Popular games published by company Sinclair Research

PANAMA JOE, That’s what they call him ‘round these parts; though no one knows his real name or where he comes from. But one thing’s for sure, PANAMA JOE’s a daredevil from the word “go!” No risk’s too great if the reward’s large enough. Winning. That’s what’s the most important to him. And more times than not, that’s exactly what he does. Because he’s tough, clever – resourceful. And sometimes, downright pig-headed! Though occasionally (ah-hum), he’s been known to get in over his head. Luckily, he’s got a knack for getting himself out of hot water as quickly as he gets into it! Let’s hope MONTEZUMA’S REVENGE is one of those times.

You must press any key to start the game. It will then ask you if you want to use Keyboard or Joystick. After that section, the game will start. The aim of each level of the game is to kill all of the floaters, the orange/magenta ball-like things that roam the maze. To do this you have one weapon on your side - an infinite supply of bombs. When you drop a bomb, they are automatically primed, and will explode after just a few seconds. So to kill the baddies you must get close enough to them to within the range of the bomb, drop it, and quickly run around a corner to make sure you too are not caught in the explosion. The bombs will destroy any floaters that are caught in the blast, and also certain sections of wall that are in the way, reducing the playing area to open landscape. More and more floaters are added each level, and the game does get quite difficult. You can also only drop one bomb at a time.

Meet MacMan, the canny Scot who takes children on fun-packed maths adventures. MacMan and the Great Escape teaches children about shape and area, and about the effects of rotation and reflection. MacMan is guarding some prisoners trapped behind a wall. As if by magic, holes of different shapes and sizes appear in the wall. Children help MacMan stop his prisoners escaping by selecting shapes of the appropriate area, then manipulating them by rotation and/or reflection to fit each hole. If they are too slow, the prisoners break out and terrible things happen to MacMan! The program features suberb special graphics effects, and a range of six difficulty levels. This software was developed by educationalists and has been tried and tested in schools and homes. The program was written by Intelligent Software, creators of high quality educational software. For 5-9 year olds.

In 1982 Tang also produced Horace Goes Skiing. In it, Horace must cross a dangerous road teeming with traffic to rent out a pair of skis, à la Frogger, get back over the road and successfully navigate a ski course. This title is not a true sequel, as it does not follow on from an original story and is only similar in that it features the same character. Like Hungry Horace, this title was available on the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Dragon 32. As before, Sinclair distributed the Spectrum version, Melbourne House the Commodore 64 and Dragon 32 versions.

A compilation of 7 educational games designed for children between the age of 7 and 11: - Crash - Multiply - Train - Fraction - Add Sub - Division - Spelling

Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle is a Shoot 'em up video game published by Parker Brothers in 1983 for various Atari platforms and in 1984 for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. It was the first released video game to be based on the movie Return of the Jedi. In the game, the player controls the Millennium Falcon with the aim of destroying the second Death Star. The game is split into two stages. In the first, the player must shoot enemy TIE fighters while waiting for an opportunity to pass through an energy shield. In the second stage, the player must shoot at parts of the Death Star until there is a clear path to the reactor. Once the reactor has been destroyed, the player must survive the resultant explosion. Once these objectives are completed, the game begins again in a new round with greater difficulty.

Meet MacMan, the canny Scot who takes children on fun-packed maths adventures. MacMan and the Caber Eater teaches addition and subtraction and shows some of the relationships between numbers. By adding and subtracting, children help MacMan to build up a caber, piece by piece, and then toss it. Easy? Not when the dreaded Caber Eater appears on the scene and tries to steal the pieces away! The program has five levels of difficulty, a built-in assessment device, and a 'help' sequence for children having difficulty. This software was devised by educationalists and has been tried and tested in schools and homes. The program was wrtitten by Intelligent Software, creators of high quality educational software for 4-8 year olds.

A compilation of 6 games for a ZX81 with a 16K memory expansion module. Lunar Landing The lunar excursion module starts in a atable lunar orbit. You can control it to bring it a soft landing on the moon. Twenty One The card game of Twenty One Combat You are in a spacecraft equiped with 12 missiles with which you have to fight of aliens. Substrike Within a grid you have to fight of submarines using depth charges. Codebreaker A Mastermind like game Mayday You have to find a person lost in space (7x7x7 grid).

Chequered Flag is a racing game from Psion Software and published by Sinclair Research in 1983. The first driving game published for the ZX Spectrum, and one of the very first car simulators.

In 1983, Tang produced the third title in the series, Horace and the Spiders. This was primarily a platform game with the Horace sprite retained from the first two games. The first level sees Horace climbing a hill while jumping over spiders. The second level involves crossing a bridge by swinging on spider threads. The third level is the final confrontation with the spiders – he must create holes in the web, luring the spiders into the holes to fix them and consequently jumping on them. Unlike the earlier two titles, this game was only released for the ZX Spectrum. The first stage of this game shared similarities with both Pitfall and the Colecovision game Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle, whilst the third platform stage is essentially a Space Panic clone.

Educational game which teaches players how to make basic 8-bit microchips

Driller Tanks features a side-on view of the tank you control, which is submerged in a maze full of nasties known as Mammuts and Skorks. The aim is to first shoot them, then run them over, within a limited period of time before they wake up and reactivate. You must walk through a particular section of maze to make it accessible for this, as any shot fired into the initial blue barriers will have no effect. At all times you must watch to ensure that none of the Mammuts reach the palace by travelling to the top of the screen. The Skorks are less harmful, but contact with them in their unfrozen state is still fatal, and they refill areas you have cleared.