Did I just beat Jetpac after 40 years of trying? It's a single screen blaster from 1983 and as you'd expect each time you clear the screen (and fly off in your spaceship) you land on a new planet with different baddies.
Except, after so many levels, I started accruing lives and recognising the bad guys. (Score, 36,000, Space U3)
Taking this back to 1983, released for the 16k Spectrum as Ultimate Play The Game's first release (and you'll know that Ultimate became Rare and did very well for themselves) this is such a polished title at a time when BASIC type-ins were the norm and 16k was already falling out of favour.
The mechanic is very simple. Collect the bits of your spaceship from the platforms, drop them into place. Then fuel barrels start dropping, collect them and drop them on the spaceship. When it's full, get in and fly off. Shoot bad guys who get in your way. There are pick ups for extra points (crystals, radioactives etc).
A classic early Spectrum title that really showcased it as one of the best games machines of the era.
Jetpac - ZX Spectrum 1983
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BlasteroidAli
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Re: Jetpac - ZX Spectrum 1983
Well done. It was an early favourite of mine as well. Good graphics for the time and amazing sounds.. blip blop blap but the amazing feeling of building your ships, refeuling it and then fiying off the stars was so satisfying. Incredible state of the art graphics! Yeah a classic indeed and playable on Xbox thanks to the Rare collection. The critic has reviewed it by just saying Jetpac. https://videogamecritic.com/xb1or.htm?s=3#rev4528
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Stalvern
- Posts: 1970
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Re: Jetpac - ZX Spectrum 1983
The Spectrum had some of its best games surprisingly early on. Deathchase, Ant Attack, and Atic Atac are other 1983 classics that come to mind.
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BlasteroidAli
- Posts: 1620
- Joined: April 9th, 2015, 7:50 pm
Re: Jetpac - ZX Spectrum 1983
Stalvern wrote:The Spectrum had some of its best games surprisingly early on. Deathchase, Ant Attack, and Atic Atac are other 1983 classics that come to mind.
Zombie Zombie as well. That was by Sandy Lyall who made Ant Attack. Attack attac is great but rather hard these days. I also liked Ship of the line. A text adventre where you went from Captain to Admiral, sinking as many Spanish ships.