Popular games for platform Sinclair ZX81

A Pac-Man clone without the power ups.

Maze Death Race is a Rally-X variant. The player controls a car and has to drive around a maze and collect a certain number of flags to complete a level. At the same time other cars chase the player's car and attempt to hit it. The number of cars are user defined in the ZX81 version and pre-defined in the ZX Spectrum version. In addition to chaser cars there are various traps on the roads that the player has to avoid hitting such as rocks, oil and ice. Unlike the original arcade game, in this version the player cannot use a smokescreen to confuse the chasers. Both versions allow the player to choose the speed of the AI cars. In the ZX81 version, it is also possible to choose if the car should have momentum while in the Spectrum version this is always the case.

To clear the level, you must destroy all the UFOs while avoiding falling bombs and blocks. Blocks cannot be destroyed by your own bullets, but will disappear if hit by an enemy bomb.

Help our hero protect his colony by repelling the attack of voracious killer spiders in this exciting ZX81 game.

Never did like office parties... Christmas eve, and the staff at Macrobiology Industries Limited were having the usual office party, with all the usual hi-jinx and tears, but something very unusual was happening in the biohazard containment fridge. The predicted pandemic had never occurred, and so the fridge was full of unused swine-flu vaccines, but that night it jostled for space with the secretary's cucumber sandwiches and the boss's - sorry, not his, a friends - Viagra supply, all stored there for safe keeping until the party really got started. But the disco lights overloaded the generator, the fuses blew, the fridge shut off, and the staff all went their separate ways home to sleep off the excesses. January 2nd, happy new year! The security guard, first on site that morning, was slowly working his way around the offices and labs, tripping the fuse boxes back to life. He shook his head, bemused by the broken hinges on the doors, but the smashed containment fridge, and mucus-like stains on the walls and floor scared him enough to grab his SHARPS pistol, as strange things moved just out of sight...

Drawn by a gravitational beam you have to find a way to the main control room in order to free your space ship.

Chess game developed for home computer Sinclair ZX81. Game code takes up only 672 bytes in memory, but implements all chess rules except for castling, promotion, and en passant, including a computer opponent. It was the smallest implementation of chess on any computer at the time.

20 Years on from the Spectrum game Amusement Park 4000, the Zeddy gets a conversion of the 16K Spectrum follow-up Fun Park for Chroma-enabled ZX81s. So much has been crammed into this game; amazing colour and graphics courtesy of Jarrod Bentley, more visitors and options. There are more rides than Amusement Park 4000, and AI and strategy is more sophisticated than the 16K Spectrum version of Fun Park. You've never seen a ZX81 game that looks and plays like this.

An obscure compilation consisiting of six games for the ZX81.

Bob Smith's interpretation of Atari's 1979 arcade game 'Asteroids'.

A Defender like (right only) side scrolling shooter. You are equiped with a laser to shoot enemies and a few super bombs destroying all enemies. While fighting of enemies you have to rescue prisoners on the ground by flying close to them (whatch for gravity pulling you down). This "high-resoluation" game runs on a standard ZX81 with a 16K memory expansion module.

A Pac-Man clone for the ZX81 with 16k memory expansion module and for the ZX Spectrum

Aeroporto 83 is an action shooter game developed by Renato Degiovani and published by the magazine Micro Sistemas, it is considered to be one of the first Brazilian computer games to be commercially released.

Bank Robber is a variant of Commodore's Money Wars. The player controls a man who has to move money from the bank to his home. The bank is located on the left side of the screen while the home is located on the right side. The buildings can however only be entered when their doors are opened. From the sky, meteorites are falling and the player has to avoid being hit by these while moving across the screen. Getting hit means a life is lost. Other things falling from the sky are pills that give an extra life when eaten and bricks that when caught builds or repairs one of three protection buildings (similar to the shields in Space Invaders). At the end of the game the player gets a ranking depending on the amount of cash that has been collected.

After failure on your last mission and recovering in hospital growing a new arm and leg, you have had time to find and study the base of the Cosmic Guerillas, the Black Star. The location is a huge industrial complex on an asteroid and when you have fully recovered you are going to attempt to destroy it. Now fully recovered and your Svelgian Raider craft rebuilt and modified you are flying over the base looking for the valley containing the energy ducts. After one run you prepare yourself to fly down the valley again and finally destroy the base. The game is a 1st person shooter where you fly down the valley and using your sight drop bombs on the energy ducts that you pass. You can speed up or slow down your craft and you are able to move your sight left or right. Below your sight is a small radar and this shows any ships flying behind you. On the sides of the main playing area you can see a timer counting down, amount of bombs, fuel levels, power, speed and score. The faster you travel the more power and fuel you use.

Bumper 7 is a collection of seven games and programs which includes: Repeat 20: Based on Simon but instead of colours you get numbers. The computer gives you a sequence of four numbers which you then copy. If correct then the computer will add a number on to the sequence for you to guess. Ski Slalom: You must control a H and move it left or right to go in between gates that move up the screen. Paper Stone & Knife: Based on the game Rock, Paper, Scissors, you must decide whether to use Paper, Stone or Knife to beat the computer's choice. Paper beats Stone, Stone beats Knife and Knife beats Paper. Snowflake: You must catch snowflakes that fall down the screen. Patterns: This a program that lets you watch patterns appear on the screen. Banco: Based on the card game Punto Banco and the idea is to get the nearest to nine. Sketch: A program that allows you to draw shapes and pictures with a cursor.

Asteroids (Software Farm) is a clone of the Arcade version which sees your craft in the middle of an asteroid field and you must destroy all the asteroids to survive. The asteroids start off large and when you shoot one then it splits into two, and shooting an asteroid this size splits it into two again before being destroyed with another shot. Occasionally an alien craft appears moving across the screen and this can be destroyed for extra points. If you are hit by an asteroid or the alien craft then you lose one of three lives. You are able to turn your ship 360 degrees as well as move forward. There are three skill levels (1-3) and four players can play with each player taking it in turn when the last player is killed.

Airline is an economic strategy game, with the player taking the role of a Chairman for L-AIR, an air company whose business starts off with £3 million. He has 7 years to increase his net assets to £30 million. The player can charter, buy or sell aircraft, as well as managing staffing, maintenance and insurance. Situations in game (like hijacks, air crashes and sabotage) and costs (of fuel and aircrafts, tax demands etc.) are realistic. The graphics are simplified, made ​​up almost entirely of tables and texts.

You are marooned on a strange planet and have to repair your space ship in order to get back home.

Namtir Raiders is a fixed screen shoot 'em up. The objective is simply to shoot down as many enemy raiders as possible and save the earth. There are four waves of enemies and each wave has a different kind of enemy. The movement of the ship is a bit different from other shoot 'em ups. Rather than having keys for up, down, left and right, they here lead to diagonal moves (for example up and left, down and right). The player has five lives and earns more when all four waves have been completed. Once they have the game starts over with the first wave. A difficulty level between one and three can be chosen before the game begins. The higher levels run at a higher pace.

QS Asteroids is a fairly basic conversion of the original arcade game. The action starts immediately after loading (no title or options screens here) and players finds themselves in a space ship in the middle of the screen with numerous asteroids passing by. To control the ship, two keys are used for rotating it, one for shooting and another for thrusting it forward. Shooting can be done in eight directions. On an unmodified ZX81, the ship is represented by a number which changes with rotation (For example 0 means it's pointing up, while 4 is down) and the asteroids are o's, while users with a QS CHRS board get graphics more similar to the arcade original. The player starts with three ships and after 10,000 points a bonus ship is given. Asteroids appear in waves. The first one has two large ones and the number increases with each new wave.

You have five days to escape from the Oracle's Cave and gather as much treasure along the way as possible.