Popular games for platform Sinclair ZX81
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.
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.
You are marooned on a strange planet and have to repair your space ship in order to get back home.
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).
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.
Raider is a Scramble clone that has you flying over the surface of a planet before flying through a cavern bombing the installations and missile dumps. As you fly, missiles and aliens will fly towards you and you can either bomb them or use your laser. You are able to move your craft up or down, and left or right to avoid the missiles and aliens as well. If you hit a missile, alien or the planet's surface then you lose one of three lives. A fuel gauge decreases as you fly but you can increase it by bombing fuel dumps.
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.
It's the year 2081 and servant robots have become commonplace, though too expensive for most people. In that same year, a large abandoned Sinclair warehouse is discovered with thousands of mint, working ZX81s and some genius decides to build a line of cheap and affordable robots using them: The Zeddytrons. Based on ZX81s and huge rampacks (by 2081, rampack science has advanced significantly) the Zeddytrons become massively popular and the world fills with them ... until the unexpected happens! Wobblying rampacks cause the Zeddytrons to malfunction and declare mankind an obsolete species! Your mission is to move through 50 waves, blasting Zeddytrons, avoiding undestructible Zeddyhulks and rescuing human survivors! You can control your player using AWSD to move and JIKL to shoot simultaneously in 8 directions. Otherwise, you can use OPQAM / Cursor / ZXPand+ Joystick to move and shoot by pressing fire and the direction in which you want to shoot. Good Luck!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Early ZX81 game.
Backgammon for the ZX81 with 16K memory expansion module or for the ZX Spectrum.
Get the frog from the bottom of the screen to the top. You'll cross a road with trucks and cars and then you'll cross a river with logs and crocodiles.
In what is possibly the most baffling text adventure ever devised, navigate a surreal landscape with the aid of the Pi-Man in an attempt to discover the (real world) location of a golden sundial. Originally published in 1982.
Piramide Inca is a game for the ZX81 where your mission is to explore one of the sacred pyramids of the Incas where, according to an ancient legend, one of their greatest chiefs was buried along with all their fabulous treasure.
Dodgems and Connect 4 is a double games pack that contains: Dodgems: You move a vehicle around lanes eating dots while avoiding another vehicle because if you hit it then you lose one of three lives. Your vehicle is always moving forwards but you can change lanes through openings of the lanes. Before the game you can select the speed of the game (1-9). Connect 4: A strategy game where a player either plays the computer or another player on a 7 x 6 grid dropping counters down each column. The idea is for a player to make a row of four counters in a vertical, horizontal or diagonal line to win the game.
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.
An illustrated text adventure game for the ZX Spectrum and Sinclair ZX81.