Spectipede (R & R Software)
Another arcade game that proved popular to game was the shoot-em-up Centipede, and here with Spectipede, a clever play on words with Spectrum and Centipede, Kevin Allison produced a fast-paced shooter with plenty of colour and lots to get your teeth into, with the addition of two player mode really making this a good effort overall, as well as the fact you could play it on a 16K Spectrum too. It was re-released by Mastertronic (IS 0021) firstly with the original cover art from the R & R release, before having new cover art complete with a massive red centipede looking rather scary heading out of the background. Conversions were also performed by Tony Kelly of Mr Chip for the Commodore 64 and the Commodore 16 and Plus/4, and the game also got standalone Acorn Electron and BBC Micro releases too – although those were planned to be released as Millipede by Acornsoft, before being changed to be released as Spectipede.
Apollo 11 (Darkstar)
This and the next few Spectrum releases had consecutive catalogue numbers, much like some of the Commodore 64 Games Creator made releases had. In this case, the game had been released in 1983, programmed by Ian Rich, and the game was a clone of Lunar Lander where you had to land your craft correctly. Unfortunately, the game was not very good and it was one that maybe Mastertronic should have passed on re-release. The re-release was called Apollo 2 (IS 0049) and maybe someone saw the 11, assumed it was II instead and then made it 2, or it was clever marketing at hand to indicate a sequel (when it was not.) Either way, you would have been disappointed with this one. Unsurprisingly, there were no other conversions.
The Adventures of St Bernard (Carnell Software)
Back in 1983, this game programmed by Stephen Kirk did have a nice arcade feel to it as you controlled your St Bernard dog to try and locate your mistress, avoiding wolves, penguins and the icy depths along the way and then also climbing to the snowman’s lair avoiding snowballs as you go. It did have a reasonable review in Crash and was re-released by Mastertronic (IS 0050) with several of the enemies being faced appearing on the front cover too, a nice touch that. No other format conversions were undertaken.
Chuckman (Custom Cables International)
Chuckman bears a passing resemblance to Maziacs, an early Don Priestley game, but definitely has a charm all of its own. Chuckman roars around a yellow maze on a skateboard, desperately trying to find and defuse eight time bombs before the time limit runs out. You also need to find the right tools to defuse the bomb too, so there was plenty of frantic arcade action in this one, and got very favourable reviews at the time. It was re-released by Mastertronic (IS 0051) although no other format conversions were undertaken.
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