ZX Spectrum 0-20 / 86

Bloodwych is a 1989 real-time dungeon crawler RPG inspired by Dungeon Master. It was created by the British duo TAG (Anthony Taglione and Pete James) for the Image Works label. The player leads a party of champions of Trazere through a keep and 4 towers to gather the crystals, destroy the evil Zendick and banish the Lord of Entropy. The game's standout... 11

Final Fight is a side-scrolling beat-em-up released by Capcom in the arcades in 1989. Mike Haggar, a former wrestler and the new mayor of Metro City, sets out with Cody and Guy to rescue his daughter Jessica from the Mad Gear gang. 2 players fight at once, each of the 3 heroes has his own style, and the streets yield knives, pipes and katanas as well... 17

Championship Sprint is a top-down arcade racing game developed and released in 1986 by the American company Atari Games as the follow-up to its Super Sprint coin-op. Of its 8 single-screen tracks 5 are new and 3 come from the predecessor, with ramps, bridges, gates and short cuts. On the cabinet 2 players race against computer-driven cars and trade... 13

RoboCop 3 is a platform shooter based on the film of the same name, published by Ocean Software in 1992 and 1993. The ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and NES versions were developed by Probe Software, the SNES and Nintendo Super System arcade version by Ocean itself, and the Mega Drive, Master System and Game Gear versions by Eden Entertainment Software... 92

Ancient Fighters is a grid-based dungeon crawler released in February 1994 by the Bratislava company Extra Vision for the ZX Spectrum, with a SAM Coupe version following shortly after. From a first-person view the player works through the catacombs beneath Rome in the reign of emperor Diocletian, switching between 3 warriors who each have their own... 205

They Stole a Million is a strategy game about planning robberies, made in 1986 by the British firm Tigress Marketing and published under the 39 Steps label of Ariolasoft. The player is the boss: you hire a crew of specialists in locks, explosives and getaway driving, buy the plans of the chosen building, and then write out the whole job on the floor... 88

Starquake is a 1985 arcade adventure written for the ZX Spectrum by a single programmer, Stephen J. Crow, and published by the British label Bubble Bus Software. A small artificial being called BLOB has to rebuild the core of an unstable planet from 9 pieces before its explosion wipes out the universe. The caverns span 512 screens, and BLOB climbs... 123

Movie is a 1986 isometric gangster adventure written for the ZX Spectrum by Yugoslav programmer Duško Dimitrijević with Mario Mandić and released under Ocean's Imagine label, with an Amstrad CPC version the same year. In 1930s New York detective Jack Marlow searches the headquarters of mobster Bugs Malloy for an incriminating tape. Tanya knows the... 43

Phantom Club is an isometric arcade adventure designed and programmed for Ocean Software in 1987 by the Serbian author Duško Dimitrijević, creator of Movie. Plutus, the last loyal member of a society of superheroes taken over by the evil overlord Zarg, has to work his way through 10 ranks up to Ipsissimus in the club's headquarters of more than 550... 37

The fourth big adventure of Dizzy the egg, published by Codemasters in 1990 as a low-price title for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64. It was the first in the series not programmed by The Oliver Twins but by Fred Williams of Big Red Software. The evil wizard Zaks has transported the Yolkfolk family to a fairy-tale world and trapped each... 26

The fourth big adventure of Dizzy the egg, published by Codemasters in 1990 as a low-price title for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64. It was the first in the series not programmed by The Oliver Twins but by Fred Williams of Big Red Software. The evil wizard Zaks has transported the Yolkfolk family to a fairy-tale world and trapped each... 461

Fantasy World Dizzy is an platform action - adventure for ZX Spectrum designed by the Oliver Twins with music by David Whittaker. The game is considered the third in the Dizzy series and was developed under the name Dizzy III. Fantasy World Dizzy featured many elements which later became standard for the series, such as having three lives, an improved... 239

A 1989 Breakout game for the ZX Spectrum by the Slovak duo JOPA (Jozef Paučo and Pavel Albert), handed out for free by Klub FIFO to advertise the upcoming FIFO magazine from Zvolen. Under the Slovak captions runs the British game Traz: the ball is lost in traps on any side of the screen, several bats move at once, and 64 screens are linked into a network.... 58

RoboCop is an action game based on Paul Verhoeven's film, developed for 8-bit home computers and released in 1988 by the British publisher Ocean Software. It loosely follows the Data East coin-op, but breaks up the patrols through Detroit, the drug factory and the OCP tower with sections of its own: first-person hostage scenes and a photofit puzzle... 1962

Terramex (Cosmic Relief: Prof. Renegade to the Rescue in US) is an action platform adventure game developed by Teque Software and released in 1987 for home computers. The goal is to find Professor Eistrain (Eyestrain - `eye strain`) in his secret laboratory. The professor predicted that a meteor was moving towards Earth and its course was threatened... 387

Star Dragon is an action space shooter with vertical scrolling, released by Ultrasoft in 1990 for ZX Spectrum home computers. The author of the game is the Czech programmer Patrik Rak together with the graphic artist Milan Matoušek, the music for AY was created by František Fuka. The player controls a Star Dragon fighter flying through space and his... 164

Dragon Breed (Doragon Burīdo) is a horizontally scrolling shooter video game produced by Irem and released in arcades in 1989. It runs on M72 and M81 hardware. Activision released home computer ports in 1990. The player controls King Kayus, who rides a large dragon named Bahamoot. Bahamoot is immune to enemy attacks, capable of blocking most projectiles... 159

Sharkey’s 3D Pool is an 1st person pool game, one of the first that introduces full 3D perspective, developed by Aardwark Software and distributed by Firebird/Microplay software in 1989 for home computers. The game featuring a fully-rotating table and variable viewpoint allowing for much more realistic shot-playing than the traditional top-down game... 308

Titanic is an scuba-diving action game developed by Spanish software house Topo Soft in 1988 for 8-bit home computers ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and MXS. The game was later ported on PC DOS with two extra stages, VGA graphics and AdLib sounds. Titanic is an exploration game which is divided into two parts. In the first part, you must find the Titanic... 340

Star Wars is a first-person rail shooter designed by Mike Hally and released in arcades by Atari, Inc. in 1983. It uses 3D color vector graphics to simulate the assault on the Death Star from the 1977 film Star Wars. Assuming the role of Luke Skywalker (Red Five), the player pilots an X-wing fighter from a first-person perspective. The player does... 886