The best Speccy game by Zankle Soft: vote

PeteProdge · Post by **PeteProdge** » Sun Apr 16, 2023 10:49 am

Well, you have seven days to pick yer favourite out of these...

Ad Lunam

Ad Lunam Plus

Apulija-13

Cousin Horace

Cronopios Y Famas

Funky Fungus

Italia 1944

Lost In My Spectrum

Seto Taisho To Kazan

Seto Taisho Vs Yokai

Sophia

Sophia II

R-Tape · Post by **R-Tape** » Sun Apr 16, 2023 2:09 pm

1 - Ad Lunam Plus
2 - Cronopios Y Famas
3 - Lost in my Spectrum

I've gone for Ad Lunam Plus because it's based on an interesting premise, it's really well planned out and it looks great. It's one of the best management games ever on the Speccy in fact.

I like to appreciate Cronopios as an interactive work of art rather than having to worry about baddy collisions (I'd rather it was a walking game in fact). It brings you into Julio Cortazar's crazy world and I can't think of anything that compares to it.

Lost in my Spectrum. What's not to like? It's a well-made single screen platformer chock-full of Speccy references. It's games like this that I fire my real hardware up for.

Honourable shout out to the high CRN* rated Sophia. Though having said that, none of Ale's games are bad.

*Cybernoid Reference Number

Andre Leao · Post by **Andre Leao** » Sun Apr 16, 2023 2:35 pm

1. Italia 1994
2. Ad Lunam Plus
3. Cousin Horace

Alessandro · Post by **Alessandro** » Sun Apr 16, 2023 11:23 pm

@PeteProdge , please note that Doom Pit is not present in your list. It was originally released by Monument Microgames but nowadays it is officially available through the Zankle Soft page on itch.io.

Whereas the Seto Taisho games have not yet been released by Zankle Soft. And they were originally released by Monument Microgames as well.

https://zanklesoft.itch.io/doom-pit

@Andre Leao , please note that it's 1944 not 1994...

Matt_B · Post by **Matt_B** » Mon Apr 17, 2023 4:41 am

I know 1994 wasn't a great year in Italian politics but I didn't think things got that bad.

Anyway...

1. Ad Lunam Plus
2. Italia 1944
3. Lost in my Spectrum

R-Tape · Post by **R-Tape** » Mon Apr 17, 2023 7:41 am

Alessandro wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 11:23 pm @PeteProdge , please note that Doom Pit is not present in your list. It was originally released by Monument Microgames but nowadays it is officially available through the Zankle Soft page on itch.io.

You had your chance

!

But I don't think it wouldn't be included anyway, as Prodge's polls are for original publisher only regardless of current availability.

Daveysloan · Post by **Daveysloan** » Mon Apr 17, 2023 8:15 am

Really strong line up of games. Not played them all but the ones I have are fantastic.

May have to put that right this week & vote later

Hank Scorpio · Post by **Hank Scorpio** » Wed Apr 19, 2023 9:48 pm

1 Sophia
2 Apulija-13
3 Lost In My Spectrum

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Sun Apr 23, 2023 1:32 am

1. Lost In My Spectrum
2. Cousin Horace
3. Ad Lunam Plus

Lost is a great Manic Miner inspired game, Cousin Horace is a worthy tribute to the original Horace games and Ad Luman Plus is a very interesting strategy/management game. Honourable mentions to the two Sofia games and Apulija-13 as well.

Hopefully we will soon get a chance to vote for Gabriele Amore's games as there are some great ones to choose from.

PeteProdge · Post by **PeteProdge** » Sun Apr 23, 2023 10:58 am

Italia 1944 has - narrowly - won this poll, with 3 votes.

In second position: Ad Lunam Poll, Apulija-13 and Lost In My Spectrum, 2 votes each.

Cousin Horace, Sophia and Sophia II gained 1 vote each to be in the third position.

A different story on the proportional results:

Ad Lunam Plus 9
Italia 1944 8
Lost In My Spectrum 7
Cronopios Y Famas 4
Cousin Horace 3
Sophia 3
Apulija-13 2

Alessandro · Post by **Alessandro** » Tue Apr 25, 2023 8:39 am

Some comments follow...

I started creating games with AGD ten years ago, and at the time, we that employed it were really few, with Paul Jenkinson as a real pioneer in this field. Nowadays AGD/MPAGD/AGDx titles are popping up a bit everywhere, and the Bearsden school experience showed that it can also be used as an educational tool. In all of my games, I tried to create a different world and atmosphere, getting around the limitations of AGD and the other tools by using them in an "off the wall" way, trying not to repeat what others had already done before.

In the last few years, a new wave of AGD users made some really interesting titles, so my ones - the last was Sophia II in 2019 - might look rather primitive by now, and it is for this reason that I am rather surprised at seeing how much liking Lost In My Spectrum and Apulija-13 obtain even nowadays.

Even more important, since I got to grips with ZX Basic with a very intricate and complex project like Ad Lunam, I understood I would better leave AGD for good - with a big thank you to Jonathan for making all of this possible - and dedicate myself to the strategy/adventure/simulation side, which had been somewhat neglected in Spectrum "retro" projects. So I am glad to see that the latest titles got such a positive feedback.

About Italia 1944, there are more news today...

https://www.spectrumcomputing.co.uk/for ... 93#p116093

And now a little anticipation...

Ad Lunam, Ad Lunam Plus and Italia 1944, especially the latter, were the realization of something that I meditated upon for years, and the next title shall be as well. I have been working at it since the beginning of March with the working title of "Calais". It is based upon a title that I enjoyed very much more than 30 years ago, and it is going to be a really big project, even more ambitious than the last two. I hope to have it ready within this year, but given my chronical lack of spare time to dedicate to retro activities, please take that as an estimate and not as a statement

Manu128k · Post by **Manu128k** » Tue Apr 25, 2023 8:22 pm

Alessandro wrote: ↑Tue Apr 25, 2023 8:39 am Ad Lunam, Ad Lunam Plus and Italia 1944, especially the latter, were the realization of something that I meditated upon for years, and the next title shall be as well. I have been working at it since the beginning of March with the working title of "Calais". It is based upon a title that I enjoyed very much more than 30 years ago, and it is going to be a really big project, even more ambitious than the last two. I hope to have it ready within this year, but given my chronical lack of spare time to dedicate to retro activities, please take that as an estimate and not as a statement

That's great news Alessandro, I can't wait to see what you have been working on

Spectrum Computing