Friday 24 July 2015

Zombo For The ZX Spectrum


You've read the comic, you've bought the action figure, now play the brand new game for the ZX Spectrum!

Not a dream! Not an imaginary thing like what someone does for a joke or something! This is the real thing - an actual thing that you can download right now, right here.

Artwork by Henry Flint

FEATURES
  • Predefined keys!
  • The ability to fire in two different directions - left and right!
  • Roughly ten whole minutes of semi-challenging gameplay!
  • Random teleportations into different areas, becoming trapped in the scenery for all eternity!
More stuff from the comic. © 2015 Rebellion.

THE PLOT

When Flight 303 crash-lands on the proto-sentient and highly lethal deathworld known as Chronos, it does not bode well for the surviving passengers. Only one well-mannered zombie/man hybrid can save the day. He is Zombo, the result of a top secret Government™ experiment to create the ultimate soldier or weapon or something. Trust your Government™.



GAMEPLAY

You must rescue 6 survivors and defeat the secret end of game baddy to win. Colour coded keys are scattered around the planet, as are several other items, some of which may help, others of which may not, but there's a gun somewhere which'll probably come in handy. However, please bear in mind that the Shootybang 2000™ can only fire horizontally. To fire vertically, you'd require an upgrade to the Shootybang 3000™ and that's not available to you within this game.

CONTROLS
  • Kempston Joystick
  • Sinclair Joystick
  • Keyboard 
Q - Up
A - Down
O - Left
P - Right
SPACE - Fire
H - Pause
3 - Instantaneous Death Button (Quit Game)

BADDIES

Killer Space Fruit - Bounces, requires 1 shot to kill.

Killer Space Scorpion - Moves erratically, requires 1 shot to kill.

Killer Mutant Space Hillbilly - Moves vertically, unkillable.

Killer Space Zombie - Moves horizontally, unkillable.

 Killer Rogue Death Shadow - Follows player, requires multiple shots to kill.


WHY HAVE YOU MADE A ZX SPECTRUM GAME ABOUT ZOMBO?

Because the plot of the 2000 AD comic strip is exactly the sort of bizarre premise that a lot of those old 8-bit games used to have, and I knew there was software available that meant that I could if I wanted to, (in this case, Arcade Game Designer by Jonathan Cauldwell). Add to that the strangely British sensibilities and twistedly nostalgic pop culture references, and a slightly buggy game for the Spectrum just seemed a perfect tie-in.

Zip file includes the instructions above, tzx, tap, z80 and sna files, and a mock cassette inlay. You'll need a Spectrum emulator to play, but you should have no trouble finding one of those online.


This is a completely unofficial, not-for-profit fan-game by Malcolm Kirk.
Programmed in Jonathan Cauldwell's Arcade Game Designer.
Zombo™ Rebellion A/S, © Rebellion A/S.

Incidentally other, older, official spectrum games based on 2000ad properties are available from HERE and  a recently rediscovered Judge Dredd game by Virgin games is available HERE.

Splundig Vur Thrigg, as they say on Quaxxan.


SEPTEMBER 2015 UPDATE :


To view the walkthrough mentioned in the comments CLICK HERE.
To see a game map CLICK HERE.
For an infinite lives poke CLICK HERE.

To see a retro advert for the Zombo action figure/toy thing, featuring Tharg The Mighty, alien editor of 2000 AD,  CLICK HERE.


DECEMBER 2016 UPDATE :

Now includes Zombo in Mint Choc Chip flavour, (essentially a bugfixed version which removes the 'teleporting').