Barbarian - A head chopping review on the ZX Spectrum

As it's Christmas, what better to celebrate the festivities by looking at a game where the main character looks like Jesus? Albeit with rather large sword in hand rather than that bread he made once. Not only is the Jesus reference valid, but also what better way to relate to Christmas than with a bit of violence? There's always a war film on at Christmas, a Bond film or failing that, there's always a bit of a scuffle with family members after one too many sherries. Or is that just my house?

ZX Spectrum Games Code Club - Special Spanish Edition is coming!

In 2015 Florinthedwarf did a big review write up of Gary Plowman's fabulous coding book ' ZX Spectrum Games Code club ', which is a top quality guide in programming in BASIC on the ZX Spectrum, just as many people did way back in the 80's and still do today. In actual fact the book included twenty BASIC games for you to type-in and enjoy. After each program, the book explains in great detail, how each element of the game works and much more to make this a worthy purchase at least for people who understand the English language. So today I've just been told by Gary, he is going to be launching the ZX Spectrum Games Code Club - Special Spanish Edition!

Zombo's Christmas Capers! - A new festive ZX Spectrum game reviewed by Florinthedwarf

Santa isn't looking himself these days

It's the most wonderful tiiiiiiiiiimee...of the year, and what better way to celebrate than with a zombie and some evil sprouts? (Though, all sprouts are evil!) Poor Santa. Every year he's the busiest person in the world, for one day a least, so it's only natural/inevitable that he gets a bit stressed at this time of year. Taking this into account, the government have decided to give him the year (day?) off to help take away any stress that Mr C. may incur as a result of yet another consecutive year on the sleigh. Poor thing.

Renegade - Florinthedwarf's BIG ZX Spectrum Retro Review!

Oi you! Yeah you! You're distracting me from the impending elbow heading towards my head!

We've all wanted to reverse kick someone in the groin and then claim it was for good. Well, Renegade is here to help! No longer will you be chased down the street by the groin-stricken person's friends with the threat of arrest and/or fine, this time it's because they really did ask for it. And, you need to rescue your girlfriend, or something along those lines. Of course, being able to reverse kick someone in the groin is not the only thing going for Renegade - though it is right up there - there are plenty of moves thrown in to keep you engrossed and makes this one of the best fighters out there for the Speccy.

ZX Spectrum Next - A new era for the Speccy? (Big Feature!)

ZX Spectrum Next.... Ooh, if I wasn't already married..

'Another Spectrum?' I hear you say? Is there such a thing as too many Spectrums? In my book no, and I'm guessing that's the same for most other Speccy fans too. Of course, recently we've had the Vega and the 'recreated' ZX Spectrum along with the upcoming arrival of the Vega+ though, these were not real Speccies. When I say not real, I of course mean that these were not actual computers you could use or program, just a handheld console and a Bluetooth keyboard (yes, that's all it is!). Whilst I do have a fondness for the Vega (see my recent review), the Bluetooth keyboard seemed to me to be an empty shell, masquerading as a Spectrum. You'll have to do better than that to fool me, Elite!

ZX Spectrum Classics - Robocop - A retro review by Florinthedwarf

Welcome to what I'm hoping to be a new theme where I look at bona fide Speccy classics. I have ideas of which games I want to feature but also please, if you have suggestions, feel free to tweet me @florinthedwarf and I will see if I can include them. There may well be some absolute stonkers which I haven't played before so I welcome any suggestions in case I missed out on these first time around. Right, on with the first game to feature - Robocop!

ZX Spectrum Vega Review - Is this as good as a real ZX Spectrum?

The ZX Spectrum Vega

It's here! We've waited a long time, but finally the missing piece of the Spectrum puzzle has arrived! Well, it arrived months ago but as I only received one at Christmas, I'm a bit behind with the times. Original backers of the Vega would have received their console a quite a few months back, and going by various reviews and visits to Spectrum groups, it's had a mixed response. Before it was released there were grumblings for various reasons. From a lack of keyboard to no joystick port, it seemed people were hoping for it to be damned, which I find rather odd.

ZX Spectrum Retro Review - Viking Raiders

The loading screen - beware the one-armed viking! (nice legs)

Do you ever dream of pillaging towns, stealing their women, getting drunk and generally causing chaos? Come on, I know it's not just me. (Anyone?) Well if you do, maybe you could give Viking Raiders a go - though there is no stealing women involved so don't get too excited.

How To Be A Complete Bastard - ZX Spectrum retro review by Florinthedwarf

I've always wanted to know!

Shock! Horror! A swear word in a computer game title! Many people might be aghast to read such filth as "How To Be A Complete Bastard" being displayed on the front cover of a computer game....but not being most people, funnily enough this is what drew me to it. People may say it's childish to drop down to such a level to try and get attention, but it was based on a book by comedy genius Ade Edmonson, so do you know what I say to these people? Neh-neh Neh-neh neh!

Spellbound - A very classic Mastertronic ZX Spectrum review

The loading screen!

Following from the footsteps of the excellent Finders Keepers comes the equally excellent Spellbound. A far cry from the platform orientated FK, this time you were in a 'True Graphic Adventure' as the title screen suggests. This summed up the game brilliantly. This is what an adventure would look like if put into visuals instead of the standard text-based affair. The genius way to get around entering sentences or commands that, let's be honest hardly ever seem to work ('you cannot do that yet', 'I don't understand' - sound familiar?) was the excellent 'Windimation' window which you could open and select various commands, of which increased when certain objects were collected.