Popular games for platform Sinclair ZX81

Bat Cage is an action game where the player has to capture bats while fighting off other bats that try to rescue them. The playing field consists of a bat cage in the bottom and above it a bat flap around and there are also eight bat eggs bouncing around. The player controls a bar that can be moved around freely. It is used to capture the bat eggs which are taken to the bat cage where they can hatch. As soon as the hatching begins the bat at the top of the screen will attack and try to rescue the egg. The player then has to use the bar to fend it off. It works a bit similar to Breakout as the bat will bounce back up again when it makes contact with the bar. The player then scores points as long as the egg hatches. Ultimately the attacking bat will give up and retreat and the player can move on to the next egg that needs to be captured. As the game goes on the player will reach bonus levels and the number of attacking bats will increase. The game is over when the bats stay at the top of the screen and no longer attack when the player hatches his eggs. The game can be set to different skill levels (1-36) that alters the speed of the game.

Jungle Maths is an educational game for multiple sytstems. The player must travel through a jungle to reach their home base and safety. To do this, they must correctly answer 10 math questions. A map tracks the player's progress. If the player answers incorrectly, they could fall in a pit, sink into quicksand, or have other animated maladies befall them. Five incorrect answers, and it's game over. Options include numbers from 10 to 1000, subtraction or addition, negative numbers, and time to answer the questions.

You control a base on the bottom of the screen moving left or right, and you have to blast or avoid falling meteors with your laser over five waves. As you avoid or blast the meteors, you also have a panic button which removes all meteors on the screen but using this reduces your bonus. A wave ends when your base is hit and you move to the next wave but with the meteors falling faster. Before you start the game, you can select three levels of difficulty, Slow, Fast and Expert.

Munchees is a Pac-Man clone where you must move around a maze to clear it by eating all the dots. As you eat the dots you have to avoid ghosts and if you touch one then you lose one of three lives. There are power-pills that can be eaten and these allow you to eat the ghosts for a short time. You have a choice of how many ghosts on the maze (1-4).

QS Scramble is a clone of the arcade game Scramble. It's a side-scrolling shooter where the player controls a space craft flying over the surface of an alien planet. Movement is limited to moving up and down and there are two weapons to attack with: forward going missiles and bombs that are dropped onto ground targets. Five missiles can be fired at a time and three bombs can be dropped at a time. Targets include aliens that swoop down from above and rockets that launch from the ground. On the ground there are also fuel dumps. The game goes on until the player has lost all three lives or the fuel runs out.

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.

Pac Rabbit is a Pac-Man clone where you take the role of a rabbit and you move about a maze eating all the dots to clear the maze. As you eat the dots you must avoid the hounds that are hunting you but you can eat magic carrots which enable you to eat the hounds for a short time. If you touch a hound then you lose one of ten lives. There are six mazes split into two parts, Rabbits Revenge and Run Rabbit Run and you can choose the speed of the game (0-9) with zero being the fastest.

Thro' The Wall also Scramble is a double games pack that contains: Thro' The Wall: A Breakout clone where you control a bat on the bottom of the screen moving left or right, to hit a ball upwards and remove bricks above. If the ball goes past the bat then you lose one of three lives. There is a choice of the speed of the ball and they are Normal, Fast and Superfast. Scramble: You view your craft from the side as it flies from left to right horizontally constantly, and you must avoid or shoot ground installations and enemy craft with your missiles. You can use a smart bomb to destroy everything on the screen but you only have one and if you hit the ground or any enemy then you lose one of three lives. You have the choice of ten speeds (1-10) with one being the fastest.

Breakout 3 is based on the arcade game Breakout but instead of the bat on the bottom of the screen, the bat is on the left side of the screen. The aim is to hit bricks on the right of the screen to make them disappear but if you let the ball past the bat then you lose one of three lives. Before the start of the game you can choose whether to play with one or two bats, and playing with two bats has them parallel to each other a small distance apart. There are also three types of games to play and they are: Practise Game: A normal game with the choice to choose the speed of the bat (1-4) with 1 being the slowest. Progressive Game: Every time you hit the ball it speeds up and also removing a set of bricks makes the ball faster. Acceleration Game: The ball will speed up for every 10th brick disappearing and it speeds up when all the bricks have been removed.

Artic Computing's take on Reversi

J.D. Arcades is a collection of three games that contains: UXB: You have to move around a maze to catch four tumblers, which are numbered and must be collected in the correct order. Once you have collected them all then you must get to the detonator before a fuse reaches it. If you collect the wrong tumbler or hit the fuse then it is game over. Strategic Invaders: A Space Invaders clone where you control a base moving left or right, blasting aliens who are above in formation, moving across the screen, slowly descending downwards dropping bombs. Between your base and the aliens are shields which lose parts every time you hit one or the aliens do. One unique feature is that each position on the screen your base is on, only has nine shots. It is game over if you get hit by an aliens bomb or you allow them to land. Laser Patrol: A side view shooter where you must move a spacecraft up or down to either avoid or blast asteroids that move across the screen from right to left. if you hit an asteroid then it is game over.

ZX Asteroids is based on the arcade game where you are a craft sitting in the middle of the screen surrounded by large asteroids moving about the screen. You have to blast all the asteroids, and when one is shot then it splits into smaller asteroids and keeps repeating the process until the asteroid has gone. You can turn your craft left or right 360 degrees but you can also move forwards. Occasionally an alien craft will appear and when shot gives you bonus points. If you are hit by an asteroid or the alien craft then you lose one of three lives. Two players can play and each player takes it in turns when the other player loses a life and there are five levels of play (1-5) with one being the easiest.

Timex Sinclair 1000 release port of Frogger.

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...

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.

Croaka-Crawla is a clone of the arcade game Frogger where the player must control a frog and get him to the other side of a road and river. The game is viewed from above and the first thing to cross is a busy road full of traffic scrolling across the screen. You can move left, right or forward as you dodge the traffic to reach a river bank. Once the road has been survived then a river must be crossed by jumping on logs or the backs of turtles that scroll across the screen as well. Once you reach the other side of the river you must jump into a gap and occasionally a baby frog or flies appears for extra points. If you get hit by a vehicle, fall into the river, or touch the sides of the screen then you lose one of three lives. Before the game you can change the speed of the game (1-100) with 1 being the fastest.

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.

Fortress of Zorlac is a shoot 'em up with some similarities to Yars' Revenge. The player's objective is to rid the galaxy of a dreaded alien called Zorlac. Zorlac is positioned on the right side of the screen and is protected by a fortress consisting of three rotating walls as well as four indestructible stationary guns. The player starts out at the left edge of the screen but can move around in all directions. To be able to hit the alien the player first has to blast a hole through the three walls. It is made harder by the constant movements of both the rotating walls and the alien. At the same time the player has to avoid being hit by the defense guns which automatically lock in on the player ship. As the game goes on the fortress slowly moves toward the player who gets less space to dodge the enemy fire. Once the player has been able to hit Zorloc, he gets enraged and the game moves on to the next level that's played at a higher speed. The player scores points by destroying the walls of the fortress and for hitting the alien. Points are awarded based on the skill level chosen before a game and the player's distance from the edge of the screen. Hitting the alien is worth fifty times more than destroying a block in the fortress. The player has access to five ships and once they have all been destroyed the game ends.

Byter is a Pac-Man clone. You control a mouse, moving about a maze and attempting to eat all the dots while avoiding monsters. If you touch a monster then you lose one of three lives but if you collect one of four dollar signs then you can eat the monsters for a short time.

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.

Damper/Glooper is a double games pack that contains the following: Damper: A city in the jungle is losing it's power due to Leeches on the grid. In this maze game you must move along the grid and damp the dotted lines which turns them solid. As you move around the grid, Leeches also move about and if you touch one then you lose one of three lives. Glooper: A Pac-Man clone where you have to move about a maze to eat all the dots while avoiding three creatures moving about the maze. If you touch a creature then you lose one of three lives but there are power-pills that can be collected and this allows you to eat the creatures for a short time.