Back in the 80s, a new breed of gamer emerged. These gamers weren’t just content with playing a game, they lived that game. Right up until the last boss was defeated or the final treasure found. Back then games were hard, rock hard, a fact many a veteran gamer will attest to. So to help with their quest, a lot of gamers employed mapping. The advantages of mapping were many. For instance, in adventure games this enabled you to backtrack without losing your way, in shoot ‘em ups or beat ‘em ups it meant you knew what was coming on any given screen when you died and had start over.
I was an avid text adventure player and used various hand-drawn maps to help me finish the games I played. My maps however, were nothing to shout about. Just notes and scribbles that probably only I could decipher, and certainly nothing worth keeping. Some gamers however turned mapping into an art form. Mark Howlett is one such gamer. His ZX Spectrum game maps employed a level of detail and clarity that makes them not only easy to understand but good to look at too, all embellished with his own game inspired art for good measure.
So without further ado, take a ride back to the 1980s and read all about Mark’s game mapping exploits in his own words, along with some of the maps themselves of course!
Picture this: a sunny day, probably during the school holidays, my mates playing outside getting a good healthy dose of vitamin D. Me? I’d be indoors, probably in a dark room, boiling hot ZX Spectrum on my lap and a pencil and sheet of A4 paper next to me. And I couldn’t have been happier!
I absolutely loved mapping ZX Spectrum games during my formative years. There was something magical about putting pencil to paper, getting creative and producing these mini ‘works of art’. Occasionally, I’d even sent one in to Crash Magazine, though sadly, never to be published. It’s hard to compete with an Oliver Frey work of art! Still, I never gave up and even though I never reached the Holy Grail of publication, I still really enjoyed making them.
Mapping out a game was very useful at the time. In an age long before the internet, it would be hard to find a particular map, unless a magazine had published one. So, this is what got me – and I’m sure many other teenagers – to make my own.
A couple of months ago, I joined a few Spectrum groups on Facebook, and it got me to remembering that all of my Speccy stuff had been put away in the loft. So, climbing into the loft, I found the dusty old box in a dark corner and carried it down. I couldn’t believe how much I’d kept; sketches, cartoons, and best of all, most of my old maps! I had great fun looking through these, scanning them and sharing them with like-minded fans. It’s a shame they were never published at the time but at least I was finally able to share them, even if it’s 30 years later!
I hope you enjoy looking through these as much as I did making them!
Exolon – Hewson Consultants (1987)
Really pleased with how this map turned out. Large and colourful and actually quite easy to follow. Like most of the games I’d mapped back in the eighties, I don’t really remember playing them – it has been 30 years! This would seem to be one that I actually completed. Actually, looking at this again, it makes me want to crank up a tzx file!
Head over Heels – Ocean (1987)
One of my greatest mapping accomplishments, even if I do say so myself! Cannot imagine having the time these days to do what I did here – actually map out each individual location in a ‘3D’ style. I’m incredibly pleased with this, it’s just a shame it’s so creased from being folded up for so long. Think I’d be scared to take an iron to it, though!
I do remember playing this game at the time. I know that I’ve never completed it, even though it’s fully mapped. The give away being the “TO FREEDOM!” text after the last room 
Jack the Nipper – Gremlin Graphics (1986)
Ah, Jack the Nipper! Another fabulous game. One of my earlier attempts at mapping, I sent this one to Crash Magazine for publication. As you can see though, all I got was a short and sweet “don’t call us, we’ll call you” from Hannah Smith, the Crash Playing Tips editor at the time. Still, it clearly didn’t put me off!
Jackle and Wide – Bulldog Software (1987)
I really don’t remember anything about this game, though I’m fairly pleased with how the map turned out. Nice and colourful screens. Looks like I drew it out on graph paper then ‘Pritt Sticked’ it to four sheets of A4. Wish I’d invested in some A2 paper back then!
Kobyashi Naru – Mastertronic (1987)
One of my text adventure maps, this of the budget title, ‘Kobyashi Naru’. Seems that I also included the solution, too! Have no idea why I never sent this one into a games mag, I’ve clearly put some effort into making it look pretty, rather than just functional. Maybe this one would have actually been published!
Rasterscan – Mastertronic (1987)
Mastertronic. I had so many of their games. I’d go food shopping with my dad on a Monday and each and every time, when we’d go past the Mastertronic stand (I’m pretty sure those were the only games that Tesco sold) I’d pop the latest title in the trolley! Hey, they where only £1.99. A steal! Quite often, the games would be awful to fairly average, though occasionally there’d be a gem. Who doesn’t remember the Magic Knight series? Rasterscan was one of the latter.
Another nice little map. I remember this game quite well, seeing those spanners (though why there’s giant spanners sticking out of the floor on a spaceship baffles me) makes me remember that the game had digitised graphics. Pretty funky for the time!
Tai-Pan – Ocean (1987)
I love the world map and the ‘Tai-Pan’ logo here. Which is good, as the rest of the map seems a little dull, not to mention unfinished! I get the feeling that I didn’t really enjoy this one very much. Who knows, maybe I’ll go back and finish it off someday!
Technician Ted The Megamix – Hewson Consultants (1986)
What a monster of a map this is! Five sheets of A4 paper glued together then folded up tighter than an Ordnance Survey map! In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t done this with so many of my maps. It’s near impossible to keep a map of this size undamaged, and as you can see, this one’s a little rough around the edges.
Looking back, I wish I’d drawn each screen out as you see on the screen, though bearing in mind this is the 128K version, that might just have driven me insane!
Terminus – Mastertronic Added Dimension (1986)
When I found this map again, I couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was, even if it was a ZX Spectrum game! Fortunately, the Speccy community is fantastic one. Facebook has a few Spectrum-related groups, ‘Spectrum 4 Ever’ being one them. I posted a scan of the map and asked if anybody had any clue as to what it was. After a fair amount of head-scratching, member Simon FerrÈ figured out it was the game ‘Terminus’! He’d spent the best part of the afternoon going through the maps hosted on a website. Fortunately, for all of our sanity, it was there! I’ve thanked him before and I’ll thank him again. Simon, you’re a star!
Unfortunately though, it would seem that this is just one level of ten. Guess I’d better get my orange felt tip pen out again!
The Neverending Story – Ocean (1985)
Text adventures. My favourite genre! I must have played and mapped dozens, if not hundreds of text adventures since I played my first one – Bug-Byte’s imaginatively titled ‘Adventure’ – on the ZX81 way back in the early eighties. I even wrote one on the Atari ST, which I self-published and got some pretty decent reviews in the glossies at the time. Anyway, that’s another story.
It’s a shame though, that most of these maps seem to have disappeared, unless of course, I find another box in a deep corner of my loft!
I like this one, even if it is lacking any colour. Nice and clear and as most text adventure maps are, very, very useful.
Original post can be found at Retro Games Collector
The art of game mapping – maps by Mark Howlett