ZX Spectrum: An American Review - Working Man Games

[@FarelForever]

"Still sounds better than Pink Floyd" My old man just pulled out a baseball bat and asked me for your address

[@SavoxYT]

We've gone backwards with our games now. If we buy a PlayStation or Xbox game on a disc, we have to wait while the rest of the game downloads. I know it's only happens the first time you play it but still. We went so long without it being a problem, but then it all came back when the PS4 and Xbone came out.

[@RippahRooJizah]

I have had a few PS4 games be immediately playable.

[@mauzki-]

Honestly thankful when you buy a dvd or a blu ray nowdays it will just play unlike games of this era.

[@fictionalmediabully9830]

Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy and Underwurld have jumping designed to be realistic. You don't like it, that's fine, it clearly ain't for you. Fun fact, Jet Set Willy is one of the earliest examples of a non-linear platformer with a focus on exploration. Today, we know it as the Metroidvania sub-genre of action-adventure games.

[@pferreira1983]

It shouldn't even be called Metroidvania.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

Sir Clive: Don't make a bunch of games for this thing! I don't want it to be a "games machine!" Everyone: Sorry! Can't here you! Busy cranking out games!

[@hoarsebard]

The reason the Spectrum and the C64 take so long to load games from cassette is interesting. It's because the data on the tape is not the game. It's INSTRUCTIONS for the computer to rebuild the entire thing itself! The commands that make the game are encoded on the tape as what would sound to us like some particularly bad harsh noise music. This also means that you could feasibly store the games on any audio format available as long as it has an analogue audio output to connect to the computer. And a few British computer magazines did indeed store pack-in programs on thin tear-out vinyl records.

[@billybollockhead5628]

What on earth are you talking about? Of course the game on the tape is the game. It's binary data represented as noise. I'll keep it simple for you - it's bit more complicated than this, but i'll keep it simple.. A loud noise = 1, quiet = 0. That's binary, a spectrum game is 48k (well less than that but I'll keep it simple for you). So that 48000 ish bytes.. multiplied by 8 bits.. so thats (48000*8) high or low noises to store the game. if each "noise" is half a second then that 48000*8*half a second. Modems used to work in the exact same way (using noise). (and before some pedant jumps in, yes yes - i know - im keeping it as simple as possible..)

[@fictionalmediabully9830]

US: Atari VCS, then NES. UK: Atari VCS, then Micros, then Sega Master System.

[@mateus_upd1084]

If I remember correctly in Bomber Jack the lit bombs give extra points and show the perfect route. the "ideal" play was to get all the lit bombs in chain, since normaly they would form a sequence that let you clear the stage on One full Swoop.

[@steve16384]

Great video, made me laugh out loud a few times. If you think those games are bad, we have far worse games on the Speccy for you to try. And finally, someone who appreciates the soothing Manic Miner music.

[@WeirdWonderful]

The absolute irony of someone taking down Octavius' videos, because she used Horace in them in a transformative and satirical fashion, when the Horace games are actually super infamous for directly ripping off other, better games out at the time.

[@OpenMawProductions]

3:25 Channeling that Stone Cold Steve Austin energy right there. Have a beer, drop a stunner on the ZX Spectrum. WHAT!?

[@dna9838]

Elite was amazing.. On the BBC, that had the speed and a decent kbd to do it properly. Spectrum version looks really painful.

[@fictionalmediabully9830]

Elite is great on both BBC Micro and NES.

[@volo870]

ZX Spectrum port of Elite was one of the better 8 bit conversions. C64 and CPC releases are much, MUCH worse. Even some 16-bit versions came out not as good. I can't get MS-DOS port to run at proper speed on any of my computers.

[@pferreira1983]

Yep!@@volo870

[@RoninCatholic]

I indeed remember Skifree. I remember getting eaten by the Abominable Snowman a lot.

[@mauzki-]

What probably lead to the sucessor of the ZX so much also is the fact the console market wasn't as competitive in European markets, in the UK the NES did horribly as a prime example.

[@chaospoet]

True, but there was also the issue of Sega getting a foothold with the Master System there first instead of the other way around here in the states. The Master System over there (and of course Brazil) is as fondly remembered as we are of the NES over here. That's also to say nothing of Atari who flourished over there with their 8 and 16 bit computers while perishing over here. Then you've got all the micros that were, as you pointed out, more popular than consoles at the time. So other than a curiosity Nintendo just had no place over there while it had the console market almost entirely to itself here. Europe in the 80s was like a mirror universe of America.

[@fictionalmediabully9830]

The NES did fail in the UK...in the 1980s. In 1990, it started to find an audience thanks to Mattel being replaced by Sans Serif and bundling the Hero Turtles game with it. In the end, it managed to ship a little over 1.5 million units, which is respectable, albeit not nearly as huge as the Mega Drive's 4 million, and the ZX Spectrum's 5 million.

[@mauzki-]

@@fictionalmediabully9830 Yeah, thought the damage was already done in terms of the NES, the SNES did far better, but for instance the PSX preformed far better then the n64. But yeah the master system did great here.

[@Unregistered.HyperCam.2]

The ZX Spectrum was a success in the UK because of the BBC's "cheap home computing revolution" in the early 80s. It was a successor to Sinclair Research's ZX80 and ZX81, released in 1982 for as low as £125 for 16K model, £175 for a 48K model. They were cheap computers to buy, a lot of people learned to code and make games on them, and it was very cheap to distribute games on cassette tapes. (Not to mention how easy piracy would be with a high speed twin tape deck.) Try convincing your parents to buy an NES and drop what's the equivalent of over $100 USD today on cartridge-based games when you could get a 48K Spectrum(or for not much more, a Commodore 64) by this point for the cost of one NES game. Had Atari pushed the 400/800 as gaming micros as soon as they dropped in 1979 instead of selling them as all-purpose home computers and repackaged the insides into the 5200 to sell it as a dedicated games machine, and competitors were forced to follow suit, we may have ended up with a bunch more microcomputers in the US and companies may not have hemorrhaged nearly as much money when the video game crash inevitably happened, and Nintendo might not have gotten a _complete_ stranglehold like they did.

[@pferreira1983]

@@Unregistered.HyperCam.2 I feel sorry for Americans who only knew Nintendo. 😆

[@Nokia3310do]

Crappy computers like this are the reason why way more British people were learning to code instead of just playing games. They were way more popular here than consoles in the 80s. Ever wondered why so many programmers and games companies are from this tiny island, churning out stuff like Donkey Kong Country, Starfox, Goldeneye, Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto? The ZX Spectrum and other basic computers are a big reason why that happened. I like your honest reviews though. The ZX era is kind of its own thing. As a computer, it wasn't really intended for playing games but it became that because of its low price and what people were making for it. Some of its best games were made by actual children.

[@BiodegradableYTP]

Hell yeah, Stu. I remember Ski Free. I played that game religiously on my Grandma's computer back in the late 90s. Anyways, another terrific video mate!

[@LuckyPunkProd]

I also remember playing Ski Free. That fucking yeti, though...

[@ldma]

Manic Miner is in my top all time best games list

[@billybollockhead5628]

Robocop on the speccy was one of the best movie tie ins i've played - until i played the recent 2023 pc robocop.

[@ArcRay20]

2:11 the PS3 and PS4 generation still had this issue. "oh boy, i can finally play this game!" then it turns out it has mandatory updates and also HAS to be copied to the console to be playable and took hours to install all that. and now that ive had the luxury to own a PS5 for like a year, its way better because of the SSD to speed ALL of that along. being backward compatible with 99% of the PS4 library is also pretty sweet. anywho nice video as always Stuart, and glad to hear your back has gotten better.

[@HydraSpectre1138]

I remember how MGS4 had to be installed for 30 minutes. But it was worth it, because the game would have otherwise had Sonic ‘06 loading times when played entirely off the disc.

[@ArcRay20]

@@HydraSpectre1138 well of course its worth it, it just always took so damn long and its easy to forget about.😆

[@SerialK1986]

27:39 Rest assured, Stu, I always watch your videos all the way through. ^^

[@craigix]

This is by far the best review of the ZX Spectrum I've ever seen by an American.

[@blackenedheart9592]

I understand why he's not gonna make videos like this again but man he's so good and one of the funniest KZbinrs I've ever seen 🤘🤘🤘

[@hyperhippy92]

i saw you tweet about the games in the recent past, would you ever consider reviewing the tokyo xtreme series?

[@forcastiabluey]

I always pronounce it Zee-Ex Spectrum just for the principle of the thing. I didn't go to all this trouble learning how to emulate a computer that I didn't know existed until college just to put a damn D in there for no reason. Also, someday I hope to own a Timex Sinclair, just for the pure paradoxical nature of it. An American version of a computer that only Europeans developed for. Like having an NTSC Amiga all over again!

[@ChapBloke]

25:55 Er Stu, you're meant to do the lines *after* class, didn't you see The Simpsons?

[@Dinosaurwith42heads]

Are you just reviewing old obscure computer consoles, if so keep it going.

[@fictionalmediabully9830]

He should do Amstrad CPC next.

[@pferreira1983]

ZX Spectrum isn't obscure.

[@chaospoet]

I'm actually curious about Bomb Jack (yes, everything is wrong with me). Only because it's a Sega game and was made for the SG-1000 that was only released in Japan. So now I'm wondering how the Hell it ended up on a British micro computer in the same era? Also the Spectrum had by far THE hardest version of Ghouls N Ghosts I have ever played. That version is actually my vote for the hardest video game ever made. Though that said the worst video game has to be Transylvanian Tower. It's this weird dungeon explorer type of game in a 1st person view and you ascend this tower with something like 30 floors (possibly more) however it takes 20 minutes to load each floor! No wonder they banned guns over there. People who played games like that would be justified going on a homicidal killing spree.

[@dragonlibrarian7982]

Bomb Jack was actually a Tecmo arcade game that was released in many regions and ported to many systems.

[@chaospoet]

@@dragonlibrarian7982 Really? I never knew that. I only knew of the SG-1000 version and given the fact that 99 percent of all the games on that were made by Sega themselves I just though it was theirs.

[@Acidonia150reborn]

Back in the 80s Japanese Console/Arcade companys let UK micro Devs do ports of their games sometimes they even get the rights to do Sequels to those games just made for the Micros. This why why games like Bomb Jack 2 exist which plays nothing like the original and on c64 has the Thunder cats theme music in it. Even Street Fighter 2 got Offical Micro ports bit this was one of the last offical ports but this would of been in like 1993. Sega was using Activision to publish these Micro ports of their game until Sonic 1 when they stoped. One of the Last ones was a port of the Megadrive game Last Battle which itself was a edited localised version of a Fist of The North Star anime game on the Amiga. it was such a bad port it's missing half the game. Nintendo stoped working with any other console/pc once Super Mario hit the Nes. Though a German studio wanted to fo a micro port and was was rejected and it became a series called The Great Giana Sisters that years later became its own series which was allowed on Nintendo platforms.

[@Bloowashere]

okay I dig the joke with notification sounds, but I also absolutely hate it too.

[@JenMistress]

I know I have retro gamepads for old systems for my computer, and MAME has Spectrum on it, but think I'll stick with my gaming keyboard to play Spectrum on MAME. I mean it's one thing using a NES gamepad for NES games, but not interested in trying to type with a rubber keyboard, that's taking feeling how the games was originally played a bit too far. 😉😂🤣 Anyways, thank you for this video. In all honesty, I only knew about Spectrum from scrolling through MAME's menu, was way before my time, and dad didn't have one of these, so I learned a lot here. Again, thank you.

[@Unregistered.HyperCam.2]

Most Spectrum games(at least ones that were worth a salt and weren't text adventures) would work with a joystick, though you'd have to buy an adapter and plug it into the expansion port of the Spectrum. With an emulator, you can either use a joystick - be it USB or a 9-pin with a USB adapter - to try to recreate what it'd feel like on an actual Spectrum, or you can use any standard controller that works in the emulator to either emulate a Kempston or Sinclair joystick interface(both were for 9-pin joysticks, but they were wired a bit differently), or map keys for movement and action to your controller.

[@Cocoricoow]

Robocop look as hard as it was on Gameboy, i finished the first mission with 2 seconds left on the clock.

[@garuelx8627]

Y'know, if you were to tell me long ago that Night and Day game was the OG Saberwulf, I wouldn't question it.

[@Mr_1Ballwhale]

great video as always

[@ILsocker]

So I suppose that recent Evil Dead game that managed to license every movie wasn’t great?

[@LAZY-RUBY]

18:04 Jokes on you, I'm always set to DND!

[@warmaster3544]

4:42 Jesus caddicarus jumps off the roof.

[@Xegethra]

Page 3 elf.....Nice to know fantasy land had that too.

[@Mr.madmight266]

yes i was using headphones. i was also falling asleep during the middle of this video not because i think this video is boring, but because i was tired, and then those ear rapes from those games kinda woke me up.

[@Pizzaguy975]

Another great episode

[@anthonyhandley446]

I have my notifications turned off. Checkmate

[@dc6521]

Elite sounds like no mans sky

[@aliceinmansonland448]

If you had only waited eight months you would have had Cocaine Bear to play.

[@duketheLEGEND651]

Holy crap only 5 hours ago

[@patrickhartley9701]

Manic miner music it hurting my ears it terrible

[@Vladimir_Lemon]

haha Zee Ex :^)

[@clauscombat418]

ZX was a very British-only thing, did not make a dent in the rest of Europe either. So was "cassette only", the rest of Europe had floppy disc. It's when you only watch English KZbin videos you get the wronh impression it was all ZX, keyboard only, tape games... 😗

[@steve16384]

The Spectrum was also big in Spain (they got the 128 before we did) and in Russia and Eastern Bloc countries, although not officially if you know what I mean.

[@volo870]

Speccy was the go-to computer in Spain. Also it sold quite well in France and Germany, though there it was outcompeted by other "cassette only" computer - Amstrad CPC 464.

[@Beelze_Bubbles]

Greetings, fellow autistic!

[@cncinc100]

Any game that was available on other computers at the time seemed to be worse on the ZX by comparison because of that terrible sound chip.

[@fictionalmediabully9830]

Play Chase HQ on both ZX and 64, and tell me which one is worse.

[@josemariapena4226]

Perhaps. But the glorious Zx Spectrum has all games of the 80. 14 thoundsands titles the most great library of the decade!

[@pferreira1983]

@@fictionalmediabully9830 THIS!

[@ElZorroHonesto]

I remain convinced the reason European retrogamers keep hyping these games up as if they were universal masterpieces is out of some particularly twisted sense of national pride. They may be bad games, but they're THEIR bad games, made in THEIR country, by THEM, for THEM, and that makes them the greatest in the world and everything else trash.

[@AnnCatsanndra]

Is that a WEED?!??! *Dies INSTANTLY on contact*

[@lionelwade7824]

p̶r̶o̶m̶o̶s̶m̶ 💞

[@The_Pickle-Man]

Dokken is better than Pink Floyd by a country mile.

[@ohnothimagen224]

Umm... Stu, they are making a Evil Dead game that's planning to come out this year.