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Trans Am - Historic perspectives on the Spectrum games market





Sinclair Research released the spectrum with a couple of dozen good titles (aswell as the Horizons tape that came with the machine). This is the mainstay of the 1982 library

Chequered Flag, Embassy Assault, Flight Simulation, Horace and the Spiders, Horace goes Skiing Hungry Horace, Planetoids, Reversi, Space Raiders


Good eh? The early days saw lots of cottage software firms, sometimes lone coders with a post box, writing titles in basic and sleeing them in the back of magazines. This was the wild west of computer software. The popularity and software support quickly reinforced eachother and in terms of new releases I make the output per year;


(Based on data at void.jump.nl)

There were another 100 or so releases in 1993 and after too! You can see why the Spectrum outlasted some of the later systems. Poeple still play on their real spectrums today, but many more recapture the glory days on emulators on their PCs', a scene that kicked off in the early 90's once again showing the spectrum's involvement at the sharp edge of new developments.

Early spectrum games are some of the best. The original Ultimate team produced their entire glorious suite of games by the close of 1985, there were some after that but Ultimate had changed by then, see the links. Timeless classics like Hungry Horace, Ant Attack, Football manager and Halls of the things all made their debut on the spectrum. The Spectrum must have had more versions of each arcade classic than any other system, often sporting half a dozen versions of space invadors, asteroids, centipede, frogger and galaxion at once! Unusual and original games like Trans Am, The Great Escape and The Hobbit are all spectrum classics.

There was something pioneering and experimental about the early games too, they had a feel that post 1985 games no longer had. After 1985 there were many great games, technically they got the spectrum to do things even the designers didn't think possible. Speed loading made tape time bearable again and the look of games like Shadow of the beast and R-Type took the spectrum to new heights even though, in playability terms, there was little improvement over the wonderful 82-84 era.

Eventually though, as competitors 128K machines became the norm, the Spectrum lost its way. Software started to be in part load sequences like the unsatisfying double dragon effort, the spectrum had maxxed out and few original games were forthcoming. By the late 80's it was the spectrum's turn to have its new releases sourced from other computer's famous titles or in the form of re-released packs of 80's classics. A new release in the late 80's could find itself in a 10 pack within months. However, by the time the game was finally up in 92/93 there were over 5000 games in the library with about 3000 more titles in adventure games, utilities and education packages. Even the Cdr 64's massive library couldn't quite match that!

Prices were another interesting factor. The early 80's saw prices around the £5.95 mark. Mastertronic and later Firebird split the market in the mid eighties between the £1.99 and £2.50 budget games and the £7.95 to £10.95 new releases. By the late 80's budgets and re-releases (yet another trend started by the spectrum) had combined to take over the market. Multpacks becamse commonplace, eventually more so than new releases!

The history of the Spectrum games market set a cycle which was followed by every other major home computer, console and is still true today in the millenial PC and CD-Console markets.





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Back to the start
Trans Am, what it was and why I liked it
Get a kinda sorta feel for Trans Am with this Javascript trickery! Play web trans Am two!
Other 16k (yes 16k!) games of the era
Contribute! Tell us your memories, your favourite games and what that halcyon period meant to you!
Links! Other than the webring, here are the five major links for spectrum fans