Dolphination Spectrum Archive

Welcome to the Dolphination Spectrum Archive. Between 1985 and 1989 I wrote approximately 40 programs, often games, in the BASIC language. Many of these were unfinished, usually because they were written to try out an idea or technique - but not fully exploited. From 2006 I was able to convert them to the PC by loading the programs directly off cassettes into a Spectrum Emulator. The best (or most entertaining) of those programs are now presented here as freeware. They are a reminder of a period when programming meant sitting in a bedroom, laboriously writing subroutines and designing simple graphics on bits of graph paper.

To run the games you will need to download an emulator that can cope with '.Z80' file types. This is a common form used by several emulators, including Spectaculator and ZX32. A wide choice of emulators is available at World Of Spectrum. Click on a program title to download, and set your emulator to run as a 128k model. More programs and screens will be added in the near future, when I manage to salvage them!

I also drew around 50 screens with the help of a mouse, an unusual thing to have at the time. Most of these are available on a special Dolphination Fotopic page.

	Suicide (1989) - Take control of Captain Phildon. On a return journey from space, he finds that a mystery virus is making people want to jump off buildings. Phildon must save people by hitting them for their own good. He must achieve a ninety percent success rate in order to progress. The difficulty level increases, ad nauseam. Luckily, if the player gets bored then he or she can jump off a building. In 1990 the game was adapted for the SAM Coupe, and featured 'different coloured clothing' and 'better punching sounds'! It was also faster.
	Deep Sea (1989) - a very playable Spectrum game based on the BBC Micro game called 'Descender'. Collect the pearls using your underwater scout ship, but avoid the rocks. Collect 5 pearls in each round, the rocks become more tricky to avoid. 5 rounds to complete. Keys are definable.
	Red Death [to be added soon] (1989) - Fly your experimental helicopter into enemy territory. Avoid the airborne missiles and destroy the communications mast. This is unusually ambitious for a BASIC game, in that it has several screens. Red Death (no relation to Blue Thunder) was partially written in 1989, then accidentally deleted! With just the graphics available (on graph paper!), I managed to rewrite a complete game in 2007. Not before time! Keys are definable.
	Deep Space (1989) - a sequel to Deep Sea, never completed. A shame really, it looks nicer than Deep Sea! Keys are definable but there's nothing to do! Perhaps I'll finish it in the near future, maybe the challenge will be to dock with a mother ship that lies in the asteroid field.
	Splat! (1988) - a game for 2 to 4 players. Win the game by being the first character to land on the square of another player. The distance you can move each turn is decided by a dice roll. Make a risky attempt to get close enough to pounce.
	Scooterman (1989) - aka Gerrard 'Superspeed' Scooterman and the Last Jump aka Gerscoot. A very tongue-in-cheek game in which the player must accelerate their scooter and jump over some buses. A choice of scooter is available. Faster journeys to the ramp score higher points. A hilarious bug was never corrected - if the ramp is on screen, it moves menacingly towards you, even if you are not moving. Controls are 6 to slow down or 7 to go faster.
	Wild Side (1989) - drop the 1 Ton weight on the player on the other side. A game for one or two players (although the 1 player version was never completed). Use the Space Bar to stop the green arrow in the right place, in order to control the direction of the weight. You must also gain 250 points before taking out the other player, or you will forfeit the game. The symbols are 50 (get 50 points), <2 (weight moves to the left), 10 (get 10 points), R2 (weight moves in random direction), F> (green arrow faster), 2> (weight moves to the right), <S (green arrow slower).
	Munchman (1988) - make your way through different levels, completing different challenges. Open doors with correct keys. Get to the bombs within the time limit. Avoid the monsters. This was a breakthrough for me, as it was the first time I used larger sprites than the traditional 8x8 pixel user defined graphics. I also got collision detection to work correctly.
	Maggot (1989) - animation only. In 1985 I wrote several cartoon stories about a competitive race of insects, called Maggot Marathon. I managed to animate a maggot, then in 1989 returned to the demo and got the maggot to move along the track.
	The House (1987) - adventure game with no typing. Escape from the house by one of three exits but beware of the traps. A small but complete game, the options are presented to you on screen.
	Silly (1988) - adventure game in traditional style, ie you have to work out what to type in order to progress. The story was extremely random, with influences ranging from Alice In Wonderland through to topical events like a strike at a Land Rover factory. Progression (and scoring) is by doing silly things, for example a house with very little inside can best be utilised by being eaten. The presentation was aided by a 'silly' font, graphics and sounds, instructions and a high score table.
	Betting (1986 approx) - simple game for 1 to 2 players. Bet money on a dice roll until a player runs out of cash.
	Dicey (1989) - a yahtzee style game. Roll the dice (by pressing any key) and score for combinations. The player exerts no influence, save for starting each round.
	Maziacs (1989) - a Spectrum game loosely based around Grandstand's hand held 'Mini Munchman'. Eat all the cherries and the ghosts will turn purple. Eat a purple ghost to progress to the next level, but watch out because purple ghosts can still eat you first. The ghosts can't move onto spaces with cherries - so eating the nearby cherries is a risky business because it releases the ghosts. Keys are Q, A, O and P, with S to start.
	The Paulie Pie Game [to be added soon] (1998) - a bit of fun, when I was challenged to write a game in an hour. You must use your skill and judgement to kiss Paulie Pie. Keys are O,P and of course K to kiss Paulie Pie.
	Bomb Run (1989) - A sequel to Splat! Collect the bombs before they explode, but avoid the guardian. Never completed, and not available here either - due to being lost. This screenshot is all that survives. From surviving notes and code, I may be able to rewrite and complete this game in the near future.
	More games and programs coming soon. Thanks for visiting!