Reviews
Football Manager ZX81 Review: Sixteen Teams, One Genre Born
Kevin Toms wrote it in BASIC, sold it by mail order, and founded football management gaming from a ZX81 and a RAM pack in January 1982.
Author: Sal Benedetto
From the Vault columnist. Grew up feeding quarters to the Ms. Pac-Man machine at his uncle's pizza place; still owns his childhood SNES and every Nintendo Power he ever begged his mother for. Writes the retrospectives and the hidden-gem hunts.
Reviews
Galaxians ZX81 Review: The Formation Fights Back
Artic brings Namco’s diving-formation shooter to the ZX81: the enemies leave the ranks and come for you personally.
Reviews
Frogger ZX81 Review: Cornsoft’s Frog Crosses in 1981
Konami’s frog reached the ZX81 in its arcade year, courtesy of Cornsoft — a game that thinks in squares, on a screen made of squares.
Reviews
Space Raiders ZX81 Review: The Official Invaders
Sinclair’s own Space Invaders at £3.95 with Bomber on the B-side: unambitious, well made, and on the shelf of every new ZX81 owner in 1982.
Reviews
Black Crystal ZX81 Review: An Epic in Six Loads
Carnell’s graphical adventure spreads the kingdom of Beroth across six cassette loads — the rings, the tower, and the first great British fantasy quest.
Reviews
Espionage Island ZX81 Review: Adventure D Goes Undercover
The founding quartet of British text adventures ends with a spy caper — Charles Cecil’s ZX81 finale, played in capitals.
Reviews
Ship of Doom ZX81 Review: Adventure C’s Brain Harvest
A graviton beam, a helpful android named Fred, and a cruiser harvesting brains: Artic’s third adventure is the sequence’s darkest hour.
Reviews
Inca Curse ZX81 Review: Adventure B and the Price of Greed
Charles Cecil’s first adventure: an Inca temple full of priced treasure, where one piece gets you out alive and all of them get you remembered.
Reviews
Planet of Death ZX81 Review: Adventure A, Where It All Began
Artic’s first lettered adventure strands you on an alien planet with a captured ship, a two-word parser and a whole genre to invent.
Reviews
Flight Simulation ZX81 Review: Psion’s Impossible Cockpit
Instruments, beacons and a perspective runway on a £70 black-and-white wedge: the best-selling ZX81 program and the yardstick for all the others.