Retro Videogaming: Crash #1 1984.

CRASH #1 February 1984.

The Bible for rubber key addicts everywhere.

Retro Videogaming: ULTIMATE PLAY THE GAME.

 

THE GREATEST VIDEOGAME COMPANY EVER

The heroes of videogamers today are the likes of Rockstar, Bungie, Bethesda or Epic, but for the original old school gamers who were around to witness the birth of the industry back in the early 80's, the pioneers during those days are remembered with awe and affection. This includes me. 

As far as I'm concerned, the greatest ever videogame company were ULTIMATE PLAY THE GAME. The company was founded by two brothers, Tim and Chris Stamper, in 1982. Both were ex-arcade developers/coders who saw the potential in home gaming with the launch of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K computer here in the UK. Their first release was a simple and addictive shooter called Jetpac which was a huge success due mainly to its arcade quality graphics which were amazing for the time. From there many of their releases became huge hits and all time classics: games like Cookie, Tranz Am, Atic Atac, Lunar Jetman, Sabre Wulf, Underwurlde, Knight Lore, Alien 8 and many more.

 The awesome Atic Attack

What made ULTIMATE special was not the quality of their product but more due to the deliberate air of mystery which surrounded the company. They never courted the media, never attended computer shows and never issued a release schedule. The first thing you saw when a release was upcoming was a single page advert in the videogame magazines and that was it. It all added to the legend that was ULTIMATE. Looking back, I have so many great memories of their games - buying their first, Jetpac, was one. But the one I remember the most is the dual release of Underwurlde and the epic Knight Lore in 3D. Two ULTIMATE games out at the same time was just mindblowing to us Spectrum owners back in '84. Both games, of course, were absolutely brilliant and revolutionary.

As time passed and the Spectrum, Commodore 64, Atari St and Amiga era's faded away, ULTIMATE became RARE who began to work with and produce games for the new kids on the block - consoles. The Stampers eventually sold up and left the videogaming scene a few years later. RARE were bought by Microsoft and the heart of the company was lost. 

Those early Spectrum days were fantastic and unforgettable. All thanks to a small group of people that anyone hardly knew anything about...

Retro Videogaming: The Great Space Race.

A RACE IN SPACE THAT WASN'T SO GREAT AFTER ALL.

This takes me way back to my earliest days of computer gaming on the ZX Spectrum. One of the first and most influential games I bought for the system was Valhalla. An adventure game all about Thunder Gods, evil Tricksters and really skinny women. But what made Valhalla special was that it was visual unlike most adventurers back then which were text based with the odd graphic thrown in to fire your teenage imagination. In this game, you saw the results of your input as characters moved into frame and interacted with each other. I loved it. This thing was at the cutting edge of bleeding cool. I couldn't wait for their next game. A game they called the Great Space Race.

I remember walking into my local game shop one Saturday morning, well, it wasn't exactly a game shop as there were none back then, it was more a newsagents with a black and white telly in the back which was hooked up to a speccy and tape machine and a selection of the latest games to hit the market were displayed on a rickety shelf above said telly. The owner was a bit of a tech head and his shop used to be packed with kids who were the pioneers of the computer gaming age. There on the shelf was a huge black box with the above logo on. Holy smokes, it was OUT. It was also £12 which was a fortune back then for a game. "TWELVE ENGLISH POUNDS, ARE THEY KIDDING?!" Heck, I'd have to save up for that. But I didn't have to because the owner had installed the game and was playing it as I came into his shop. Hmmmm, what was this? Static screens with a ton of text? Where's the movie? The owner glanced over at me and shook his head. "Not as good as Valhalla. It's a bit crap."

Oh noes!! It's crap?! You mean it's rubbish?!! And it was. I watched this thing beep, burp and generally do nothing with an deep dark sense of doom. All those hopes and anticipation. Gone. Blown away by dodgy pixels which looked nothing like a spaceship. I left the shop wanting to kick a cat. The Great Space Race - I call thee disappointment by any other name.

Retro Videogaming: Lunar Jetman and the Phantom Trailer.

THE LUNAR BUGGY TRAILER - THE STUFF OF VIDEOGAMING LEGEND

His name was Simon B. It was all his fault. "Did you know that there's a trailer in Lunar Jetman?" Long pause. "No there isn't." I replied. I should know. I'd been playing L.J. for a month solid. I sure as hell hadn't seen any God dammed trailer. "There's a photo in Crash." Another long pause. "You're kidding?!!!" He shook his head. "Nope. Somebody sent in a photo of it." Holy shit, why hadn't I seen it? Hell, the game was hard enough without having to lug a trailer around AND avoid the baddest aliens EVER. So he went and got the magazine. "See?" he said, pointing to the photo. "Trailer. Lunar Jetman."

I can't remember how many hours I spent since that conversation trying to find that fucking trailer but it felt a lifetime. Well, at least until the next issue of Crash where the whole thing was debunked after the game code was analysed and the photo was nothing more than a smart arsed fake. If I ever met the bastard who did that I'm not sure whether I'd kick his ass or shake his hand for his bravado. The latter probably these days.

For Spectrum gamers back in the day that became the stuff of legend. Speaking of gaming legend, ever hear the one about Nightshade?

Retro Videogaming: UnderWurlde.

RETRO VIDEOGAME ART

"Underwurlde" by ULTIMATE PLAY THE GAME.

People say that the Super Mario series from Nintendo are the greatest videogaming platformers of all time. Nope, not for me they're not. I go way back to 1984 and this game for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum which came out at the same time as another seminal classic from ULTIMATE - Knight Lore. 

Underwurlde was amazing for its time. To get anywhere you had to pixel perfect jump from ledge to ledge whilst avoiding the meanies. But these meanies were different: all they did was nudge or bump you. Simple when you're on the ground but a pain in the ass if you were perched on a tiny platform half way up the inside of a tower and a fall would mean the loss of a life. Perfect gameplay. Equal parts addictive. Equal parts ARGGHHHH!!

A fantastic game with one of the greatest "cheats" ever seen in the history of videogaming. But that's a tale for another post...

Retro Videogaming: Jet Set Willy and the Banyan Tree.

HARDCORE GAMERS ONLY.

JET SET WILLY ZX SPECTUM 48K.

"There are moments when you reach the impossible. No matter how hard you try, no matter how many goes you attempt, and no matter how long you try to figure out a pattern or check the mags for a cheat, you always end up going "Fuck this shit, that's impossible!!" Welcome to the world of Jet Set Willy and the Banyan tree. A hundred Miner Willy's wouldn't be enough. Hell, I still break out in a cold sweat thinking about it 26 years later."

Retro Videogaming: Zzap! 64.

Zzap! 64 - issue #1 May 1985

When gaming mags took a whole week to read.

Retro Videogaming: ELITE - Spectrum 48k

KNOW YOUR ENEMY

 "Watch out for space pirates if you know what's good for you."