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The Spectrum of Adventure: A Brief History of Interactive Fiction on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum
The Sinclair ZX Spectrum was one of the most popular home computers in British history, selling over five million units in its 1980s heyday. Amongst the thousands of games released for the Spectrum during its lifetime, the text adventure game was to emerge as one of the most significant genres on the system. The Spectrum of Adventure chronicles the evolution of the text adventure on the ZX Spectrum, exploring the work of landmark software houses such as Melbourne House Software, Level 9 Computing, Delta 4 Software, the CRL Group, Magnetic Scrolls, and many others besides. Covering one hundred individual games in all, this book celebrates the Spectrum's thriving interactive fiction scene of the eighties, chronicling the achievements of major publishers as well as independent developers from the machine's launch in 1982 until the end of the decade in 1989.
674 pages, Paperback
Published March 1, 2016
About the author
Thomas A. Christie
33 booksLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
This profile will contain more than one author.
This profile will contain more than one author.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 15, 2019
I'm a big fan of the Spectrum, and I love a good puzzle. Playing a couple of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks recently made me nostalgic for the text adventure, so I bought this book with the aim of playing the games it reviews.
Sadly, it was rather disappointing, and completely failed to inspire me.
It covers 100 games in chronological order over the Spectrum's commercial lifespan, and although each section is quite lengthy, it's poorly written, repetitive and very sparse on useful info. There's no interviews with authors, no screenshots or other illustrations, very few hints and tips, no quotes from reviews and no attempt to group material together properly, resulting in the same information being randomly scattered repeatedly through the book.
Reading it took forever, and was ultimately a rather disappointing experience, given the potentially promising source material. You'll find much better material online.
Sadly, it was rather disappointing, and completely failed to inspire me.
It covers 100 games in chronological order over the Spectrum's commercial lifespan, and although each section is quite lengthy, it's poorly written, repetitive and very sparse on useful info. There's no interviews with authors, no screenshots or other illustrations, very few hints and tips, no quotes from reviews and no attempt to group material together properly, resulting in the same information being randomly scattered repeatedly through the book.
Reading it took forever, and was ultimately a rather disappointing experience, given the potentially promising source material. You'll find much better material online.
May 30, 2020
A useful chronological run through some of the best interactive fiction games on the ZX Spectrum. I always loved a text adventure and started playing again on emulators (until I had children!). This book is great for identifying some of the games to look out for.
Probably better as a reference rather than a reading book.
Probably better as a reference rather than a reading book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews