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The Droid from One Man and His Droid
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The World Of Spectrum must be the premier web site for the most extensive and complete archive of all Spectrum software that was ever published. It includes just about all software, Spectrum emulators, links to magazine articles and reviews and this site is an absolute must for anyone interested in the Sinclair computer. It even offers software that allows you to plug a tape recorder into the PC sound card and convert old original tapes to run on a PC. |
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ZX-32 Spectrum Emulator
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The home page for the ZX-32 Windows Spectrum emulator offers loads of help together with a download of the program. Here is an extract from the site.".... Welcome to ZX32's home on the Web. This site is the 'official' ZX Spectrum Emulator for Windows® 95 (ZX32) Home. Learn more about the program in the About section. You may want to check Frequently Asked Questions for some solutions to common problems encountered while using the emulator. Information in that page may have been updated since the latest release. You can also query for information or have a discussion with other users in ZX32's Forum. You are welcomed to browse in any case. My name's Vaggelis, I'm the author of ZX32 and I'll be your guide during your stay in here. ....." |
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The Mastertronic Web
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This interesting site catalogues all the games (for all computers) released by the budget publisher Mastertronic. The bulk of the companies history is provided by Anthony Guter who was their financial controller. Mastertronic published three of my games (The Empire Fights Back, One Man and His Droid and Lap of the Gods), and OMAHD was converted to three other home computers of the time. These conversions were excellent and it was a credit to the professionalism of the entire team. It was always good to receive a letter from Anthony (royalty cheques) and this company always made sure that their programmers were actually paid. Well done! |
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The Spectrum Web Ring
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The logo of the Spectrum Web Ring sports a stylised keypad button from the original Spectrum. The site has links too all manner of Spectrum Web sites both large and small. It's an excellent resource for finding over 80 Spectrum related sites, then simply browse on in to the next site that takes your fancy. |
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The Congratulations Archive
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The Congratulations Archive offers downloads of Spectrum games with a difference. They are a snapshot, just before completion of the game. Have you ever wondered how a particular game ended? Now is your chance to find out! |
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History of the Oliver Twins
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The Oliver Twins, Philip and Andrew were probably one of the most prolific and successful programmers in the early years of home computers and responsible for the Dizzy series of games published by Codemasters. This site provides a rare, interesting and personal insight into their work, starting as kids working in their bedroom! Today they own Blitz Games a successful main stream games company. |
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Crash Magazine
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The monthly magazine Crash, first published in February 1984, became the premier Spectrum computer games magazine of the era. Today, elements of the magazine remain at this site and its good to be able to see the style with which the magazine was produced. In common with most magazines, later in their life, they included free game tapes and the July 1989 edition (issue 66) included my game One Man and His Droid. Click here to go directly to the on-line Crash edition of the instructions. Crash reviewed OMAHD in issue 23 with a score of 76%. |
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JX-Speccy
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This is the home page of JX- Speccy, a rather clever Java applet that emulates a 48K Spectrum in a browser window without the need to download, set up and install straight out of the box. It lacks sound and can run too fast on some computers, but is an ideal way to quickly get a feel of over 5000 games from a bygone era. This program emulates the Kempston joystick by way of the cursor arrows, with the Tab key acting as the fire button.
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Play these games on-line at JX-Speccy
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Knight Driver is a simple, drive the car around the course and don't hit anything. It plays in two modes, Learner (fuel expires quicker if you hit the walls), or Professional, (5 Cars and lose a life with each collision). The Spectrum keyboard controls do not translate to a PC very comfortably. I did revise the program code to use a Kempston joystick (also corrected some silly spelling mistakes) but the publishers mixed the master tapes up so I'm afraid that we are stuck with awkward keys until I can find (in the loft) my Master tape.
Keys:- P,L or D at main screen, then Enter to
start. Z=rotate clockwise The remainder of these on-line games all work with the Kempston joystick which JX-Speccy emulates with the cursor arrows and Tab key. Please see the INSTRUCTIONS for The Empire Fights Back, it's a little complicated but there was a nice little game in there fighting to get out. TEFB has what is in effect a dual timer and score. Do things correctly to boost your time to complete the game and achieve a score.
One Man and His Droid was undoubtedly the most successful game that I ever produced, selling over 250,000 copies on five different computers. Most of my commercial games took almost a year in spare time to produce, but OMAHD was a sort of a one off. From start to finish, it was completed in under 10 weeks including all of the programming, design and graphics. The music currently playing is a midi reworking of Rob Hubbard's classic C64 sound track for the game. Click here for the instructions. Of all the games that I wrote, Lap of the Gods is my favourite and I feel best game. It generally received good reviews with the magazine Crash awarding it 80%, not bad for a £1.99 game! Sadly, it didn't sell very well (around 20,000 or so) and Mastertronic did not have the confidence to convert it to other formats. Initially they rejected the game, then took it on in a bit of a rush as they had a Spectrum "slot" that they needed to fill in their publication cycle. Click here for the instructions. War Cars Construction Set was the last game of mine that was commercially published. Firebird (part of British Telecom) launched the game on their new mid budget label at the price of £2.99. Firebird converted the game to the C64 and Amstrad CPC but both conversions were poor and flawed. Overall, the game bombed and only hit around 60% in reviews. However, I do still like the game even after all this time. Click here for the instructions. |
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Sinclair User, like Crash, was one of the premier Spectrum magazine titles of the era. This on-line recreation pays a superb homage to the magazine, recreating its printed style and is jam packed with news articles and reviews. The site covers Sinclair User's 133 editions from April 1982 through to May 1993. Dave Foreman has put an immense amount of work into this excellent site, why not pay a visit to recreate that nostalgia from a bygone era. Sinclair User Magazine Online - SUMO |
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The TZX Vault stores a vast quantity of Spectrum games held in TZX format (the original tape format). With a small quick loading home page, every tiny icon lead to a wealth of Spectrum memorabilia. This is a must visit site for the Spectrum enthusiast. |
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And now for something entirely different. Well not entirely, but this site hangs an interesting perspective on current day gaming systems with a little bit of retro thrown in for good measure. Check it out now! |
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C64AUDIO.COM
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This site has got to be seen, or rather heard, to be believed. One Man and His Droid was converted to the C64 and Rob Hubbard wrote the fantastic music for the version. Taking the original raw SID music, Chris Abbott and his team (together with original authors on occasion) have recreated musical masterpieces! The latest reworking of OMAHD is spectacular and now available on audio CD - Back In Time III-. This site offers opportunities to hear snippets of the latest tracks from the CD. Rob Hubbard's OMAHD theme, now playing, was an early MIDI rendition by none other than Chris Abbott himself and BIT III is even better! To say that this site is professional is an understatement. It may not be Spectrum, but it is most certainly well worth a visit. You will not be disappointed, trust me! |
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Google is an excellent resource for exploring computer game names. Type in the name of your favourite game in the box below and see where the links take you. |
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AcknowledgementsLogo's to link to their respective sites. Background music is a midi music file based on Rob Hubbard's C64 One Man and His Droid, performed and arranged by none other than Chris Abbott from c64audio.com |
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