ZX Nightmares

BRILLIANT

This book is absolutely gorgeous. The quality of print and mass of illustrations within it interestingly adds a new and welcomed flair into those ZX Spectrum games that either fared well (albeit challenging) or of which were downright terrible. I found myself giggling at some of the author's reviews, as he is quite right in his painfully kind assertions. This is a must have addition to any 80's 8-Bit Micro enthusiast, and I am so pleased to know that Fusion are here to continue the tradition of educating us further into the machines of a Golden Era.

Just a little more effort

The writing is economical - though generally insightful, and Graeme's preferences come through in a nice way. But I take issue with - effectively - every other page... The format of the non-text pages is all uncaptioned, and follows the pattern: Box Art (generally), Loading Screen (or image once loaded) plus three screenshots. Unfortunately this seems to have been done with very little thought about the text that accompanies each game. Some examples: The Pink Panther Review mentions the horrendous colour clash - yet the screenshots depict none of this. PsychoPigs UXG's review makes extensive reference to a advertising campaign - but without actually seeing it, the text makes little sense. Similarly the Game Over box art uses the only version of the box art that censors the subject of most of the review. The Great Giana Sisters uses the (debunked) photoshopped C64 Box Art in place of any actual box art, but doesn't acknowledge this. Most disappointingly the German localization of Commando is talked about - but not pictured at all. The book could be massively improved with more pertinent screenshots such as ones for Travels With Trashman that show what the text talks about, or the Nemesis Mock-Up vs Actual screenshots would have made much more sense given the text that accompanies them. Some (pithy) captions would have helped too. As it is the screenshot pages seem perfunctory rather than supporting the text, and give the impression of being not thought about - and then things like the BBFC '18' logo accompanying the Jack The Ripper being the wrong version of the logo starts to thing that graphic design/quality assurance was lacking. A missed opportunity.

A cracking read, regardless of the chance of a nightmare.