Popular games for platform Sinclair ZX81

31.12.1981

QS Defender is a side scrolling shooter that although it is inspired by it, lacks many features of the arcade game Defender. This version is constantly scrolling left to right and there is no option to turn around and move in the opposite direction. The player can move up and down, fire and use thrust to increase the movement speed forward. There is only one enemy type and each one killed is worth 100 points. Enemies appear in waves. At the start there are just a few but as the player progresses it gets more hectic with up to eight enemies on the screen at once. The player has nine ships. When getting hit the screen goes black for a few seconds before it starts again with a clear screen and one ship less. Once all ships are lost the game has to be restarted through basic.

31.12.1982

Timex Sinclair 1000 release port of Frogger.

31.12.1984

Alerta Vermelho is a game where you need attack the enemy planet using the lasers and bombs you have and, at the same time, defend yourself.

01.01.1970

Gunfight is an unofficial port of the classic Atari VCS game where a cowboy at either side of the screen, moving up and down for the Sinclair ZX81.

30.06.2023

Shuriken is somehow inspired by Pac-man and Pengo.

31.12.1981

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

31.12.1981

Games 1 is a collection of six games and programs which contains: Orbit: You control a ship orbiting a star and the further you are the slower you circle it. Also on screen is a piece of cargo orbiting the same star and you must adjust the speed of your craft by moving inwards and outwards to catch it. Sniper: A man appears on the screen in one of ten positions and you must press one of the number keys 1 to 0 where you think he is on screen. Meteors: You control a craft on the top of the screen and you must move left or right through a meteor storm that moves up the screen. Life: A program that was devised by J. H. Conway in 1970 and allows you to see a pattern come to life and hopefully grow. You place cells on a 16 x 16 grid and when you are happy with your placements you can let it come to life. Three cells adjacent to each other produces a cell, two or three neighbours, the cells survive and one or more than three cells, the cells die. Wolfpack: You control a ship on the top of the screen left or right, and you must drop a depth charge to hit a submarine below moving across the screen right to left. You only have one depth charge per sub and when the sub reaches the edge of the screen it has escaped. Golf: You must hit a ball into a hole at a random distance by selecting the range from 35 to 75.

31.12.1984

USS-Enterprise is an unofficial strategy game based on Star Trek, where you are James Kirk, and your mission is to destroy all Klingon ships in the galaxy.

31.12.1981

Text adventure with an overview of surrounding rooms for the ZX81 with a 16K memory expansion module. The game allows you to set some parameters (like amount of food and arrows, but also the dungeon layout) before starting.

26.11.2011

Clive Junior's latest invention went terribly wrong! It exploded and all kinds of parts are flying across the room! Your goal is clear and simple: Avoid the debris while running around and picking up parts to gain points!

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03.06.2024

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.

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05.06.2022

A reboot of the Game and Watch title Helmet, with Palo T as the protagonist.

31.12.1982

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.

31.12.1983

3D space shooter

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11.02.2022

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

31.12.1982

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

01.06.1984

Tournament Tennis is an early tennis game featuring or even creating many conventions that would become standard features in later tennis simulations. Matches can be played at quarter-final, semi-final or final level - winning at one level automatically moves the player to the next one. They can last for 3 or 5 sets, with a player requiring a 2-game lead to win a set, though a tie-break comes in at 6–6 in all but the final set.

31.12.1985

Amazônia is a remake of the original Aventuras na Selva, rewritten in Assembly with more locations, more complete descriptions of each scenario, and new dangers for the player.

31.12.1982

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.

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31.12.1982

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.

31.12.1982

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.

31.12.1983

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).

31.12.1982

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.

31.12.1981

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.