Jetpac - A Multicoloured Refuel Stop
Let us pause, dear reader , to prepare ourselves for one of the truly great games in the world of the ZX Sinclair Spectrum. It's one of those games that bring back memories of days too hot to go outside , the taste of banana bubble gum and bags of sweets filled with more E numbers and artificial flavourings than you could count. The year is 1983 and this is Jetpac.
Even that loading screen ticks all the happy buttons , just look at the use of colour . The Spectrum may only have had a few colours at it's disposal but 'Ultimate' the software house who published this and many other games sure knew how to use them. The excitement of the picture, I love how the white of the spacesuit stands out so well . This game was a reliable loader as well , the bane of most Spectrum owners life was the error code R Tape Loading Error, after you had sat through 6 minutes of a game loading, to be then faced with that error code and then a reset. It was enough to make you bang your head on those little rubber buttons. But this game always loaded.
The premise of the game is simple, build a rocket from parts , catch tanks of fuel and extras , drop into rocket, then get in rocket and fly off. Sometimes you got a new rocket to build,sometimes you just had to refuel . Sounds simple? Sounds boring? WRONG!!
The premise of the game is simple, build a rocket from parts , catch tanks of fuel and extras , drop into rocket, then get in rocket and fly off. Sometimes you got a new rocket to build,sometimes you just had to refuel . Sounds simple? Sounds boring? WRONG!!
There is just something so endearing about this game, it's only a one screen game, but that doesn't seem to matter as it is so colourful. This was the game that made us realise we had to get a joystick, after much deliberation Dad settled on one with an automatic fire button. Ha, those asteroids and aliens never stood a chance. For someone like me with the spatial awareness of a lemon, this was an excellent idea, one less thing to concentrate on, so I could get on and get that rocket fuelled with lovely bright magenta fuel tanks.
It's interesting to look back at the asteroids and aliens in this game, the bright spectrum colours almost making them look like sweets (wonder if the developers of Candy Crush played this in their youth?) . I think it was the first game that appealed to both myself at age 11 and my father at 46ish and with the joystick it meant that we no longer had to hunch over the computer like Quasimodo .
However after a few weeks of playing this game, my father deemed this worthy of connection to the radiogram speakers ( remember Arcadia and the neighbours?) This game it had to be said performed majestically when amplified very loudly , in a room, which backed onto the neighbours bedroom. As did our hoots of joy as Jetman ...er...well...whizzed and popped ( as Roald Dahl put it in the BFG) around the screen.
It's a game that for me will always bring back memories of a far simpler time , finishing a level and seeing that rocket rise up off the screen felt like an accomplishment, getting the new rocket to build certainly felt like a real accomplishment as well. For me it was the first game that I wanted to escape into , that I could hide away from school life in and introduced me to what a really good gaming experience could be. How much of this was the game and how much of this was the use of a joystick is debatable. But this is the game that started my love affair with Utlimate -Play The Game and was the first game I really enjoyed playing. I may have only been 11 but the gamer had awoken .....To Be Continued.
However after a few weeks of playing this game, my father deemed this worthy of connection to the radiogram speakers ( remember Arcadia and the neighbours?) This game it had to be said performed majestically when amplified very loudly , in a room, which backed onto the neighbours bedroom. As did our hoots of joy as Jetman ...er...well...whizzed and popped ( as Roald Dahl put it in the BFG) around the screen.
It's a game that for me will always bring back memories of a far simpler time , finishing a level and seeing that rocket rise up off the screen felt like an accomplishment, getting the new rocket to build certainly felt like a real accomplishment as well. For me it was the first game that I wanted to escape into , that I could hide away from school life in and introduced me to what a really good gaming experience could be. How much of this was the game and how much of this was the use of a joystick is debatable. But this is the game that started my love affair with Utlimate -Play The Game and was the first game I really enjoyed playing. I may have only been 11 but the gamer had awoken .....To Be Continued.