top ten rarities
Quicksilva titles that will make your wallet groan.
Qs life ZX80/81
QS Life, a living cell simulation program which would allow you to create your own cell patterns and let them grow or fade, is a virtually unknown Quicksilva title. QS Life had minimal presentation with a printed instruction sheet wrapped around a tape with no inlay. This had a very short shelf (well, mail order) life. Expect to pay £50+ if you can find one.
printerface ACORN ATOM
Printerface was a utility which allowed printing from Acorn’s home computer, the Atom, to the silver paper burning Sinclair thermal printer. Needless to say, very few of these sold as owners who simultaneously owned an Acorn Atom and a Sinclair printer could have arguably been counted on the fingers of one hand. Printerface is about £50’s worth of rare.
Qs harmony ZX80/81
You’d be forgiven for having not heard of QS Harmony because as a piece of software it was a very shortlived utility program written specifically to complement Quicksilva’s own Soundboard hardware. QS Harmony was part-sound designer and a selection of impressive classical music demos. Should you find a copy, you’ll be paying to the tune of £30+.
the l-game ZX SPECTRUM
The L-game is by far and away the hardest of the Spectrum games to find due to its enforced withdrawal after Quicksilva infringed the copyright on a simple strategic puzzle game. It hadn’t sold well even before the legal issues were raised, and as such The L-game became an instant rarity leaving a hole in many Quicksilva collections. Don’t be surprised to pay £50+ for this.
ant attack COMMODORE 64 (DISK)
When is a Quicksilva release not a Quicksilva release? When it’s an American Mastertronic rerelease. After the Argus Press takeover, this virtually-unknown rerelease of arguably Quicksilva’s most famous title appeared as a North Americanexclusive version, complete with entirely new artwork. And it could be yours for around £30.
black thunder
COMMODORE 64 (DISK)
Black Thunder is another game to fall in the hard-to-find C64 disk category and could be the most difficult of the lot to track down. While some games were disk releases, Black Thunder was also available on tape. So, when faced with a choice of formats, the tape version won out with the disk version of Black Thunder overshadowed, undersold and is now worth £50.
castle Of Jasoom / dungeons Of ba
COMMODORE 64 (DISK)
More big cased, floppy disked rareness for the C64 in the form of Castle Of Jasoom, a companion game to Dungeons Of Ba. The two graphic adventures are extremely similar in terms of graphics and gameplay but also in rarity and price. They could be yours for around £40 to £50 each.
the thompson twins adventure
ZX SPECTRUM/COMMODORE 64 (FLEXI DISC)
This was a Spectrum gift stuck to the cover of C&VG. The C64 version could only be obtained by sending away a coupon. The C64 version is super rare and should one surface will cost you about £40. The Spectrum version is nearer the £20 mark.
blood ‘n’ guts
ZX SPECTRUM
Travelling around the inner workings of a human body sounds a lot like the premise of that old sci-fi movie Fantastic Voyage. Quicksilva thought so and obtained a licence to rename and rerelease Blood ‘N’ Guts as an official game of that film. The original
Blood ‘N’ Guts was withdrawn creating another instant collectible. Expect to pay £20 for a copy.
velnors lair
ORIC
Derek Brewster’s adventure was originally released on the Spectrum by the little-known software house Neptune Computing. Quicksilva was offered it a year later and not only was it rereleased, but later converted to the Oric 1 and Atmos – becoming the first of just two Oric Quicksilva releases, the other being Mined Out. A nice crisp copy could be yours for £20.