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Robert Erskine ZX81 Battle of Britain

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2019 3:24 pm
by Gagarin
I seem to remember playing this game on my ZX81
It was a text only game simulating the Battle of Britain and you had to use an actual map of South east England using the A to Z / 1 to 9 co-ordinates provided by the program.
I have searched everywhere on the internet for this game but cannot find it
Can anyone provide the listing for this game?
with thanks

Re: Robert Ersine ZX81 Battle of Britain

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:01 pm
by Lardo Boffin
Even the ZX81 stuff guy has that one listed as MIA!

He does have a magazine scan of the advert:-

http://www.zx81stuff.org.uk/zx81/publis ... 100039.jpg

Re: Robert Erskine ZX81 Battle of Britain

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:04 pm
by Gagarin
Yes
That is the one

Re: Robert Erskine ZX81 Battle of Britain

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:06 pm
by Gagarin
There is a readily available ZX Spectrum of this game and it is very similar but it provides an in game map and graphics

Re: Robert Erskine ZX81 Battle of Britain

Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:13 pm
by Lardo Boffin
Gagarin wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 9:06 pm There is a readily available ZX Spectrum of this game and it is very similar but it provides an in game map and graphics
Yes - saw that on World of Spectrum. Good luck with the ZX81 version. Someone may have a copy on here.

Re: Robert Erskine ZX81 Battle of Britain

Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 4:01 pm
by Microgame
Hi, I stumbled upon this thread during some nostalgic research. I am the original game designer, Robert Erskine's son, and did ask if he had a copy for the ZX81.

To paraphrase; a working original will be hard to come by as digital cassette tapes don't wear well. At the time it was difficult supplying Boots, Smiths, etc. with reliable copies, as the mass production technology was still fairly crude, and geared to audio. He spent weeks with commercial tape engineers in London getting it right but most of the problem was with the ZX81 itself.

While it's not the same thing as having the original it is possible to run the game on a pc with a ZX Spectrum emulator;

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek ... id=0000455

Good luck in finding an original copy for the ZX81.