From the forum issue 102

[sirclive1]

Predictably i have a real soft spot for Beyond Software , started with the horrific Space station zebra and spellbound , but after that went on to produce a line of games anyone would be proud of - Psytron , Lords of midnight , Doomdarks Revenge , Spy vs Spy , Shadowfire....awesome.

[Matt_B]

Predictably i have a real soft spot for Beyond Software , started with the horrific Space station zebra and spellbound , but after that went on to produce a line of games anyone would be proud of - Psytron , Lords of midnight , Doomdarks Revenge , Spy vs Spy , Shadowfire....awesome.

Beyond were my favourite publisher during the Spectrum's glory years. I loved the big yellow boxes, and the games that came in them usually lived up to the billing too. Again though, they weren't really a developer in their own right. I recall BT paid a small fortune to take them over, only to find out that they were reliant entirely upon third parties for their games, most of whom had already drifted off to other publishers.

[stvd]

Developer? Publisher? Whatever?

Ocean - full stop.

The automatic choice would be Ultimate (they did make good games) but, TBH,
there are not a lot of UPTG games I would play nowadays.
Not many would get into my top 10 (or 20) Spectrum games. - Jetpac & possibly Lunar Jetman.
They couldn't even make a proper platform game (Underwurlde doesn't count).
And as for isometric games, Head Over Heels & The Great Escape are far better than Knightlore and the like.

Ocean made everything (almost)
Arcade conversions, sports, adventure,platform - the lot.

Rainbow Islands
Robocop
New Zealand Story
Chase HQ
Pang
Renegade
Matchday.

[paranoid marvin]

Croucher's Automata - always creating something different; sometimes great , other times just plain weird.

[adippm82]

I was going to say Ultimate, but then I thought back to the day, and I used to play Durell games far more back then and now, they were for the most part far more accessible.

Mike Richardson wrote some fantastic games, Turbo Esprit, Thanatos, Scuba Dive, and Clive Townsend for the two sublime Saboteur titles, I used to get just as excited by a new Durell title sitting on the shelf as I would an Ultimate one.

Critical Mass was another good game, along with Harrier Attack and Fat Worm, Chain Reaction was OK, and only Deepstrike and Jungle Trouble let the side down.

The Big 4 compilations were excellent value, I even have the Amstrad ones on disk.

I also quite like Mine shaft on the BBC B.

[Smurph]

Incentive Software, if only for the absolutely wonderful 'Splat!'

[PrimalScientist]

The Hawk is spot on with his comment.

Ultimate were the kings as far as I am concerned. So advanced with their games. Listening to the Jon Ritmann interview with Darran, and how they held Knight Lore back for a year. Do me a favor!!
Untouchable. Even down to the marketing and packaging. They were just so different.

But there were other developers that were also cool like Durell, they made some cool games but they were never in Ultimates league.

What are the Stampers up to now? I did hear that one of them went in to Civil Engineering!! Can anyone confirm this??

Daz.

Actually, just reading Stvd post, and I also have to agree with him!!
Ocean also made some cracking stuff.

[kaiserpc]

I'll go for Mike Singleton - fitting 4000+ locations into 48k and some of the most iconic screenshots and contrast of the white and blue - Lords of Midnight was truly groundbreaking at the time. Of course I'll add Doomdark's Revenge, war in middle earth as well. Great developer, great games - and this is coming from a c64 fanboy

[khisanth]

I think I liked that Matthew Smith fella, I hear that Manic Miner game is good.

[samhain81]

Matthew Smith

Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy. Need I say more

[gman72]

I always loved Steven Crows work on the Spectrum, published by Bubble Bus. Star Quake is one of the finest games on the systen by my reckoning.

[Gabe]

D&H Games. Giving me a plethora of football-management titles to spend an unhealthy amount of time on.

[jdanddiet]

D&H Games. Giving me a plethora of football-management titles to spend an unhealthy amount of time on.

What with them and Cult Games, u must have been in management heaven!

[bsg]

US Gold for me - Beach Head, 720°, Blue Max, California Games and to top it all off... The Goonies!

[sirclive1]

D&H Games. Giving me a plethora of football-management titles to spend an unhealthy amount of time on.

What with them and Cult Games, u must have been in management heaven!

Good shout - ahh , boxing manager , striker.......professional footballer