Popular games for platform Sinclair ZX81
The first football management simulator, many of the hallmarks of the incredibly complex games which exist in this genre today are found in embryonic form here. Club finances, player transfers, basic tactics, and perhaps most importantly of all, excellent white noise crowd sounds when your team scored.
Em Busca dos Tesouros is a platformer developed by then 15-year-old Tadeu Curinga and published by the computer magazine Micro Sistemas.
If you ever felt sorry for the ghosts, the orphans they left behind, and wondered what would happen when Pac-Man became the ruling elite, then this is for you. Whilst researching to see if the ZX81 was capable of doing justice to an isometric game along the lines of Ant Attack! or KnightLore, Bob's Stuff coded a program to display a single height map of tiles, and it looked a bit like a maze. Along with the code examples, he'd also been experimenting with the graphics required for such a game, and produced a cute little ghost. An idea then began to germinate... a maze, and some ghosts? Why not try a scrolling isometric Pac-Man? He's still not sure if a full isometric game is possible (that's for another day) but a scrolling flat one certainly is, and he's really pleased with the results. It looks good, is fluid and responsive, and features most of the aspects of the original - including the (slightly bugged) A.I. and attack patterns. Having a ghost as the main character means that I've had to supplemented the concept of 'lives' for 'spirit' - I mean, a ghost doesn't have a life, does it? - which introduces a slight twist on how you play the game.
You have to defeat the Lords of Chaos in this action adventure.
Three symbols appear in the centre of the screen as a vertical column and the player has to move them to one of 4 sets of 3 columns by pressing up, down, left or right. The idea is to build up lines of 3 matching symbols horizontally or diagonally to score points and gain a little time. The faster you make decisions the longer you will last, but the more mistakes you will make. The author's personal best score is 9600, can you beat that? Inspired by a video game popular in Belgian bars. Features a high score table and redefinable keys. Joysticks and Zon-X sound supported.
3D Monster Maze is a computer game developed from an idea by J.K.Greye and programmed by Malcolm Evans in 1981 for the Sinclair ZX81 platform with the 16 KB memory expansion. The game was initially released by J. K. Greye Software in early 1982 and re-released later the same year by Evans' own startup, New Generation Software. Rendered using low-resolution character block "graphics", it was one of the first 3D games for a home computer, and the first game incorporating typical elements of the genre that would later be termed survival horror. 3D Monster Maze puts the player in a maze with one exit and a hostile monster, the Tyrannosaurus rex. There, the player must traverse the maze, from the first-person perspective, and escape through the exit without being eaten.
A reboot of the Game and Watch title Helmet, with Palo T as the protagonist.
Scram - 81 is a clone of the arcade game Scramble which is viewed from the side with the screen scrolling left to right constantly. You have to fly a spaceship above the surface of a planet bombing ground targets while shooting or bombing missiles with your laser. As you fly, your fuel level decreases but you can bomb fuel dumps to increase it. If you hit a missile or the surface then you lose one of three lives.
Pinball recreates a pinball table where the aim is to keep hitting a ball to score as many points as you can with two flippers. The table is equipped with bumpers and letters spelling TIMEX, as well as two lanes that when entered give bonus points. There are also two outside lanes that when entered lose the ball and if the ball also passes the flippers then you lose one of five lives.
The ZX Spectrum port of Boulder Dash.
Comboio Espacial is a game for the Sinclair ZX81, where you must protect your convoy by destroying enemy ships and avoiding hitting the space mines.
During the American Gold Rush you are digging for gold. While excavating gold you must be aware of giant rats and a vicious Gremlin which comes to infest the mine. Snakes can be used to eat the rats. This a 16K program which uses "high-resolution"graphics.
A Pac-Man clone for the ZX81 with 16k memory expansion module and for the ZX Spectrum
Subespaço is a game for the Sinclair ZX81 where you are the commander of the subspace ship Pegasus and your mission is to dismantle the enemies' supply network, depriving them of their vital supplies.
You have five days to escape from the Oracle's Cave and gather as much treasure along the way as possible.
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.
Tenseiryuu: Saint Dragon is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up video game originally released as a coin-op by Jaleco in 1989. It was converted to several home computer platforms by Storm Entertainment in 1990.
Help our hero protect his colony by repelling the attack of voracious killer spiders in this exciting ZX81 game.
The classic Defenders (Atari 2600 and other platforms) but then in a first person 3D perspective. This game is to be run with a 16K expansion module. You fly over a planet and have a proximity radar indicating where (left-right) an enemy is. Your radar can show false hits when meteorites fall down. The enemies go down and you get points (250) if you shoot them before they reach the ground. The enemies will shoot at you and you will have to try to prevent being hit. If an enemy reaches the ground and can fly up and away again you loose points (50). You have a shield which can take take 10 hits. With either one of the keys q-t moves you left-down. y-p right-down. a-g left-up, h-newline right up. z-m shoots the laser. Using two keys at once allows you to move non-diagonal.
An unofficial port of Atari's Centipede made by Jeff Minter in the early years of Llamasoft.
First Steps with the Mr. Men is a Mr. Men video game for multiple platforms.
A collection of 8 games for the ZX81 with 16K memory expansion module. Planetoids A clone of the Arcade classic Asteroids. Breakout A clone of the Arcade classic Breakout. Space Rescue You have to rescue 6 astronauts on the ground by steering a dropship through an asteroid field towards landing platforms. After landing and picking up one astronout you have to fly up through a field of enemy ships and dock with the mother ship. Draughts Play draughts against a computer opponent. Byte-man A Pac-man clone with three different mazes to complete. Dodgems Like pac-man you must eat all the dots. Dodgems is however made up of lanes (from outside to inside) and you can switch lane on the left, right, top or down side of the screen while always moving forward. Blitz You fly over a city and you have to bomb the building to clear a path for landing. You can go up and down and drop bomb. Buildings are rebuild and get higher as time progresses, make sure not to crash into one. Merchant You are a sea trader sailing from city to city buing and selling items. While sailing from one city to another you can encounter danger which make you loose cargo. You can buy more ships. The goals is to reach a capital of 1000000 florins.