The 8 best ZX81 games
Ranked by the scores that magazines gave these games when they came out. The list draws on 120 review scores of 86 ZX81 games; 8 of them have enough reviews to be ranked.
No ZX81 game with 3 reviews or more has reached 90: here are the best 8.
| # | Game | Platform | Year | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mazogs | ZX 81 | 1981 | 81 |
| 2 | Backgammon | ZX 81 | 1982 | 80.5 |
| 3 | Ocean Trader | ZX 81 | 1983 | 80 |
| 4 | City Patrol | ZX 81 | 1983 | 78.3 |
| 5 | Rocket Man | ZX 81 | 1984 | 74.3 |
| 6 | Forty Niner | ZX 81 | 1983 | 73 |
| 7 | Trader | ZX 81 | 1983 | 72.5 |
| 8 | QS Scramble | ZX 81 | 1982 | 61.7 |
Highly rated, with fewer than 3 reviews
9 ZX81 games have a score of 90 or more, but from only one or two reviews, and no Metacritic score.
| # | Game | Platform | Year | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3D Defender | ZX 81 | 1981 | 100 | |
| Awari | ZX 81 | 100 | ||
| Cristal 5 | ZX 81 | 1985 | 100 | |
| Roman Empire | ZX 81 | 1982 | 100 | |
| 3D Monster Maze | ZX 81 | 1982 | 95 | |
| Adventure A: Planet of Death | ZX 81 | 1981 | 91.5 | |
| Black Crystal | ZX 81 | 1983 | 90 | |
| Maze Death Race | ZX 81 | 1982 | 90 | |
| The Flight Simulation | ZX 81 | 1982 | 90 |
How the ranking works
- The scores are the ones magazines gave when the games came out, all converted to a 0–100 scale. Only one review per magazine counts for a game: the most recent.
- A game's score is half the average, half the median of its magazine reviews. A title opens the game's page on uvlist.net; a score opens the report with every review behind it.
- A game needs at least 3 magazine reviews to be ranked. With equal scores, the game with more reviews comes first.
- Metacritic already sums up many reviews, so it is never mixed with the magazines: it is used only for games with fewer than 3 magazine reviews, as their only score.
- Each list shows every game with a score of 90 or more. Games with fewer than 3 reviews and no Metacritic score are shown apart: their score is promising, but rests on one or two opinions.
The lists are rebuilt each time reviews are added. To filter by genre, year, magazine or publisher, explore all the scores in the report.
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