The UnimPORTant part 4 Home computers

This is the fourth part of the unimportant port part. We focus this time on a slew of 8bit computers that were popular back in the day. Think Chinnyvision's channel on Youtube for the kind of stuff we're getting at. Amstrad to ZX Spectrum with a little CBM action thrown in. If the platform is not specified on the heading then the game port is for the main three computers  at the time I.E. CPC, Speccy, C64.

First up

Kurosu ZX81.

This is one of those puzzle games where you can't have more than two 0 or Xs next to each other in a row in a 6x6 square grid.

I would have said sudoku here as well but i'm really not sure if the unexpanded ZX81 has enough grunt to run a randomized 9x9 grid with the rules, unless you added 16k of wobbly add on ram.

Whereas a 6x6 grid I would imagine could be made to run in 1K of ram with ascii graphics, which is this computers limitations.

Crosswize Hewson C64.

A mate had this for his speccy and while a C64 owner back in the day, I guess I wanted this to come to the beige breadbin. Not that we aren't starved for side scrolling shmups on the C64 side. Just one of those games that never got ported to anything.


Lunar Rescue Taito

The original was on the Tatio legends CD round up of their old Arcade IP. As soon as I saw this late 70's obscurity I said, wow this has got to be an old Speccy game, as it just looks the part.

Looking around there is an actual unofficial port for the speccy, as well as a new remake. So I'll extend this out to Amstrad and C64 users too.

Ice Climber.

This is one of those games from the NES which aren't well regarded now. You have to climb a mountain, either clubbing the birds and seals until you reach the bonus round at the summit where you have to collect the vegetables and cop hold of the pterodactyls cock to escape (that's what it looked like as a kid.)

It's a fun game, that I'm sure could be ported to the home computers, even the poor little spectrum in monochrome mode without too much autistic screeching from Nintendo. Imagine this running with CPC colours or the more dour C64 palette.

The Pit. Spectrum.

One I got from reading Reverend Flat tops site a long time ago. Apparently its an old ultimate play the game title, where you have to go digging in a pit and avoid the robots. For a more up to date version and a list of all the suspected games that Rare before Rare put out on arcade platforms, then Rev Stuart Campbell has a good article here (see The Pit halfway down for more fun.).