ZX Spectrum Classics Article

If you were already into videogames in the early '80s, there were were almost too many good reasons to buy a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. For a start it was, for a long time, less than half the price of a Commodore 64 and BBC Micro, and had an absolutely corking line-up of games almost from day one.

Even better, it was the machine most of your mates at school seemed to go for as well, and entire friendships were built on a united love for all things Speccy. In my ongoing determination not to sounds like a blithering old war veteran talking about the 'spirit of the blitz', I'll resist talking about the old days. How we all sat around reading each other's copies of Crash, Sinclair User and Your Sinclair, and passed around C90 tapes around the playground like a bunch of thieving pirate scum. Because that would be too obvious, and people hate it when you trap on about the past - especially if you try and glorify it too much.

The thing is - and I loved the Spectrum for years - it was almost the things that were wrong with it that made it all the more endearing. The crappy rubber keyboard. The terrible beeping sound. The lack of a built-in joystick port. And the nightmare of hideous colour clash. Arrrgh! How were we Spectrum owners supposed to defend our purchases to the richer kids with their C64s?

Because, pure and simple, for at least three, maybe four years in the 1980s, the Spectrum had by far the better games. Manic Miner, Atic Atac, Skool Daze, Chuckie Egg, the list went on and on. And those were the more memorable classics. In a matter of a few years there were literally thousands of games to choose from (games you inevitably built up vast collections of pointlessly on dozens of tapes). It was the gaming equivalent of 'gotta catch 'em all' for obsessive-compulsive types like me.

Inevitably, the limitations caught up with the Spectrum and more powerful machines began to grind it into the dust, and the more talented developers moved on. But while it lasted, the Spectrum really was home to some of the best games of the 1980s - and now here's our attempt at sharing our shameless love affair with you for your reading pleasure. As with the C64 selections elsewhere on the site, the criteria are clear: no arcade ports, and no ports of games that originated on other systems.

What you have here is undiluted Spectrum gaming goodness. Enjoy...

Watch the video of the top 50 Spectrum games in action over on Eurogamer TV now.

• 3D Deathchase
  Quick, before death gets away!
• 3D Starstrike
  Holding out for a payrise.
• Agent X
  Agent provocateur.
• Ant Attack
  Ants in Your Pants.
• Atic Atac
  Something dread in the attic, looms!
• Avalon
  Project yourself.
• Bobby Bearing
  Rushin' through the bearing straights.
• Booty
  Yo, ho, ho and a barrel of fun.
• Chequered Flag
  Wheely innovative, but a bit tyresome.
• Chuckie Egg
  You don't need to be a chef to poach eggs!
• Doomsday Castle
  King, at last.
• Dun Darach
  Test your tir na noggin.
• Dynamite Dan
  Who says there are no more heroes?
• Fairlight
  One to show friends.
• Fantasy World Dizzy
  And it's you girl, making me spin.
• Fighter Pilot
  It's not just a clever name.
• Flight Simulation
  Simulation Nation.
• Football Manager
  Stick around for the highlights.
• Halls of Things
  Go somewhere or other and do stuff to things.
• Head Over Heels
  In Love With The Speccy.
• Heartland
  Sorcery at the drop of a hat.
• Highway Encounter
  Highway 61 revisited.
• Horace Goes Skiing
  Snow way to treat a pedestrian.
• Jack the Nipper
  Naughty Nippers!
• Jetpac
  Simple and effective.
• Jet Set Willy
  The miner is in the mansion.
• Knight Lore
  Ch-ch-ch-changes.
• Lords of Midnight
  Do you want dawn?
• Manic Miner
  Time for text.
• Monty on the Run
  Follow the white mole.
• Nodes of Yesod
  A space oddity.
• Pyjamarama
  Wake up little snoozy, wake up.
• Quazatron
  Quazie name, quazie guy.
• Rebelstar
  Extremely advanced lawnmower simulator.
• Rollercoaster
  Life's a pleasure beach!
• Roller Games
  Get your skates on.
• Saboteur
  Are you a shuriken or a shurican't?
• Sabrewulf
  Why Grandma, what a big map you have.
• Skool Daze
  Pay Attention At The Back!
• Spellbound
  A knight to remember.
• Starion
  Art is On? Rat Ions? Err ... Air Snot?
• Starquake
  Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery.
• Stop The Express
  Give 'em the bird.
• The Great Escape
  Do Do. Do Dooooo D' Do Do.
• The Hobbit
  You shall not parser!
• Tornado: Low Level
  Just wing it.
• Trashman
  Rubbish!
• Underwurlde
  Hell of a challenge.
• Valhalla
  Heavenly.
• Wheelie
  When two wheels is too much.