Commodore 64 vs Spectrum 48k - which is the best?

Okay - so you ain't just all about quick reflexes and you got a brain too. You want to blast stuff and do some quick decision making at the same time? Impossible on a teeny machine? Absolutely not - meet the mighty Paradroid. Re-released on the Wii in 2008. Fairly good credibility for a kick off.

So - you've heard of Paradroid? What do you mean, no? Well you were probably a babby, then, or a twinkle back in old 1985 when Paradroid hit the shelves - and the dual cassette deck shortly thereafter. On the surface it's a top-down arcade shooter, but beneath this shiny exterior lurk hidden depths.

The logic circuit battle is the key, combined with strategy and planning to work through the ship. No mean feat. Starting as the lowest level control droid, you must successively gain control over, and destroy or just vapourize, the complement of robotic crew.

You begin by gaining influence over the nearest cleaner bot, a neat info screen pops up, by a battle of wits known as the 'logic circuit'. A very impressive game element. Don't waste time, however. You are gonna blow, baby! The higher the level of the robot you control, the sooner its going to happen. It's for your own good, honest.

Working through the decks and crew, boosting the level of the minion you control, you have increased access to the ship-board computer terminals. From here you can plan a strategy to effectively whack everyone. Greasy work but some robots just get the dirty jobs, right? Once the entire crew has been 'retired' you have sole command of the ship! Well done you!

As reward, your masters send you on a luxury holiday with some beautiful robo-maidens, or studly robo-hunks. Well, not quite. You are instantly transferred to a fresh mission - aboard a new ship with badder baddies. Your masters are equally as remorseless as you. Sustained difficulty and smooth gameplay. V. good.

In my defence, I had made a poor choice of user-defined keys because choosing the spacebar as fire button in CCS64 causes fails. Really, that's true. As is the following message from our sponsors...

So let me introduce you to Knightlore. Released in 1984 this was truly a breakthrough game. Imagine, a 3D arcade adventure on the humble Spectrum! Incredible! Not to mention the werewolf transformation sequence, easily on a par with An American Werewolf in London.

The isometrics were cutting edge. The monster interaction is cool too, with one early room requiring you to 'surf' a block through a spiky maze on the back of a sinister ball. I usually turn my fluffy little tail to THAT room when I encounter it. Nerve-shattering.

In fact, some doors are not open to you in wolf form, indeed, some denizens will only attack you if you are in wolf mode. If you show up all sweaty and hairy at the wizard's crib, you can expect a serious smack on the nose from an aggressive 'spell'.

I presume our cutesy protagonist has a reason for wanting to rid himself of the 'curse'. Being a werewolf sounds like a lot of fun to me. The little feller is sure keen to shake it off, though, and is prepared to search high and low for the objects required by the wizard's cauldron.

Way ahead of its time, some rooms require you to stack items to reach others. And the whole thing is sooo smooth. The rooms themselves are monochrome, saving flicker, but the HUD is in colour and runs nicely.

Smashing game, and even better now on an emulator where you can save where you like. Bliss.

There is nothing arbitrary about the way that the Qix moves around it's two dimensional universe. It is positively malevolent in the extreme, make no mistake. The game can be played one handed with a joystick, which is handy because you will require the spare hand to tightly squeeze things with as you play. Squash ball or security blanket?...

It's your choice. You'll need something because with this game winning is euphoric - losing is utterly devastating. Two player mode is best with a buddy so then you can squeal, "Did you see THAT!" in shocked disbelief to each other.

The Qix is a thing of great beauty but it is entirely deadly. You must restrain the beast by carving off slices of its world until it is contained in a small quadrant. Each assault you make can be slow or fast, slow gets you extra points. Sorry, did I say slow? I meant to say s-l-o-w. Well, do ya feel lucky?...well DO ya?

Helping the fiend are the Sparks and Spritzes. And they do help it, a lot. Just as you have pulled off the mightiest escape from the jaws of death of the Qix, it is very easy to then fall haplessly into their clutches. And then there's the Fuse - there's no prisoners taken for the crime of indecision. The Spiral of Death is the worst of all perhaps, since you only have yourself to blame when you fall victim to it and experience the exquisite torture of having the Fuse slowly creep round your self-made trap to claim you!

Take a trip to the world of Qix. You won't be disappointed.

When this arrived in 1984 it set a whole new standard. It boasts 32,000 possible individual views over a vast landscape, including citadels, mountains, lakes and hills. A real voyage of discovery as your small band of four fan out across the rolling Downs of Shadows to recruit sympathetic Lords and soldiers in isolated outposts.

You could say it was the first free-roaming video game. Not that you can roam far without running into some serious trouble. That cavern in the distance looks interesting. Maybe there's a magical item there...a good hidey-hole for the night - there's wolves, or worse, abroad at night.

Morkin, in fact, can't hide at all. He must be terminally brave. You need to keep him alive, though, because you may need him alive to thwart the evil Lord Doomdark, who is sending his sinister forces - including the feared Dark Riders! - south from his stronghold Ushgarak in the North.

You face a race against time to thwart Doomdark by defeating his forces on the field of battle, successfully storming the stronghold of Ushgarak or destroying the magical Ice Crown. Dedicated internet groups still trade tips on the military route to victory today. Fighting your way to victory is a daunting proposition - the programmer thought it impossible on release.

In fact there was a prize offered to the first person to complete the game, part of the deal was a book to be written based upon their experiences in the game. Sounded like a fantastic idea for a riveting read, so everyone was surprised when the publishing deal fell through.

A true classic, and with the different routes to victory, there's always something new to try.

Let's take a trip to the dark side and peep from behind the sofa at C64's 1985 offering Mad Doctor, probably the freakiest game I've ever played. As moustachio-twirling Mad Doctor Blockenspiel your mission is to build a Frankenstein's monster from body parts you can either dig up from the graveyard or come across by other means. Muhahaha!

Assembled in the lab at your spooky castle, you can take your monster to the local stone circle and bring it to life by virtue of a lightning strike...it lives! Once re-animated, you can show your creation at the local hall to the adulation of your peers.

On completion of the various tasks involved, my creature appeared to be following me - imagine my horror when I realised it was stalking me with evil in mind! It's entirely possible it was a bad idea to use the brain from a capital felon I found hanging in the town square! Not to worry though - it'll soon calm down when I lay some tranquilizers on it. If I spike you, you'll know you've been spoken to, monster.

I'll just nip it back to the lab, whip off that maggoty old left leg, then get a replacement from the poor side of town when it gets dark. And with this medical book I picked up, I will be able to tell if the leg is of any use before I mercilessly slaughter my potential victim. Nah, I'll just slice and dice them anyway. Macabre? Why would you think that?

The control method is a little sticky, the graphics on the blocky side and the dear Doctor is clearly no fan of music. Good for a laugh though, and worth a look just because of the crank subject matter.