Cassette 50

Cassette 50
Acorn Electron cover
Developer(s)Various
Publisher(s)Cascade Games
Platform(s)Acorn Electron, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Dragon 32, Oric-1, Oric Atmos, VIC-20, ZX81, ZX Spectrum
Release1983
Genre(s)Various
Mode(s)Single-player

Cassette 50 (released in Spain as Galaxy 50 - 50 Excitantes Juegos) is a compilation of games published by Cascade Games in 1983 for multiple 8-bit home computers. It was promoted based on the quantity of games included, all of which were programmed in BASIC and were of poor quality. According to the instructions, "the games will provide many hours of entertainment for all the family at a fraction of the cost of other computer games".[1] The compilation was heavily advertised in home computer magazines. Buyers received a Timex digital calculator watch with each purchase.

In an interview, Matthew Lewis, the author of Galaxy Defence, said he wrote the game when he was 14 and submitted it in response to a small, anonymous ad in a local newspaper. He was paid £10 for his game, but he had to give up all rights to it. Galaxy Defence took 12 hours to code and the graphics were done by his father, Ernest Lewis.[2]

Content

The games featured differed depending on the platform, all of which were written in BASIC. Some like Star Trek and Maze Eater appeared on all versions. Others like Lunar Lander were ports or clones of very early or popular games, while others were sourced from independent developers. Some games that had the same title were entirely different depending on which version. Some games also had playability issues.

Acorn Electron / Commodore 64 / Dragon 32 / Oric-1 / Oric Atmos / ZX81

The games Exchange and The Force, although listed on the inlay, are missing from the Acorn Electron version, meaning only 48 games actually appeared on the cassette. There was a second release of the Dragon 32 version which had different versions of some of the games. Tunnel Escape on the C64 version is credited as such in the game's inlay but is credited as "Escape or Bust" in the actual game.

Amstrad CPC

Atari 8-bit

BBC Micro

The game Dice Thrower is mistakenly displayed in the inlay as "Do Your Sums" .

VIC-20

ZX Spectrum

The number with the '#' symbol represents the order in which the games appear on the tape.

Star Trek is shown in the cassette booklet as Startrek and Jet Mobile as Jetmobile.

Reception

The games, almost without exception written in BASIC, were deemed to be of poor quality. They have been described as "so bad it caused physical discomfort",[3] "beyond awful",[4] and "a piece of crap collection".[5] The poor quality of the games inspired the annual Crap Games Competitions[6] (for example the comp.sys.sinclair Crap Games Competition[7] and the C64 Crap Game Compo[8]) and a now-defunct site reviewing bad games.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ Cassette 50 inlay text[permanent dead link‍]
  2. ^ Cassette 50: the interview | pixeltron
  3. ^ Rewind Issue 1: Cassette 50 III Archived February 6, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ Blitz 50 Archived April 1, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ TIGSource: Somewhere Beyond Cassette 50
  6. ^ Pelley, Rich (July 6, 2023). "'It's fun to cook up the stupidest idea': the people competing to make the worst computer games possible". The Guardian. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
  7. ^ The CSS Crap Games Competition
  8. ^ C64 Crap Game Compo 2005
  9. ^ Collection of links to Internet Archive for now-defunct site Somewhere beyond Cassette 50 Archived 2021-03-30 at the Wayback Machine