Developed by Storm (Twilight) and published by The Sales Curve in 1991 Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Al82_Retro Add me on Google+: http://bit.ly/1tPwL1u For today's video, we'll be looking at a conversion of another classic arcade game for the ZX Spectrum. This time, it's the turn of Jaleco's Rod-Land, a riposte to Taito's Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands series. In this game, the player takes control of Tam and Rit, a pair of magical faeries, whose mother has been kidnapped by an evil demon and spirited away atop the Maboots Tower. Armed with a pair of mystical rods and magic boots, Tam and Rit set off to rescue their mother and brave the perils of the tower. Set across 35 separate screens, the player must defeat all of the enemies present on each screen in order to progress, which can be achieved by trapping them with the rod, then hitting the fire-button to bash them from side-to-side on the floor (much more violent than killing someone with a rainbow, that's for sure!). Whilst defeating enemies is pretty simple, it's a far greater challenge to try and collect all of the flowers on each stage beforehand. Manage to this and the enemies transform, dropping a bonus letter when defeated - collect all the letters to spell the word 'Extra' and you will be awarded an extra life for the trouble. The Spectrum version of the game is pretty faithful to the arcade original and is really great fun to play. It might not have as many levels as the original version, but 35 screens in a single-load package should provide more than enough challenge for even the most adept of players. The game features just about everything from the arcade version (save the second story - none of the home versions included this), including enemies, features and special weapons. The actual gameplay is refined and feels very close to the original as well - something to be applauded. In terms of visuals, the game is quite stark at first glance, featuring monochrome graphics without any colour at all. The arcade and 16-bit home versions are extremely colourful affairs, so I imagine that this would have been something of a nightmare to recreate on the Spectrum without it becoming a mess. What the game lacks in colour, however, it more than makes up in actual fidelity and quality of animation. All of the character graphics are remarkably close to the arcade version (especially the bosses). Not only that, each of the monsters has retained their special moves and animations - the starfish still throw their boomerangs and the weird plant things (no idea what they are) still blow bubbles of water towards the top of the screen! As for audio, the 128k version gets a decent rendition of the arcade game's theme tune at the main menu, as well as the scenes where the player i ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgvu3iUZqmI

Follow me on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/Al82_Retro Read my article about the game @ https://www.vintageisthenewold.com/retro-revisited-z/ Developed by The Bitmap Brothers and published by Renegade in 1996 Played using Roland MT-32 music #retrogaming ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvKJCAa1d3Y