My time with the Spectrum had sadly ended before freebies on cover tapes started coming out, so it was really interesting to see what kind of stuff was offered up to entice readers 🙂👍🏻
@andrewfisher360911 ай бұрын
Easy: Chaos. I would happily play it even now.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
I have heard it's good by others in the comments here but was a commercial release so doesn't count. Cheers
@mooker560011 ай бұрын
Which led to laser squad and lords of chaos rebelstar and why we have xcom. Chaos was so amazing and probably best game for free on a magazine.
@blatherskite300911 ай бұрын
Chaos is my all-time favourite Speccy game. I already owned the original "Games Workshop" release, but it was still nice to get it on a covertape - couldn't hurt to have a "free" backup copy, just in case anything unfortunate happened to my original tape :)
@entity_dragons20132 ай бұрын
Thanks for your time putting this video together, ive a Chromebook setting up an spectrum emulator see what i can play on it so excited
@SebsPlaceYT2 ай бұрын
Have fun!
@stuartdavidson16211 ай бұрын
Wot no Your Sinclair classic Lawn Mower Simulator? :D It was an April Fool :)
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Ha yep! Gonna do a video all about that one at some point.
@mrburgess169811 ай бұрын
Great list which brought back some memories. I started buying Sinclair mags when YS offered Moley Christmas as a cover tape late 87 and played it loads. I remember the early cover tapes weren’t exactly free as the cover price increased from £1 to £1.50 when a tape was included.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Yeah, never actually free... never mind the premium rate number you had to call to play some of the games too!!!!
@leighbennett196111 ай бұрын
Moley Xmas and Play For Your Life were my first covertapes when I got my brand spanking new +2 xmas 87.
@nelsonhibbert52678 ай бұрын
Damn yeah, Moley Christmas.... Where Monty climbed up lengths of unspooled cassette tape.
@johnbishop918811 ай бұрын
I used to love the freebies, they probably made up the bulk of my collection back in the day. Well done for playing them all, your service to mankind is noted. I haven't owned a Speccy for about 30 years now, and haven't even played the emulator for a long while, but have a real urge now. Top video cheers!
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Cheers John, you should. So many games are just as playable and fun today (some are most definitely not though 😄)
@garyhart642111 ай бұрын
I remember a game called "Survivors aka The Survivors" --- which was on Crash issue 78: July 1990. 3 robots with differing abilities dig, move rock + teleport survivors = Loved it. Originally published by Atlantis Software (1986) for £2.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Nice! I'll have to check that out.
@l3eatalphal3eatalpha8 ай бұрын
Atlantis had some good games. Shame they went under.
@dennyhaynes311 ай бұрын
Another great idea for a video mate, so fresh as i don't know what to expect whats coming up. The pick for me is the clone of the Defender game, another to add to my collection when i release that particular video. Top stuff mate, you've done it again 👍
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Cheers Denny, yeah good choice, great little game!
@linalmeemow11 ай бұрын
International Cricket. Came with YS I think, played it for months and kept coming back. Best cricket game on the Spectrum by miles.
@jasejj11 ай бұрын
Think that was a rerelease of an old Argus Press game wasn't it?
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Yeah Jason's right, it was basically a re release so doesn't count. I did play it though and I have to agree it's a pretty good cricket game. Quite a lot to master but pretty decent. Cheers
@linalmeemow11 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT Oh really, I didn't realise it had a proper release!
@linalmeemow11 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT Looking around online it appears it got a full release AFTER it appeared on the cover tape!
@daveash957211 ай бұрын
I distinctly remember a few cover tape gems from Your Sinclair. One was one of the Dizzy games which was enormous fun and a brilliant game. Another was a Dan Dare game which was absolutely brilliant and spectacularly tricky. I remember getting a Trainspotter award from Your Sinclair, after I noticed a mistake on a cover where a guy was brandishing a curved sword, but had a straight scabbard for it.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Haha Love it!!! The only Dizzy exclusive was 3.5 which was really short but I think they gave away some of the full price ones too which were not exclusive. Same with Dan Dare I think.
@daveash957211 ай бұрын
Correct on both counts. The Dizzy game was a full game, and you are quite right, it was previously released. The Dan Dare was either a playable couple of levels of a full price game, or possibly the full game, published a few months after it had been released as full price. I am now going to see if i can still find my trainspotter award!
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Would love to see it!!
@blatherskite300911 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT I was the designer on Dizzy 4 and I only found out "3.5" existed many years later. Codemasters never told me about it, and I had nothing to do with it 😄 Maybe they felt obliged to explain why Dizzy was in another world and how he got there? (shrug)
@GeordieGames3 ай бұрын
Ano Gaia!!!! I have been trying to remember this for years! Loved it when I was young. Thanks!
@SebsPlaceYT3 ай бұрын
My pleasure!
@gravious11 ай бұрын
loved Ethnipod :) I would have thought Bear-a-Grudge or EarthShaker would have been on here? or am i wrong about them being covertape only?
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Ethnipod is pretty cool 😎. Bear a grudge was the space harrier one which was too frenetic. I didn't enjoy it. Earth Shaker was one of the gazillion boulder dash clones I had to play lol. It was one of the better ones though. I just checked my list and it came 28th in my chart overall, so not too shabby. Good shout. Cheers.
@CortinasAndClassics11 ай бұрын
Ethnipod was awesome, And Earthshaker
@dav1dbone11 ай бұрын
I remember a magazine tape with Bubble Bobble supposed to be first few levels but for some reason I was able to play on up to 80 odd until it crashed, putting in the pokes from crash tipshop might have affected it?
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Whoa that's crazy!!!
@dav1dbone11 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT pretty cool, I was curious if the pokes would work as I'd had issues before if the game was not original i.e. a rerelease on budget label or compilation they refused to work. I'm thinking the level skip poke might have inadvertently caused it to happen, if you held symbol shift to skip a level, obviously if the full game was still there and they were lazy and just wrote a routine to loop after x level, seems plausible. Recompiling the game with just a few levels would have involved too much work and testing etc.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
That's brilliant and makes sense I guess. Thanks for sharing, love that.
@dav1dbone11 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT I'm guessing it would be fairly easy to download that version from Ys or crash demo tape archives and give it go, if you're interested? Would also make for interesting viewing, possible video 😁
@dav1dbone11 ай бұрын
There's definitely more to this, apparently it was released on the cover tape of Ace magazine issue 2, they accidentally sent the full game out, it was discovered the night before distribution, however plenty still got shipped. I downloaded the tape although the strange thing is that it contains the actual demo (5 levels) they initially intended, nevertheless I am keen to try the pokes to see if it will skip past level 5.
@andrewfishpool8911 ай бұрын
Wow, I had forgotten about Hyper Active. That was great fun. My personal favourites though were Egghead and Rockfall.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
I enjoyed egghead and its sequel. Good shouts
@kins74911 ай бұрын
My first thought was Batty, I couldn't believe that was a cover game. If it hadn't been released on a compilation.
@MonkeyJug11 ай бұрын
I saw the video title and immediately thought of Batty.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Yeah I had to mention Batty as it's the classic cover game everyone knows. Bloody good game.
@drvonpinken11 ай бұрын
one of my favourites was A Whole New Ball Game, think it was with Crash, also not sure if it was ever sold. I played this game alot.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
That finished 19th in my list. Very clever little game having to deflect the ball around. I spent ages on it. It's a good shout I can see why you enjoyed it. Cheers
@Sionnachsalach11 ай бұрын
That remains one of my favourite games. Pete Cooke was a genius. I also loved his Tower of Babel on the Amiga.
@markwrightrf11 ай бұрын
Haven’t watched this yet but the obvious answer is Batty :-) Edit: Having now watched this well-researched humorous vid, I can well remember all of the Speccy mags bending off the shelves with their two or three tapes attached, but Ij’d been reaching for the likes of Amiga Format or CU Amiga for many years by this point. Dennis Publishing copied Smash Hits who had long been giving away freebies with its relaunch of Your Sinclair, EMAP’s C&VG and Sinclair User quickly followed, with Newsfield playing catch-up. Sad times for those of us who enjoyed the editorial content of our favourite magazine basically becoming a pamphlet.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Haha! Nope! It is in the video though 😄
@mikeynma11 ай бұрын
I agree, easily a full price game given away...still play it today
@DavidB-rx3km11 ай бұрын
I remember the front page of the magazine actually sagging off the shelves like magma down the side of a mountain under the weight of the stuff stuck to the front!
@markhillier42565 ай бұрын
Played a lot of the demos and full games back in the day. I'm sure Rebelstar 2 was one of them,which was a great free magazine game. Thanks for the great memories.
@SebsPlaceYT5 ай бұрын
No problem 😊
@arostwocents11 ай бұрын
Star Burst with masking on sprites and bullets to make everything stand out would have made that an incredible shmup it looks like.
@arostwocents11 ай бұрын
Masking was underused so much, some of the modern Russian Speccy games are ten times better than anything classic. Zosya games have so many utterly stunning titles. I think the racing game with 1920s cars and combat is my favourite. Really, really fun gameplay.
@arostwocents11 ай бұрын
Zosya show in some of their games how masking eliminates clash entirely. When you play their stuff you realise what a shame all the monotone games were. 😢
@excitedpixelsmedia11 ай бұрын
I quite like the space harrier clone that appeared on one of the mags with a bear. Hover bovver or was that released as a commercial game too like batty ?
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Yeah thst was an exclusive, I just didn't like it 😕 it was too busy, couldn't see what was going on. Looked great though
@excitedpixelsmedia11 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT maybe it helps to be vitally impaired lol. :) great video. I'm sure if they didn't publish batty that would be up there.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Ha - 100%
@Tetlee3 ай бұрын
Only jusy discovered this video. Really like the stipulations you included to rule out the obvious winners making this q far more interesting list. At least a couple there I've never experienced that I'll have to look up, and a great vid all round. Nice work👍
@SebsPlaceYT3 ай бұрын
Thank you Tetlee, very kind.
@RetroGod198211 ай бұрын
Andy Remic sadly passed away. He produced the Memoirs of a Spectrum Addict series of documentaries
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Yeah I have since found this out. Will probably do something to honour him. So sad
@mercuryvapoury9 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT Joffa Smifff is also no longer with us, he died in 2010.
@johndd914011 ай бұрын
Great vid - I remember the tapes stuck to the ever increasing thinning mags, but I don't remember playing any of these games!
@stevezm1005 ай бұрын
did you ever play one about gods or mythologys like a board game? I remember one that I loved and it was a cover tape, likley your sinclair as that was my mag tipple back in the day. cant remember that games name, I think it was made a by a married couple and the story was they couldnt get a publishing deal or summat.
@SebsPlaceYT5 ай бұрын
Yeah! Kinda strategy game where you took turns. I did try it but it was really hard to get into. The husband and wife spent years working on it and never got it published. Just had a look through my spreadsheet for this video and can't find it 😕
@stevezm1005 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT found it! its called Gods AKA Olympus!
@stevezm1005 ай бұрын
I remember it being hard but once you get into it really good
@SebsPlaceYT5 ай бұрын
Thanks for finding it, was doing my head in 😆
@PooperScooperTrooper8 ай бұрын
That last game looks awesome! Thanks for introducing it to me :-)
@SebsPlaceYT8 ай бұрын
No problem 👍
@TheSudsy11 ай бұрын
The best giveaway game i had was Pud Pud. had to record on video from tv, take audio from VHS to tape and load it up. It worked and I thought it was good. It may have been a full version release though later.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
That's so cool it worked! I remember tapes being so temperamental, so nice one getting that working!
@delboy3k111 ай бұрын
Cracking video. Great start to the new-year. Not sure if there was a xmas monty mole but I seem to remember 1 lol excelsior sir
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Yeah it makes a small cameo in the intro if you missed it 😊 it was horrible, which was sad as I liked the Monty games. Cheers mate!
@simontoseland415211 ай бұрын
Have you played Breakpoint which was a conversion of the snooker quiz game, ‘Give us a break’ which was on a Crash tape? Like the look of Soccer cup quizmaster just brought that from ebay...👍
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
I haven't but I just looked it up. Looks like a lot of fun. Enjoy Soccer, it is pretty addictive. Tough to score though, especially with my general knowledge!
@mrbgb69466 ай бұрын
Bear a grudge was awesome, and the best for me was sinclaire users cricket! I loved that game but cannot remember its actual title!!
@TheTurnipKing11 ай бұрын
Advanced Lawnmower Sim 4tw Honourable mention to Venturama, tho
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
I actually played it for the first time doing this. I'm gonna do a video on it I think. An April fools joke that went on for over a year 😄
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Venturama was decent actually. Think it came in my top 20
@TheTurnipKing11 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT arguably still to this day
@johnabbitt69011 ай бұрын
Ahh, those days when things were coming to an end and the magazines got thinner and the tapes were crammed with more and more games. In term's of original games, I always remember three. One was a puzzle game where you must rotate mirrors to shine a laser beam around a room to pop all the yellow dots. I have a feeling that was a game originally sold in the shops, though. Another was a platform shooter called BlobTheCop. Lastly, I can't remember the name, but you were a postman walking down the street, but you had to fight off enemies. You could jump into your post van that followed, and it had a gun turret that would pop up from the roof and shoot people. Can't remember the name for that one.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
A whole new ball game was the one with the mirrors I think. It's pretty decent and I rated it in my top 20. Blobocop was troublesome for me, I couldn't get it working but it looked pretty cool. I'll try and find the postman one.... leave that with me 😁
@johnabbitt69011 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT I got bored and started searching, and then the name hit me, Mailstrom. I found a video, and it's a 1986 game by Ocean, so it must have been a 90s cover tape re-issue.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Just watched some gameplay on it. Looks right up my street. I've never heard of it. Cheers for the recommendation. I'll give you a shout out if I ever do something on it 😁
@mercuryvapoury9 ай бұрын
I was today years old when I discovered there was a "Pixy the Microdot 2". I remember my dad typing it in, and it being really fun, if incomprehensibly tricky to play. As for games featured on covertapes that never got a commercial release, there was "Play For Your Life", which was a tennis style game where you had to hit your enemy with the ball. that featured on a YS covertape, and also "Road Race".... one of, if not the first full game to be put on a YS covertape.
@SebsPlaceYT9 ай бұрын
Haha love it. Pixy 2 is great. I did play both Play For Your Life and Road Race. I thought Play for your life looked great but was horrible to control. Road race was just horrible full stop 😁 cheers!
@geezerdiamond11 ай бұрын
Thanks to the algorithm dropping this on me, you now have a new sub! Great video and great memories. For my money, I would have put Earthshaker high up the list 👍
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Thank you, very kind! Have had a lot of love for Earthshaker. It was defo the best boulderdash game I played researching these games but maybe by that point I was boulder dashed out. It seemed everyone sent in a boulder dash game to the magazines at one point. Even someone in the comments admitted they did! :-)
@tonyduffy744111 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT My mate at Uni sent his game in to Your Sinclair and was miffed, to say the least, when it was featured in "Crap Game Corner' one issue. I think he sent a sternish letter in response and lo- Earthshaker ended up on the cover tape soon after. So cool that people have a love of it after all these years. Mike'd be stoked :) On the back of that he was given a summer holiday job to fix up some mess of a game called Tai Chi Tortoise (I saw the alpha - it was beyond sh*t). Later going to store and seeing a physical copy of his game on a shelf, surreal.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Great story Tony, love little stories like this, brings it all to life. Thanks for sharing
@michaelmogan55635 ай бұрын
@@tonyduffy7441 Earth shaker was stunning!!
@frankowalker46629 ай бұрын
My favorite exclusive cover-tape game is PEKING (Your Sinclair, Jan.92). It's a solitaire Mah-Jong game. I play it a lot when I just want to relax.
@SebsPlaceYT9 ай бұрын
Good shout!
@onlineamiga11 ай бұрын
Good video! and I was an avid magazine collector back then, so was surprised i didn't recognise the vast majority of these games. Maybe I had moved onto the Amiga when they were coming out if it was after 1992 and was getting Amiga magazines now. I do remember Seymor goes to hollywood and loved the fact you could reply the movie you made. The computer playing back something you did was really novel back then and I would try and make crazy movies even i you did only get a few seconds.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
I was the same. So many I hadn't played because I had moved on. Cheers for the comment
@VampireJack102 ай бұрын
The microdot game looks intriguing,,,, Gonna see if I can find a copy somewhere.....
@SebsPlaceYT2 ай бұрын
Spectrumcomputing.co.uk 👍
@LockPickingCuber8 ай бұрын
Wow! So much nostalgia! My favourite was a game whose title I can no longer remember, but I think it was something like "Mutants" and I vaguely remember the art-work for it featuring green mutanty monsters. It was a platform game... I'd love to know if anyone remembers it...
@SebsPlaceYT8 ай бұрын
Hmmmm I'll have a think 🤔
@LockPickingCuber8 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYTthank you! I think it was on Your Sinclair probably around 1988 or 1989, but I might be wrong...
@trevorrobinson761410 ай бұрын
Well the best magazine that had a cover tape that i bought was a crash magazine tape with dizzy and moon cresta on for the spectrum
@SebsPlaceYT10 ай бұрын
They had some great games on those tapes
@BigCar211 ай бұрын
Batty is a great game. I think the best Pong clone for the Speccy.
@ChampieRTH22 күн бұрын
Gutted to miss out getting in the top 3, but given the quality of games here I'm pleased with 4th place.
@SebsPlaceYT22 күн бұрын
Haha! Love it! Thanks for watching! Lovely little game that was. Yes Prime Minister was pretty good too if I recall 😁
@stuleyland94909 ай бұрын
I'd like to give a mention to Dustin which came free with Your Sinclair issue 34. Had a lot of fun with that game.
@SebsPlaceYT9 ай бұрын
Blimey that game looks familiar. Was released commercially in Spain by the looks of it but I'm sure I played and loved this. Thanks for the comment, I'm gonna look into it.
@stuartdavidson16211 ай бұрын
Batty was a Your Sinclair game - On my £3.00 a week paper round money I was a real treat gatting this. My cousins used to get Sinclair user my best mate used to get Crash with his brother as he had a Speccy and his brother a C64 - we used to read each other's mags :)
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Love it!
@davefennessy825011 ай бұрын
My favourite was Peking on the front of Your Sinclair. It was a monochrome simplified version of MahJong and extremely addictive. If you got a good layout you could clear the piles of tiles within 5 minutes. The cursor/arrow would drag infuriatingly slowly across the screen but that was the only real gripe.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Yeah I enjoyed that one. It confused me a little as to what tiles around the edges I could or couldn't match but is a fun little game.
@kevinchester053311 ай бұрын
Great choice for Number 1, loved playing that
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Brilliant little game
@Asobitech11 ай бұрын
Great list of games. Cover tapes were the best way to get new games with your pocket money. I remember very much enjoying Blind Panic, Bear a Grudge, and Zar Jas from the cover tapes, that didn't make your top 10.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
There has been a lot of love for Bear a Grudge so you are not alone :-) Cheers for the comment.
@davidpowell99658 ай бұрын
Marsport got on SU and YS and I am obsessed with that game. Yet I couldn't make any sense of the other two Gargoyle games in the series
@SebsPlaceYT8 ай бұрын
Marsport is a great game 👍
@oddball7211 ай бұрын
Batty! I'd completely forgotten about that. Must have spent hours playing Batty(Arkanoid)
@mamehaze11 ай бұрын
I think my favourites have to be A Whole New Ball Game (done by Pete Cooke, who also did Brainstorm etc.) and Earth Shaker (Boulderdash clone) Not in small part because both came with level editors, and any game with a level editor I would spend hours on. People from Sirius always seemed like an interesting one too, even if I never knew what I was doing on that one, loved the animation. Technically that DID get released commercially in Spain, in Spanish but the English language version was covertape only.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Hi - A Whole New Ball Game ended just outside the top 10 here, great little game. Earth Shaker was a good Boulderdash clone but I must of played a gazillion of them when going through these games and was getting "boulderdashed" out.... I also did play People from Sirius, great looking game but not a great experience to play sadly. Cheers Mamehaze!
@tubbiele211 ай бұрын
My faves were Brat Attack and Blind Panic because of the atmosphere, and Vatman because it had some Cobra vibes, good humour. Cheers
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Thank you 😊 Some good shouts there! Brat Attack is a good shout just for the bonkers premise alone! That game did make me smile 😃
@chloemarietaylor403611 ай бұрын
My favourite since Batty is excluded was a rogue-like rpg game called Portals of P'thaal. Simple basic written game but addictive. Was on a Sinclair User tape, pretty sure it was never released elsewhere.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Good shout. Adventure games were hard to review properly as you really need to invest a lot of time understanding what is going on. Definitely an exclusive though 👌
@goosenman211 ай бұрын
When I saw Hyperactive at 2, I had to wonder what was at 1. Hyperactive was the first thing I thought of when I saw the title of the video. It was great fun, and it was on a cover tape! What's funny is that I recently got a RG36S and along with the Ultimate games and some of Steve Crow's work, Hyperactive was one of the first games I added.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Great little devices eh! Perfect for games like Hyper Active. Pixy the Microdot, not so much :-)
@Synthematix11 ай бұрын
Zorgons revenge on the oric-1, raid over moscow, Wizball and Beach head II on the c64 were my favourites, the only game i liked on the speccy was I-Ball Thrust on the atari 65xe was a great game too. along with 180 darts
@merlin547611 ай бұрын
Cadaver. It was a released game but they also did a cover version special too.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Was it called something else? I can't find that one anywhere.
@merlin547611 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT cadaver was an isometric style game that had a sequel called Cadaver the pay off, the company ( i think may be called Renegade if my memory serves me right) done a level just for a magazine cover which may have been Crash magazine, its been a long while now so memory is fading 👍
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
I'm still struggling to find it but I'm not giving up!
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Is this it? : www.mobygames.com/game/1980/cadaver/ Looks like it was Amiga \ ST, never on the Speccy.
@merlin547611 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT oh dear !!!! Sorry. I did say it was a long time ago. You're correct. Its an Atari game not a speccy. I feel a bit foolish. I've been through a lot in the last 40 odd yrs. 👍
@markmmm173715 күн бұрын
I remember a game called "Bear a grudge". I will look at it again because i remember it being awesome for a freebie on a magazine, it may today be absolute junk.
@SebsPlaceYT15 күн бұрын
Good luck!
@WhatHoSnorkers11 ай бұрын
Great video, and a lovely selection of games!
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Cheers mate
@jasejj11 ай бұрын
Nice selection, I remember a fair few if these. No Riptoff was a surprise though!
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Hi Jason.... don't get me started on boulder dash clones... flippin eck, everyone was writing one and sending them in to magazines., I must of played 20 lol. Riptoff was one of the better ones if I look back at my notes but I found it too sensitive to control. Cheers for the comment mate
@jasejj11 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT LOL... even I wrote one and sent it in to Crash in 1992... they even seemed interested as I got a reply asking for improvements but Newsfield went bust shortly afterwards and Europress didn't seem interested in reader games at all. I have it on tape somewhere, I really should upload the thing!
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Haha brilliant! Let me know if you do, I would love to play it!
@rickoneill994811 ай бұрын
To be fair, if there was going to be one Boulderdash type game on there, I reckon it would have had to be Earth Shaker. It's just so well put together in all respects and just oozes class. Though I am rubbish at it, like.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Yeah Earth Shaker is definitely the best one. 👌
@Filharvey11 ай бұрын
Pixy 2 is a very interesting game, for some reason I missed that one in the day.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Me too.
@ivanski2811 ай бұрын
Ahh wow i forgot about Shuriken. I always noticed they stole the mushrooms from Stormlord. Great video. Surely Earthshaker should be here?
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Oh did they? Interesting. Earth Shaker was definitely the best of a gazillion boulder dash clones I had to play 😁
@CortinasAndClassics11 ай бұрын
For me Earthshaker was the best game I ever played on my Speccy 48K. Amazingly it was ported to the Xbox 360 & I downloaded it.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Ha! How cool 😎 Earth Shaker was the best of the many boulder dash clones for sure
@leecollins547911 ай бұрын
i love retro gaming on my anbernic rg353p some classic spectrum games have been put on there
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Yeah best Christmas present I got!!!
@TheKevolution11 ай бұрын
Some solid memories there, but for me Hyper Active took the crown.
@LurkingCrassZero10 ай бұрын
My fave cover disk game was Sinclair Users, Bear a Grudge.
@SebsPlaceYT10 ай бұрын
The space harrier type one? I really liked it but found it a bit frantic. Definitely one of the better ones though!
@DigitalBreaks11 ай бұрын
I had a few of these back in the day. My favourite from this list would have to be Hyper Active Some of my favourite cover tape exclusives would be Earth Shaker, Brat Attack and People From Sirius. I remember putting a fair amount of time into those
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Some good shouts there. Earth Shaker was the best of the gazillion boulder dash games I had to play making this video 😄 People from Sirius was also pretty good, just really sluggish. As for Brat Attack, I nearly put that in the video just for the bonkers story line about all the editorial staff being turned into babies apart from Pam or whatever her name was who was stuck in the loo 🤣 game is bonkers!
@DavidB-rx3km11 ай бұрын
Does anyone remember the "Son Of A Crap Games" section in one of the Spectrum magazines? It review games sent in by readers and was very funny.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Yeah 😁 occasionally the games were actually pretty good and ended up on cover tapes. I played quite a few of those doing this video 😁
@twankistevenson388411 ай бұрын
My two personal faves were Dustin from YS and Star Raiders 2 (which I think was an SU cover tape) far from the best ever stuck to the front page but the two I remember most fondly
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
You could get some right crackers on those cover tapes. I've not played Dustin. Looks like originally a Spanish title, might have to check it out. Cheers.
@tubbiele211 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYTDustin was a commercial title in Spain, it was made by Dinamic
@veritanuda11 ай бұрын
Thanks for this. But wasn't Sophistry by CRL also a cover game? I seem to remember it was, though I'll be dammed if I can remember what was on the reverse. Either way, it is one of the best free games I remember playing, as it has unique game play and mechanics that make it so damn addictive. I loved the opening montage of Speccy mags covers, and it made me smile to think I remember them all. Cheers Seb!
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Cheers for the comment. Sophistry was a cover tape but wasn't a magazine exclusive as it went on general sale prior to being a cover game, so wouldn't count in this list. I've not played it, though, and it does look interesting, so cheers for the shout. I also checked what was on the other side of sophistry for you. It was a demo of The Real Ghostbusters 😊
@veritanuda11 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT Ahh Cheers, now that does ring a bell, thanks. Honestly, you should play Sophistry as it is strangely compelling with all the different types of rooms and challenges you have and the dismay when you are in a tricky room and a seeker comes for you. I never completed the game, but I really feel I should make a concerted effort to.
@zubazub668 ай бұрын
I seem to remember playing the hell out of, and enjoying, an F1 racing game that was given away free. I cant remember what it was called though 🤔
@zubazub668 ай бұрын
After a minute or two of googling I think it could be Road Race from YS. It certainly doesn't look as exciting as I remember 😅
@SebsPlaceYT8 ай бұрын
This one? spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/4160/ZX-Spectrum/Road_Race
@zubazub668 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT That's the one 👍
@MatthewLenton11 ай бұрын
I can imagine the mild uproar when someone saw it said Notts Forest
@Kels1701e11 ай бұрын
Batty was by far and away the best game ever given away on a cover tape.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Not exclusive though. I always thought it was, but it went on sale as part of a hit pak.
@Kels1701e11 ай бұрын
@SebsPlaceYT yes I had forgot about that.
@andrewz471811 ай бұрын
Only remember playing Hyperactive of all of these. Best cover tape game for me was Deviants which had been released as a budget title so couldn't make this list but it was the only game I invested serious time in.
@moardargons816011 ай бұрын
Deviants was great! I made a map of it back in the day. I also remember hacking it to extract the level codes.
@andrewz471811 ай бұрын
@@moardargons8160. Also made a map. Went one further and made a whole remake in early 2000's
@FilipeSousa1976Porto11 ай бұрын
I have back in the day 1986 micro computer manufactured in Portugal called Timex computer 2048 a clone of zx spectrum but a lot of games dont loaded because compability....my parents buy me many games but 50 percent not loaded....but i have many memories of a many games i played back in the day like Robocop....Commando...Chuck egg....Spy Hunter....who dare wins...Exolon....Out-Run...Renegade...Target Renegade....sabouteur 2...Head Ove Wheels....The Great Escape...many have a good cover tape....but almost played copies...many software houses make copies from original games...i have buy a lots of games in this way....
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Nice 🥰 good memories
@Mindrax11 ай бұрын
Andrey J. Remic also known as Andy died of cancer 2022. His latest project 8-Bit Wars fell in limbo and his wife Linda doesn't know what to do with it. So sad :( 8-Bit Wars was almost finished sadly. Maybe someone can help his wife Linda to complete and release it. Andrey J. Remic (1971-2022) Rest in peace.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Yes, I discovered this after someone else in the comments was wondering if it was the same chap. Very sad. He did an interview with Kim Justice, where he talks about the worst game he ever played. I was thinking of doing a video on the game as a mini tribute od to him. I played ALOT of his games, making this video 🙂 rip Andy.
@kickstart_1.311 ай бұрын
12:45 'Code'? The fourth letter is E, there's a river E in Scotland and E is the most commonly used letter in the English language, helpful when deciphering codes eg. Morse code. Edit: Nevermind
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
😆
@Banderpop11 ай бұрын
For me it was Bear a Grudge, but then I was a Space Harrier fan (still am) and was able to play quite far into it. I don't recall how many stages there were but I think it looped after about ten. Superb visuals and music, beating most full price commercial releases including many Sega arcade game ports, but it would have benefitted a lot from some time spent on gameplay tweaks before release. Moley Christmas was my first ever ZX Spectrum game that I bought. I wasn't any good at that one though. Seymour Take One was amazing, it was just a shame that Seymour Goes to Hollywood, which it was promoting, wasn't quite as inventive! And then the other Seymour games in turn weren't as good as Goes to Hollywood.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Great comment, thanks. I thought Bear a Grudge looked fantastic, but I just couldn't get to grips with the gameplay. Just kept dying... I might try again. Moley Christmas was a big disappointment 😞
@LordmonkeyTRM10 ай бұрын
Pixy the Microdot probably has the record for smallest player sprite in a video game. Well unofficially at least.
@SebsPlaceYT10 ай бұрын
😁😁 true!
@drawfull5 ай бұрын
Before watching, the best ever was that Breakout clone that I don't remember the name of - it had a yellow background. Shrug.
@drawfull5 ай бұрын
Yay Batty! sadface
@drawfull5 ай бұрын
Oh and the codemasters ant game was pretty cool
@davidpowell99658 ай бұрын
I liked Bumpy, single-screen puzzle platformer. Though I mostly played it with the 99 lives cheat
@SebsPlaceYT8 ай бұрын
Not heard of that one, will take a look. Cheers.
@nickbungus11 ай бұрын
Another great video Seb. Great way to spend your Christmas. I built a Bluetooth dongle for my Amiga and C64 so I can use the kids Xbox controllers.😂. How about doing the same premise of cover tape games but for the C64 and Amstrad in future videos?
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Haha cheers Nick, I think your Christmas project was more fun than mine 😄 I will defo do some C64 and Amstrad stuff. I'm actually on the look out for a cheap 464 on ebay but not having much luck 😩
@Chriscuit2 ай бұрын
Andy Remic...legend!
@bentp48912 ай бұрын
Surely the best cover game ever was the YS Advanced lawn mower simulator.
@SebsPlaceYT2 ай бұрын
Nope. I found a copy in a garden centre so it doesn't count 😁 kzbin.info/www/bejne/gpy8eqp7fbyIY68
@newsbender11 ай бұрын
8:36 They pinched the sound effects from the excellent Roller Coaster with this one!
@stewsretroreviews11 ай бұрын
Loved this mate, I remember Star Burst and Hyper Active, both brilliant freebies back in the day 😀 👍 Always loved Batty of course too. Great content, liked and subscribed dude 👌
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Thanks Stew, appreciate it!
@1977bonesaw11 ай бұрын
Good selection especially batty and unbelievably free which I always choose of arknoid. Another particular favourite of mine which also came with your Sinclair was a game called Dustin, (escaping a prison)I still to this day load it up on mame just for the nostalgic hit.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Cheers - I've had Dustin come up a few times. It was released commercially so didn't make this this list but I'm intrigued. Cheers
@stevemchugh30125 ай бұрын
i have an idea for you, top 10 homebrew games given away on a cover tape, i will start you off zanthrax was a great homebrew shoot em up
@SebsPlaceYT5 ай бұрын
Oooh will take a look, cheers
@nelsonhibbert52678 ай бұрын
People from Sirius. It was a work of genius if you ask me. But then I caught my chopper in a drawer once.
@SebsPlaceYT8 ай бұрын
🤣🤣🤣 brilliant
@stunthumb11 ай бұрын
Armalyte was good, but for me the absolute best covertape game has to be Batty, that was such a surprise that game, we loved it more than anything we spent money on.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Hi - Armalyte interestingly, was never released so could potentially have made this list but was put on a cover tape as a demo and not a full game so doesn't count. Batty is flippin awesome but was sold as part of a pack of games before becoming a cover game, so doesn't count either as an exclusive.
@stunthumb11 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT My bad, wasn't Armalyte, was thinking of Amaurote, a weird but good isometric game with spiders.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Ah ok, another released commercially game so didn't count on this list but weirdly RoseTintedSpectrum just did a video on that very game and it's a flippin great video : kzbin.info/www/bejne/jIGWpZuPlqZjnKM
@stunthumb11 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT Yeah - damn I had no idea how to play that game as a kid, great video though. There seems to be a lot of new speccy videos right now.
@gitara2D7 ай бұрын
I only played Batty. One of the best speccy games.
@CasperUK3111 ай бұрын
13:00 DECODE? 4th letter and a river D (Dee) morses words, code, unravelled, decode?
@CasperUK3111 ай бұрын
Yeah instead of pausing and working it out, maybe I should have carried on listening for 20 seconds :)
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
haha - hats off to you for working it out though!
@stuartdavidson16211 ай бұрын
"Inspired by Exolon" :D
@EdWalker11 ай бұрын
Batty, next?
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Nope! Was sold as part of a HitPak collection (subsidiary of Elite systems). Even got reviews in the magazines. Great game though.
@EdWalker11 ай бұрын
It started as a cover tape game though. It was only released because everyone said it was so good.
@toastedfallenstar5849 ай бұрын
Moley Christmas, followed by Batty.
@SebsPlaceYT9 ай бұрын
Batty was great but was also commercially sold 🫣
@toastedfallenstar5849 ай бұрын
Yeah saw that in the video, don't remember it though @@SebsPlaceYT
@nightbeast810511 ай бұрын
Best cover game ever was probably Batty the Arkanoid clone. nobody expected that kind of quality on a magazine tape at the time. i think was released on budget a while after the cover tape release. (sorry writing this while watching lol) yeah it was a Your Sinclair cover tape. Movie was another good one.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Yeah it's a great game. Cheers for commenting (whilst watching 😁)
@hanniballecter492411 ай бұрын
I loved my Speccy lol
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Me too 😁
@retrorobbins11 ай бұрын
Very pleasing and great entertaining video their Seb , and I wonder if that Andy remic is our very own light Andy remic who did confessions of a Spectrum owner video and the 8-bit Wars ? As I knew heated a bit of programming himself in the early days ,Hi I Am the new cover tape 4 Crash or fusion retro books , and have recently released four tapes with more newer games on if you've got crash on mail order you will see my name on the front page Wayne Robbins , with a barmy but intends to be fun KZbin channel RETRO ROBBINS, love your videos perhaps we should do a small video together maybe fun if you are interested .. great stuff mate
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Wow impressive mate! I'll take a look! Cheers!
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Gonna search Andy up now lol 😆
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Looks like it was the same chap. Watched a bunch of stuff. Looked like a lovely fella who sadly passed away last year. How sad 😔
@chrishowarth662311 ай бұрын
Ript off was always a decent freebie
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Yeah was one of the gazillion Boulder Dash clones I had to play. Not a bad one though.
@chrishowarth662311 ай бұрын
@@SebsPlaceYT can you remember typing the basic games from some of the early mags - spent a couple of hours copying them out verbatim only to get a error when trying to run it. Safe to say that put me off of trying to learn basic and machine code
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Ha yeah - I've been there! So frustrating. Also, when you did get them working, they were ultimately shit 😄
@Cycl0id11 ай бұрын
No Chaos.... shocking!
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Only Chaos game I had in my list was Cosmic Chaos, which was a pretty terrible shoot-em-up. Be interested to know more about the game you are referring too in case I missed it?
@Cycl0id11 ай бұрын
Chaos: The Battle of the Wizards by Julian Gollop. Came free with Your Sinclair, I believe. @@SebsPlaceYT
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Ah yes. I've never played it but I have heard good things about it before. It was commercially released before being on a cover tape so doesn't count in this list as these are just games that were exclusive to the magazines. But thanks for the recommendation, I'll add it to games I should check out.
@Cycl0id11 ай бұрын
Ok fair enough! @@SebsPlaceYT
@davidretrogamesplayedbadly353311 ай бұрын
I thought I had played most of the covertapes over the years but was surprised to find I remember hardly any of these. I recall enjoying the kamikaze bear game, do you recall the other one? Terrible rip off of space harrier 💩. Great video.
@SebsPlaceYT11 ай бұрын
Ha yeah! That was horrible. Could barely play for 10 seconds before dying each time. It was called Bear a grudge. Cheers for the comment