• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The UK Retro Gaming Child of the 80s Thread of Ninted-who?

X

xist

Member
DCharlie said:
Spellbound series (including Finders Keepers),
Click to expand...

M.A.D. Mastertronic Added Dimension.

I have immensely fond memories of Magic Knight's adventures and the time i spent travelling through space in Knight Tyme. Whilst Spellbound seemed logical, and Knight Tyme a little harder, i could never work out what to do in Stormbringer and that damn cloud didn't help matters.
 
P

pilonv1

Member
I still fondly remember my 64 tape drive. The game that owned my childhood

Impossible_Mission_Coverart.png


Also this open world gem

New%20York%20City-1.png

New%20York%20City-2.png

new_york_city_03.gif


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B72Wr0P_NTI
 
Q

Qasiel

Member
I was a complete Sega fanboy when I was growing up which started with my awesome Master System (1, not 2. No Alex Kidd for me, but instead SnailMaze, Hang-on and Safari Hunt built in!).

Some of the games I remember loving from back then was Sonic 1 & 2, Aztec Adventure, Dragon Crystal, My Hero, Alex Kidd in Shinobi World & Xenon 2. Some damn good times back then!
 
I

IdreamofHIME

Member
Every Friday after school my dad would take me to John Menzies for a ZX Spectrum game.

Paid for them with my pocket money, what kid (non rich) can buy a game every week with their pocket money?
 
V

Vinegar Joe

Member
LamerDeluxe said:
box580.jpg

1982 - VIC-20 my first computer, only 3.5 KB free memory. Awesome arcade conversions (Gorf, Omega Race, Radar Ratrace etc.)
Click to expand...

Yeah, the Vic 20 was my first computer too. Loved it to bits, and we even rang Jeff Minter and spoke to his mum, who was kind enough to send us some free games. Still have them lying around somewhere.

Anyone remember Digitiser? By far the best (only?) reason to read Teletext at the time.

EDIT: This may jog some memories:

8WRWq.jpg


Sad to think that most of it is probably lost now :(
 
X

xist

Member
Fond memories of the Digitiser Donkey and the allusions to them all being Gin fiends.

Every morning i read those pages whilst eating breakfast...
 
L

LamerDeluxe

Member
Air Zombie Meat said:
Cool, didn't know there was that many. I didn't actually believe that, it was just the common fanboy argument at the time. Funny how some things never change. :) The tech was definitely impressive at the time but I can remember people mocking it's battery life. Maybe another overblown fanboy argument though.
Click to expand...

Same fanboy comment the PSP gets :^) which was similarly ahead of it's time and even has a similar shape.

Battery life was about 4 to 5 hours on 6 AA batteries, the Gameboy with its non-lit b/w display lasted about 15 on 4 batteries. The GameGear only lasts about 3 hours on 6 AA batteries.

Funny thing is current handhelds like the PSP and 3DS last about the same time, main advantage being the internal battery.

The Lynx was really expensive at first (and pretty large, as a focus group said they liked larger hardware because it felt more expensive). Atari wasn't very good at attracting 3rd party developers, so it lacked many of the well known games.

A good thing about the modern architecture was that developers weren't just making platform games for it, so the games for it are pretty varied. It could create whole semi-3D levels out of scaling sprites which was quite impressive at the time.
 
O

Osiris

I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
Good days!

I went ZX Spectrum 48k -> Commodore 64 -> Amiga 500 -> Amiga 1200 -> PC
(Throw in a Megadrive and Colecovision somewhere in there too)

And no mention so far for Atic Atac, Mercenary (and Damocles!), Chuckie Egg, Defender of the Crown (And Rocket Ranger!) - For shame!

Such a great era of gaming. :D
 
J

Jeff Albertson

Member
Vinegar Joe said:
Yeah, the Vic 20 was my first computer too. Loved it to bits, and we even rang Jeff Minter and spoke to his mum, who was kind enough to send us some free games. Still have them lying around somewhere.

Anyone remember Digitiser? By far the best (only?) reason to read Teletext at the time.

EDIT: This may jog some memories:

8WRWq.jpg


Sad to think that most of it is probably lost now :(
Click to expand...

Bamboozle is not happy about this!

Used to love me some bamboozle
 
C

CLEEK

Member
Osiris said:
I went ZX Spectrum 48k -> Commodore 64 -> Amiga 500 -> Amiga 1200 -> PC
Click to expand...

You upgraded from a Spectrum to a C64?

You're one of the good ones.

US Gaf - understand the in all the format war there have ever been, Spectrum Vs C64 was the bloodiest. Spectrum fans had the higher user base on their side, but C64 had God, Righteousness and SID on theirs.

The ZX Spectrum is arguable the single most evil, despicable, detestable man made creation in the history of humanity. The hardware equivalent of a war crime, and singularly responsible for over 75% of all the world's ills. Little known fact about the Sir Clive Sinclair (inventor of the Spectrum): He also invented AIDS.
 
O

Osiris

I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
DCharlie said:
the fact that the block of cheese was one of the best crafts (Krafts lol) in the game always made me smile.
Click to expand...

I like you. :p

(But not in that way.)

I may need to pick up my XNA skills and remake the damned thing, the premise was just sooooo awesome :D

You upgraded from a Spectrum to a C64?
Click to expand...

Now now, we all know it was a sidegrade! :p

I only got it because my rubber keys wore out the underlying membrane from the strap-it-onto-the-keyboard "joystick" I had on the ZX :D
 
C

CrunchinJelly

formerly cjelly
One of my fondest memories was buying a CD-i when they first came out. The one with the TV remote that had a joystick on it. Had 2 or 3 games for it and sold it within a fortnight. Horrid.

Gazunta said:
In this thread, American GAFfers discover there were other systems in the '80s besides the NES. (Watch for this thread's appearance in the "mind blowing things" thread)
Click to expand...

This made me laugh because it's true.
 
DCharlie

DCharlie

Banned
Man the C64 v Spectrum fanboy wars were a think of awesome.

I had a Spectrum but i was ultimately won over to the C64 side by Hyper Sports so my Sister inhereted the Spectrum (that i could still play! wooo!) and i had the C64.

I love the spectrum but the C64 was THE machine for me.

In this thread, American GAFfers discover there were other systems in the '80s besides the NES.
Click to expand...

one of the happiest periods of my life was when me and my now wife hooked up. She's a huge gamer so with her having grown up in Japan she had limited knowledge of C64/Spectrum/Amiga/ST and i had an okay but fundamentally flakey NES/FC knowledge. So we fired up her FC and i loaded up the C64 emulator and we played the other persons recommendations.
 
O

Osiris

I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
Heh, my mum used to type in those games you got printed in magazines for my brother and I to play, took her hours too, we'd read them out and she'd type.

Given the keyboard the ZX had that was a labour of love that we never really got to appreciate nor thank her for.

I ended up learning to program on the C64 too, not Commodore basic, but Forth, later when I bought an Amiga 500 the salesman, who was ex-Commodore himself was so keen to sell me one that he threw in ALL the source header files and documentation for Intuition too, so I used it to learn my first C stuff :D
 
J

Jburton

Banned
xist said:
Fond memories of the Digitiser Donkey and the allusions to them all being Gin fiends.

Every morning i read those pages whilst eating breakfast...
Click to expand...

Same here, it was how I got my gaming news between magazine issues.

C64 owned all others, uridium was awesome, IK+ , the last ninja series among many others.

Always coveted the Amiga (mate had a 500) but by the time I was able to upgrade the megadrive had entered the market and the SNES was coming with exclusive SF2.
 
M

Mr_Appleby

Member
Gazunta said:
In this thread, American GAFfers discover there were other systems in the '80s besides the NES. (Watch for this thread's appearance in the "mind blowing things" thread)

Anyway, if you were a UK gamer in the '80s, this was your bible:

071003_zzap64.jpg


I still rate my best career highlight as being a minor footnote in its history.

(OK OK I guess Crash could be your bible too, but, you know...Speccie owners are naff ;) )

UK gaming in the '80s was fantastic. The C64, the Amiga, and the Master System were the go-to systems. For me the C64 will always be my favourite. Elite, IK+, WIZBALL, Creatures and Mayhem in Monsterland...what a fantastic system. THE SENTINEL. Ah dear lord what an era of creativity and freedom that is only now being matched with the advent of iOS and Steam and the indie scene again.
Click to expand...

I remember both of those issues! Gaming on the c64 was such a great time. Your comment about homebrew in the OP reminded me that in those days you couldn't really tell the difference half the time between a game made in a bedroom and one made at a studio (which was usually somebodies bedroom) and we didn't care anyway.

Some of my c64 favourites I haven't seen mentioned yet:

Dropzone
Project Firestart (GODDAMN this needs a contemporary remake/reboot. there were so many ways to finish it and so many different endings it puts many current games to shame)
Ikari Warriors
Gunship
The Epyx xxxx Games series (summer/winter/california)
Labyrinth (adventure game based on the movie, precursor to point and click adventures)
Phantom of the Asteroids
Hawkeye

Fuuu~ so many games half-remembered bubbling around in the brain. Progressed to an A500 after that which I tricked out with an extra 1.5mb fast ram, switchable kickstart (1.3/2.1) and a 40mg hdd that cost me about $400 i think. One of the best amiga memories I have is making a serial null modem cable and hooking up two computers to play vs. Populus. I learnt most of my programming on an Amiga, as well as writing music in Octamed which directly led to me discovering techno and being a performing musician.

<3
 
K

KenOD

a kinder, gentler sort of Scrooge
Ah the Spectrum, and others. Getting magazines which came with fan made and sometimes professionally made games written in code for us to enter and enjoy.
Bargain bin disks of all the greats, Dizzy oh so low and oh so great.

Skool Daze, my fondest memory of a "world" and sim game. One of the few I could ever play for more then five minutes. If I ever had the time and ability, it's you I would try to remake as a fan project.

My first "I can't live without it, I must get it" based solely on hype with Batman.
http://youtu.be/BDK5nkHrczc

BBC Micro for "school", used for Text Adventure titles. So much of my vocabulary came from Acornsoft so I guess I got something out of it. Also introduced me to The Hobbit.

Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror, Spellbound Dizzy, and Jet Set Willy, I still keep a copy of each wherever I move.

Great times.

Master System stole my heart while the Mattel NES just sat there, useless and rubbish.
 
DCharlie

DCharlie

Banned
I ended up learning to program on the C64 too, not Commodore basic, but Forth, later when I bought an Amiga 500 the salesman, who was ex-Commodore himself was so keen to sell me one that he threw in ALL the source header files and documentation for Intuition too, so I used it to learn my first C stuff :D
Click to expand...

hehe, it's awesome the head start these machines gave us vs. consoles.

I had typed stuff in with parents help, but around Dragon 32 i'd started adapting BASIC games to my own needs and by Spectrum i was writting very simple games from scratch.

Though my career has ended up being on mainframes - only now am i using Java/C# at work and even then sparingly as i'm more of a manager than anything for the past 4 years - it certainly was the Dragon 32 that was the initial coding baptism.

I miss the listings books like Input. I can remember Ceefax/teletext having listings for games too - i seem to remember having to pause the screen (say 3/34) and try and type things in but then having to wait for 4/34 to come back round.
 
C

CLEEK

Member
Man, in their day, Thalumus were the 8-bit computing equivalent of Platinum Games or Bungie. Their output on the C64 was immense. Usually rocking awesome soundtracks too (Jeroen Tel, :heart:)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalamus_Ltd

Retrograde was one of the few games I could never get hold off during my C64 owning days. When VICE first came about, it was the first ROM I tracked down. Glorious. It would have rocked my world so hard back in 1989 if I'd got a copy then.
 
D

decaf

Member
British games magazines have always, although particularly during the '90s, had a soul to them that I haven't really found elsewhere.

Who didn't love CVG?
CVG171b.jpg


SSM was my favourite though.
Sega_Saturn_Magazine_Issue_32.JPG
 
M

Mr_Appleby

Member
so the NES thing is interesting. Wiki tells me it release in the latter half of the 80's in euro/aus, but i never even saw one until about 1990. We had a SMS II (alex kidd!) which introduced me to JRPG's through Phantasy Star, I don't even know if any of the dragon quest's/final fantasy's etc. came out for the NES here. I myself never heard of them until the PS1 era.
 
C

CLEEK

Member
Other than the aforementioned Zzap, the only mags I read were Zero and The One.

Zero always had the small section at the back which rated all the available home computers based on hardware specs and performance. With the Apple Macintosh (or could have been the Macintosh II) coming out on top. Which was funny, as in the magazine's entire duration, I never saw a Mac game reviewed. Don't even know if you could get games for them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_(video_game_magazine)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_One_(magazine)

With the NES, bare in mind it launched in the UK just after the Amiga (which blew away the Nintendo in performance) and NES games were £30 a pop. Where as Spectrum/C64 games were £9.99 at most, and Amiga/ST games were £20 at most. With all the home computer formats having a vibrant budget range of games at £1.99-2.99

When you add that to the huge user base of the home computers (so all your peers at school had a computer, not a console), the wide selection of magazines (which usually had free cover games each month) and the rampant piracy, the NES was not an attractive proposition. If you were a kid who got a NES instead of a C64 or Amiga, you were very unlucky. I knew one person at school who had a NES, and him and his brother managed to nag their dad to sell it and get an Amiga.
 
DCharlie

DCharlie

Banned
I used to read the following :

C+VG
Big K
The One
Mean Machines
ST Format
Amiga Format
ST/Amiga Format ;)
ZZap!64
Crash

Getting Crash and Zzap!64 felt like an event, Mean Machines was probably the last magazine i read and last time i saw C+VG it had a Wham Bar on the front.

You know was REALLY great about Zzap!64 too? No sacred cows - shit games got shit scores, no matter who. 16% sort of scores. Plus you had distinctive takes on games from Penn, Rignal, Radd, etc so you could start to see who you fit in with.

Out in the wilderness of my hometown, i knew one person with a SMS, no one had a NES. You had C64/Spectrum/Amiga/ST. That changed with the explosion of the Megadrive but up until then consoles had been a total non-event.
 
C

CLEEK

Member
Natetan said:
I wonder why the NES didnt become popular in the UK? Wouldn't trade my US S/NES memories for the world :)
Click to expand...

Dude, read up a couple of posts.

Also: how many NES games did you own/play? I literally had hundreds of 8-bit and 16-bit games during the NES era. I don't doubt that NES owning US gamers have fond memories, as it was home to a bunch of true classics. And all games during that period were magical and awesome, regardless of format.

But owning a NES and only getting expensive games for Christmases and birthdays is the equivalent of being married and only having sex once or twice a year, compared to going out every week and fucking everything that moves.
 
N

Natetan

Member
SPE said:
Dude, read up a couple of posts.

Also: how many NES games did you own/play? I literally had hundreds of 8-bit and 16-bit games during the NES era. I don't doubt that NES owning US gamers have fond memories, as it was home to a bunch of true classics. And all games during that period were magical and awesome, regardless of format.

But owning a NES and only getting expensive games for Christmases and birthdays is the equivalent of being married and only having sex once or twice a year, compared to going out every week and fucking everything that moves.
Click to expand...

You could always rent games you know. I did that probably almost every weekend. I'm sure there's a similar sexual metaphore in there somewhere.

And we had more than NES. Even during its prime, there was the Sega Master system, and the Genesis was already out in 89. So there was only like two years of NES only. Before the NES, Atari was quite popular despite its image to people now.
 
S

Slappy967

Neo Member
As an American gamer I am finding this thread to be a fantastic read and introduction to "old school" UK gaming. I am looking forward to seeing more of the screenshots, system pics and all around awesomeness this thread has provided so far.
 
A

Air Zombie Meat

Member
Natetan said:
You could always rent games you know. I did that probably almost every weekend. I'm sure there's a similar sexual metaphore in there somewhere.

And we had more than NES. Even during its prime, there was the Sega Master system, and the Genesis was already out in 89. So there was only like two years of NES only. Before the NES, Atari was quite popular despite its image to people now.
Click to expand...

In the UK I wasn't able to find anywhere renting games until the snes\megadrive era which was how I played most of the games on those machines. So I did own an nes but was never able to afford more than a few games for it. Had to get by with just those and whatever I could borrow off friends\family. In comparison I had hundreds of games for my spectrum.
 
C

CLEEK

Member
Slappy967 said:
As an American gamer I am finding this thread to be a fantastic read and introduction to "old school" UK gaming. I am looking forward to seeing more of the screenshots, system pics and all around awesomeness this thread has provided so far.
Click to expand...

OK, screenshots.

C64 goodness. I'll not post any arcade conversions, but stick to the original games.

Armalyte.
http://www.lemon64.com/games/screenshots/full/a/armalyte_05.gif

Microprose Soccer:
http://www.lemon64.com/games/screenshots/full/m/microprose_soccer_04.gif

Wizball:
http://topcrew.de/pics/wizball.gif

Cybernoid & Cybernoid 2:
http://s.uvlist.net/l/y2005/2/2149.jpg

IK+:
http://www.gb64.com/Screenshots/I/IK_plus.png

Nebulous:
http://www.hecklerspray.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/nebulus.gif

Super Cycle:
http://www.c64gg.com/Images/S/Supercycle_ingame.gif

Sentinel:
http://www.elitebastards.com/hanners/evolution-3d-gaming/images/sentinel1_t.png

Citadel:
http://home.arcor.de/cybergoth/xype/citadel.gif

Uridium:
http://www.lemon64.com/games/screenshots/full/u/uridium_02.gif

Creatures:
http://www.richmace.co.uk/c64/images/creatures_2_screenshot.jpg

Paradroid:
http://www.haddewig.de/vcs/pictures/paradroid-c64.gif

And the greatest piece of integrated circuitry ever devised by man:
http://cbmmuseum.kuto.de/images/chip_sid.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Technology_SID

Barbarian:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_AE-9OkyvWPQ/TUsI9Dy941I/AAAAAAAAAHE/b5PniDPcl4I/s1600/imagesCAEHKSRZ.jpg
 
C

CLEEK

Member
Joysticks. All joystick used the Atari 9-pin connection, so worked on most home computers.

Cheeter:
http://www.clive.nl/files/imagecache/thumb/images/23260.jpg

Competition Pro:
http://gamersmafia.com/storage/comments/879/79/competition_pro_box_front.jpg

Cruiser (my stick of choice):
http://www.vesalia.de/pic/cruiser.jpg

Zip Stick:
http://mimg.ugo.com/201103/8/6/7/183768/cuts/zip-stick2_528_poster.jpg

The fucking awful Speedking:
http://archive.gamespy.com/hardware/june02/sticks1/2.jpg

Quickshot:
http://www.gloopy.co.uk/media/catal...d27136e95/a/m/amiga-quickshot-ii-joystick.jpg
 
N

Natetan

Member
Air Zombie Meat said:
In the UK I wasn't able to find anywhere renting games until the snes\megadrive era which was how I played most of the games on those machines. So I did own an nes but was never able to afford more than a few games for it. Had to get by with just those and whatever I could borrow off friends\family. In comparison I had hundreds of games for my spectrum.
Click to expand...

Interesting. What I find amazing is that they dont really do game rentals in Japan either yet these expensive games were popular! It was the 80s though so splashing out for games prob wasn't a big deal then.
 
S

spirity

Member
10 PRINT "spirity is ace"
20 GOTO 10
RUN

The extent of my programming knowledge in the 80's. British Home Stores and Woolworths always got hit by the phantom programmer.
 
M

madmackem

Member
My first games machine was an amstrad cpc 464 with the green screen monitor, i am now colourblind with green being my worst colour and i blame it on hour and hours i sat infront of that machine but i loved it.
amstrad-cpc464-green-screen.jpg
 
G

Gen X

Trust no one. Eat steaks.
Gazunta said:
In this thread, American GAFfers discover there were other systems in the '80s besides the NES. (Watch for this thread's appearance in the "mind blowing things" thread)

Anyway, if you were a UK gamer in the '80s, this was your bible:

071003_zzap64.jpg
Click to expand...

It sure was! Infact it's that exact PacLand issue I have my name in on the Scorelord page!

First time I saw a Zzap64 mag was the July 86 issue, Gold Medal for Leaderboard, Olis cover are was a girl sucking a lollypop with the reflection of the golf course in her Aviators.

I read that mag from cover to cover and over the next 3 yrs would anticipate each mags release. I even started a subscription when I went to UK for a holiday and paid the high price of air frieght to NZ. The free gift for subbing was a Quickshot Joyball controller.

Quickshot9a25.jpg


I loved my C64, I just wish I stuck to programming on it when it was so easy to learn.
 
Schrödinger's cat

Schrödinger's cat

Banned
I'm glad Armalyte got name-checked (finally!).

To me, this shooter is a game that pushed its host machine well beyond what anyone thought could be done. When you consider some of the limitations of the C64 (64k of ram, no graphics in the border area, max of 8 sprites on screen, one unique colour per 3 colour sprite) and then saw how Armalyte showed a blatant disregard for pretty much all of them - it's simply amazing.

It's such a great shooter as well! With some fantastic weapons and a merciliess level and attack wave design and two bosses per level. Glorious!

It's games like that and other Thalamus stuff that made me start to look out for names of individuals behind the games I enjoyed. Becoming fans of names like Dan Phillips (Armalyte programmer), Robin Levy (Armalyte artist), Steve and Jon Rowlands (Apex design - Creatures 1 & 2, Retrograde), Martin Walker (Muscian and programmer of Hunter's Moon), Jeroen Tel (one half of Maniacs of Noise music team), Andrew Braybrook (Uridium, Paradroid etc).

Playing C64 games and learning to program on it was a huge part of my adolescence. Years later I had realised an earlier ambition and found myself working in the UK games development scene. I got even luckier and found myself working on projects with some of those names listed above. All of whom were genuinely great and down to earth people.

I still play those old games. Or try to. My reflexes aren't what they used to be and the difficulty level of those games can be quite high. I also find myself listening to more chip music of that era than any other type of music these days.

To this day I reckon the C64 remix of the Outrun theme for Turbo Outrun is one of the best versions of the tune made (even moreso when taking into account hardware limitations). The Main screen theme isn't at all bad either. The game itself was rubbish though. :(

And if you're into your chip music and haven't listened to Kohina radio then you're missing out!

Thanks for the OP, the nostalgia is great!
 
G

Gen X

Trust no one. Eat steaks.
Schrödinger's cat;35008959 said:
And if you're into your chip music and haven't listened to Kohina radio then you're missing out!
Click to expand...

Every now and then I'll crank out some Hubbard and Galway tunes like Mega Apocalypse, Parallax, Wizball, Thrust (There is a good cover of this using real instruments). I really can't imagine what it would sound like hearing them for the first time today, probably a mess! :p

*Edit*

Found this when trying to find the version oif Thrust I was talking about although different, really takes me back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOjBex8HT_s
 
Turnstyle

Turnstyle

Member
I remember spending a lot of time looking at the Aliens joystick in the back of Commodore Format. I never actually got one, and it was probably a pain in the arse to use, but...ALIENS. There was also a Bart Simpson one.

Anyway, has anyone mentioned Creatures 2 on the C64 yet? I remember playing this demo about a BILLION TIMES:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kbNIdOaUNc
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Retro Gamer magazine reader's top 150 games
2 3 4
168
32K
Qwark replied
Absolute firsts in video games
12 13 14 15 16
763
122K
celsowmbr replied
Whats your Gaming History?
2
54
2K
Gowans replied
Top Bottom