ZX Spectrum Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary, how did Carrier Command run there?

[maruk 80]

Happy birthday, ZX Spectrum :) Hard to believe it is 30 years ago only.

It is unbelievable that Carrier Command was available on ZX Spectrum in its full glory:

How can this be done with 3.5 MHz CPU and 128 KB of total memory?

Edited April 24, 2012 by Maruk
Corrected memory required for CC ZX Spectrum

[ataribaby 54]

Well, ZXSpectrum Carrier Command is 128K game only. and it have some ommisions like no countermeasure decoys, otherwise yes, Unbelievable 3D on that machine, 3.5Mhz was right :o I was angry i cant play it on my "Didaktik M" what was 48K machine copy :)

[harbinger 1]

I first saw the game on my mates Atari ST and was utterly wowed. I only had a Spectrum +3, but it was eventually available on that platform. It took me a long, long time to save up enough pocket money, ask my parents nicely to write a cheque for the mail-order (remember those?) - and I believe it was cashed even before it actually became available. It took FOREVER to arrive!

Eventually the day came, arrived home from school to find a big beige Jiffy Bag on my +3. Inside was a lovely blue box, and I remember the 3" disc (no case for it though), audio tape, BIG manual. I remember reading through the manual before I even booted the game, and even then I was still confused. I played that thing for ages :) I admit to being initially disappointed it didn't look nearly as good as the 16 bit version, and everything took forever, but it was still a fantastic game. It was soo good in fact - I saved up through the rest of that year and most of the next, and my Dad helped me along to get an Amiga 500, and then we played it on that :)

The Spectrum version was very impressive, looking back. To fit all that into an 8 bit, 128k machine in 3d was a huge achievement. The little dinky-dink noises of the Virus bomb, and the Arro-Arro message sound will stay with me forever.

The remake is very good, you can tell it's Carrier Command. There's a few niggles to sort out in the snagging process, but I am sure it will get there.

[mrcash2009 0]

Just shows how people on a budget and doing it for the love back then took time to really code and routine to cram every little drop into the little feller :)

OFF TOPIC:

Rob Hubbard also talks about the same thing in regards to writing/coding music routines into the games:

[Hawk Firestorm 10]

I think it basically comes down to tallent.

People worked alot harder with less than they do now, and the industry as a whole I think has become somewhat soft and a bit lazy, and most of all greedy.

You had a entire generation of people that grew up with the first computers, tinkering about in their bedrooms learning the craft, it was a new frontier of possibilities, something you young'uns just haven't had I think. ;P

The advent of consoles hasn't done much to improve things, but I think has in many respects also pandered to the easy approach, and I think its also had a great effect on the new generation of tallent that's grown up around it.

Where early on games relyed heavily on good design and understanding of engineering over graphics the inverse seems to be true, slap on a bit of flash and any ole junk will do, also I think the industry as a whole has changed from products that stood out on their merit to one of marketing.

Its kind of sad really, all you see these days is the FPS rinse repeat cycle, over the wide and varied titles of yesterday, and the number of Houses you could pick up the box and see their logo on and buy it pretty much just by having their name on has dropped to zero for me.

There's still and always will be a market for quality and well crafted products, but sadly there seems to be few willing to step up and meet the challenge of making them, and finding those with the gift to be able to do so.

[Robster 11]

As the song sings: "that's just the way it is... something that never changes"

Just remembered when I was twelve years old and Santa brought me a whole brand new 16KB ram "speecy" (I asked a lot for it)... a couple of weeks later I was trying to understand how they made that Horizon loading tape :P

My head was blown-off with "Deathchase"... then -upgraded with 48K ram- I played a lot "Turbo Esprit" (GTA grandfather ?) and a lot more of "Combat-Lynx"... "Saboteur"... what a busy time!!!... "R-Type", "Robocop", "Renegade", "Rainbow Islands"... just to stay on R letter... amazing stuff on 8 bits :D

Happy Birthday ZX Spectrum!!!

Edited May 28, 2012 by Robster

[jedra 11]

a couple of weeks later I was trying to understand how they made that Horizon loading tape :P

I was strangely addicted to the Breakout game on the Welcome tape! I had the 48K version and never got to play CC on it. I do remember liking Horace Goes Skiing though, even though I shouldn't have!

Happy birthday ZX Spectrum!