Spec-chums unite!

At which point our Americans readers think we've all started speaking Mongolian, but bear with us. Eurogamer have recently started covering Retro games, and they've done enough of the Spectrum to do a round-up post linking to reviews of 50 (count 'em!) great spectrum games. Kristan introduces it like so...

"The thing is - and I loved the Spectrum for years - it was almost the things that were wrong with it that made it all the more endearing. The crappy rubber keyboard. The terrible beeping sound. The lack of a built-in joystick port. And the nightmare of hideous colour clash. Arrrgh! How were we Spectrum owners supposed to defend our purchases to the richer kids with their C64s? Because, pure and simple, for at least three, maybe four years in the 1980s, the Spectrum had by far the better games."

Not wanting to kick off the C64/Spectrum wars (the arguments neatly summarized by Way of the Rodent here and here), I lean heavily towards the Spectrum. It was the first PC I loved, and the first part of the Spectrum/Amiga/PC troika which got me where I am today (i.e. Posting when I should be working). While there's some obvious omissions - Where For Art Thou Chaos? - and some choices I'd have gone another way on (Knight Time over Spellbound), it's a snapshot of a genuinely important gaming age that's being overlooked. For example, Mr Gollop's first classic, Something I'd have given a ten out of ten to, the game which makes all the furore over Bully last year look a bit silly and the first videogame I ever obsessed over.