Deathchase

Deathchase is one of those games that absolutely refuses to be forgotten, and for good reason. Originally released in 1983 by Micromega and programmed by Mervyn Estcourt, this ZX Spectrum classic was famously squeezed into just 16K of memory, which was an extraordinary technical achievement at the time. You play as a motorcycle-riding mercenary chasing down two target bikes through a forest, one yellow and one blue, while also dealing with tanks and helicopters as the difficulty ramps up. The game ran at what felt like an impossible speed on 8-bit hardware, and that sense of urgency is still there today.

In this video we are running Deathchase on the ZX Touch, the dedicated ZX Spectrum handheld released by Elmar Electronic in late 2023. The ZX Touch is a bare-metal device, meaning it runs on direct hardware code rather than a standard operating system, powered by a 480MHz ARM Cortex-M7 processor with a 7-inch IPS touchscreen at 1024x600 resolution. What makes this run particularly interesting is the Special FX version of Deathchase, which takes advantage of the ZX Touch's real-time in-game FX enhancement capabilities built into the hardware.

There's full commentary throughout this one, covering the history, what makes this game hold up, and what the Special FX version adds to the experience. Deathchase was later re-released in 1986 and 1989, and even made The Guardian's list of the five best ZX Spectrum games ever made. That kind of legacy doesn't happen by accident.

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