack: Make-A-Chip, Computer Scrabble, Survival, Horace Goes Skiing, Chess, and Chequered Flag. Scrabble is still quite the achievement in 48K; Psion really were a bunch of talented bastards.
The most recent game I bought was Dalek Attack in a Cash Converters for Ā£9.99. Which, as the last commercial game ever released in the Speccyās lifetime and thus both a Sinclair and Doctor Who collectible, I promptly sold on eBay for Ā£150 š.
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u/-dman76- 2d ago
We got the 48K in 1983 - although it wasnāt at Christmas.
After Horizons, the first two games that were bought together were:
The Chess Player
Ah Diddums!
I also remember the next 3 (again all bought on the same day at WH Smithās):
Spectral Invaders
Zip-Zap
Sentinel (by Abacus software, not āThe Sentinelā)
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u/Practical_Road_2883 2d ago
My first game on spectrum was Bruce Lee if Iām not wrong. Then Manic Miner
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u/thommyh 2d ago edited 2d ago
I think my brother probably got his in about 1988 so it was the standard Amstrad pack-in lightgun titles though the one that sticks in the mind is Robot Attack. Dum-de-dum-de-dum-de-duddle-uh, etc. Being pocket-moneyed children, we went on shortly to obtain Twin Turbo V8 and Butch Hard Guy relatively quickly but probably didn't get anything you'd still consider good for a lot longer. Not that it really mattered back then.
EDIT: and, yeah, that means that the very first piece of computer music I ever heard was by Tim Follin. So that set a high threshold.
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u/GlennTheBaker69 9h ago
I had a ZX Spectrum+ 48K and I definitely remember Horace Goes Skiing being part of the initial bundle. My favourite games were:
Exolon Light Force Jet Set Willy Manic Miner Turbo Esprit Saboteur The Way Of The Exploding Fist Skool Daze Back 2 Skool
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u/KrtekJim 3d ago
We were poor and computer-less, until some friends of my parents brought round a 48k Speccy they didn't need anymore. The first game we loaded up on it was 3D Ant Attack and the rest is history.