TSS 16k Edition

A new series of YouTube videos has begun. The Spectrum Show 16K edition has been in the offing for quite a few months now, but never seemed to quite make it.

The whole idea came from my Friday night gaming sessions. After a long week at work, I enjoyed loading up games on real hardware and taking out all my frustration on whatever appeared on the screen. This could be simple shoot-em-ups, racing games or anything that was quick to load. This obviously favoured 16k games.

Playing on real hardware was great and really added something to the games, especially when the game cassette and inlay was stood in front of you. I wanted to get this experience across, but despite hours of trying, I failed to do that.

I rigged up a camcorder to capture the games played on my TV, this didn’t seem to look right though. I then plugged in my composite capture device, which produced good results, but also added more time and effort to what essentially was a quick fix of real gaming.

The whole idea of quick gaming was lost, and so eventually I opted for the normal approach, emulation. I still load up original games on real hardware to play, but for the show I switch to emulation for the capture process.

Spectrum games in 16K were for the original machine, when 48k was just a dream. These games were often dirty arcade conversions with character based movement and bleeper sounds, but some were very high quality.

This series of videos looks at a variety of 16K games, from the very basic poor arcade clones, to the highly polished releases from Ultimate Play The Game.

For viewers of The Spectrum Show, this little deviation will not encroach on the time dedicated to the show.

These videos are produced during the times when either all the work is complete, or the times when I simply would not commit a lot of time to the show. Don’t worry, the shows will continue, and these little snippets are an added bonus.

Enjoy.