The Speccies 2 (Arcade)

The Speccies 2 is a puzzlegame for Taito L System arcade hardware.
It is programmed in Z80 in assembler and has 50 levels of hardcore punishment for the brain.

 

Download ROM for use with the MAME emulator or for burning onto chips for the right PCB. (21 kb).

The Speccies 2 is a remake of a Flashgame called “Pathologic“, but it’s a simple and classic game that has seen many forms and names over the years. The “original” version (of Speccies 2) was originally coded for the 16K ZX Spectrum, but this version were completely rewritten from scratch for arcade hardware, and will for most people have to be run through the MAME emulator but can also be burned onto EPROMS – or EEPROMS – and run on an actual JAMMA arcade cabinet.

You are The Speccie and you have to move around the board and over all the yellow items to complete each level. Beware not to block your own path because once you’ve touched a square you can’t move across it again. There is no time limit, but you have to be careful and plan your way if you want to succeed.

The original Flash version had 50 levels but due to the resolution of the Spectrum screen some levels were to big and only 36 of the 50 levels was in that version, but this arcade version takes advantage of the slightly higher screen resolution and has the full 50 levels.

Here’s a couple of screenshots from the game.

The main menu – things are kept simple.

Select your level. You can play 40 levels from the start, and the final 10 are opened once you complete those.

One of the later leves. Do you chance it, or do you plan your route first?

Here’s a video of the game running on the real arcade hardware.

 

Gameplay description:
You must guide your Speccie across the board and collect all the items. Once you’ve stepped on a square it’ll be made inaccessible and you won’t be able to step on it again, so unless you want to ‘paint yourself a corner’ you may have to plan your route across the board in advance. Or chance it. 😉

The game has 50 levels. You can play the first 40 in any order you want, but the final 10 are only unlocked once you complete the first 40 levels.

 

Installation:
Place the ZIP file in your ROMS folder under your MAME installation folder (you don’t have to unpack it…but you can also unpack the files into ‘Plotting’ folder).
Notice that the file is called ‘plotting.zip’ because it will replace that game in MAME. You will (probably) also have to start the game from the commandprompt with “mame plotting” as trying to run the game from the GUI will throw up an error.

 

Controls:
Use the joystick and the buttons mentioned on the screen..

 

Legal Blurb:
This game is FREEWARE and must remain freeware. I would also ask that the game will only be available from this website.

 

Copyrights:
This remake was programmed by Søren Borgquist – AKA. Sokurah, 2015.
Spectrum graphics designed by Craig Stevenson aka. RedBalloon.

This particular remake is based on “Pathologic“, but it’s a simple and classic game that has seen many forms and names over the years. Thus, copyright for level designs in this game belongs to the makers of Pathologic while all graphics and code in the remake belongs to Søren Borgquist and Craig Stevenson.

AY Sound FX Editor v0.4 by Shiru was used for the soundeffects. The player was rewritten by me to run on arcade hardware.

Vortex Tracker II by Sergey Bulba was used for the music and one of the tracks used in the game is by Macros. I couldn’t find a credit for the other track.

Adrian Smethurst deserves a special mention as he reverse engineered the arcade hardware this game is running on. He also converted Sergey Bulba’s music player to run on the arcade hardware. This project would not have happened without his enormous effort. Thank you.

 

Version history.
v1.0 – October 2015.
Initial release.