A small group of us started going to Felixstowe on Sundays in late 1980s and it was there that we discovered the joys of “modern” arcade cabinets. I had always been enthralled by individual cabinets I used to see dotted around pubs, hidden away in a corner of a local chip shop, all of those early primitive and raw games such as Asteroids, Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Galaxians. But it was at these dedicated amusement arcades that we got to enjoy the big dedicated arcade cabinets of the era such as Sega’s full-size hydraulic Afterburner, Konami’s Jackal, Ikari Warriors, Double Dragon, Gauntlet (the most addictive coin pumping arcade game of all time), Super Sprint, Quartet (Sega’s answer to Gauntlet) and Irem’s R-Type. We spent a lot of money there and had some great times. Our first visit to Felixstowe was particularly memorable as we missed the last train home and walked all the way from Felixstowe back to Ipswich, a ten mile hike.
One of the most lucrative sources of revenue for software companies in the 1980s was home computer conversions of arcade games. The Commodore 64 was home to most arcade conversions. Some were good, like Gauntlet, Out-Run, and some shockingly bad ones as well, such as Quartet. The Quartet committed the worst sin a home computer conversion could make, which was that it copied what you saw on the screen but contained none of the gameplay. We enjoyed Quartet in the arcade as it was a side scrolling four-player platform shoot em up designed to capitalise on the Gauntlet style of multi-player gameplay. I foolishly bought the game the day it was released without reading any of the reviews for it hoping it would emulate the arcade experience. When it was finally reviewed it got ripped apart (and rightly so) as it was terrible to play. Most arcade conversions were produced by US Gold and Ocean Software to deadlines who often farmed the work out to developers who could produce this kind of work fast and to a specific brief. In the original arcade game all four of the characters in the game had unique powers and abilities, the conversion none of these features were present, everyone was the same but different colours. I have, using MAME gone back and played the original Quartet ROM again, and it is a disappointingly poor game from Sega designed to cash in on the four-player craze that was filling up the arcades and proving to be very profitable, with games such as Gauntlet.
The Commodore 64 was also home to some stunning original games such as Frankie Goes to Hollywood and anything by Jeff Minter. Despite having 64k of memory, the Commodore 64 only had access to 32k of it, as the rest was reserved for the operating system, colour, graphics and sound. There were some very inventive programmers who managed to get the computer to perform miracles. There were enough exclusives to both the Spectrum and Commodore to make me happy to have owned both. It managed to create some clever music and graphics. I was always of the belief the Commodore 64 was a great machine, and it was and still it, but the graphics and colours were blocky and the colour range dull especially when compared to other home computer conversions. Where the Commodore shined was in its original games.
Although not a brilliant or a classic game, Mutants by Denton Designs was a game released by Ocean Software that had a beautiful soundtrack by Fred Gray, who still plays this music live. The object of the game was to visit sixteen overhead scrolling worlds and shoot your way through various styles of mazes to find a part of a relic. Once you recovered the relic you fought your way back to the exit portal to complete the level. As you recovered each piece, a four by four puzzle picture slowly built up. Once you completed all sixteen levels you won the game. It was a very challenging game, as the enemies were tough to shoot, and the “weed” which you shot to reveal the relic very quickly grew back if you didn't grab it in time.
Into the Eagle’s Nest on the Commodore 64 was a World War Two top down themed version of Gauntlet that was very difficult to play. It only had four levels, but these were huge and ammo was limited and it was very easy to die or run out of ammunition. There was a finite number of German soldiers on each level, but there was not enough ammunition to kill them all, so it was down to you to choose the best route. You could pick up health and more ammunition even if you didn't need it, so you needed to be careful not to walk over health and ammunition you didn't need. One thing I clearly remember was the “wellington boot” sucker sound as your army hero moved about. To ensure the game had longevity, there were a total of four missions and the Eagles Nest castle of the title had four levels which you could visit. This type of game was suddenly quite popular and spawned other Gauntlet clones such as Ranarama and Dandy of varying quality. It was a thinking man’s shooter as you also had a limit number of keys to open doors. Like all the other clones this was a single player only game, and it would only be Druid II: The Enlightenment that would provide two player gauntlet style action.
Spindizzy was Paul Shirley’s underrated masterpiece. A flick screen game where you controlled a gyroscope that required precise delicate control. It was a massive game that took a long time to play. The map was immense and even had lifts to take you up and down to different levels. There has been a long running plan to make a retro version of this, but to no avail. A huge game with so much to discover, and asked a lot from the player by only giving you limited lives. It got high review scores in the magazines but somehow failed to turn positive reviews into sales.
As the end of the 1980s approached so did the era of the 8 bit machines. I guess it was bad timing for me as my parents were getting ready to emigrate to Spain. People still seemed happy playing 8 bit computers with 8 bit games, graphics and sounds, and the mass market consumer popularity of 16 bit era was still a couple of years away, although the machines were available to buy, they were almost four times the price of a Spectrum, and three times the price of a Commodore.
During the 1980s the price of 8 bit computers had fallen to a price bracket that made the machines easy to afford. One thing I clearly remember about the era was the constant war waged between Commodore 64 and Spectrum owners. I feel most of this bashing was fueled by the computer magazines (Crash and ZZAP!64) and not the owners themselves. The 8 bit computers had dominated the last decade, and I was becoming disillusioned with the slow pace of development within computer industry. Looking back it was clear that Moore’s Law was in full operation. The 8 bit machines hadn't really improved in almost ten years, instead just offering more of the same but with slightly better memory. The game play had moved on, but computing power hadn't. I remember designing my own computer games, but all of them required more powerful computers to fuel the graphics I had in mind, more powerful than the incredibly weak 8 bit machines.
Those school friends who had owned the ZX Spectrum lost interest and moved onto new things, like work and girlfriends, and no one took any notice of the new emerging 16 bit monsters.
