Zipi y Zape

Zipi y Zape from 1989 brings the two most famous rascals of Spanish comics to the ZX Spectrum. Blond Zipi and dark-haired Zape, the mischievous twins created by cartoonist Escobar, had been entertaining Spanish readers since the 1940s – and this game adaptation, with Dro Soft and Magic Hand credited, is a showcase of Spain's distinctive gaming scene.

Spain had its own golden age of software in the eighties: domestic studios poured out titles for the Spectrum and its relatives, drawing on local culture in ways British and American production never could. A licence for a beloved comic was exactly the kind of project that sold – children got to play heroes they knew from the newsstand.

A game starring comic-strip troublemakers naturally runs on mischief and mayhem: action-oriented play with simple rules, ideal for 8-bit hardware. The Spectrum was extraordinarily widespread in Spain, making this platform the natural home turf for such a title.

For players outside Spain the game is an interesting window into a gaming culture that barely reached the rest of Europe – Spanish software of this era rarely travelled beyond the Pyrenees, and its comic licences even less so.

Spain's golden age of software ended with the arrival of 16-bit machines, but titles like this one had meanwhile raised an entire generation of local developers. The comic licence secured the game a place in a whole country's memory – in Spain, Zipi and Zape are household names, which gives their game form genuine cultural value beyond mere entertainment.

Nothing stands between you and the twins: Zipi y Zape spins up directly in the browser on OldGame.cz.