Jetpac – (actual) arcade version

Jetpac (Arcade version) is an action game for the Taito L System arcade hardware.
It’s a “fly around and shoot at aliens“-type game

TL;DR version: Jetpac is a classic shoot’em’up game for the ZX Spectrum computer, that has now been ported to Taito’s L System arcade hardware (specifically to ‘Plotting‘).

Basic information: Jetpac is a platform video game originally developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game and released for the ZX Spectrum in 1983 (and subsequently ported to many other platforms since). The game follows Jetman as he must rebuild his rocket using a jet pack in order to explore different planets, while simultaneously defending against hostile aliens (read more here).

Why?: Back in 2018 I coded a remake of the Commodore 64 version of SQIJ for the ZX Spectrum – a game that was famously and literally unplayable on the Spectrum. Shortly afterwards I ported that to Taito’s L System and ever since I’ve wanted to do something else for that platform. Sometime over the summer of 2026 it occurred to me that Jetpac – which is a pure action Shoot ‘Em Up game – would be perfect to port to an actual arcade platform … and here we are.

 

Download ROM file for use with the MAME emulator (42 KB).

Current version v1.0 (released 14th October, 2026).

Here is a couple of screenshots from the game.

 

 

 

Video coming here … as soon as someone makes one I can pinch. 😉
 

Gameplay description:
As explained above, you play as Jetman and must rebuild your rocket and then refuel it in order to explore different planets, while simultaneously defending against hostile aliens. There are 4 different rockets to build and each rocket has to be refuelled 4 times to progress to the next rocket. Manage to play all the way through, and you will start from the beginning again, racking up even more points.

 

Nice to know:
This is not a game you “just” play on your PC – you can, but there’s a bit more to it than that. The game has been coded for an actual 80’s arcade platform, so you have to use an emulator, but luckily MAME exists. MAME emulates arcade hardware and maps joysticks and buttons to the keyboard so you can play the old (and in this case, new) games on your PC. This game has been coded to run on Taito’s Plotting hardware, so while this game is called “Jetpac”, the file that you drop into your MAME installation is should be called “plotting.zip” (rename the file you download), replacing that game (if you have already have it).

 

Installation:
Place the ‘plotting.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 a ‘Plotting’ folder).
Notice that the file is called ‘plotting.zip’ because it will replace that game in MAME (you can also rename the files in the archive and run it as ‘plottingb.zip‘). You will 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. Alternatively, I’m sure it’ll be included in HBMAME (HomeBrewMAME), in which case it’ll be possible to run from the GUI.

All the above are if you are going to play the game on an emulator, but if you have an original Plotting arcadeboard and a chip burner, then it should run on the original hardware too. That was the whole idea of it. But here’s the thing, MAME doesn’t emulate the arcade hardware exactly, only well enough to run it emulated – it’s possible to code something that will work in MAME, but won’t work on the real hardware, so until someone tries it out on the real hardware, I can’t gurantee that it will work on the real board. Hopefully someone will try and get back to me if there are anything that needs to be fixed (that was the case with SQIJ).

 

Controls:
Use the joystick and the buttons mentioned on the screen. As this is an arcade game remember to “insert coin” with the “5” key before you can play (start a game with keys 1 or two for a one or 2 player game).


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

Copyright and credits:
The original ZX Spectrum game was developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game and written by Ultimate co-founder Chris Stamper.
This 2026 port was coded by Søren Borgquist – aka. Sokurah. and based on the reverse engineered source code by Michael R. Cook – aka. mrcook and only made possible by the reverse engineering of the Taito hardware by Adrian aka. cmonkey.
Graphics by Fransouls.
Music by Spacefractal.

 

Version history.
v1.0 – October 14th, 2026

 

Unadressed issues.
Overall I’m very happy with how this game has turned out, but there are a few places where things could be improved. The “worst” is the collision detection between your laser shots and the enemies. Converting the drawing of the laser shots in the original game to being sprite based (because the arcade platform doedsn’t support drawing directly to the bitmap plane) took at lot of work and turned out to be a bit wonky to be fair. Now you have to be really careful shooting at enemies – especially near the edge of the screen, where it will also sometimes look like your laser is coming from behind you (harmless). As a consequence of that, the previous safe-spot in the top right corner of the screen is not so safe anymore. That’s an unfortunate – but fun – side effect 😉 Sometimes your shots will also pass through the enemies, sorry about that … I’ve done my best. Eagle-eyed persons may also notice that if Jetman is passing through the right side of the screen while carrying fuel or part of the rocket, then the items won’t be clipped perfectly. I can’t do anything about that, but there’s a technical reason I won’t go into details about 😉😅

 

Disclaimer / possible future improvements.
This version hasn’t been tested out on the real hardware yet. Hopefully it will soon and if there’s any problems I will fix them and upload a new version.

 

Final disclaimer.
At the time of writing this, coding communities are up in arms regarding “AI slop” and the idea of “generating games in no time, from prompts using AI”, but this is “not that”. I had a fantastic starting point – the (fan reverse-engineered) source code, but although the Spectrum game and the arcade hardware shared the same CPU, they have nothing else in common and I used Claude to crack this “nut” by asking “Where’s the best place to intercept the drawing of sprites” so I could port that part. Much easier that reading through almost 6.000 lines of source code. It wasn’t quite that easy though – issues kept appearing, and from start to finish this project took several months. Still, it was a fun project and I’m quite happy with the final product. Enjoy.