The Spectrum Show EP124

[@MarcKloos]

This show's been running longer than the lifespan of the all iterations of the Spectrum itself!

[@geoffneil5073]

That's a bit scary

[@andrewdunbar828]

But maybe not of all the clones! (-:

[@MarcKloos]

@@andrewdunbar828 Well, if you include the Spectrum Next KS2 ... 😉 (I do have many clones though, link to my website is in my KZbin About page)

[@stancooper5436]

Great observation, Marc! 👍

[@hucky29]

How longs that?

[@sladger]

I actually get nostalgic about The Spectrum Show itself now. Thanks for another good episode, I'll miss this when it's all over, have a merry Christmas!

[@geoffneil5073]

I know what you mean

[@iballa2]

Is it ending?!?

[@thingsthathappen4113]

Great episode, watching whilst stuffing the festive bird at 8am Xmas morning!

[@Ravencrowwise]

When I first got my Spectrum, it was over Christmas in 1987. I spent most of the night trying to get a game to load. My sister even typed " I Want to play a game" on the +3 BASIC in frustration. It took my dad 2 days to come up with LOAD "" and then it was all downhill from there :P . BTW The first game loaded was Enduro Racer.

[@timmeekings6899]

39 years since I got my Spectrum for Christmas. Happy days they were. Wish I still had it, even after about 5 new keyboards - thanks to Daley Thompson!🤣

[@geoffneil5073]

The same amount of time as me and it was Joysticks I broke with Daley Thompson

[@timmeekings6899]

@@geoffneil5073 I borrowed a friend's joystick (Kempston I think) and couldn't get on with it. So the poor old rubber keyboard copped it! 👍👍

[@-Digital-Reality-]

Great episode! Love wallowing in Speccy nostalgia. Happy Christmas guys - and look forward to more in 2023!

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Somehow it feels like Xmas and Spectrums go together, I guess because a lot people got one as a present.

[@pauljohnson5319]

Merry Christmas and all the very best for 2023. 🎄

[@peterjones6357]

Merry Christmas Paul. Thanks for all your work on the Spectrum Show!

[@danielt.8573]

A Christmas special?? Nice! And you mentioned my other comment too. :) Back to my youth during those cold days playing the speccy my brother gifted me... gifted us. Thank you for this and Merry Christmas to all!

[@geoffneil5073]

Merry Christmas

[@10p6]

Nice. I was so disappointed when I got Airwolf back in the day that it did not have the theme music. Zxappy Specsmath everyone.

[@geoffneil5073]

I bought Airwolf with my Christmas money and played it for ageous but got stuck at one screen and never got further

[@rueben22]

Merry Christmas to both of you - thank you Paul and Geoff for keeping such an amazing show going through 2022, long may it continue. Have a great Christmas break and looking forward to what you'll show us in the New Year.

[@geoffneil5073]

Thanks Simon

[@VencabotArchive]

You're a hero for rewriting Summer Santa from the ground-up to improve it so vastly. I can only imagine how much the game must've maddened you for you to go through that trouble. The new graphics and soundtrack seem great, and the gameplay seems much more fluid!

[@damionyates4946]

+1 to rewrite an entire game because the original was so poor is really quite a feat!

[@skochin]

growing up in exUSSR with a spectrum clone, I couldn't figure out what "xmas" which I saw in many intros or cracks is or meant. But it made me curious. I owe that curiosity spectrum caused in my teens a lot.

[@ttroc1993]

What a treat! Thanks, Paul, just what I need on a pre-Xmas quiet evening. P.S. I think I'm going to play a round of Horace Goes Skiing now - as the prototype "snow game" for Spectrum ;-)

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Don't let Horace mess up Christmas 🤪

[@EnjoySynthSounds]

Alright! The days when game covers were more exciting than the gameplay. Still the speccy had a charm of its own. I had a 48k+with the foldable legs- a lovely unit. Kudos for getting this Xmas episode out and online for us retro enthusiasts. Happy New Year, Sir.

[@paulclay4293]

Looking forward to playing Summer Santa 2022. Great show as ever guys!! Merry ZXMAS 🙂

[@geoffneil5073]

Merry ZXmass to you too :)

[@frankowalker4662]

I loved the C5 at the end ! LOL. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you both.

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Thanks. Had to end with a smile 😀

[@Huddison]

Pre-empting for next year: Merry Christmas everyone! 🎅😉

[@TheRealTakumaji]

Great festive special, Paul, and thank you for Summer Santa 2022, looking forward to playing it on Boxing Day. I wish you a Merry Christmas and a speccytastic new year!

[@BAZFANSHOTHITSClassicTunes]

Another excellent episode Paul. Love the spectrum show, i hope it goes on forever. Merry christmas and a very happy new year.

[@gwishart]

Nick Phipps was on the British Olympic Team for the (then upcoming) 1988 Winter Olympics, and was scheduled to compete in both two and four-man bobsleigh events. He took part in the opening ceremony as flag-bearer, but for some reason didn't end up competing. This is probably why you couldn't find him in the list of Olympic bobsledders for that year.

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

👍

[@hazy33]

Late Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The Backpackers Guide To the Universe reminded me that games by Fantasy always featured Ziggy and you could sign up to a newsletter from Fantasy (basically just the programmer himself). It was very interesting until his last one saying due to financial difficulties the company would no longer be making games. To a teenage me this was heartbreaking. I'd like to think I still have a couple of the newsletters but I fear they've been lost in the midst of time. I hope the author had the success he should have got outside the games business.

[@stephenlamb90]

Hi Paul and Geoff, thank you both for all your work on The Spectrum Show, and great work on the Summer Santa remake - very enjoyable. Still a bit confused where the summer bit comes in, but still a great playable remake. Merry Christmas to you both and yours.

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Thanks. The whole game doesn't make sense!

[@geoffneil5073]

Merry Christmas and have a happy New Year

[@SomePeopleCallMeWulfman]

Thank you for another year with with many excellent episodes! Merry Christmas!

[@mancredgaming3920]

The white noise effect on bobsleigh sounds a lot like the crowd effect used on the EA NHL hockey games on the megadrive! 🤔

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

White noise on the Speccy is tricky to do.. but this one does a decent job.

[@Lennymcgra]

Merry Xmas guys, thanks for the inspiration to get back into the spectrum games.

[@PhlisWSRandVFDJandWriter]

Not one to usually comment but I thought I would this time. Merry Christmas Paul, thank you for such an amazing show. You bring back so many memories for me, yours is the one show here in KZbin I cannot wait for. Thank you dear sir, have a great Christmas and a good new year.

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Thanks. Have a good Xmas.

[@stevesgaming7475]

Awesome! Thanks for this festive xmas treat! it's superb and totally entertaining and amusing as usual. Happy Christmas Paul!

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Thanks. Have a good Xmas.

[@piero_75]

Superb effort on Summer Santa, both the playthrough and the rewrite! Merry Christmas

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Thank you.

[@TheEvilclown73]

I can remember pulling my brand new 48k+ out of the polystyrene as if it was yesterday.

[@geoffneil5073]

That's one thing I can't remember but I do remember playing the first two games I got for hours and hours

[@HWYH.]

I absolutely loved Poplar Computing Weekly especially Tony Bridges Adventure Corner.

[@andrewfishpool89]

I'm watching this on the 29th December while my wife catches up with Call the Midwife. 😂😂

[@pablorai769]

Merry Christmas ! From Wikipedia: Nick Phipps (sometimes shown as Nicholas Phipps, born 8 April 1952) is a British bobsledder who competed from 1980 to 1992. He finished third in the Bobsleigh World Cup combined men's event in 1985-86. Competing in two Winter Olympics, Phipps earned his best finish of 13th both in the two-man and four-man events at Albertville in 1992.

[@adw147]

Great show as always , and nice conversion of summer Santa , it’s been my Xmas game of 2022 !

[@redknight4805]

Thanks for fixing Summer Santa. For a long time I always thought the game should have been so much more. Now finally it is! Merry Christmas :)

[@stewsretroreviews]

Brilliant episode you 2, might try your new version of the Santa game, the original one with that beeping was doing my head in mate 😆 Happy Christmas and have a brilliant new year ✌️🎄 🎅 🍻 Thanks for sharing 👍🏻

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Cheers.

[@pogglefishii6807]

Merry Christmas! (By the way, on Freez Bees the fence around edge is electric, if you “push” on the fence you will stun any bee next to it; you can then just walk up to them and kill them. Took me a year to find that out back in the day.)

[@jarrodbentley903]

pssst cough Ski Sunday them tune cough not Grandstand or World of Sport shhhh

[@davidroberts1882]

Love it going back to episode 1 to watch them all, loved my old 48k back in the day x

[@HappyCodingZX]

If you took the terrible jump and pinball bounce out of Underwurlde and replaced it with intuitive controls that only punished you for your mistakes, you might actually have Ultimate's best game. Life's too short to put up with it in the way it was released.

[@geoffneil5073]

You are right, in fact it sounds like you want Underwurlde to be a bit like StarQuake then it would have been a brilliant game :)

[@MohammedARahim-wi3to]

Hi Mery Christmas Guys ... Mohammed a. Rahim... Manama Bahrain

[@gregoryoakman8639]

Happy Christmas and thanks for a great episode.

[@Hobes128]

9:20. the trick is to press down instead of just falling down. Doing so keeps the helicoptor level so you can still shoot in a straight line instead of shooting upwards ;-) (It must be ~30 years since i played that game. Why do i remember these things?)

[@geoffneil5073]

I've told Paul that several times but he still insists he can't get past that screen :)

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Bah... humbug..😃

[@Fuzzytubby]

Yes it was 1984 (I was 13 years old) when the Spectrum Plus came out because that was the one I got for Christmas! It was a tough thing to get off my parents: I was at secondary school and still using a borrowed ZX81 (That someone else had bought and lost interest in) with all my Spectrum owning mates making fun of me. That was the year I had been put in the "lower A" band, but my parents had decided I should really have been in the "Upper A" band and when the exams came (Around summer I think?) they said if I came first in the class in the exams I would be put into the upper A and if this happened they would buy me a Spectrum. Of course that seemed impossible and unfair, so I pretty much decided it was never going to happen and I would be stuck forever with the ZX81. Well guess what happened? ;-) Everyone was shocked (Mainly me!) when I came top of the class and got moved up! I suspect my father (Who would be paying for the machine) only agreed because he didn't think it would happen, my mother says that he still said No, but she also said she told him off saying that and sent him off to Dixons. So yeah, 1984 I got a Spectrum Plus for Christmas. My parents still think even now that computers are a waste of time. I only ever got one computer out of them and when I decided to buy a Plus 2 I paid for it out my own money which I earned doing weekend jobs. Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year to you both! I did meet you both at the Crash Live show (Geoff, it's me Simon who you had a smoke with outside) and it was a complete honour to do so.

[@geoffneil5073]

Simon that's now my favorite story about someone getting a Spectrum for Christmas. When we did the Clive Sinclair special I said it changed the course of the country but that was only one person at a time. Stories like this show why.

[@Fuzzytubby]

@@geoffneil5073 Oh yes I did also promise you I would have a look at your channel. I'm going to watch your Manic Miner playthrough first as you had us all amazed at the Crash live show with your attempt. My son won the pacman contest and I won the Hypersports one, the person handing out the prizes was wondering what was going on when we both showed up to collect our prizes. Ha ;-) Many thanks for liking the story, I still have the same Spectrum plus and it lives in front of my TV and still works flawlessly. I intend on playing the Summer Santa remake on it when it gets a bit quieter after Christmas.

[@geoffneil5073]

@@Fuzzytubby Great and thanks for the comment on Manic Miner.

[@LuciferStarr]

32:14 The "Don't complain if you can't do better yourself" argument is such nonsense. Just because someone lacks either the knowledge or resources to build a car, doesn't mean they shouldn't have the right to complain if they are stuck with a Trabant. Or someone who couldn't code an entire OS not being allowed to complain about WindowsME in 2001....

[@garyfairhead3186]

Thanks for the video, I really enjoyed it That remake of Summer Santa looked excellent, nice one. I wonder why the light blue enemies in the original game had a different colour blue Square around them than the background colour. Strange. I've always pronounced it Auto Mater rather than Auto Marter, am I wrong?

[@mrroobarb]

Merry Christmas Paul - looking forward to another year of fabulous content!

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

No pressure then😄

[@nelsonpaixaopinto8209]

Merry Christmas 🇵🇹

[@averagegilo]

That's amazing. Cannot believe you actually took that initiative to rewrite that game and make it a pleasure to play. I would say though that programming languages were not as sophisticated back then. Could you have done that by not using that new game development engine and using what CRL used?

[@itnaklipse1669]

Summer Santa seems like a really dreadful version of Dynamite Dan, but am gonna play your version of it!

[@stuartjennings6213]

Thanks Paul and Geoff for another great year of Spectrum Shows. Looking forward more in 2023 (please).

[@paulbacon5056]

Choked up a bit when I saw the comment from Andy Remic scroll up at the end. Thanks for the great video Paul.

[@jamestoney6108]

Your show is now part of my Xmas ritual great show

[@mikeyandwho]

Merry Xmas! What a fantastic show. KZbin wouldn't be the same without it

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Thank you. Merry Xmas

[@zxspectrum16KB]

Pengu clones i think you can stand next to the perimiter press fire and it should electrify any badies touching it maybe!

[@retrorobbins]

Merry Christmas Paul and the team ,great video . 🤩 Retro Robbins..

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Thanks. Have a good Xmas.

[@Dolphination]

I've just been playing Crimbo, my favourite Christmas game.

[@melthebell33]

LOl that summer santas so bad its good, i want a copy, GingerHippyGaming did a video on it before but didnt suss it as well as you have.

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

I did try to find a copy, but impossible to get 😒

[@davidhayward119]

I always wanted a Horace Goes Skiing Christmas jumper - the slalom bit. Anyway, have a good Christmas.

[@geoffneil5073]

Me too if you find one let me know

[@davidhayward119]

@@geoffneil5073 It'll probably need to be a custom job. Anyone out there run a Christmas jumper business?

[@richardvallender6282]

Sock? Wouldn't that be a Christmas Stocking? 🤣

[@TheWobblyCameraGuy]

Really enjoy these festive editions!

[@SmoothEmJay]

Honestly, as someone who was never much of a Spectrum fan (I had a CPC .. I know!) I have never missed a single episode of this show since the very beginning and one day I plan on starting them all from scratch. It's always entertaining, interesting and eye opening. You do a good job with this, Paul and I only wish there was something similar for other micros. Merry festive week and new year mate.

[@EnjoySynthSounds]

I suppose the Speccy was the underdog of the Home computing world, the little guy, the Halifax Town of football. But it had a devoted following.

[@SmoothEmJay]

@@EnjoySynthSounds it did and this show above all else absolutely proves why. I'd probably have loved one if my first machine wasn't an Amstrad. Though to be fair, a lot of Amstrad games were direct Spectrum ports without about 10% of the performance.

[@miremare9052]

For Christmas of 1984 i recived a ZX Spectrum (48k) with a Sanyo Data recorder (DR-202A) and from what I can remember it came with the following games... Survival, Horace Goes Skiing, Scrabble, Chequered Flag, Chess and Make a Chip (Sounds about right) The first game purchased was Booty and if I recall the first game borrowed was Alchemist (I use to marvel at the characters transformation) Pretty sure I purchased a clone Kempston joystick interface and a Gunshot joystick with my Christmas money from Birminghan rag market. Was not long before dodgy dealings where being done in the school playground. For Christmas 1997 I had received a Spectrum + 3 (Boots action pack) and a few months later purchased a Multiface 3 (what a bit of kit that was) Pretty sure Gryzor 128k took about 14 mins to load from tape once squirted over onto disk via the good old Multiface it took seconds. Sorry to say by the summer of 1989 I had sold my rather splendid Spectrum collection on to some family friends and purchased a second hand Atari ST (520 with a 1meg upgrade) and two disk boxes full of games. Ah the memories.

[@geoffneil5073]

Thanks for sharing, that wasn't a good start to yor games collection but going onto the Alchemist was a good move, the best of the Imagine games :)

[@axs203]

I remember Frees Bees that’s the first time I’ve seen it in 35 years bless you! 😊😊

[@diverdriver7028]

Superb episode thank you Paul and merry Christmas

[@celbeleg1]

merry chrismas and a jolly good speccy year! cheers!

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

All the best.

[@DaveMcGarry]

Wow great show thanks guys! And I got a mention on one of my comments at the end - what an honour! That Santa game redux is incredible I will have to show my young kids it this weekend. Merry ZX Christmas to you both from a Brit expat waking up in a very sunny Australia 🇦🇺🎄

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Thanks. Seasons greetings.

[@hugosdsantos]

Very good job at new version of summer santa. Well done.

[@monkeymanbob]

Oliver Frey, who passed away this year, did a Backpackers cover for Crash #9 and it, along with the Red Moon cover (#20) were my absolute favourites.

[@geoffneil5073]

The Red Moon cover was terrific as was the Backpackers, but there were so many good ones. The Kong cover from #2 always sticks in my mind as a great one too

[@geoffneil5073]

Great show Paul, I enjoyed seeing your re-make of the Summer Santa game. If we get enough requests we might have to do some director's commentaries

[@SpartanDiab]

Merry christmas, happy holidays and happy new year!

[@EgoShredder]

I got my ZX Spectrum 48K (Series 2) in July 1983, and I did not even ask for it; my uncle just decided to buy me one (RIP uncle Donald 18-09-2022). Not my first experience with computers as that was circa 1980 on a home built NASCOM 2. Anyway excellent Speccy Show as usual and a happy Yuletide and Winter Solstice to you all.

[@geoffneil5073]

Thanks for sharing and posthumous kudos to your uncle Donald, as I said in this episode I always like to hear about when people got their first spectrum. What games did you get with it?

[@EgoShredder]

@@geoffneil5073 Not sure I got any to begin with, but soon added Psion Flight Simulation, Hungry Horace, all the early Ultimate games, Chequered Flag, Android, Death Chase etc. Pretty much most of the well known early games. Oh and some graphic adventures like Transylvanian Tower, The Hobbit and Urban Upstart.

[@galbaum33]

"Go Bear Go" from Sinclair User was an excellent version of Pengo. Merry Christmas to both of you! (from Israel!)

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

There's a good arcade clone soot out.. Greetings to you.

[@mattjames6349]

Underworld could be the best ultima game?! Maybe a typo? lol But Ultima 4:Quest of the Avatar will always be my favourite...Have a great christmas!

[@robm8809]

Thanks Paul, always love these shows. :)

[@twankistevenson3884]

Mery xmas

[@TheWeepingCorpse]

The thumbnail Santa pixel art is not possible on a spectrum :P

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

If the pixels are 8x8 character blocks, then it's good to go 😁

[@DavidB-rx3km]

20:33 wow, what madman wrote that tune!

[@simonm7848]

Glad to see Special Delivery in the chat section! I loved that game as a little kid and loaded it today from my original tape 🙂

[@_.OX._]

@Paul Jenkinson will Episode 128 be a Spectrum 128 Special?

[@geoffneil5073]

It should be :)

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

I have done a 128 special before.. Will have think how we could do it so we're not repeating ourselves.

[@samcadwallader2899]

The copy protection is dumb surely people just took a picture on their iphone and typed it in from that???? Great vid as usual.

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

Don't think phones had cameras back then, but definitely a photocopy would do the job 😆

[@mikeyandwho]

Can't believe you rewrote Summer Santa!! Amazing

[@geoffneil5073]

I can't believe he did it either Paul is a legend

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

I also forgot to point out a few other problems with the original.. but.. no point now 😅

[@EMarkMoore]

Many and sincere thanks, Paul and Geoff, for yet another year of nostalgic Spectrum fun. Paul, your take on Summer Santa looks amazing; hope the original devs see it one day! Have a super Christmas, guys, and all the best for the new year.

[@geoffneil5073]

Thanks, although it is a lot more Paul than me.

[@kins749]

I saved this video for Christmas Day morning and thoroughly enjoyed it, the best Christmas show ever! Merry Christmas Paul and Geoff and everybody!

[@geoffneil5073]

Merry Christmas and have a Happy New year, I wonder if anyone watched the show this year while their other half watched Call the Midwife.

[@quuhod]

Joyous! 🥳

[@davelister1]

hmmmm

[@danielluiz7771]

❤

[@notanfningain]

There were some brilliant 16k speccy games.

[@geoffneil5073]

I'm going to say Jetpac before Paul does :)

[@notanfningain]

​@@geoffneil5073 3d Deathchase, Cookie, Chuckie Egg, Transversion, Harrier Attack, Horace goes Skiing, Pssst some of my fav games. And I still love playing them today.

[@geoffneil5073]

@@notanfningain Some great games there :)

[@keelbyman]

Happy Christmas guys 🎄

[@geoffneil5073]

Thanks Peter, life wouldn't be the same without a Christmas Spectrum Show

[@craigwalker3194]

Merry Christmas Paul & Geoff ! Great Episode As Always.

[@geoffneil5073]

Merry Christmas Craig

[@SpectrumNez]

Super. Thanks! Have a wonderful Christmas guys!

[@geoffneil5073]

Thanks :)

[@KingPepper41]

I will have to make this comment for next years festive edition, i will be famous........................HURRAHHHHHHHHHH. Merry Xmas to you Paul, and to your family, and of course, the wonderful Geoff, and his family, all the best, see you next year. X

[@geoffneil5073]

Thanks hope you had a very merry Christmas and have a happy new year

[@pablorai769]

It's Deus ex makeenah

[@BuckingTheTrend2008]

If you listen to the audio produced for the game, Automata pronounce it machine-ah.. I went for their pronunciation 😊

[@pablorai769]

@@BuckingTheTrend2008 Yes, I know, they went for an anglicised version, I guess...

[@Baekstrom]

Merry Christmas!

[@Idiotatwork]

Another yr anniversary of me getting my first speccy passes...1985 zx spectrum+ with view to a killpack of games. I remember it was all bond on one side if the tape with the 3 parts. The other I think was codename mat 2, pyramid, beaky and egg snatchers and one other that I forget...mat and pyramid however I remember most fondly and played them right up to getting and amiga many yrs later

[@geoffneil5073]

I think I remember seeing that tape pack bundle in the shops at the time, great story