SPECTRUM MEMORIES PART 5 Codemasters - Absolutely Brilliant!The Codies came late to the Spectrum party with their first games released in early 1987. They were an instant hit in no small part to the price: all their titles cost a pocket-money friendly £1.99 and general...Posted by jdanddiet on Jan 25, 2011 23:25 (Jan 25, 2011 23:25) |
Codemasters - Absolutely Brilliant! The Codies came late to the Spectrum party with their first games released in early 1987. They were an instant hit in no small part to the price: all their titles cost a pocket-money friendly £1.99 and generally represented pretty good value for money. The sometimes ridiculous hyperbole on the inlays was always amusing as well.  Of course, they became synonymous in their early days for their "simulator" games. Their first release was BMX Simulator which gained a respectable score in Crash and looked pretty good from the screenshots. BMX was actually a really neat game; simple and clean graphics, simple and clean fun and although it was limited in terms of tracks and bikes, its price helped to alleviate this. Another early release was Professional Ski Simulator which was another smart-looking and playable game. I was never a huge Dizzy fan, finding the original and its various iterations a tad on the dull side. Terra Cognita was more my cup of tea - a horizontally scrolling shooter that got 70% or so in Crash, a respectable score for a budget game. It was ok, if unnecessarily frustrating in places. There were low points unfortunately, always a danger with games so cheap. Transmuter was a rather naff scramble clone that lacked any of its forebear's playability and Grand Prix Simulator took the BMX Simulator template and royally screwed it up with a sub-par Super Sprint clone. Luckily the Codies were releasing plenty of games, and loads of good 'uns to boot. Super Stuntman was a cool twist on the racing game genre and Super Robin Hood was another title I liked, an easy-to-get-into platformer.  A wealth of Codemasters titles remain unplayed by me, and unfortunately as they are denied on World of Spectrum, they are likely to stay that way. So, despite hearing good things about ATV Simulator, the later Dizzy games, Rock Star Ate my Hamster (surely the best title ever) and the Seymour games, these shall forever remain just names to me. What were your favourite 8-bit Codemasters games? |
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Jan 27, 2011 10:49:18 (
Jan 27, 2011 10:49
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