development of exussr game industry
(c) chasm/cpu

i think, this article will be interesting especially for our foreign friends, and also for all newcomers who know nothing about spectrum ten or more years ago. it is impossible to completely review all games that was produced during 1991-2 003 (because most of them weren't good enough), so i decided to speak about the most popular games of this times.

it is known that major development of russian spectrum started in end of 80th last century when perestroika was going on as quick as possible. some foreign magazines periodically broke information starvation, which still existed. but of coz it was hardly to get them, except, maybe "bajtek" from poland. there wasn't any kind of links between spectrum users and the appearance of paper "zx-review" had exploded the ice, which locked minds of spectrum people. army of readers incr eased from day to day, because that time there weren't much educated people, and authors looked pretty enough to be cyber gods.

some simple basic routines started to appear on pages of "review" when authors created a section about programming and began to teach readers not just to play. as the result some people started to make programs on assembler. of coz there w ere some good work in late 80th, for example we can take "pentis" by tony raugas, this game consists of standard tetris and two additional pentis and petris. for comparison it had figures made of some more blocks. and we can rightly call it the first russian game for spectrum. in early 90th some other tetrislike games were produced. the most interesting from bare tetrises were "stek" by mpf, "columns" by piter ltd и "tetriller" by a.c.e. - the conversion from pc. another one popular type of games was strategic and economic. the best were: "the euphoria kingdom" ("королевство эйфория" - as if we have some russian names i'll try to translate them and in the brackets there will be russian letters) by silva, "prezident 2" by oleg kirasov, "super president" by balaganoff, "the kingdom of grain" (королевство зерна) by thd, "space trade" by pavel nikitin, and the first russian arcade for two players "cowboy duel" by d.j. stepanenko.

the most famous russian gamemaker vecheslav mednonogov aka copper feet started his career that time. he produced three games during 1991: "durak" - the computer release of card game, "videosport" the soviet game console imitator and "game box" - the collection of minigames, the last two games were written by his brother alexej who would take part in all other works of copper feet. in 1992 he released "tankodrom" (танкодром) good arcade with elements of strategy, and in 11 1993 "the adventures of buratino" ("приключения буратино") the first russian arcade/adventure game.

1993 brought a vogue for logic games. and people who did it were thd & fanatic stas. they produced a line of logic games: "slab age", "squares colours", "tube mix", "watermill" and also "russian tetris" ("русский тетрис").

among other games produced in 1993 we can call: "king's bounty" by yarosh r., zelenkevich d. - the conversion of famous game, "power ball" by flash - very original version of "arcanoid", "hell master" by paul nikitin -a-la "boulder dash", "tetcolor" by krasnoyarsk soft mixture of "tetris" and "columns", "sextris" by russian soft - the first logic/arcade game where erotic pictures were used.

but the real sensation of 93 was the appearance of several new version of cult game for all russian players "elite". that time lots of people tried to improve this game, among them we can pick out the first remix from thd, but it was buggy and lame, so it was hard to play it with comfort. later vladimir kladov aka shadow soft conquered the minds of all "elite" players with new much much better version of game, it was very good rewritten, and it contained some more additional features, which made it more playable than firm version. also its difficulty was on higher level, because the engine was modified there appeared plenty of new gameplay features like new ships and etc. new equipment was added to cobra mk-3, it allowed to travel from star to star using interstars space and to save hyperdrive. it'll took too much space here to count all new features and improvements of "elite 3", it will be enough if i say that except three standard secret miss ions author added another four: "mineral life" task is to find and explore mineral forms of life, "alien computer" - to complete this mission you should get the alien items and new generation spaceship "cobra mk-4" where you can set up more equipments. next mission is "star wars". it is an emulation of great war between men and thargoids including the rescue operations, cargo delivering missions, missions where you should bring a squad of troops to the enemy station in the deep space, if you agreed to take part in this operations you might get military rank up to colonel.

shadow soft showed his desire to make "elite 4". the further modernization of game where secret missions would load from disk and so on. unfortunately this project had lost in time.

the publishers of zx-review - inforkom in 1994 started a new project called "author's program" and till the end of year it had brought some good results. the side-firm of inforkom - 'formak' began to sell compilations of games and system progs which had been sent to zx-review from all over the country and nearby regions, but level of programming and gameplay wasn't high.

however there were some games which differed from other heaps, like action games: "main blow" by chip, "special forces" ("отряд быстрого реагирования") by chip&rocky, "mini fly" by galaxy and "fire gear" by tm'm - the first russian action game with multilevel structure and introduction and final cut.

the love of all russian players to "lode runner" and all conversion on other platforms moulded into some games: "raise out from dungeons" by vetyutnev vadim, "klad" by technotime and "montana jones 2" by home masters.

the fenomen of early 90th was the logical game "colour lines" which was written by russian firm "gamos" for pc platform and became the most popular office game. in period 93-96 were made almost ten different versions of this game for spectrum. surdakar, vadim and sergey grepan, rsc, michael kovalev, cwc and genesis made the most interesting.

in 1994 appeared mass tendency of "intellectual" games it was caused by inforkom's popularisation of games of that kind in "zx-review", so some products were made: "destroyer" by rensoft - based on "rebel star raiders" and the first wargam e "the kulikovskaya battle" ("куликовская битва") by we group. fans of adventure games wasn't deprive, in this period were made some games on russian language: "lenin in october", "cops", "the vice island" ("ленин в октябре", "ментура", "остров пороков") by sergey gusev and "the magic story. dedication of falkoris." ("волшебная история. посвящение фалькориса") by v.bodrov.

like in previous years in 94 were produced lots of tetrislike

and logic/arcade games: "night tetris" by chemist; "colour of magic" by genesis, "diamonds downfall" by pritula oleg -another variant of "columns"; "mega xonix" by zaporozhye, "roboxonix" by chemist - variant of "xonix".

from other releases of 94 year we can pick out: "the dark" by hanzis sergey - spectrum conversion of apple 2 game, "fox hunt" ("охота на лис") by computer rats, "the 'seka' club" ("клуб сека") by v.bodrov computer realization of card gam e, "skirmish" by mas -the first speccy realization of pc "scorched earth", it has many tunings during game play, and "sunny gummy ("солнышко гамми") by andrey slabosnitskiy a quite good game which looked like "head over heels ".

but the mostressive brakethrough in game industry was in 1995. in march copper feet had released spectrum version "ufo: enemy unknown" by microprose. in speccy version tactic part was replaced with arcade, so instead of step by step controlling you had opportunity to control one soldier and run over the level and kill aliens. but economic and science block was made same as in the original.

"ufo" wasn't the single strategic game this year, pan code released the game "scorpions: die machine" and domen soft finished their game based on novel by r.zhelazny "warriors of amber". "country of tales" ("страна мифов") by fantasy was an other game made in 95, it was very interesting, made in the style of "kings bounty". another strategic game was "pirates" ("пираты") by nicodim, it was conversion of famous table game.

in middle summer, electronic magazine "spectrofon" opened a championship dedicated to game "virus" (and later "virus 2") which was written by s.v.kukoviakin, it was a sequel of famous "life", where you could create and program you own viruses. on battlefield the most full-blown virus survived and destroyed other weaker opponents. anyone could join championship, but closer to the end of year mass interest began to fade.

epidemic passion of russian players for dizzy series and quests brought results in form of game "48 irons" ("48 утюгов") by galaxy, a team from st.petersburg. and of course this game became a megahit. russian language, lots of humour, and some uploading levels made this game glorious. by the way, phantom family during a couple of years is trying to translate this game into english. the game engine was rebuild and it gave a chance to save some space, which was occupied, by le vels. and to make language closer to original english humour, authors choose agony^cc for translator. authors are planning to release it in .tap and may be in .trd.

russian dizzymania gave a way to many different sequels. of course there were a lot of low level works, but we can define some quality games such as "dizzy-x journey to russia" and "dizzy-y return to russia" by speed code, "home iceland d zzy" by vs prog, and also the game which was released at chaos constructions'01 game compo "dizzy underground" by gogin.

lets go back to 95 year. after some announces in "zx-review" and in their own "spectrofon", step creative group released national megahit "star inheritance" ("звездное наследие"). this arcade/adventure game has everything - a good graphic, good thought scenario, plenty of quests and original game engine.

so it took minds of players for a long time. a few time later some games were made on same game engine, such as "time cop" by moonsoft, "mirror" ("зеркало") by awcg, "chainik: horror in the flat" by optical bros, "sea quest" by taras, "plut onia" ("плутония") by twin peaks и "virtue. da dirty soul" by c-jeff. in 2001 "star inheritance" was transferred to gba by r-lab, there were redrawn gfx, english language of course with full spirit of russian version and etc. nowadays step creative group are working on pc where they also trying to produce quests. there were released some small game projects during this year "regeners" by reserve (in style of "life"), "piton" ("питон") by surdakar, a couple of verions of "battle city" - game from dandy consol (it would better to say nes, because dandy was made later and it was nes clone, so i suppose battle city or tank 91 was made for nes. - remark of translator), so in period from 93 were made at least 3 releases. adventure games "svyatogor knight and karachun wizard" ("витязь святогор и колдун карачун") by demiurge ash. "talisman" ("талисман") by ray and "oragon" by evgenij bernikov. in 95 appeared two different versions of russian clone of tv show "wheel of fortune", ("поле чудес") by softland and outland. also we re released some nice logical games: the conversion from pc and amiga "turn or xor'em all" by mad max, "minesweaper" by simple company (the most good made transfer) and "pipe dream" by infosoft, "hearts" by barrisoft, it was original logic game, "open it" by hazard dreams. of course programmers didn't forgot about tetrises, "sextris" by silicon brains - with stimulating erotic pictures between levels, "trubis" by sunny tram - conversion from pc, "magic block" by dab lab - ano ther one "columns", and the most fluent tetris from all which were done "amiga tetris" by navigator.

success of 1995 inspired gamemakers, and in the next year many quality games were released. another one large project was released that year, "ufo 2: devils from the deep" from the gamemaking monster copper feet, for that time slava didn't make any improvements imagined by himself and just made quality conversion to spectrum. o f course there were some free interpretations, like aliens ship interception, he made it in form of arcade shooter, but in everything else copper feet was more correct. he used original graphics in ufopedia. naturally he refined main part sprites, but shape and content of aliens ship remained unchanged and looked like original.

passion of the majority russian players to strategic games was satisfied in a sufficient measure. except for mentioned already "ufo 2" were published: "kings bounty 2" by ejb conversion of the same game from pc, "murk 3320" by wanderer and "last battle" by hacker's squad quite good step-by-step strategy in style of a mix "laser squad" and "nether earth", in this game for the first time on speccy was made a "fog" mode which not allowed to watch movement of enemy forces in unexplored space. by the way, now the author works on conversion of "last battle" to pc, release is planned by the end of 2004 year.

it is possible to name one more sensational game of the beginning of that year "prince of persia" by nicodim - very close to the original conversion. the gfx of game and smoothness of movement of the character were close to version for ami ga, whence was made it conversion.

remembering the last year's success of "virus 1, 2", ivan gudkov issued "soldier of the future" -logic continuation of above named programs. in his game it was possible to program behaviour of several soldiers and to let out them on a battlefield. personally to me,

it was very interesting to look at attempts of my creatures to exterminate enemies in the confusing labyrinth; especially some part of gfx and the interface in "sof" were borrowed from favourite "laser squad". you can also save your robot t hat enabled to play with creations of your friends.

also this year was plentiful on logic games and logics with arcade elements. to the first group it is possible to relate "hexxagon" by we, "fifteens" by greedy guys, "heavy metal mover" by ucm, "rings of the magic" by global corp, "the hundred" by x-master, "grab of territory" by free group, "squarehead" by outland, "the magic of logic" by vvs, "russian time treaser" by world eyes, "filler" by zc, "squards" by spark, "dizzy warehouse " by yury schapov - on this time the auth or has forced dizzy to move washing machines in game a-la "socoban", "passiance klondike" by digital reality, "dice - poker" ("кости-покер") by auryn, "gold fever" by sm - computer variant of desktop game, "corners" ("уголки") by electrical brain and "donkey" ("осел") by devil. remakes of "lode runner" with much more extended logic component were released by two groups: "king valley" by we and "klademiner" by bitmunchers. also to logic/arcade division it is possible to relate "tank war " by interceptor, "double xinox" by zx masters, "dr. mario" by romantic warriors, "blockus" by bitmunchers, "trubes" by panc and "home tetris" by russian bear.

there were also a lot of quests. 1996 has begun with such serials as "crime santa claus" by etc and "smagly" by crystal dream, by the way, the third part of "smagly" represented in style of "astro marine corps". except for the first series of these games it is possible to mention "adventures of vinny the puh" ("приключения винни пуха") by softland, "sliders" by msd and "freddy mcneford" by d.j. hooligan it was an interactive comics rather than quest.

lovers of russian language adventures this year also have received in order some quite good games: "ivan tsarevich" ("иван царевич") by g&m, "last rider" by kit, "alien" by terminator, "medieval story" ("средневековая история") by human so ft, "apollo" by jockersoft.

cloud soft and precision published "magicians land". it was impossible to characterize this game as pure rpg, most likely it was the advanced quest, as in "ml" were absent opportunity of hero characteristics development and save of the cu rrent condition, however game was very interesting.

as manufacturers of spectrum games were not constrained by the law on protection of copyrights, so trademark and characters from other platforms were widely used, therefore some commands have declared release of demoversions and the beginning of manufacture such products as "dune 2", "warcraft" and "mortal kombat".

on a pique of new stream, xl-design published the demoversion of "mk", in which were used large converted sprites of characters from amiga, however the given product has evidently shown, that using of high-grade converted gfx makes impossible to create full conversion (banal shortage of memory). therefore aws have gone a little bit other way and have decided to reduce size of sprites and made them handdrown. certainly it became a minus in recognition of characters, but in t he given version were realized all super strikes of all of twelve heroes, fatality, babylity and also a digital sound which was converted from amiga and game has remained very dynamical and difficult.

the genre of arcade/action also was represented this year by games "ice climber" by vdv soft -conversion from game console, "crusher" by playgear - a variation of "arcanoid", "humanoid" ("гуманоид") by shock - the author of the given product was obviously keen by "boulder dash", labyrinths: "the new year story" ("новогодняя история") by binary masters and "dungeon" ("подземелье") by ivan krut, and also quite volumetric "return to home 4: road into hell " by k.kav soft. it is possible to name this game, fashionable at that time word "doomlike". certainly, there wasn't any kind of three-dimensional gfx, it is possible to compare this game with "hired guns" (amiga), but for one player.

1997 year was less productive, in comparison with previous, however this year were released a few absolute megahits.

in the beginning of the year "operation r.r." was released - devilishly amusing and interesting game in style of arcade adventure from galaxy, who already made a name on "48 irons". closer to the middle of year one more game in the similar genre was released, it was based on popular fantastic novel of brothers strugatski "picnic at the roadside" ("пикник на обочине"), foreign readers could see film from cult russian director andrey tarkovskij "stalker" ("сталкер"), that name used jam^xpj for the game.

among other appreciable projects it is possible to note "elopment. way to earth" by ohg it is can be related to a genre of arcade adventure too and compared with a well-known "saboteur", though in product of ohg the quest component is more expressed, "fizzy" by speed co. basically unremarkable game, so we remind it because unbeliever took part in this project, "the wizard of oz country" ("волшебник страны оз") by famous faces factory, "mystery of an ancient castle" by art studio, and also "escape to kharkhan" ("бегство на хархан") by air.

due to occurrence in russia of "quill" package, in 97 year have appeared a few quite good adventures in russian: "island of darkness" by paul moscow, "diamond" by dr. laser, and also "examination investigation" ("экзаменационное расследова ние") by demiurge ash.

in 97 the tendency of not losing of interest to manufacture of logic games has brought: "magic stripes" by vitrual bros, "x-reversy" by xl-design, "the puzzle" by taras, "marrow in the world of wisdom" by reflection, "teso" by ivan krut, "digital tetris" by batsoft, "hexxagon 2" by style group, "lightly fields" by magic moon, "genius house" by jupiter77 - conversion of game "poly peg" from macintosh, and also electronic versions of popular in russia puzzles, pocket and desk top games: "rubik's cube"("кубик рубика") by phantom family, "goat" ("козел") by accept, "trinja" ("триня") by rnd, "pasyance 'four row's'" by studio rubicon and "ouths and сrosses" ("крестики, нолики") by shcg. perspective group have gone a little bit other way and have released "last courier" - game on a joint of arcade and puzzle.

star group has gone further and have released classical shooter for two players "chopper duel", where players were killing in realtime the helicopter of the opponent. thanking to not bad design and speed of engine, the given process become s fascinating and grasped for a long time. in the next year by team alliance was published logic continuation: "choppers deathmatch", however, "deathmatch" wasn't so dynamical as a produc`t of star group.

an absolute arcade game (what appears from the name) became "arcade volleyball" by rome'r - it was conversion of "headball" from pc. by the way, in 98 year zx-masters released another one conversion of this game with better engine and more quality gfx, and also with nice sound effects (using general sound).

but the most important event of that year became occurrence of absolute megahit among speccy games "black raven". ( "черный ворон") basically, copper feet planned to name the game with more well-known brand - "warcraft", but when he has de cided to engage in this project, brand "wc" was already taken by one of petersburg teams, the work which have declared on the beginning of game with this name. changing of the name of project only has untied copper feet's hands, as it was n ot necessary to copy levels of a source completely. as to gameplay of "black raven", it has taken all the best from "warcraft 1, 2" and under the right can be considered as the best strategy in real time on spectrum.

it is necessary to notice that game occupied two disks and had two various companies with 16 levels (people and kungs) and also rendered twenty minutes introductory video and two various versions of final cut.

a little bit later, already in 1999, compu-studio recompiled "br", released the powerful editor of levels, and also a disk with new missions for game. due to occurrence of the given editor, in 2002 year metallurg published one more disk wi th 15 levels, and in 2003 by the unknown author two disks with missions were created, which differed by increased difficulty.

"technodrom" by real soft was another good step-by-step strategy of 97 - roots are going to "laser squad" and "nether earth", so as in "ne" - with the help of robots made on bases it was necessary to grasp all bases of enemy. i must note, that despite of external similarity, gameplay differed from "ls" in the better side. long-term attachment of gamemakers to unforgettable "kings bounty" embodied in one more remake "feudal wars" by x-studio.

manager game "diller" by d.j. hooligan has returned me ten years back and put me in atmosphere that was on our "flea market" where i traded speccy programs. this game offered you to become the seller of software on the market, and the chro nology of game events is based on real facts of 1993-1997 years. so, it gave you an opportunity to be a regional dealer of copper feet, step, magic soft etc. and to support and expand your business, and of course to deserve general love and respect as the best seller of spectrum software in city.

1998 became the year of finishing of all earlier announced major game projects. "last hero of the light force" became the first russian rpg, excess team manufactured it. they worked more than two years. game had very big size -two .trd disks, and large handdrown gfx, pleasant interface and quite good engine, though it was not so good as popular on that moment "bard's tale".

here at once it is necessary to mention two games, which stylistically directly adjoined to rpg "monstrland" by rage and "12 secret books" ("12 тайных книг") by demiurge ash, though "monstrland" most likely was an advanced quest, becaus e you couldn't develop your hero (except filling up energy). these games had something similar in both main сharacters are submitted by the top view, in both it was necessary to solve quests, to have battles and use magic, and by the way, in both games the result of battle does not depend directly from the player, but only from force and weapon of your character.

if there was a conversation about a genre of quest, undoubtedly, it should be noted the occurrence of crazy "homer simpson in russia" ("homer simpson в россии") by mr. gluk and co. demoversion of "paradise lost" by digital reality was the main force that pushed the authors of "homer simpson" to start their project, and the full version of "pl" which had mass advertising, but was not issued. though "homer" also had similar with "pl" engine and gfx, however, it had own "highli ght" as simpson's humour, which all of us so appreciate in an unforgettable serial.

the genre of simulators always liked in russia, this year it was submitted with not absolutely standard program. instead of operating the tank or a bomber, you should spend some time on a silent bank of the river with a fishing tackle in hands. in game "fisher" by hard code, a choice of a few reservoirs was offered to you , types of fishing tackles and baits. besides in a consequence it was possible to compete in amount of caught fish.

the amount of logic games released in this year was still less than in the past, however among them, it is possible to note "net walk" by style group - very large product, with lots of three-colour pictures between levels, it occupied two disks and it was a conversion of the same game by gamos. i think gamos games cryed out to be converted on speccy (recollect "colour lines"), therefore, next year face off released another one version of "nw", distinguished from style group release much in smaller size and more worked gfx. "word life" by computer rats group, also it was possible to count it as logical sequence of gamos creation, but in comparison with "colour lines", you was offered to put in a line not simple colour balls, but letters, which at formation of intelligent combinations, that was simply speaking a russian word - disappeared. among other logic games is necessary to mention "crossword" by razzlers, "devil's curse " by s.e.i., "figus" by image crew and "fast breed" by mhcg - all games graphically beautifully made and differed by sufficient difficulty. also mhcg released "wormpithon" an interesting version of known game, and crushers made an arcade puzzle "the flinstones. fred in magic wood".

gamblings were not forgotten, free group issued patience "free cell" ("свободная ячейка") and strangers - "blackjack" ("очко").

on a joint of logic and arcade has appeared "leprekon" by omega hacker group - though the plot of the game also did not differ novelty (it was old "lode runner"), but the beautiful gfx, smoothness of engine and good sound made me to pass it completely. a little bit later ohg released the second edition of "leprekon" with two new additional levels.

but the main piece of 1998 year, i think, was the occurrence of minimal, but not less crazy arcades. the initiator of "belarusian phenomenon", i think, was freeman^asphyxia, who has begun all this with release of "kolobok zoom" completel y mad shooter in style (as he defined it) "realtime aggression". after this release was "any tank" by optical bros -an absolute arcade, controlled with one button. also there were "hunting on moles" ("охота на кротов") by asphyxia, "mobile wars" by mythos, and a serial of 98-99 years "kill pc 1-3" by rage the arcade saga of pc hater and new year arcade-congratulation "white eagle. comrade is known" ("белый орел. товарищ известен") by fatality. deification of all became " kolobok zoom 2" by asphyxia and fatality - thirty levels terrible fight accompanying with lethal sound effects and vivid music. all this was executed in beautiful gfx with simply fantastic speed (especially it was evidently visible when her o took all extra weapons). in the end certainly, there was a final fight and excellent final cut. in my opinion "kz2" was the best arcade on speccy, nobody had done it later.

by ninety ninth the majority of gamemakers have understood, that manufacturing of games on a commercial basis already became a past. it was ounded up with low prices on consoles and second hand pcs that has caused outflow of "pure" gamers from spectrum. also, the growing of last year's hackers activity made situation worse, so if sometimes authors earned only minimal money just for beer. and according to that fact, stopped work on such projects as "the black raven 2", "last hero of the light force 2", and continuations of "monsterland" and "12 secret books". from this moment most of games were written for fun, but however still there were enthusiasts, who were attracted by the process of creation.

strangely enough, the majority of games released that year is possible to divide into logic and strategic.

jeez released "kluxer" - beta version of amusing puzzle, later, having taken advantage of same idea optical bros made more tremendous beautiful "clickmania"; clevers issued " 4x4 puzzle", smokers "take it", and ascendancy finished two-year work on puzzle "hamon iv". also in belorussia was finished work on "fields of logic" by amd and "tormozilka" ("тормоз илка") by amalitiya, and in russia "clocks" by omega. "tet block" by cyber team and "xixit" by real soft were another versions of old hit "columns", though it is necessary to admit that it was made on rather higher level and with use of m odern technologies.

step-by-step strategy "owа against nato: the apocalypse" ("овд против nato: апокалипсис") by larri, which was released under impression of war at the balkan. in a basis there was a script of possible development of those years events: russia, belorussia and ukraine resist nato to start the third world war. "ships" ("кораблики") by sizenko alexander was step-by-step tactics on sea, rather than strategy. in 99 was released the game called "cezar" the first game from rather productive till that moment, team action. the given game was written in style of "sim city" the player is offered to construct and develop antique city, and also to complete various missions developed by author. very close to a strategic genre was manager game "the owner 2: the millionaire" by upsoft - you are offered to become the owner of some ore mines with all troubles connected with this hard business.

however, other genres were not forgotten too, so for quick button-click lovers were made "kick da gaga" by avalon/rush - beautifully made arcade, "supaplex" by flyman - a little bit pale conversion of the same game from pc, "gunman" by alien factory and sage really good arcade shooter, "mario islands" by omega hackers group quite nice spectrum version of known platform game. z-system and graphics system have continued adventure comics serial, having released the second and the third part of "wolf". d.j.hooligan again realizes itself in the genre of interactive comics. however this time, quest component was exp ressed more clearly, he released rather massive game with plenty of animation "explosion" ("взрыв"). shuric program debuts in a new genre for him, he wrote text adventure "great testing".

"super tetris" by alex art - was, in my opinion, the best tetris on speccy, with its smoothness of engine even better than "amiga tetris", which was the best for five years. having decided to unite all the best in one game, push and dgms s tarted to work on "mega tetris 2000", however despite of huge size, and lots of various modes of game and adjustments, this product has turned out much less playable, than mentioned above "super tetris".

popular in middle 90 genre nondeterministic games a-la "life" this year was submitted by game "snake", written by pelepejchenko alexey. though that game also had advanced language of snakes programming, pleasant interface and quite good gfx, nevertheless it was not so popular as "virus" or "soldier of the future".

as well as all last years, it was issued a few computer versions of gamblings - "poker" by ma$ter, "cobble 2", "nine" ("девятка"), "patience" ("пасьянс") by v. cherpasov.

2000 year has pleased us with finishing of several projects, to see which, the majority of players already didn't hope.

after two-year-old drudgery and transition of sources from hands to hands, light has seen "pussy" at least. it was excellent made puzzle and it was completed by razzlers. as asphyxia and fatality have renamed in free art, at that time trie d to be engaged in making games under gbc on a commercial basis. strangely enough, but the first release of that game was carried out outside ex-ussr - lcd has got all rights on its distribution and primary "pussy" was issued on tape. howev er due to efforts of maddy^phf, the given game has left in tr-dos version too, it was optimised and fully repacked.

also in this year was completed beautiful quest "crime santa claus: deja vu" which brokimsoft promised to release in the last year. crystal dream have decided not to make separate release of "smagly 3", which demoversion already existed an d they have released "smagly anthology" - the whole disk release, which included the third arcade part, and the first and second quest parts.

young team action in 2000 began to increase their potential. in the beginning of that year "the eighth department" ("восьмой отдел") was published - it was arcade adventure, based on life of confidential agents. game has turned out very la rge and occupied practically half of a disk, but it was a little bit dampish, and a good impression was spoiled by total illiteracy of the author, who has managed to do grammatical mistakes even in the simple words. however, the activity of slip was really great, because he practically alone does the following product -"empire 2000" which also had large volume and occupied one disk. genre of this game was the mix of first game by action "cezar" with famous "king's bounty", i .e. you need to construct and develop city, to create army and destroy your enemies. the list of strategic games for spectrum has replenished this year with one more remake of "rebel star riders" - "солдатики v1.2" by sizenko alexander, how ever that game differed from the prototype with worse ai of opponents and bad game engine.

in comparison with previous year, 2000 was plentiful on logic games and puzzles. n-discovery and cobra made "the knight's arena" and "10x10" - games with practically identical idea. it was offered you to move a course with using of chess h orse step to clear a whole game field, but game by n-discovery was made at the higher level.

among others, it is necessary to allocate work of studio stall "tower pod" - beautifully created conversion of "pad" from pc. also that time were released: "aliens" by syndrome, "honey world" by alex art,

"real lines" by saint - the next attempt to improve "colour lines", "strange exhibits" by prog master, "virtual rubik's cube "by vrcp - not so successful computer realization of known puzzle, "japanese contrast" by fenomen - the collec- tion of japanese puzzles.

in a genre of logic/arcade appeared "new time pacman" by shuric and "xor 2000" by d.moroz - game in style of "boulder dash ", but with more clearly expressed logic component. "deathmatch arena" by lynx and "stagger" by fenomen were pure ar cades. also i was pleased with greetings from childhood: horrorsoft released "kool eggs" -very exact imitation of pocket electronic arcade "i'll get you! " ("ну, погоди! "), in which i played at soviet times. by the way, a year before,

paradox released "rabbit jazzy" which was also based on the same game, however, in my opinion, horrorsoft's release looked much more attractive.

at 1st of january of new millennium "homer simpson 2: again in russia" was released by mr. gluk and co, they worked on it about two years. game turned out better than the first part, engine has undergone to processing, and again funny ques ts and humour have allowed it to win hearts of players.

but "homer 2" became the last project of mr.gluk. "yard story " by orion has continued the traditions of "the star heritage" ("звездного наследия"), so it was externally a little bit similar to it. however, very small attention, which the a uthor has given to the gfx and plot, made it less attractive to players in comparison with other representatives of this genre.

at spring triumph released arcade races "numb cars" - unpretentious, but tightening, and later "thimble" - imitation of russian national street game, i.e. games in thimbles. siberian group were distinguished by logic games, they created "new puzzle", also studio stall released "opener" ("открывашкa") (basically, it officially was a part of appendix to adventurer 13, therefore it was issued only in 2002, though it was made in 2001).

arcades were submitted by works of studio stall - while i was playing "stuckun" my brain was simply disconnected, delirium tremens transferred work to a spinal department with their "cars" ("машинками") and began a series of paranoid game s - all that you need is to destroy four enemy cars. triebkraft pleased people with their remake of fresh arcade "super bomberman 2" by action -poisoned cyberjack rewrote the game engine, player of music and sound effects, and also optimised a work with memory and that made his game a hit of the beginning of year on one level with "homer 2".

due to the occurrence of new nomination "32k game compo" on chaos constructions'99, many games were released at the party. so still in 99 on cc were released demoversions of "curse of xeen" by x-master and "babylon 5" by troll, and mention ed above "hamon iv" by ascendancy and "stagger" by fenomen were submitted to public on millennium 1900.

the similar situation has taken place in 2000: logic game "3d-roost" by fenomen was completed, however it was released only after mln'1901. also at the given party were released "technodrom. millennium edition" by real soft - in mln version was added mouse support, new gfx, new maps and new parts of gameplay.

on cc'01 the following picture was observed: as game compo had rigid frameworks in 32 kb, so arcade shooter "hunt on sparrows born to kill" by green bit group, logic "farspace" by mayhem and short version of "arcanoid" by drv53b6 were al lowed to take part. and for its size, the indisputable leader "dizzy underground" by gogin was thrown away, so another one weak remake on the same theme -"dizzy b" by n-discovery.

the beginning of 2002 was marked by release of "kill pokemon" by delirium tremens - in this arcade shooter you should kill 50 pokemons, exactly pikachu. personally, i was fucked by "pokemon" cartoon and had a lot of fun while killing these bastards. then in february, triebkraft and 4th dimension released spectrum version of another one arcade shooter - "moorhuhn: first blood". the given version differed way with it greater visualisation.

n-discovery team developed a package "if creator" for text games creation, a-la interactive fiction the book genre that started to collect popularity in russia. with the help of this package n-discovery made "adventure of your dream" ("приключение твоей мечты"), which showed the advantages of "if creator".

sam style released "battle field" step-by-step tactic for 1-4 players. this game intended, as a component of package of "windowz'02". in my opinion game wasn't done very professional, and lots of settings and quite good gfx, didn't rescu e it at all, because of absence of an opportunity of game with computer.

in 2002 was another attempt to start producing games on a commercial basis. perspective group has declared a competition "your game" ("твоя игра") which called to participate in it all manufacturers of spectrum games. organiozers of this cоmpetition have appointed prize fund and determined time limit. at the end of summer, perspective released the collection of demoversions of six games, which have participated in competition. winners were chosen with method of absentia votin g. any interested person could vote, meanwhile games were prepared to release, and money from its selling were transferred to prize fund. however, later on virtual tr-dos was published a freeware version of the "your game" collection. first of all among other games presented on that competition, it is necessary to allocate the winner -"abe's mission (escape) part 1" by brothers. the given game was the remake of "oddworld: abe's oddysee". it has quite good converted gfx , smoothness of moving and quests transferred from a source of conversion, distinguished it from other games, which took part in competition. also in the collection were released "mine" ("шахта") by scg - arcade game for team playing. it wa s offered you to equip with various stock (tools, fixtures, and other different kinds of an explosive) to kill your enemies. enemies also got similar equipment; therefore process of game became fascinating massacre, demanding not only react ions, but also sharpness of mind. "the dome" by studio stall continued traditions of "nether earth", however from its prototype game distinguished with the absence of opportunity of independent designing of robots and weaker ai of your comp uter opponent. "the courier 2: the lost world" ("курьер 2: потерянный мир") by perspective was the continuation of the first parts of this serial which was published in 1997. a genre of game hasn't changed - it also was the arcade puzzle , however engine was advanced and improved. real soft released on this competition computer realization of desktop game "manager" ("мeнeджер") (the soviet variant of "monopoly"). it was written in 1996, however up to that time was unreleasd. game was mainly written in basic and had the inconvenient interface, therefore in my opinion real soft formally participated in "your game" presenting their early, not absolutely successful development. "super mario bros" by gogin was a playable demo with four levels; in it there were absence of sound effects (there was only a music) and various features from original game that spoils game a little. however, gogin for the first time on spectrum used a multiscreen engine with one frame horizontal scrolling, which made even this demoversion visually attractive and also forced to play in it. the release of full version was planned on the beginning of 2003, but it wasn't made.

in the beginning of 2003, was the calm which proceeded till spring when ice'di^triumph released "lord of darkness" - if adventure, made with the help of n-discovery package. game based on cult "lord of rings" and used some undocumented commands of "if creator", that allowed ice'di to bring in gameplay elements of fight. unfortunately, in spite of the fact that game had large size (about 800 locations), it could be solved rather easily and quickly. "deadventure" by ach also w as written with the help of "ifc", this game has good script and some alternative finals.

ineradicable mania of clown and wizard to pokemons poured out in another one release from delirium tremens where there were these kinds of characters - "gotta catch'em all". it is possible to put unequivocal diagnosis to the authors - slow schizophrenia; the plot of game was in guessing of combination of pokemons, besides there were available three bars with nine pokemons in each, i.e. it turns out 9^3=729 variants, and to complete it with 9 lives, in my opinion, impossible ;) also that summer were released already mentioned "virtue. da dirty soul" by c-jeff and "doctor ouchithurts" ("доктор айболит") by transman, it was the conversion of "dr. mario" from nintendo.

inspired by success of "your game'02" ("твоя игра'02"), perspective group have decided to start publish and distribute last game from action team - "dune: imperia 2" it was written in a genre of real time strategy. it is necessary to notic e, that it was the largest on scale project, ever spread in ex-ussr, something similar did only inforkom earlier. however perspective have gone further and acted as serious publishing house, they not only offered game, but also game box, i .e. the complete set of game, a printed short story based on game, and also audio tape with authors music tracks. however this share didn't make big success for poor quality of game, it worked only in tr-dos and requirements of memory was 2 56 kilobyte (besides normally game worked only on computers with expansion of memory by pentagon standard). it is necessary to notice that in "dune: imperia 2" was possible to play only with presence of turbo mode, i.e. it was very slow, that was a little bit surprising if you compare its characteristics and quality of gameplay with "black raven".

also perspective announced the next competition "your game'03", but the majority of gamemakers had ignored it, preferring to be exposed on game compo of cafe'03.

basically all games presented on that party were submitted by demoversions: virtual masters had brought demoversion of "darkwing duck" - conversion of known platform game and "erotris" - very crude tetris with erotic picture between level s. green bit group had exposed pre-release of "death valley" - it was a mixture of "lemmings" and "worms", they worked about three years to complete it. and "fire and ice" by n-discovery was submitted in compiled on partyplace blocks which shown different game situations, that however hasn't prevented it to get first place. the full version of this beautiful puzzle, based on namco game was released much more lately, only in december 30. full versions exposed only studio stall , presenting arcade adventure "lethargy: the apathetic dream", which someone

called "myth 2" because of its gfx and similar plot. however "lethargy" differed from its prototype with the big number of locations and variety of character's equipment. "milas kazmus" by cyberpunks unity - arcade shooter, also it was poss ible to count it as full version, however there wasn't introduction screen and additional music and final cut, because of aspirations to make it 32 kb.

right at the beginning of 2004 on virtual tr-dos, appeared one more release from action - "empire 3", again rts but with elements of rpg. as far as i can judge, the given game was made for "your game'о3" competition, but because of failur e of given contest, wasn't released till that moment. "empire 3" has more advanced engine and interface, however, frankly speaking, stolen from "black raven 1, 2" gfx, the requirement of turbo mode and 256 kb of memory again have not allowed it to become popular, it was promoted with the fact that slip this time not began to think about universal memory support and in my opinion, has ignored other types of expanded memory, except pentagon 512. i don't know as for atm and profi , but on mine scorpion game hasn't worked.

in early 90 on territory of ex-ussr has appeared lots of so-called "hackers" (it was name for both coders and crackers) and they had no opportunity to write high-grade game, because most of them weren't able to write good music and to draw quality gfx. however it did not stop them and later the market of software began to flood with plenty of foreign games remixes.

that time all was limited to addition of ay music (sometimes even self-hand-written), fix and repack for 128 kb machines and realization of game for tr-dos (loading of levels, saving/loading games condition), but nevertheless some people w ent further and made high-grade remakes with new levels, gfx and music.

among that games we can pick out new versions of such games as "batty 3, 4" by surdakar; "krakout 3" by beloozersky a.; some remakes of "lode runner" - a few different versions from fantadrom, biotech and image; "boulder dash 5, 6" by krasko vsky vass., spectrum version of "lemmings" in 1995 was globally rewritten by rst7^codebusters - the engine was accelerated and also levels were repacked, it allowed to store all levels in 128 kb. also in 96 logros released "lemmings 2", it contained 70 new levels.

as i already wrote above, on a wave of "dizzymania" have appeared huge amount of remixes of this super popular game, except for already mentioned quality releases, there were lame hand-made games, which differed not only the worst programm ing realization, but with also absolutely illogical quests: "last will dizzy" by the unknown author, "new dizzy" by v.kutin, d.paltusov, "dizzy 8: little joke" by p.a.soft, timur and "dizzy a&b" by n-discovery. also "laser squad" was very popular. that time various versions of this game have appeared and some editors of missions (the best of them was made by wredosoftware) and all of us could observe occurrence of mediocrely made additional level s to this remarkable game there was one "masterpiece", one shoot to any barrel will detonate all of them with the subsequent chain reaction for five or so minutes. however, among other, it is possible to allocate remix "super laser squad" by chip&chap, zs+vek, which contained 7 new quality made levels.

also on the common background it is possible to allocate some products, not only adapted for tr-dos, but also totally rewritten (additional music, gfx, bugfix, add programming, final cut): "nether earth. special edition " + 11 additional levels by zs, "advanced nether earth" by eternity industry, "draconus" by seamans and dream team, "heavy on the magic! " by real soft, "times of lore" and "dragons of flame" by cyberpunks unity.

in 96-97 x-trade team conducted development of general sound - a sound card for speccy. it was released in several variants (various memory size, etc), the given card had digital sound with parameters closely coming to amiga, so popular at that time in speccy circles. original projects initially used gs, as i remember, were only "headball" by zx-masters and "net walk" by style, also digital sound was planned to be used in "the black raven 1, 2" ("черный ворон 1, 2"), besides f or the second part of game all samples were already made. however all advantages of sound of this devices can be estimated in some remixes of old games, that started to be manufactured in 97. undoubted masterpieces were cult games "chase h. q. 1" and "target renegade" by mike blum, who made gs versions of these games with music and sound effects, transferred from amiga and pc. also it is possible to allocate good remixes of "barbarian" by moroz, "comando tracer" by syndrome, " dan dare. pilot of the future", "krakout", "lee enfield" by phantom family, "navy moves 1" by triumph, "power boat simulator", "renegade", "y.s.capers scatz", "zynaps" by mike blum, "xecutor" by stinger, "rex 1, 2" by cpg, "batty" by nova. a nd it was only a small list of releases, because such kind of works are conducting till nowadays by different teams.

at last it is necessary to tell about demoversions of interesting projects which have not seen the end though if the full versions of these games were completed, the majority of them would become megahits.

when in middle 90's level of coding of spectrum people has achieved rather high level, many people decided to realize a dream of all players and transfer to 8-bit platform "doom". there were some attempts to write "doomlike" engine, in pa rticular such attempts, we shall tell not so impressing, were undertaken by cobra and syndicate, however they hadn't reached the realization of enemies. but already in 1997 there was a sensation -digital reality released welldone demoversi on, containing the first level of "doom". it had three video modes (two chunks with attributes, and one monochrome in a small window, but hi-rez), and also four kinds of weapons, ammunition, first-aid sets, the armour and two kinds of monst ers, which were already possible to kill. a little bit later alone coder released "wolf 3d", however with good engine (smooth movement in big window, normally opening doors) in that demoversion, despite of presence of several kinds of the w eapon monsters were harmless, i.e. they were realized, but remained motionless and impregnable for weapon of the player. but the most successful, in my opinion, realization was the last demoversion (by the way it was published in the append ix to adventurer#13) of game "citadel" by stalker. the engine varied during period of several years and at the end - it had united itself all the best that were in "doom" by digital reality and "wolf 3d" by alone coder. except of three vide omodes, active enemies, several types of weapons and normal realization of doors in it, there was attempted to realize dynamic illumination of explosions and ammunition. also it is necessary to mention one more unfinished, but very perspect ive project -"zx duke nukem", developed by volga soft. there wasn't demoversion of this game as such, however this engine was possible to explore in an article and sources, which were, published in "adventurer #13", also it was used in tra ckmo "love gun", which was written by the same volga soft. on my sight, it is one of the fastest (alongside with "awaken") 3d engine on spectrum, allowing to make really fast hi-rez 3d games. for an example it is possible to tell, that if t his technology were applied in games such as "driller" or "total eclipse" they would work in 5-6 times faster.

in 1996 electronic magazine "spectrofon" published demoversion of cult rts "dune 2", this first conversion was made by perestroika, certainly attempt to realize this kind of strategy wasn't so successful, if there were produced many units game started to go slow, but this demoversion showed us that it is possible to make rts on speccy. as i already wrote above, at the end of next year "black raven" was released and became immortal, which has lifted a competition up to very h igh level. as i known copper feet has refused to finish "bw2" by reasons of financials, however apparently from final demoversion published in 2000 this game should have many advantages, new engine and refreshed gfx. also there could be fly ing units, expanded list of spells and more advanced game play. among uncompleted, but promised projects in genre of rts it is possible to note "operation 'oil'" by alexoft and berseker, and "jackals" by the mad mailmen league both these ga mes had more integrated sprites of units and structures, and also some additional features which favourably distinguished them from "bw1".

some releases of step-by-step strategies also were planned. cubeckin vitaliy tried to transfer "civilization", and demoversion, not differed from original. phantom family released demoversion of very popular in circles of strategy fans game "master of orion", however, because of its incompleteness it is impossible to speak about quality of an end product, but even only the name of game "moo" would force many people to play. "mechanic wars" by green fort was written under influence of "heroes of might and magic", but it had futuristic plot with opportunity to develop science, so it looked like the same "master of orion" and "reunion". in a genre of wargame we can pick out "empire" by virtual vision group, however after release of the second demoversion this group left sp ectrum and renamed in team power amiga.

if speech has gone to amiga it is necessary to recollect one megahit of this platform - "walker". alien factory was engaged to transfer this game during four years and have achieved dazzling successes. final demoversion was in the appendix to electronic magazine "inferno" and represented very close to the original, the first level "walker" was made and only absence of sound and monochrome gfx differed it from real amiga game. there was one more game in style of arcade which roots goes to amiga and which was in 90 as popular as "walker" - i am speaking about "worms". i won't describe it here, it is better to say that on spectrum 4 teams planned to make it. namely silicon brains, multyplex group, real masters an d mythos. unfortunaly not one of these projects wasn't finished, and in demoversions it was possible to observe only one frame scrolling of maps, and also teleporting (sb version) and using of grenades (mg), of course ai of enemies wasn't r ealized.

the mad success of "star inheritance" has pushed gamemakers for creation of its clones. among several unsuccessful attempts, it is possible to allocate competently made and rather massive for demo "sea quest" by taras, "timecop" by moonsoft a nd "the dust of star ways" ("пыль звездных дорог") by galaxy. as i said above, love of players and manufacturers to serial about "dizzy" moulded into various kinds of clones and ideologically relatives games this genre, however the majority of continuations used old engine by oliver twins, and differed only with maps, quests and gfx. megacode released demo of "dizzy-xx", very smooth engine with a lot of various animations. however all was over on this demo, because exploder d ecided to realize himself in demomaking. also very promising looked demo ("kolobok") ("колобок") by softwarrior and continuation of another one hit "vinny the puh 2" ("винни пух 2") by softland. a little bit private residence stands "full shit" by experience^cyberpunks unity - even demoversion of this mad quest in style of pc "larry" has won many admirers, however after that as authors have completely altered a of game engine, but they had lost interest to this project, but engine was rewritten and gfx became colourful. as i already wrote, "paradise lost" by digital reality has pushed people to create "homer simpson 1, 2", therefore it is necessary to mention this fine demoversion. unfortunately not only "pl", but also other promising game projects by digital reality ("doom", "megaball") were not finished.

there were also a couple of rpg masterpieces, the first one is "monstrland 2: mist" by rage, which by spirit already was closer to great and awful "diablo", and also brilliant project of jam'xpj "moon wind" ("лунный ветер"), even demo amazed with dimensions and complexity. environmental space divides into three types: the city, open district and internal locations, which can be as in cities or in nature. you can collect group up to five characters, besides it is possible to chose from 16 races and 16 professional classes. the purpose of this demo to execute mission, which was given to you by emperor. well also you should train and develop heroes and explore space, where you are.

in the conclusion of demoversions review i would like to mention the most sensational project of the end of 20th century, unfortunately it was not issued - "awaken" by rage. in players society game was nicknamed "the painted elite", but it isn't absolutely right. "awaken" should be undoubtedly looked similar to "elite" (interstellar trade, struggle against pirates, etc) but it wasn't continuation - it can be related approximately in the same genre, but there were a lot of or iginal decisions.

first of all, absolutely new three-dimensional engine working with textured objects, all standard game elements should differ from similar in "elite", so it was planned to expand and change the list of possible goods, big attention was giv en to opportunity to improve the ship (different kinds of weapons and special tools), it was planned to realize the opportunity to purchase other ships. except for it, the world where you should live and battle, became really enormous so if in the same "elite" was about 2000 planetary systems scattered in eight galaxies, in "awaken" there would be about 2000000 (two millions! ) stars, where could be more than one planet. also in the second demo was opportunity of landing to th e planet and movement on its surface using "skimmer" (there were two types of them). but basic difference between "awaken" and "elite" was in global plot line, i.e. is to earn a lot of money, to upgrade ship and serve up to super rating - n ot any more the purpose of game, it is necessary, but not a sufficient condition to solve the adventure part of game... as you have already understood destiny of "awaken" was sad, for the beginning it has comprehended destiny of "pussy" i .e. its sources were transferred from one team to another, as mythos has lost interest to game. first it tried to be engaged by ascendancy, and then all files were given to fenomen, but they could not understand author's code, though they s aid that "awaken" was ready on 90%.

it is possible for foreign readers revelation of so huge amount of game releases, which were created on a non -commercial basis. though peak of mass creation of games has fallen to middle of 90th, when people could earn money on its manufa cture, however as time has shown, there are still appearing many quality releases and authors don't ask money for them. in more details i will look on it in my article devoted to the condition of modern world spectrum game industry, which y ou can find in the same section.

in general, it is all that i wanted to tell in this article.

at last i want to tell, that 99% of all described here games and demoversions you can find on virtual tr-dos (www.zx.da.ru).

p.s. i think, it is necessary to express my deep gratitude to paul pavlov^psycho for creation and support of virtual tr-dos, because without this remarkable resource, creation of this article became unreal. ice'di^triumph for material about general sound and games, because i haven't this device. moran^cpu for granting in any time his pc without which i could not use materials of virtual tr-dos. elfh^cpu for his attention when i called him at night with silly questions. alff^cpu for english translation of this article. ;)