Countdown to the Death (ZX Spectrum)

The game consists of five interconnected mini-games: Hangman, Bonus Machine (slot machine), Bat and Ball (a Breakout clone), Memory, and Repeat It (repeating patterns in the "Simon" style).

Variety in gameplay, neat graphics, music, diverse and imaginative sound effects... No wonder the English publisher put it on Crash magazine's pages!

THE CREATION OF COUNTDOWN TO THE DEATH
By Mario Gouvea

The first game I loaded on my Spectrum in 1987, a Microdigital TK95 clone, was Athena, a title from Imagine Software. I still remember my heart beating fast as I waited for the loading screen to load...

Since then, I have started buying the British magazines Crash, Sinclair User, and Your Sinclair, and I have always typed into my computer the Assembly programs printed on those pages.

I became interested in learning assembly and bought the book "Assembler for the TK90X, TK95X" by José Eduardo M. de Carvalho, a Brazilian author. The pages got so worn out! I then experimented with graphic routines until I learned how to show Sprites, make animations, scroll, create special fonts, and enlarge them.

At the same time, I started to develop the game's plot. The main character is a secret agent who has to reach an island to save his girlfriend. I even used the name of one of my math teachers at Dante Alighieri school: Ytiro.

The Hangman game begins in a city and has several stages on the way to the island, including one underwater. I created it little by little and started to have several ideas for mini-games: the slot machine, the game inspired by "Simon," the memory game, and the little game in which you must rotate the objects until they reach the desired position.

Most of the sound effects were created for Spectrum's 'Beeper,' making several interlocking loops and using port 254 to send the accumulator value to the speaker... Many, many hours experimenting and creating new sound effects.

The idea of sending it to Crash magazine came up when I read that they were accepting games from readers to publish on the cover - that inspired me to complete it and submit it. I still remember when the game was accepted - seeing it in the May 1991 Crash was really cool!

THE CREATION OF THE MUSIC
By Eduardo Avellar

I already knew Mario and exchanged Spectrum programs and information with him. I even studied Assembly Z80 a little, but Mario was much more disciplined and focused on programming than me!

Parallel to computers, I have always had a great interest in music and studied a little bit of keyboards and then popular and classical pianos. When he considered making the game, I saw that I could contribute to the music, so I volunteered.

Mario thought about studying the music routines of other commercial games so that we could create something more exclusive, but programming the game itself was already a gigantic job.

At the time, "Wham! The Music Box" was an easy-to-use program, and we saw that having at least two 'voices' / two sound channels would be the best alternative. I made two short music pieces in a loop—for the game's beginning and end. I loved it!

TEKNAMIC PHYSICAL EDITION

In 2021, Teknamic republished Countdown to the Death as a tribute to the two Brazilian authors, Mario de Paula Leite Gouvea and Eduardo Avellar. This special edition was created to honor their original work and bring it to a new generation of retro gaming enthusiasts.

Physical editions can be purchased here: Sold out!
https://teknamic.com/product/countdown-to-the-death/

CREDITS

Code/Graphics/Sound Effects: Mario de Paula Leite Gouvea
Music: Eduardo Avellar
Sleeve Design: JRR_arts and Leonardo Bussadori