This is an exclusive vertically scrolling shmup designed for Spectrum and is, to my mind probably the most competitive of its type for its year of release. The game has a Gradius influenced power-up system, except here you shoot the power-ups if you want to increase the selection box by one, and collect the power-up if your want to acquire the highlighted weapon. The game is colourful, scrolls well, has end of level bosses and even has a great simultaneous co-op mode. It starts off tricky but as soon as you've increased your fire-rate everything starts to fall into place.

This is a brilliant little budget title that updated the Gravitar concept and offered unbeatable value for money at the time. The game has you navigating a spaceship through caverns trying to pick up orbs and return to the surface. The main element of the gameplay is based around the controls, the ship is affected by gravity and inertia and you have to constantly be adjusting your thrust, careful not to crash. Its a simple idea that works superbly.

Very playable port of Capcom's classic genre-defining top-down run n' gun arcade game. The premise is straightforward, just run up the screen shooting everything in sight and lobbing grenades at soldiers in cover. The graphics here are admittedly ugly as sin, and the sound is minimal (though later someone did hack the game and add in excellent 128k music) but it importantly retains the playability. The action is fast and responsive, all the levels are there and its one of the spectrum's earliest arcade ports with smooth scrolling.

Konami's early platform game was blessed with some great home ports, with the C64, Spectrum, and later NES game all turning out very well. This version was handled by the ever dependable Jonathan Smith, and he managed an accurate port that included all the original stages and just enough tweaks to optimise it for Speccy, giving it a bit of its own personality. The game is somewhat of a precursor to run n' gun games, most of the time you just have your trusty knife, but every now and then you'll pick up flamethrowers and bazookas to unload on the gangs of baddies. Its a frenetic experience of constantly scanning for the next oncoming foe.

Highly playable port of Taito's vertically scrolling shmup. The game is a no-nonsense affair that has you shooting down waves of enemies and picking up power-ups to increase the power of your forward canons. Like all of Taito's shmups its the pacing, speed, and polish that really makes it such a playable experience. The game's monochrome graphics do unfortunately make it tricky to see bullets from time to time, but due to the large size of said bullets its not game breaking by any means and the game remains lot of fun.

Fun early scrolling platformer that has you playing as a secret agent running across train carriages. Surprisingly the game was programmed by Hudson Soft, probably the only Japanese company to make games for the Spectrum (they actually released a handfull, including a very early version of Bomberman that predated even the NES version!). Owing to its age the game is quite simplistic, but its a fun title with nice art design. Its also one of the earlier cases of character-based movement on the system, a method that would later grow in popularity with the work of Dave Perry and Don Priestly.

Excellent early fighting game from Australian developers Melbourne House, a gem of a company who went on to make cult classics such as the SNES Shadowrun, and the surprisingly good PS2 Transformers game, amongst many others. Way of the Exploding fist was the premier fighting game of the mid 80s, it was a game with a large moveset and great presentation that was heavily influenced by Data East's arcade classic Karate Champ. The Spectrum version loses a bit in presentation but is still a very playable experience.

Here we have a monochrome port of the tricky but inventive and addictive Amstrad game. Spindizzy is kind of like Marble Madness crossed with the popular isometric adventures of the time. The aim is to explore the world collecting gems by navigating tricky platforms or solving puzzles (their location can be brought up on a map screen if you press "M"). The only way to die here is to run out of time, and given that each gem adds seconds to your time limit here you need to always be on the move, searching for the next opportunity.

Polished, though graphically somewhat minimalist port of the multiplayer dungeon exploring arcade classic. You and a friend shoot your way through armies of monsters collecting keys and conserving health whilst searching for each level's exit. The game plays well, is responsive and moves at a very good pace.

Early platforms and ladders game ported from the Apple II. Lode Runner is a clever and addictive title, and along with Manic Miner and Jumpman is one of the major early platformers of the computer era. The game has you climbing ladders, swinging along hand to hand bars, and digging holes to trap the enemies or drop to lower levels, whilst you aim to collect all the gold bars. Its an action packed game that rewards quick thinking and improvisational puzzle solving, and it even includes a level designer. The Spectrum port also happens to be one of the best of the early versions.