The Giant Speccy Port List

[Typhon]

For some inane reason (obsession) I have created a Youtube Playlist with game play from most of the approximately 200-odd what-i-consider-to-be Blatant Speccy Ports on the CPC:

Such crap games are fascinating to me for some reason.

The full list of ports is as follows. Ones with Asterisks I've been unable to find extant game play footage of on Youtube.

• 3DC
• Airwolf 2
• Amo del Mundo
• Andy Capp
• Antares
• Astonishing Avendures of Mr Weems and the She-Vampires
• Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
• ATV Simulator
• Back to the Future 2
• Badlands
• Biff
• Big Trouble in Little China
• Billy the Kid
• Bionic Commando
• Black Tiger
• BMX Freestyle Simulator
• Bomb Fusion
• Bombscare
• Bosconian '87
• Brainache
• Brian Bloodaxe*
• Bronx Street Cop
• Bubbler
• Casanova
• Chain Reaction
• Chronos
• City Slicker
• Con-Quest
• Core*
• Cosmic Shock Absorber
• Critical Mass
• Crossfire
• Dandy
• Dangermouse in Double Trouble
• Danger Mouse in Making Whoopee
• Deactivators
• Deadly Evil
• Defcom 1
• Dempsey and Makepeace
• Dizzy Down the Rapids
• Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone
• Dr Jackle and Mr Wide
• Dragon Breed
• Drakkar
• Duck Out!
• Duel 2000
• Duet
• Dynamite Dan 2
• Eagle
• El Cid
• Elven Warrior
• Enchanted
• Enduro Racer
• European Soccer Challenge
• Final Matrix
• Firetrap
• Freddy Hardest in South Manhatten
• Frontiers
• Garfield 2: Winter's Tail
• Gauntlet 3: The Final Quest
• GI Hero
• Gilbert Escape from Drill
• Glider Rider
• GP Formula 1 Simulator
• Greyfell*
• Hammerfist
• Havoc
• Hawk Storm
• Hopping Mad
• Hotshot
• How to be a Complete Bastard
• I, Ball
• I, Ball 2
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• International Ninja Rabbits
• Ivan 'Ironman' Stewart's Offroad Racing
• Joe Blade 1
• Joe Blade 3
• Kenny Daglish Soccer Match
• Kick Off
• Kinetic
• Knight Ghost
• Las Tres Luces de Glaurung
• Last Ninja 2
• Little Puff in Dragonland
• Mamno
• Martainoids
• Metropolis
• Microprose Soccer
• Molecule Man
• Motocross Simulator
• Motor Massacre*
• Mountain Bike Simulator
• Mutant Fortress
• Nether Earth
• Ninja Hamster
• Number One
• Oberon 69
• Outlaw
• Overlander
• Pac-Mania
• Paris-Dakar
• Passing Shot
• Peter Pack Rat
• Peter Shilton's Handball Maradona
• Phantomas 2
• Pit Fighter
• Prison Riot
• Pro Skateboard Simulator
• Prodigy
• Quartet
• Quest for the Mindstone
• Ranamama
• Rath-Tha
• Red Heat
• Robin Hood Legend Quest
• Rocco
• Rocky Horror Show
• R-Type
• Run for Gold
• Saboteur
• Sabrina
• Salamander
• Scamble Spirits
• Scooby Doo
• SDI
• Seymour at the Movies
• Seymour Take One
• Sharkey's Moll
• Short's Fuse
• Skate or Die
• Slaine*
• Slightly Magic
• Smaily
• Snoopy and Peanuts
• Sootland
• Sooty and Sweep
• Spike in Transylvania
• Spiky Harold
• Spirits
• Stainless Steel
• Star Bowls
• Steel Eagle
• Steg
• Stifflip & Co
• Streaker
• Street Gang Football
• Street Sports Basketball
• Strike Force Cobra
• Stuntman Seymour
• Subway Vigilante
• Super Hang On
• Super Trolley
• Super Wonderboy in Monsterland
• SWIV
• Sword Slayer
• The Fantastic Voyage
• The Great Escape
• The Official Father Christmas Game
• The Prodigy
• The Race against Time for Sport Aid
• Thing!
• Thingy and the Doodahs
• Throne of Fire
• Thunderbirds
• Tiddy Drinks
• Time Out
• Toi Acid Game
• Toobin
• Tour De Force
• Transmuter
• Trashman
• Turbo Kart Racer
• Tusker
• Typhoon
• Vendetta
• Wibstars
• Wild West Seymour
• World Championship Soccer
• World Cup Challenge
• Xmas Ludo
• Xybots
• Yabba Dabba Doo!

[Shaun M. Neary]

Rick Dangerous (code is the exact same with different sprites, even has the same bugs)

Wonder Boy (Speccy code with slow flickering using C64 sprites!

Time Machine

Slightly Magic

Go play them! You'll see for yourself!

[dodogildo]

Heartbreaking to see how many opportunities have been wasted over the years. Yet bizarrely fascinating to compile into a list, indeed   

BTW, isn't the Laser Squad a Speccy port as well? You may consider to add it (if the list isn't exclusive for crappies of course.  )

[Typhon]

I can't believe I overlooked Time Machine. i think I had put that much yellow out of my mind probably.

Laser Squad, I think on account of just being utterly awesome, and they've done quite a bit of adjusting graphics to Mode 1, gets excluded (just)

[Shaun M. Neary]

It scares me the amount of speccy ports that get overlooked just because they've got redrawn graphics.

Maybe the topic should be changed to failed speccy port list.

[poulette73]

Nodes Of Yesod (1986)

I really like this game (quite unknown) for its atmosphere, its music, and its gameplay which becomes interesting once you catch the mole. 👍
The playing field is huge.

[Typhon]

It scares me the amount of speccy ports that get overlooked just because they've got redrawn graphics.

Maybe the topic should be changed to failed speccy port list.

Very good point. I must admit, I'm a sucker for redrawn graphics. 

[Shaun M. Neary]

It scares me the amount of speccy ports that get overlooked just because they've got redrawn graphics.

Maybe the topic should be changed to failed speccy port list.

Very good point. I must admit, I'm a sucker for redrawn graphics.

Oh don't get me wrong. Rick Dangerous is a legendary title, and I enjoyed Wonder Boy (check the avatar)

But a speccy port is a speccy port regardless.

[ervin]

I've never thought of Wonder Boy as a pure speccy port (unless you are referring to Super Wonderboy in Monster Land, which most definitely is).
Wonder Boy appears to be using a hardware scroll, though I don't have the skill or knowledge to confirm that.

[Shaun M. Neary]

I've never thought of Wonder Boy as a pure speccy port (unless you are referring to Super Wonderboy in Monster Land, which most definitely is).
Wonder Boy appears to be using a hardware scroll, though I don't have the skill or knowledge to confirm that.

On the outside it isn't, but has the same flickering and the same glitches as the Speccy version does. It's just masked by mode 1 C64 sprites. I've finished both from start to finish.

Monster Land is more blatant to the point that the Spectrum community used the CPC version to fix a bug in theirs where the dragon was indestructible!

[ervin]

Ah, interesting!
Looking at a vid of the speccy version of Wonderboy, the sprite movement does indeed look very very similar.
There is probably a heck of a lot of shared code/data for level layout, enemy AI etc.

Regarding Monster Land, that is an amazing bit of trivia!
It's nuts to think that the speccy version was released in that state, when the cpc version worked correctly!
Though I don't know how much time there was between the speccy and cpc releases.
Also, the speccy version is legitimately excellent. It looks very playable.
Pity that the cpc version seems to run at half the speed!

[andycadley]

It scares me the amount of speccy ports that get overlooked just because they've got redrawn graphics.

Maybe the topic should be changed to failed speccy port list.

I guess it depends on where you draw the line. There are genuinely good reasons for sharing the bulk of game logic between machines, so if it's not at "redrawn graphics" you start including everything.

Batman The Movie, RoboCop, Head over Heels, Chase HQ etc are all pretty polished titles that share the same code base with the Speccy.

I tend to consider anything with mostly monochrome graphics, or anything where all the sprites are one colour and the background monochrome as falling under the banner of being a lazy port. Reusing the graphics from the C64 can look bad, although it's at least a small effort to improve things so I'm not sure I'd consider quite the same.

[Shaun M. Neary]

Ah, interesting!
Looking at a vid of the speccy version of Wonderboy, the sprite movement does indeed look very very similar.
There is probably a heck of a lot of shared code/data for level layout, enemy AI etc.

Regarding Monster Land, that is an amazing bit of trivia!
It's nuts to think that the speccy version was released in that state, when the cpc version worked correctly!
Though I don't know how much time there was between the speccy and cpc releases.
Also, the speccy version is legitimately excellent. It looks very playable.
Pity that the cpc version seems to run at half the speed!

The CPC version had bugs of it's own, but not so much in the game. 
Disk version was fine, but the tape loader often crashed and the relay locked up on random levels. It used to drive me insane. I eventually finished it once I found a decent disk image.

[Shaun M. Neary]

It scares me the amount of speccy ports that get overlooked just because they've got redrawn graphics.

Maybe the topic should be changed to failed speccy port list.

I tend to consider anything with mostly monochrome graphics, or anything where all the sprites are one colour and the background monochrome as falling under the banner of being a lazy port. Reusing the graphics from the C64 can look bad, although it's at least a small effort to improve things so I'm not sure I'd consider quite the same.

It wasn't just the re-used/redrawn graphics though. When you get similar flaws like flicker during movement (Wonder Boy) or enemies getting stuck (Rick Dangerous), the code rip is blatantly obvious. But as you said, there's a difference between a good Speccy port and a bad lazy one.  

[dodogildo]

Nodes Of Yesod (1986)

Have to admit, the Speccy one is quite nice and bizarrely atmospheric. I hate the CPC port though. There're many things off with it.

[Shaun M. Neary]

Actually, I'm genuinely curious how Hard Drivin' somehow managed to miss this list? That was utterly Abysmal and why AA rated it as high as they did, I'll never know.
Stunt Car Racer came out a few months later to show us how it's really done!

[Typhon]

I didn't include Hard Drivin because all the 8 bit versions are basically the same. That said, I agree with you on wondering what AA were smoking at the time.

[Typhon]

I also went back and forth about the Dizzy games too. In the end, I decided for the same reason that most of them weren't Crap Speccy Ports - there was enough work done on them that they just about avoided the list. Seymour games on the other hand seemed to just fall in the Speccy Port enough criteria to be on the list.

The list is openly subjective, and I'm glad it has generated an interesting discussion and long may it continue. That said, if you object, I'll see you in the Playground at Breaktime.

[Shaun M. Neary]

I also went back and forth about the Dizzy games too. In the end, I decided for the same reason that most of them weren't Crap Speccy Ports - there was enough work done on them that they just about avoided the list. Seymour games on the other hand seemed to just fall in the Speccy Port enough criteria to be on the list.

The list is openly subjective, and I'm glad it has generated an interesting discussion and long may it continue. That said, if you object, I'll see you in the Playground at Breaktime.

I do believe the Dizzy games were worked on the Amstrad first and then ported over to the Speccy, at least for the first four adventures. Not sure what happened once Big Red took over though, and that includes the Seymour Adventures.

[andycadley]

I also went back and forth about the Dizzy games too. In the end, I decided for the same reason that most of them weren't Crap Speccy Ports - there was enough work done on them that they just about avoided the list. Seymour games on the other hand seemed to just fall in the Speccy Port enough criteria to be on the list.

The list is openly subjective, and I'm glad it has generated an interesting discussion and long may it continue. That said, if you object, I'll see you in the Playground at Breaktime.

I do believe the Dizzy games were worked on the Amstrad first and then ported over to the Speccy, at least for the first four adventures. Not sure what happened once Big Red took over though, and that includes the Seymour Adventures.

If you actually look in the code, it's pretty clear the bulk of the codebase is geared around the Spectrum primarily. For example all the objects on screen are assigned a colour number which corresponds with the Speccy colour. Then, for the CPC, this is mapped down onto four colours. This is why there aren't any blue background objects, because blue would map onto black in the CPC and the object would be invisible.

[Shaun M. Neary]

I also went back and forth about the Dizzy games too. In the end, I decided for the same reason that most of them weren't Crap Speccy Ports - there was enough work done on them that they just about avoided the list. Seymour games on the other hand seemed to just fall in the Speccy Port enough criteria to be on the list.

The list is openly subjective, and I'm glad it has generated an interesting discussion and long may it continue. That said, if you object, I'll see you in the Playground at Breaktime.

I do believe the Dizzy games were worked on the Amstrad first and then ported over to the Speccy, at least for the first four adventures. Not sure what happened once Big Red took over though, and that includes the Seymour Adventures.

If you actually look in the code, it's pretty clear the bulk of the codebase is geared around the Spectrum primarily. For example all the objects on screen are assigned a colour number which corresponds with the Speccy colour. Then, for the CPC, this is mapped down onto four colours. This is why there aren't any blue background objects, because blue would map onto black in the CPC and the object would be invisible.

Maybe they worked on both. But the graphics were definitely done using Panda Sprites on the Amstrad CPC, The first Dizzy was essentially an afterthought after the Olivers were mucking about with the graphics for Ghost Hunters a few months earlier.

[SyX]

I guess it depends on where you draw the line. There are genuinely good reasons for sharing the bulk of game logic between machines, so if it's not at "redrawn graphics" you start including everything.

Batman The Movie, RoboCop, Head over Heels, Chase HQ etc are all pretty polished titles that share the same code base with the Speccy.

I tend to consider anything with mostly monochrome graphics, or anything where all the sprites are one colour and the background monochrome as falling under the banner of being a lazy port. Reusing the graphics from the C64 can look bad, although it's at least a small effort to improve things so I'm not sure I'd consider quite the same.

In our spanish podcast, Cepeceros, we have a list of "features" that speccy ports can have. In function of how many features a game has and the level of "quality" of the features used, then the game will be more or less speccy port.

The main list considers:
* Screen size: speccy screen size (128x192 mode 0 or 256x192 mode 1)? If it is using an speccy screen size, the crtc is adjusted to the zx size or is wasting ram with black pixels (Dinamic loved to waste around 4 KBs of RAM in that).

* Using a hidden buffer or double buffer: If it is using a hidden buffer (that need to be transfered, wasting a lot of cpu in it), the buffer is in the same cpc screen mode or is in other mode (mode 2 as pacmania); because if it is using a different screen mode, then need to be converted during the copy to the screen, wasting even more cpu.

* How tiles and sprites are stored in RAM: if they are in a different mode than the screen, and the reason is not for saving RAM; then again the game will waste a lot of cpu drawing tiles and sprites to the screen or the screen buffer. A funny variant is the c64 port, when sprites are in mode 1 and the screen is in mode 0 or even better the sprites are in mode 0, but they are using 3 colours + transparent, instead of using the full cpc palette.

Of course, a bad speccy port can be very creative. And after more than one hundred episodes, we have seen a lot of crazy things:
* Games putting screen memory in $0000 for simply patching the zx spectrum code and not reassembly the code for the cpc (toi acid game).

* Usually if the previous case uses interrupts, then it will set the z80 in interrupt mode 2.

* The game has code that try to access to zx i/o ports (in pacmania there is one sound fx that is not played, because the code to send that sfx to the psg is not changed and try to write in the zx beeper).

* Beeper emulation using one psg channel (last ninja 2 even uses left channel instead the middle one, funny when you are using headphones).

* Two hidden buffers, the screen is in mode 1, but the first hidden buffer is in mode 2 (zx format) and this buffer is transferred and converted to a second hidden buffer in mode 1, and this buffer is copied to the screen (Southern Bell).

* Hidden buffers taller or wider than the screen, and the extra size is not used for clipping sprites and the game doesn't  scroll in those ways. Making the cpu to waste extra time by drawing those rows that are never used (Batty; Altered Beast, amazing how a game can be at the same time a zx and c64 bad port in the cpc; Metrocross; ...)

* Kung Fu "Cinemascope" Master: That it would need it's own post XDDDD

* Finding two versions of the same game, where one is using the firmware for reading keyboard and other things; and the other one is accessing to the hardware directly (Guardian Angel).

* Thundercats is a really fun one, in 64 KBs machines the game is using a hidden buffer. In 128 KBs, there is a doble buffer, but the screen is always built in the hidden buffer and then copied to one of the two screen buffers.
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But even cpc games have minor problems, that we tried to patch always. A few examples:

* Rick Dangerous has one really fun bug in some way related to the previous one; the screen is drawn in 128x192 pixels, but the crtc is configured to show only 128x184.

* Games where the screen was not centered in the developer monitor (maybe a zx guys passed by there and touched the horizontal adjust) and the developer centered the screen by adding a black column of pixels (potsworth, ...).

* Netherworld has two versions. The first one, released in UK, is using a hidden buffer, that means a lot of tearing and flickering. The rest of versions are using a double buffer, then not flickering neither tearing. This game can be an speccy port or a cpc game at the same time.

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And even sometimes, we have got games with cpc features as double buffer, scroll hardware, ruptures, ... too

[eto]

Maybe they worked on both. But the graphics were definitely done using Panda Sprites on the Amstrad CPC,

There was an interview with the Oliver Twins where they explained that the games were developed on the Amstrad but already with the Spectrum in mind. So it's an "inverse" Speccy port : Made on the the CPC but still limited by Speccy specs.

[dodogildo]

There was an interview with the Oliver Twins where they explained 

Where was that? I suddenly had the urge to find it and read it.

[chinnyhill10]

I didn't include Hard Drivin because all the 8 bit versions are basically the same. That said, I agree with you on wondering what AA were smoking at the time.

The C64 version isn't the same. It's terrible. It barely functions. It's so bad Domark didn't release it at full price.

Also I bought it at full price for the CPC and loved it. A full 3D racing game on my Amstrad.