{"id":574,"date":"2025-03-05T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.isshicare.com\/?p=574"},"modified":"2025-03-06T18:20:20","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T18:20:20","slug":"80s-classic-zx-spectrum-game-making-an-unexpected-but-welcome-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.isshicare.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/05\/80s-classic-zx-spectrum-game-making-an-unexpected-but-welcome-return\/","title":{"rendered":"80s classic ZX Spectrum game making an unexpected but welcome return"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\"Head\t<\/div>
Head Over Heels: Deluxe – it’s back, again (SpecNext Ltd)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the most celebrated British video games<\/a> of all time is getting a new remake, with a physical edition aimed at retro fans with long memories.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve always said, the problem with video game nostalgia is that remasters and reboots are almost always aimed solely at American and Japanese gamers. Video game preservation may be relatively easy for older games, on a technical level, but next to no effort is ever made to promote or re-release games that were only popular in Europe.<\/p>\n

You do get the occasional exception, such as last year\u2019s Monty Mole Collection<\/a>, but too many groundbreaking video games are being forgotten simply because they aren\u2019t well known in the US<\/a> or Japan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ask any British gamer in the 80s what the best game ever made was and they were just as likely to say Head Over Heels as Super Mario<\/a> Bros., but today the classic isometric action adventure has been all but forgotten – or so we thought.<\/p>\n

Although technically a remake, this new version of the classic Head Over Heels sticks very close to the original visuals and sound, as if it was some sort of long lost SNES version.<\/p>\n

While it was ported to many different formats at the time, including the Commodore 64 and the 16-bit Amiga and Atari ST (and the 64-bit Jaguar), Head Over Heels is best remembered as a ZX Spectrum game.<\/p>\n

First released in 1987, it was an evolution of the style of action adventure games Ultimate Play the Game (now known as Rare) popularised with titles like Knight Lore and Alien 8.<\/p>\n

These were a style of game peculiar to Europe and inspired by the technical limitations of the home computer formats of the time, mixing both standard arcade action with complex puzzle-solving and platforming.<\/p>\n

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