Andy Jenkinson
Could be slightly 'triggering' on my desert island, as the fear for survival on the astonishing 9999 levels of this game could be mirroring the real world a little too closely. Absorb resources and build, whilst avoiding the gaze of the titular sentinel. Genuinely scary when you're seen, and hurrying to teleport to safety. A masterpiece.
Despite the character based scrolling, and primitive looking UDG-style graphics there's a great game here - and a gameplay idea that I haven't seen replicated elsewhere often. Being forced to navigate around a maze whilst avoiding the ever moving boundary 'window'. It also shouts "Yippee!" when you complete a level and makes you bob yourself. So it'd be nice to have that 'talk' to me on my island.
(128K only, so I'm hoping I have one of those on my desert island). Bob Smith wowed me with this top down shooter, using just the attributes for a unique look and gameplay that matched. It's not related to Splat!, despite the name.
I'd miss music on my island, and the Spectrum wouldn't be my best companion in that regard - but this hilarious music business sim would keep a smile on my face. It's also programmed in BASIC (yet is still great) so I could hack it and cheat. It also reminds me how much I enjoyed Frank Sidebottom (and - if I get the tape version with me - I get some great songs on it by The Freshies to enjoy while I'm playing).
This is a game that'd remind me of home (for good and bad). Putting the bins out on Sunday evening is a horrible underlining that Monday morning work is on its way, but also there's something so down to earth and charmingly British about the whole premise for this game. It's also great fun, and comes with a dollop of humour.
Return of the Things
To keep my reactions sharp I'm taking this to the island. It's far far too fast, but maybe with practice I can tame it (or I can develop cat-like reflexes and start to make progress). The intensity feels like Robotron 2084, but in an exploratory fashion. Or Gauntlet on speed.
The best arcade game ever (and I'll fight anyone who claims otherwise) and then - 37 years after it hit the seasides - was a Speccy version worth the name. The 128K sounds like the arcade version! And the whole game plays pretty flipping close to the original. Utterly perfect.
Perhaps everyone was getting a bit bored with Isometric games by 1986 but this was great. The theme of 1930s Private Investigator tickled my love of film noir, and - though I was crap at it, and didn't make much progress on it in 1986 - the desert island setting would be a good opportunity to finally solve this case. It also had a great loading screen, which is a bonus.
Mastering Machine Code
For a book, I'll take Mastering Machine Code on your ZX Spectrum (Toni Baker). I've had this since I was about 14, and now I'm starting to get my head 'round bits of it. I'll write an assembler whilst on my island in BASIC, and then use this to write a better assembler in m/code. Eventually, following this ad infinitum, I'll write "Deep Thought" and learn the answer is 42. (I'm assuming I've got blank tapes to save stuff on).
Currah MicroSpeech
For my luxury item I'll take the Currah MicroSpeech. I'd have someone to talk to, and I could program it to talk back to me. Also I could record it onto the blank tapes, rapping to music I make on the Spectrum. And duet it with it. It is possible the heat is getting to me.
For an AY or beeper tune I'd have to take Tim Follin's beeper theme for Chronos. It's a classic for a couple of reasons - he's not just technically doing something gobsmacking with the level of polyphony he's squeezing out of the beeper, but also it is musically great - sounding like a Tony Bank's keyboard solo from mid period Genesis. Stunning.
If I'm allowed it, I'll take my Omni 128HQ. I never stopped loving the rubber keyboard model, and Rick Dickinson's design is magnificent. This recreation with its Super Fo Harlequin and DivMMC internals, switchable 128K/48K modes and AY compatibility is lovely. Also I can switch it into ZX81 mode and get misty-eyed remembering my pre-Speccy days.
How will you cope?
Practically on the island I'll be terrible if I have to get my hands dirty (I don't really like having dirty hands). Also I'm very concerned about getting sand in the expansion port. (Madam!) The isolation is already a problem! I've deliberately not chosen two of my favourite 2-player games. (Batty and Rebelstar 2, I'm looking at you.) I'd buckle down and write another musical. Given the one that I'm most proud of previously was the one I wrote about 1980s playground videogame rivalry, I might need to look slightly further afield than my Spectrum this time for inspiration. Let's see ... coconuts make great percussion instruments...
Anything to add?
2020's lockdown has been good preparation for being desert island stranded, so I come to this island very familiar with spending time in my hammock, reading lots of books and ZX Spectrumming. Incidentally if I could cast away a game to a DIFFERENT desert island never to see again, it'd be Combat School. It was far too hard, broke our joystick, and the one time that my brother finally made it though to the (multiloaded) final mission stage, it crashed upon loading and we were told off for swearing at the computer.
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