The Classic Codemasters Top 50 Games! ZX Spectrum to PlayStation | Kim Justice

[@moomanbirds9369]

As an American gamer, these Codemasters videos have been very educational. I am not new to the idea that Codemasters did not always just make racing games and I am vaguely familiar with Dizzy, probably through documentaries like this, but it is interesting to see where they (Codemasters)came from. To be honest, I think their modern lineup, for at least what I know of it, could use some of the old original variety.

[@Nostalgianerd]

Every time I see Slightly Magic, I get more convinced that Hocus Pocus was entirely based upon it.

[@richallenxbox1976]

Plus Slightly Magic was one of THE first games I completed on the Spectrum without an infinite lives POKE!

[@jaethemanchild]

I almost certainly played more games by Codemasters than any other software house in my childhood and teens, and this list just proves it. More than Nintendo, Sega, Capcom, Konami or any of the big Japanese boys, and I was an early console adopter and avid arcade goer. A great, nostalgic list of wonderful titles. Thanks for putting this together Kimothy!

[@drwugong]

Your content deserves a lot more than 60k subs.

[@Peter-MH]

Great to see Dizzy 1 included in the top 50! Underrated entry in the series imo!

[@VERMISIMILITUDE]

Damn Kim, this is a truly BRILLIANT retrospective!!! You are superb!!!⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[@RallyandTrail]

For what it’s worth,you are by far my favourite gaming channel 👊😎

[@bombjack1984]

I just called the Dizzy helpline, but the call was not recognized - how am I going to finish the bloody thing now?

[@SuperMookles]

I'll bet you had egg on your face

[@BILLTHORPE]

god I love that intro Kim!!!! been drinking a bit tonight this video was a real treat, your videos are so lovely to chill out to, sort of sit in bed with dimmers on feel, know what I mean!

[@petertr2000]

Great video. All those other people who do "best of lists" must be gutted they'll never come close to this level of quality.

[@RoseTintedSpectrum]

Lovely video. I had so many of these, I pretty much just bought anything with the Codemasters label on for the Speccy.

[@Romanplaystation]

Hi Kim. I was just wondering if you had ever covered the 'Magic Knight' games (Finders Keepers, Knight Tyme, and Stormbringer)? I'd love to see some kind of retrospective on these gems, and cannot think of anybody better to do it than you. Thanks for all the your wonderful content over the years.

[@chainreaction8977]

Fun Fact: _Raid on Bungeling Bay_ was what inspired Sim City and the rest of the franchise. The designer enjoyed creating the live map so much he realized others might as well.

[@Liofa73]

Jet Ski Simulator was very smooth, it had a nice weight and momentum to the controls.

[@vherostar]

Treasure island dizzy my number 1 fave codemasters game and for the reason you love it Kim. When I think of Speccy I think of TID. I never could get into fantastic dizzy for some reason. But loved dizzy on my speccy and was blown away seeing them on my friends atari ST.

[@CyberSlunk]

Ahh, just what the doctor ordered for while I'm completing my moring chores! Cheers Kim!

[@ItsMatticusFinch]

Had a massive nostalgic grin on my face when I saw Kick-Snax and Spike on the list. Always nice to see someone else remember something like Spike in Transylvania.

[@HertzBlut]

You seem to be pumping out content faster than I can watch it. Lovely. I don't mind having a Kim backlog.

[@OperationPhantom]

The first CJ's Elephant Antics game on the C64, is one of Codemasters best on the platform. Amazing quality at the time for a budget game, that started out as a conversion attempt at New Zealand story BTW. Seems perhaps a bit more worthy of inclusion than a number of fruit machine simulators but nostalgia works differently for everybody I guess 😂

[@kommissar.murphy]

Occasionally Kim gets it dead wrong.

[@arcadely]

Great video - enjoyed the Codemasters "road to respect" video, but great to see some coverage of the games as well. A few in there I wasn't familiar with, so I'll have to check them out. Also now have a hankering for some Colin McRae.

[@lostidiot238]

Once you get the hang of micro machines number two is so fun with the extra two control ports in the cartridge and tracks you wouldn't think like the toilet seat are so intense playing with your mates.

[@IanWitts]

I think this might be the issue ie surely you would put this game right near the top if you used to play it with 4 or 8 mates? I enjoy many of Kim's videos, but to put MM2 that low down the list is insane!

[@SipherX05]

Wow no Cosmic Spacehead on this list! That game is my favourite Codemasters game ever and is massively underated imo.

[@hitmonstars7458]

Kim didn't like it when she played it on stream

[@SipherX05]

@@hitmonstars7458 but even so there are games on the list that Kim also doesn't like. It deserves to be in the top 50 at least.

[@6581punk]

"Absolutely Brilliant" video.

[@michaelcoyne6335]

Big nose freaks out clip really really reminds me of the first stage in sonic the hedgehog! Did any coders from that work on sonic? They look like they took a lot of inspiration from it if not

[@genfranco72]

So many happy memories of playing the great budget titles Codemasters released

[@kingeatking]

Must say your content is only getting better. Really enjoying your videos 👍

[@Brendanasdfdsf]

Kim is making some really good videos recently!!!!

[@AmigaOmega]

TOCA World Touring Cars is TOCA 3 for the PS1. The Race Driver series is where it started for the PS2. The US version of Toca3 being called Jarrett & Labonte Stock Car Racing.

[@toastedfallenstar584]

Absolutely brilliant!

[@doctorcrankyflaps1724]

I bought Pub Trivia at a car boot sale about 1990. Great memories : )

[@Tossphate]

I'm glad you used the st version of treasure Island dizzy

[@damiensawdon9191]

Glad to see Super Robin Hood and ATV Simulator make the list but where is Phantomas, Vampire and Transmuter?

[@caspice]

So many great Codemasters games to play.

[@markslorance3420]

So happy to see ATV as your favourite micro computer game. It is always my go to game for nostalgia. I have also never been able to complete it, without cheating 😀. Still Love it.

[@cloudskipa]

Great vid. Not sure if Music franchise counts as that was made by Jester Interactive.

[@bf0189]

Never played a Dizzy game before because it wasn't much of a thing in the states. I'll be checking out Fantastic Dizzy later this week on Genesis!

[@purplezebrahoover]

ATV Simulator! Oh wow. I absolutely loved that game as a kid!

[@CrimsonDragoon23]

*See's Pete Sampras Tennis, gets flashbacks to the Game Sack Skit involving it.*

[@petertr2000]

10:45 you say its as good as Super Sprint, but having just looked at it, and there's a world of difference.

[@raggersragnarsson6255]

I spent so many hours on ATV simulator. It was excellent on the Speccy.

[@dangerotterisrea]

I have Turbo the turtle on Amstrad cpc464 I remember it being really good quite.

[@moleculeman27]

So many memories!

[@mahomet69]

Great list

[@alex76gr]

Excellent video!

[@SpeccyHorace]

Nothing wrong with Fruit Machine Simulator 2 Kim. It's a little belter.

[@sargonsblackgrandfather2072]

Me: must sleep. Must sleep now. (Sees Kim’s posted a new video). Not again.

[@edsonbomber5]

18:26 Big Nose (Nes version )❤❤😂

[@eleanorburns8686]

I had loads of these games on C64 and played them to death. Nice to see them get the appreciation they deserve.

[@nomisastro2000]

Firehawk on NES will always be my #1 Codemasters games

[@karl205]

I liked the C64 version of Kwik Snax! A bit like Flicky but in a maze.

[@Giantwaspface]

I Still think the C64 version was miles better than the others...

[@hitmonstars7458]

I was the one who told Kim that the C64 version of kwik snax is different on stream and kim prefers the original and so do i.

[@imaca6538]

I loved the c64 cj games ! Well antics anyway

[@FantasticDizzy1]

Perfect list thanks.

[@miserychordia]

after seeing this video i had to order a new keyboard membrane so my speccy will run again... :) luckily i have the spectaculator emu installed on the pc :) many thanks for this awesome video..

[@sobo5476]

Can you do anything on Amstrad. I don't know why but Amstrad seems to have been forgotten through time despite the fact it was a far better computer than the Spectrum, but not as good as the Commodore 64. I loved my CPC-464 and had the colour monitor for it.

[@lucag.lisickza425]

i had one too

[@KuraIthys]

@Fur Q Never did understand the hardware design of some systems. The Spectrum and Sinclair generally were fugly, but you can see why they were built the way they were - get the most out of the cheapest possible hardware. The Atari 8 bit micros were technical marvels, but hamstrung by their design being from 1979 and not meaningfully updated. (any number of minor design tweaks could have made it far better at keeping up with the c64, but better sprite hardware in particular would have done wonders). The Atari ST in it's original incarnation is just... Why? Why would you do that? The Amstrad CPC seems to have a poorly thought out choice of features... Even the C64 - has a needlessly slow floppy disk interface that ended up the way it did for bizarre reasons... The Apple II GS was deliberately gimped to make the macintosh look better. (primarily by using a slower CPU even though faster versions of the 65816 were widely available) Speaking of the 65816, while I am reasonably confident it was done to keep the price down, the fact that the SNES combines a 3.58 mhz CPU with memory and parts of it's ROM interface designed for 2.68 mhz is just... Bizarre. Made all the worse by the fact that the 65816 is a register + memory design, meaning memory speed has a very direct impact on performance. The mega drive has a very limited colour palette compared to the system it was designed to 'beat' (The PC Engine/TurboGrafx) again, for no obvious reason... There always seem to be weird decisions in systems from that era...

[@big_ry82]

Far better my arse

[@keithfulkerson]

Did you ever mess with the sequel to Music, "Music 2000" aka "Music Generator"?

[@LiamH81]

Mike skinner aledgey did his first streets album on it

[@thefreshwaterpirate]

I really dig the new format of talking and having some game footage showcasing on its own :) I would however recommend either two things to make it seem less silent in the game only section: Either A: add music to those segments, in game sound and music could be neat, or B: Split your talking of each game into two parts and have a middle segment w game play. Could be both actually. i think that would be extra cool. Liking it though, a lot, you're doing great :)

[@williamwright9079]

Cheers, mate!

[@theflyingninja1]

My personal Top 50 would have definitely had Captain Dynamo in it.

[@ninjapirate47]

Say whaaaaa!!!? Kwik Snax on the C64 was awesome!!!!!! I was gonna let that fruit machine simulator go but now? I condemn your puggy!

[@simonread8713]

What's the intro music? I recognise it, but can't think where it's from!

[@simonread8713]

Ah, no, I remember now. It's the old BBC Video theme.

[@nosferadu]

What version of Dizzy 3 is Kim playing? (31:00) It looks like it's on the Spectrum but I played that one quite a bit as a kid and don't remember Dizzy being green.

[@blatherskite3009]

@Ombrophobia Hylophobia I love how old format wars never die :)

[@Moghause]

Psycho Pinball had better be on this list. Poor thing gets slept on all the time. Edit: Yay! Made my morning.

[@SpeccyHorace]

Great game.

[@TheRatlord74]

Kim, it must be said that you are a terrible driver.

[@stevezm100]

which platform has the dizzy helpline? ive not seen it before! cheers

[@MephProduction]

Not sure you're right about Dizzy, Kwick snaxs on the c64 is still a wonderful game it's just different, and we tend to consider Fantastic Dizzy to be one of the weaker titles and Spellbound certainly has the best music. But it;s good to know i'm not the only one who really liked Pinball and Fruit machine simulator. :) And that Cricket game brings back a lot me memories.. brilliant stuff. ATV,,,seriously?? yikes, it's a title i wouldn't load twice. Super Robin Hood was amazing on the Amstrad, just a pity the c64 version sucked.

[@RetroSanctuary]

I had Kwik Snax back in the day on C64 I don't think its as good as the other versions but I always liked it as a simple arcade game, sort of Pacman mixed with Flicky, I'm glad its different as it means we got another distinct Dizzy game that's fun to play.

[@MephProduction]

@@RetroSanctuary oh yeah the Zx/CPC version is excellent.. i still hope one day someone will make a version for the c64, but the game we did get is still pretty good.

[@secondgoodoldgreg2807]

Great video - no place for the 4 in 1 soccer simulator I see.

[@michaelphillips1095]

Brian Lara 96 is probably the best cricket game ever made. I still play it today. Cricket 19 on ps4 is now very good also, but as you said, few and far between is an understatement! Being able to play asmy beloved Kent back in the day was a dream come true, leaving me with a choice of passing my GCSE's or...well ya get the jist 🤣. Passed em in the end. No thanks to BLC 96. Great game....

[@SpeccyHorace]

The Brian Lara game on the PS1 is the greatest imo.

[@michaelphillips1095]

@@SpeccyHorace yeah that was a great one too for sure....!

[@AmbersKnight]

I must admit I think the Dizzy games got better with time, so I find Treasure Island Dizzy one of the weakest entries in the series. I prefer Fantasy World, Prince of the Yolkfolk and Magicland Dizzy (Spellbound felt a little bloated to me). Excellent video as always though. I have a soft spot for the CJ games, even though they are clearly derivative of New Zealand Story but for budget titles not bad.

[@RetroSanctuary]

Yup I'll never understand the hype for Treasure Island, I got the red and blue collection packs of Dizzy games as a kid and that game was always one of my least favourites. In fact playing it again I don't think its even really an improvement over the original, its a case of one step forward, one step back. Sure you can carry more than one object now, but one life for the whole game? plus insta-kill death traps?! plus all that nonsense with dropping the snorkel underwater? no, just no, as you say the three you mentioned are far superior. I like CJ, its a shame there were blind jumps and a lot of awkward spike sections in the game though, it was a bit too short as well to be honest. Given that it was a budget game its kind of forgivable I think though and the 2-player option was great. I think that game has a lot of Mega Man 1 in it as well personally, you especially notice it when you have Bomb Man's weapon upgrade, its a combination of New Zealand Story and Mega Man in my opinion which is cool because I love both those games.

[@pbarratt73]

7:18 I remember using the help line but without asking permission off my Mom and Dad as I knew the answer would of been a solid NO. Pretty hard to get away with as back then we just had the phone in the hallway. Never did get questioned about it so got away with it 🕹

[@tosgem]

What happened when you rang? Did they charge by the minute?

[@pbarratt73]

@@tosgem I don't know as my parents never mentioned it thankfully... 🤘🏻😀🤘🏻

[@tosgem]

@@pbarratt73 was the line helpful?

[@pbarratt73]

@@tosgem yeah but I had sit through the whole walk-through to the point where I was struggling. It was an automated voice recording of the solution not someone to actually to talk to.

[@wiggyp1v255]

playing a snow stage on Colin McRae definitely wasn't the best way to show the game lol

[@petertr2000]

Neither was constantly crashing ;-)

[@YOLKFOLK]

The Helpline on Dizzy 1 was not on all versions of the Spectrum

[@DeeCee76uk]

I have two versions of the original speccy release here and neither have that helpline displayed whilst playing

[@waynehickman8317]

If there's one thing this video has shown me, it's that you risk your life being a passenger in Kim's car lol... btw, the CJ games on C64 are a lot better than the Speccy versions along with DJ Puff's Volcanic Capers and Stuntman Seymour

[@vinnycochrane5139]

Your episodes have been a remedy for me. Lockdown, losing my best friend, losing all my work, and my boyfriend of 11 years abandoning me to extortionate London rent - all in the space of a week. Your videos have been such a soothing panacea. Thank you so much.

[@Dino83]

Oh let's very much go!

[@gootballe583]

I adored LMA manager

[@detectivesquirrel2621]

TOCA and Colin McRae were some of my favs on the playstation

[@YOLKFOLK]

Spellbound was Big Red Software. Not Oliver Twins

[@blatherskite3009]

And Magicland was me, not the Oliver Twins. I did the design, Big Red were contracted to do the coding. That's how they got the gig for the next one - I was offered the opportunity to design Dizzy 5 after Dizzy 4 did OK but I turned it down, so I guess Big Red stepped up and said they'd do the design and coding for Dizzy 5 and fair play to them :) The Olivers bowed out after the third Dizzy game.

[@YOLKFOLK]

@@blatherskite3009 , are you Fred?

[@blatherskite3009]

@@YOLKFOLK No, I'm not Fred. Don't really want to do real names here on the internet, but I am credited on cassette inlays of the earlier releases of the game - "Designed by (me) and The Oliver Twins" - although they spelled my name wrong! I have the less common spelling with an "a" not the more usual "i" :)

[@YOLKFOLK]

@@blatherskite3009 that's okay, have you looked at thecodemastersarchive.co.uk ? Would you mind writing something in our memories section?

[@blatherskite3009]

@@YOLKFOLK I could do that - it was a long time ago now, but I remember it all pretty well :) I've shared a few bits of trivia on various playthroughs and reviews of the game here on KZbin, like the "Weirdhenge" hub screen being a nod to Steve Turner's game Dragontorc, which I loved, but they're not collected anywhere. Might as well, for posterity, while I still remember! :)

[@TheIndulged1]

Glad SOS and TOCA made it, TOCA especially because it got me into touring car racing, something so enjoyable about watching rep mobiles driving at the limit smashing the Hell out of each other.

[@sargonsblackgrandfather2072]

On TOCA it was so much fun to just go the wrong way around the track and cause serious damage.

[@LiamH81]

Is it in an order?

[@RainerK.]

You should have added the system name to the game title, it's not always obvious.

[@NickeP86]

Agree!

[@dudepeep6429]

Bro can u review night slashers

[@jasonlam9017]

Just for the record I loved Four Soccer Simulators ⚽️ and no it wasn't rubbish. Had fond memories with that game 🎮.

[@paulpetroleum]

I'd love to see a Mastertronic one of these...

[@doctorcrankyflaps1724]

More sound during gameplay would be nice : )

[@Oneof48]

Is it me or is all the background sound and and music too low?

[@Liofa73]

All NES soundtracks sound the same to me. Warbling, high tempo, plinky plonky melody. :)

[@frazzleboy]

i love BMX simulator on c64 :)

[@Spacemutiny]

Sink or Swim had a good PC port!

[@RosesTeaAndASD]

Larry sent me here :)

[@superspecky4eyes]

Micromachines V3 for the Playstation is the best MM game in my opinion.

[@linnet12dd]

The Dizzy number no longer works, who else tried it?

[@random_precision_software]

Kim what is that music from..it sounds like a 1980's documentary or politics

[@mrjwins]

BBC Video - kzbin.info/www/bejne/q3ynpXiLea6Zbqs

[@justinbrown3061]

Vampire didn't make the list

[@NeoMK27]

I agree - a fantastic marvel on the Speccy. Better than Phantomas imo.

[@michaelcoyne6335]

Plus I think bmx simulator looks much better on the amstrad cpc for me

[@CalmCal]

I have a love hate relationship with eggs 👍

[@pigriser]

Slicks is awesome.

[@BeyondTheScanlines]

Really surprised at how low down it was - it's one which feels so much more playable to me than either BMX Simulator or Grand Prix Simulator, that's for sure!

[@pigriser]

@@BeyondTheScanlines No doubt. I can see why a small slip putting you instantly out of the race can be frustrating, but working your way up through the ranks of the F1 teams of the day was very rewarding. Spent many, many hours playing it compared to the other 2 you mentioned.

[@phobos2k2]

Oh, I'm early!

[@KuraIthys]

Goodness. KZbin videos involving PS1 games always remind me how nauseating I found the graphics on that system. Something about the world wobbling around just makes my stomach turn...

[@southendbusker7534]

based episode

[@robertmcmillan3638]

I hate Coronation Street and EastEnders.