07-01-2023, 05:32 PM
Thanks Ton.
Anyway, this is it... The Spectrum Push... (Part 1)
100 Kilometri
One of the few Italian programmed Spectrum games from back in the day. The game appeared in Load 'n Run magazine, notorious for having pirated versions of commercial games on the tape that are usually translated into Italian and this is one of the few original games. It also apparently got a Spanish release too from the same magazine, the tape is currently missing though.
Also yes, that's all the sprites in this game. The bike is literally 1 sprite.
Pro Go-Kart Simulator
Nope, it's not a Codemasters game. Also a misleading name since it's more like a Power Drift clone. Weirdly enough this was one of the first racing games that was developed by the company that later became Eutechnyx who until their demise was their main focus.
Turbo Skate Fighter
Not many racing games where you literally have to run without the use of a vehicle (I think Sonic R and Mad Dash Racing being the two that I can name off the top of my head). This reminds me of an arcade game that I can't quite remember the name... No it's not Metro-Cross...
Grand Prix Circuit
Only plus compared to the Amstrad version is that it runs at a better frame rate and as a side effect just a bit better to control but yeah apart from that... this is the worst version of the game but not intentionally. For some reason, every time I play it seems to be stuck on time trials even to the point of changing the courses after a crash or complete the same race twice. On the C64, Amstrad and any other version, you qualify for a lap then a race but on here, complete a lap and report to pit in. Also you can't select your track like the others. It has the same developers as the CPC version so wonder why... Unfinished game? Developers sent the wrong build to Accolade or Accolade put an earlier build onto tape?
While getting the rival car on the graphics viewer was simple enough, for it to show up in game is a different story. It got so bad that I had to watch a YouTube video and was hard enough to find one, just to find the in game palette that luckily is the same as the background and off road (so yeah, checking every car regarding where the green ends and the yellow starts). As we know to get colour on the Spectrum is like a hack working around 8x8 blocks yet actually it was okay trying to avoid the colour clash.
Full Throttle 2
Poorly programmed game with broken sprites....
The Cycles
Uses the same engine as Grand Prix Circuit like all versions of that game but seems to crash on ZXSEC when loading the bike select, lucky that it loaded the rival to rip in the graphics viewer. Had to load it on InkSpector to play the game, yeah this is how the Spectrum version of Grand Prix Circuit should have been like (1 lap to qualify, 1 lap to race, can choose your track). Good frame rate too for a Spectrum game.
Fantastic American Football
Misleading name just like Great Football on the Master System... Also yes, there are American Football games on the Spectrum.
Championship Run
A clone of Continental Circus and is rather buggy. The player car graphics often disappear leaving just the tyres and when you go to the pits, it loads garbage where your car is. Considering that it was a full price game, people probably bought or copied more of Continental Circus anyway that would have been on clearance when this came out. Well assuming that you could still get Spectrum games from a shop in 1991 as the Amiga, Master System and Mega Drive would have been more popular, even the NES had a brief spell of popularity in the UK at this time thanks to TMNT and SMB3.
Also I couldn't get the rival as it doesn't seem to be with the other graphics at all.
Joe Blade 3
Super Cars
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Only ripped this because of a certain film that kept advertising, something about a Dial of Destiny.
Oh and the intro took one side of the tape, literally loading screen after another.
Super Bike Trans-Am
Not to be confused with Super Car Trans-Am but ended up doing so to the point where that game got renamed to American Turbo King, Mastertronic ended up re-releasing it and released the Amstrad version. Also some vector graphics for the roadside objects!
Twin Turbo V8
Uses the slightly earlier engine as the above and same way of storing the graphics (main sprite being split in half). It uses an interesting and clever way of avoiding colour clash for the player car making it not Spectrum like, but it was the only game that the artist had worked on.
Beach Volley
Desperado / Gunsmoke
Topo Soft made a clone of a certain Western Capcom arcade game, different characters* and less levels yet similar gameplay. US Gold then picked it up for UK release and branded it as Gunsmoke. So a clone became an "official port" yet the only proper ports outside of the arcade were the NES, PS1/Saturn and the C64, the latter US Gold had rights to anyway. Besides some people argue that it's Gun.Smoke so not really official for the Spectrum/Amstrad versions. There was also the Korean MSX port as well.
*-With inconsistent names. The manual is basic given just a description outside of the Masked One and Greybeard, the credits omits one of the bosses, the reviews have different names and CPC Power gives something else bearing in mind the Masked One and Greybeard have swapped positions in the Amstrad version. Made worse is that CPC Power reference an "Indian" (Native American) boss who doesn't appear in the game but rather someone who looks like Clark Gable, not using their names as a source. The player character has 3 different names! The Sheriff (manual)/Joe Faster (credits)/Mac Elrapid (Spanish review) however the last one might have been made up by the reviewer. This applies in both English and Spanish.
Also it seems that the wrong palette is shown in game for some of the sprites. Outside of the colour hack, the Spectrum can only understand two things. Ink and Paper, basically black for the ink and white for the paper as a left over from the ZX81. Some have it as black & white, while others have it in white & black. When you invert the monochrome graphics, you can see the outline more clearly. Apparently the Spanish MSX version fixes a few of these...
Bionic Commando
Simulador Profesional de Tenis
The Amstrad CPC version has been in the backlog for literally years, not much progress since 2018. By comparison, the
Speccy version was ripped much quicker as it was easier to do. Despite only getting a release in Spain, an English
translation with typos does exist. Wonder why... UK release cancelled due to a similarly named Codemasters game (Pro Tennis Simulator)? Somehow a market of English ex-pats living in Spain wanting a tennis game? It did make it in a compilation called Multi Sports where it was just known as Tenis and the packaging is multilingual. That version on the Amstrad does have the English translation on the disk along with the other games including Grand Prix Master (listed as Aspar).
As of writing; trying to find the heart sprite and assembling the enemies of City Connection, wonder where the other tire and the fallen bike graphics are in Super Hang-On despite the sheet is about 75% complete, trying to wonder why the player and enemy sprites are the same in Frontline, why are things done in 8x8 blocks in Video Olympic?, near but not quite there for Emilio Butragueno Futbol, Speedboat Assassin, Overlander and procrastinating on Dalek Attack. Also having problems with Pole Position and Angel Nieto that I might have to abandon...
Amstrad
Grand Prix Circuit
It feels like this game has a single digit framerate even when there are no cars on the screen and very jerky to control. Whether it's a rushed port and judging by the Spectrum version probably is or just too much for the computer to cope. Then again the C64 original is actually pretty good on there; decent frame rate by C64 racing game standards with better controls, sampled based soundtrack, no road breakup, working mirrors, more backgrounds with the downside is that your view is just a bit smaller on the grounds of a big steering wheel (the steering wheel is smaller on the other versions), the rival car sprites are mixed as in not as clearly drawn but more of a variety in palettes and the loading times are longer...
Actually might as well rip the C64 original, it's in the backlog...
Desperado / Gunsmoke
Another done the Spectrum, do the Amstrad routine and vice versa. Thank goodness for trainers that have infinite lives and a level select. Also Clarisse? Outside of these two, trying to get the Spectrum backlog down (sadly not down enough) hence progress has been minimal e.g. one sprite ripped on Target Plus and a little bit of of the Spanish light gun game Trigger.
While I'm here, it's been ages since I've last done an arcade rip:
Super Speed Race
Never thought that I'll rip yet another ancient arcade racing game... One that is historically important but forgotten, historically important because it was the first Japanese racing game series and an influence on Sega's Monaco GP (that I really need to finish ripping the Saturn recreation). Sadly most of the Speed Race series cannot be preserved due to not using microprocessors, uses discrete logic and/or not having ROMs (or all three). The Japanese counterpart is not dumped, it's also unclear whether its Super Speed Race GP V or something else due to both the English and Japanese wiki pages have conflicting info. The only things that still exist are flyers, a couple of screenshots and maybe if you're extremely lucky playing on an actual arcade machine of Speed Race Deluxe in Japan. Super Speed Race Jr. came out much later so at least that one can be ripped.
Interestingly the flyer has mockup screenshots but thankfully the actual game has better sprites, something that you rarely see in gaming marketing.
Also since the tileset cannot be viewed in MAME, ripped it via TileGGD.
Oh and I've ripped from Monte Carlo but... (goes on tSR) It was already ripped? Oh well...
Anyway, this is it... The Spectrum Push... (Part 1)
100 Kilometri
Gameplay Graphics
One of the few Italian programmed Spectrum games from back in the day. The game appeared in Load 'n Run magazine, notorious for having pirated versions of commercial games on the tape that are usually translated into Italian and this is one of the few original games. It also apparently got a Spanish release too from the same magazine, the tape is currently missing though.
Also yes, that's all the sprites in this game. The bike is literally 1 sprite.
Pro Go-Kart Simulator
Car
Nope, it's not a Codemasters game. Also a misleading name since it's more like a Power Drift clone. Weirdly enough this was one of the first racing games that was developed by the company that later became Eutechnyx who until their demise was their main focus.
Turbo Skate Fighter
Skater
Not many racing games where you literally have to run without the use of a vehicle (I think Sonic R and Mad Dash Racing being the two that I can name off the top of my head). This reminds me of an arcade game that I can't quite remember the name... No it's not Metro-Cross...
Grand Prix Circuit
Rival
Only plus compared to the Amstrad version is that it runs at a better frame rate and as a side effect just a bit better to control but yeah apart from that... this is the worst version of the game but not intentionally. For some reason, every time I play it seems to be stuck on time trials even to the point of changing the courses after a crash or complete the same race twice. On the C64, Amstrad and any other version, you qualify for a lap then a race but on here, complete a lap and report to pit in. Also you can't select your track like the others. It has the same developers as the CPC version so wonder why... Unfinished game? Developers sent the wrong build to Accolade or Accolade put an earlier build onto tape?
While getting the rival car on the graphics viewer was simple enough, for it to show up in game is a different story. It got so bad that I had to watch a YouTube video and was hard enough to find one, just to find the in game palette that luckily is the same as the background and off road (so yeah, checking every car regarding where the green ends and the yellow starts). As we know to get colour on the Spectrum is like a hack working around 8x8 blocks yet actually it was okay trying to avoid the colour clash.
Full Throttle 2
Rider
Rival
Poorly programmed game with broken sprites....
The Cycles
Rival
Uses the same engine as Grand Prix Circuit like all versions of that game but seems to crash on ZXSEC when loading the bike select, lucky that it loaded the rival to rip in the graphics viewer. Had to load it on InkSpector to play the game, yeah this is how the Spectrum version of Grand Prix Circuit should have been like (1 lap to qualify, 1 lap to race, can choose your track). Good frame rate too for a Spectrum game.
Fantastic American Football
Players
Misleading name just like Great Football on the Master System... Also yes, there are American Football games on the Spectrum.
Championship Run
Car
Roadside Objects
A clone of Continental Circus and is rather buggy. The player car graphics often disappear leaving just the tyres and when you go to the pits, it loads garbage where your car is. Considering that it was a full price game, people probably bought or copied more of Continental Circus anyway that would have been on clearance when this came out. Well assuming that you could still get Spectrum games from a shop in 1991 as the Amiga, Master System and Mega Drive would have been more popular, even the NES had a brief spell of popularity in the UK at this time thanks to TMNT and SMB3.
Also I couldn't get the rival as it doesn't seem to be with the other graphics at all.
Joe Blade 3
Joe Blade
Enemies
Crax Bloodfinger
Super Cars
Cars
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
Indiana Jones
Sophia Hapgood
Enemies
Intro
Only ripped this because of a certain film that kept advertising, something about a Dial of Destiny.
Oh and the intro took one side of the tape, literally loading screen after another.
Super Bike Trans-Am
Rider
Rival
Not to be confused with Super Car Trans-Am but ended up doing so to the point where that game got renamed to American Turbo King, Mastertronic ended up re-releasing it and released the Amstrad version. Also some vector graphics for the roadside objects!
Twin Turbo V8
Twin Turbo V8
Rival
Uses the slightly earlier engine as the above and same way of storing the graphics (main sprite being split in half). It uses an interesting and clever way of avoiding colour clash for the player car making it not Spectrum like, but it was the only game that the artist had worked on.
Beach Volley
Players
Desperado / Gunsmoke
The Sheriff / Joe Faster
The Masked One / Bull
Kitty
Pennies
Greybeard
Kid
Topo Soft made a clone of a certain Western Capcom arcade game, different characters* and less levels yet similar gameplay. US Gold then picked it up for UK release and branded it as Gunsmoke. So a clone became an "official port" yet the only proper ports outside of the arcade were the NES, PS1/Saturn and the C64, the latter US Gold had rights to anyway. Besides some people argue that it's Gun.Smoke so not really official for the Spectrum/Amstrad versions. There was also the Korean MSX port as well.
*-With inconsistent names. The manual is basic given just a description outside of the Masked One and Greybeard, the credits omits one of the bosses, the reviews have different names and CPC Power gives something else bearing in mind the Masked One and Greybeard have swapped positions in the Amstrad version. Made worse is that CPC Power reference an "Indian" (Native American) boss who doesn't appear in the game but rather someone who looks like Clark Gable, not using their names as a source. The player character has 3 different names! The Sheriff (manual)/Joe Faster (credits)/Mac Elrapid (Spanish review) however the last one might have been made up by the reviewer. This applies in both English and Spanish.
Also it seems that the wrong palette is shown in game for some of the sprites. Outside of the colour hack, the Spectrum can only understand two things. Ink and Paper, basically black for the ink and white for the paper as a left over from the ZX81. Some have it as black & white, while others have it in white & black. When you invert the monochrome graphics, you can see the outline more clearly. Apparently the Spanish MSX version fixes a few of these...
Bionic Commando
Bionic Commando / Super Joe
Simulador Profesional de Tenis
Players
The Amstrad CPC version has been in the backlog for literally years, not much progress since 2018. By comparison, the
Speccy version was ripped much quicker as it was easier to do. Despite only getting a release in Spain, an English
translation with typos does exist. Wonder why... UK release cancelled due to a similarly named Codemasters game (Pro Tennis Simulator)? Somehow a market of English ex-pats living in Spain wanting a tennis game? It did make it in a compilation called Multi Sports where it was just known as Tenis and the packaging is multilingual. That version on the Amstrad does have the English translation on the disk along with the other games including Grand Prix Master (listed as Aspar).
As of writing; trying to find the heart sprite and assembling the enemies of City Connection, wonder where the other tire and the fallen bike graphics are in Super Hang-On despite the sheet is about 75% complete, trying to wonder why the player and enemy sprites are the same in Frontline, why are things done in 8x8 blocks in Video Olympic?, near but not quite there for Emilio Butragueno Futbol, Speedboat Assassin, Overlander and procrastinating on Dalek Attack. Also having problems with Pole Position and Angel Nieto that I might have to abandon...
Amstrad
Grand Prix Circuit
Rival
It feels like this game has a single digit framerate even when there are no cars on the screen and very jerky to control. Whether it's a rushed port and judging by the Spectrum version probably is or just too much for the computer to cope. Then again the C64 original is actually pretty good on there; decent frame rate by C64 racing game standards with better controls, sampled based soundtrack, no road breakup, working mirrors, more backgrounds with the downside is that your view is just a bit smaller on the grounds of a big steering wheel (the steering wheel is smaller on the other versions), the rival car sprites are mixed as in not as clearly drawn but more of a variety in palettes and the loading times are longer...
Actually might as well rip the C64 original, it's in the backlog...
Desperado / Gunsmoke
The Sheriff / Joe Faster
Greybeard
Kitty
Pennies
The Masked One / Bull
Kid
Another done the Spectrum, do the Amstrad routine and vice versa. Thank goodness for trainers that have infinite lives and a level select. Also Clarisse? Outside of these two, trying to get the Spectrum backlog down (sadly not down enough) hence progress has been minimal e.g. one sprite ripped on Target Plus and a little bit of of the Spanish light gun game Trigger.
While I'm here, it's been ages since I've last done an arcade rip:
Super Speed Race
Car
Rivals
Tileset
Never thought that I'll rip yet another ancient arcade racing game... One that is historically important but forgotten, historically important because it was the first Japanese racing game series and an influence on Sega's Monaco GP (that I really need to finish ripping the Saturn recreation). Sadly most of the Speed Race series cannot be preserved due to not using microprocessors, uses discrete logic and/or not having ROMs (or all three). The Japanese counterpart is not dumped, it's also unclear whether its Super Speed Race GP V or something else due to both the English and Japanese wiki pages have conflicting info. The only things that still exist are flyers, a couple of screenshots and maybe if you're extremely lucky playing on an actual arcade machine of Speed Race Deluxe in Japan. Super Speed Race Jr. came out much later so at least that one can be ripped.
Interestingly the flyer has mockup screenshots but thankfully the actual game has better sprites, something that you rarely see in gaming marketing.
Also since the tileset cannot be viewed in MAME, ripped it via TileGGD.
Oh and I've ripped from Monte Carlo but... (goes on tSR) It was already ripped? Oh well...