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EXPECTATION VS REALITY: THE GORGEOUS COVER ART OF PSION'S ZX SPECTRUM GAMES

9/1/2018

26 Comments

 
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Psion - an acronym for Potter Scientific Instruments, named for its founder David "Dave The Rave" Potter - was one of the first and biggest publishers of software for the Sinclair ZX81 and ZX Spectrum.

It's one of the few software companies from that era to still exist today, sort of. Although - following the release of its iconic Psion Organiser, one of the first handheld computers - it moved from software into hardware. In fact, a new Psion-ish organiser - the Gemini - was unveiled this very week at the CES show in Las Vegas.

Though released by a new company, Planet Computers (which lists David "Hairy" Potter as its honorary chairman), the device has been designed with the input of Psion's original organiser designer Martin "The Riddlemaster" Riddiford.

However, to a greying generation of home computer users, Psion was best known for its games - which doubtless helped Sinclair to straddle its hardware rivals in lewd domination. Established in 1980, and working closely with Sinclair, the company began by developing titles for the ZX81, before moving onto the Spectrum with a range of applications, educational software - and, mmmmmm-mmm, games.

The early Psion titles became synonymous with Sinclair's brand - with Sinclair ensuring Psion had its ZX Spectrum well in advance of launch, so that Psion would have software ready to release alongside it (a symbiotic relationship which continued with the ill-fated Sinclair QL). At one point, Psion boasted of having a 25% share of the Sinclair software market. The wretched braggarts.

For many of us - certainly in comparison to a lot of what was available at the time - Psion was as as much known for its beautiful, seminal, cover art as its games. Unfortunately, that artwork was often so good that the visuals in the games themselves didn't always hold up. Here be some examples.
FANTASY GAMES
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Look at this lovely thing. Worthy of being the cover to a Fighting Fantasy choose-your-own-adventure, the artwork on Psion's Fantasy Games compilation promised danger, mystery and excitement. It's a gorgeous piece of art, which takes into account the size of a cassette tape case by not overloading the image with too much detail, and letting the visuals stand out - almost in black silhouette against a rich green background.

Also, with the framing of the foliage, it's like you're spying on a big, green, snake monster thing that's trying to catch some pterodactyls. Who wouldn't want to bear witness to such a fantastical natural spectacle?

"I am the very model of a modern Major-General, I've information fantastical, natural and spectacle..."

The reality was somewhat different. Observe:
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THRO' THE WALL (ALSO SCRAMBLE)
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Boof! I punch you! Ha ha!

This is how you make an impact; by smacking the customer in the mouth. Or, conversely, by promising the customer an opportunity to do some real good smashing of their own. It's a metaphor for life - how many of us would like the opportunity to just shatter our problems with a well-timed fisting, in a ballet of cathartic violence? I'd argue that all of us would like this.

Weirdly, Psion chose to give the - admittedly, bafflingly-named - Thro' The Wall (why not even Thru The Wall?!) top billing on this two-game compilation tape. You see, it also included a not-officially-licensed "interpretation" of the arcade hit Scramble. Still, favouring Thro' The Wall - a Breakout clone - gave us the lovely cover image, rather than just another generic spaceship.

​Ready to have your expectations shattered, like a Lego house that's been lobbed at a malkin?
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CHESS
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Chess is boring: everyone knows that. Only boring people and Russians and computers play it. "Chess" (yes) that is so.

Making chess appear exciting isn't easy, but - somehow - Psion managed it with its ZX Spectrum Chess game cover. A handsome use of perspective managed to make the pieces on the board appear threatening, imposing - almost a little scary. Chess, surely, has never before - or since - been made to appear so dangerous and stimulating. 

Of course, you'd expect this to be reflected in the game itself, otherwise Psion would've been accused of being a peddler of lies. Psion? "So Lyin'" more like...!!!!!!!!?!!!!
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FLIGHT SIMULATION
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Once again, a gorgeous use of colour, with the angle of the view outside the plane's cockpit suggesting a perilous sunset flight. Red warning lights are flashing. The aircraft is coming in sideways... it's going to crash!!!! So many souls could be lost - and their fate is entirely in your hands!

Who wouldn't want to play that?

​Well, alas, you weren't ever going to. This is what you got instead:
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CHEQUERED FLAG
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Once again, Psion employ perspective and angles to thrilling effect. The over-the-shoulder feel puts the viewer in the heart of the action. You can practically hear the roar of those engines, the smell of exhaust fumes and oil, never less than a heartbeat away from death.

The reality - ensuring Psion should've been called "Sighin'" - was this garish abomination:
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PLANETOIDS
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Of course Psion would avoid disappointing people with a generic spaceship when it actually came down to it. The cover for Planetoids - a barely-veiled Asteroids copy - managed to intrigue as much as it set the adrenal glands throbbing.

The spaceship is seemingly crashing into - well, yeah - an astroid, but the explosion is unusual, esoteric - almost fluid. You can imagine a game where you fly through fields of tumbling space rocks in three dimensions, the asteroids colliding into one another, debris breaking off and making your mission more complex and dangerous, as you weave through smaller and smaller fragments....

Well, you can imagine it, but that ain't what you're going to get:
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26 Comments
David W
9/1/2018 11:40:38 am

Curiously, Psion were practically screenshot-perfect when illustrating the Horace games. Probably because a realistic walking pair of eyes would have been terrifying.

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Mr Biffo
9/1/2018 11:43:32 am

Yes indeed! Didn't include those games for precisely that reason.

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Nikolay Yeriomin link
12/1/2018 01:28:28 am

While Horace's eyes are huge he still has something of a body.

I just realized I don't want to see that something in detail anyway. Well, maybe a tiny small part of me wants, one which is usually in charge of deranged entertainment.

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Andrew Gillett
9/1/2018 12:00:28 pm

The Spectrum version of Thro the Wall was the first game I ever got addicted to

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Bananasthemonkey
9/1/2018 12:19:10 pm

By coincidence, it was Chequered Flag for me.

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Trevor Cod
9/1/2018 02:06:50 pm

Was it Chequered Flag that featured the "revolutionary" control method of rolling a roll of cellotape along the top row of the speccy keyboard?

Starbuck
9/1/2018 06:41:27 pm

And I'd say I was 60/40 split in favour of Thro' the Wall over CF.

The Psion artwork did tend to pump the imagination well, but even more so, the cover for the Spectrum's Horizons manual - awesome!

organichamster
10/1/2018 10:58:00 pm

@Trevor Cod

I can't say for certain it was Chequered Flag. However I did own that game and do remember those instructions so all I can say is... maybe?

Matt C
19/1/2018 04:01:44 pm

@Trevor Cod

That was "Formula 1 Simulator".

Neptunium
9/1/2018 12:25:12 pm

The later Psion logo (split capital letters showing productivity things) is still a design classic in my book, and takes me back to when my brother got his Sinclair QL and I had his cast off Speccy.

I'm going to hurriedly go and check out that Gemini organiser thing. I always wanted a Psion organiser and used to spend Saturday mornings lusting after them (and NES/SNES games) in Boots (Do you remember when Boots sold videos, games and organisers in addition to hemorrhoid cream and douches?) - they were a thing of beauty.

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David W
9/1/2018 02:16:15 pm

The concept looks good, but proceed with caution if ordering via Indiegogo. One of the directors is also on the board of Retro Computers Limited, who still haven't delivered the ZX Vega+.

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Neptunium
9/1/2018 02:31:14 pm

There's no chance I'll order at those prices, to be fair. It's a landfill Android phone without a rear camera attached to a reasonable looking keyboard.

It's not in the same league as the series 3/5 organisers.

They'd have been better off making a generic phone keyboard case or making a cheap linux device which doesn't have much grunt but can run for weeks off a couple of AA batteries.

Chris Wyatt
11/1/2018 07:41:49 pm

Yeah, I'm surprised the whole Vega+ thing hasn't been mentioned on Digitiser2000 much. I considered investing, but chose not to after Chris Smith and Paul Andrews left, and I'm glad I did. Another reason for not investing was the lack of information about decent tape file support (which was the main issue I had with the original Vega), so I wasn't going to donate anything before I heard details about that, and of course, we never got any proper technical updates for that non-existent product!

Chris Wyatt
11/1/2018 07:32:33 pm

Me too! They were sort of electronic organisers with QWERTY keyboards. I used to think they were so cool! I was too young and couldn't afford to get one though. The closest thing I got to one was a VTech Precomputer 2000.

Those electronic organiser thingies and a shortwave radio were 2 things my parents refused to get for me, because they didn't think I needed them, plus we weren't particularly well off back then either.

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Chris
9/1/2018 02:04:02 pm

No ZX81 game ever lived up to the box art. You could do an entire feature on that!
Some Spectrum games are gorgeous though. Pretty much anything by Codemasters is full of details and colour and colour clash and looks great!

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Harry Medium
9/1/2018 02:55:01 pm

ie; Barbarian...?

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Retro resolution link
10/1/2018 12:20:30 am

I'd argue that 3D Monster Maze looks pretty impressive on the humble ZX81, and there are some very innovative pseudo hi-res titles (both contemporary early 80s, and modern titles)

https://retroresolution.com/2015/10/26/3d-monster-maze-sinclair-zx81-review/

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organichamster
10/1/2018 11:02:15 pm

I still maintain that whoever ported Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles to the Spectrum was some sort of wizard for the way that game handled colour.

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Biscuits
9/1/2018 02:31:45 pm

Thru the Wall is very nearly my psn 'handle'

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Biscuits
9/1/2018 02:39:22 pm

I remember reading something about how games companies from this time were trying to depict the 'dynamic' experience of playing a game - 'it may look like this, but playing it will feel like THIS!'

As demonstrated in perhaps the most extravagant/insane/best games ad of all time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgoEDSbiQ0w

At around 1:05 they try to merge the visuals with the experience of playing...pretty interesting

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John Veness
9/1/2018 07:03:50 pm

Most of those pictures are beautiful! I wish modern cover art was like that.

By the way, I was an early backer of the Gemini, which I hope to receive soon. I've been a big fan of keyboard handheld devices for many years, and have missed them recently. Hope it does well.

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The Man Who Taunts Fleur link
10/1/2018 02:51:32 pm

You will not receive it. Not with those directors.

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MD Cribuffs
9/1/2018 08:23:36 pm

www.exped.com/international/en/product-category/tents/gemini-organiser

Looks interesting!

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Dowser
10/1/2018 08:22:34 pm

Could you do a similar article on Atari 2600 games. Some.of that box art was.phenomenal and exciting and then... the reality..well I forget now but probably not quite as phenomenal

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Tim
11/1/2018 08:33:08 am

I'm still pretty impressed with what they did with 16k though!

I remember always being quite dazzled by the John Harris cover work for Sir Clive's manuals too, without understanding a word inside them.

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Matthew Manual-Cover
11/1/2018 07:43:08 pm

I always liked the Spectrum manual covers, especially no. 2 here with the (presumably) fighter aircraft having a quick tea break atop a Blade Runner-esque skyscraper.

https://simotron.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/zx-spectrum-manuals-covers-by-john-harris/

Apparently the artist goes by the name of John Harris. Well, f**k my hat, I never knew that!

Reply



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