Parsec was the most (and probably only) memorable game on the TI99/4a. A side scrolling shooter, it was the perfect combination of tough gameplay, nice visuals and great sound. With speech, no less.

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Selfishly, it was never ported to any other platforms at the time (I think a Coleco port came along a lot later). Maybe that was due to it being a bit dated when viewed against the Knight Lores and Elites of the time. But I always loved it, and wanted a copy on the Spectrum. I set out to do my own version with my new-found understanding of machine code, but quickly ran out of time, memory and talent.

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I recalled that I'd implemented a scroll routine and some ship movements, but little else. I can't remember where the graphics came from – they were a fairly accurate copy of the original, possibly ripped by someone from the local computer club.

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It was a bit of a surprise then to dig out the old tape and find out that I'd done a lot more than I remembered. It was more or less playable, if not very true to the original; i'd never had a copy and was doing the gameplay from memory from short bursts playing the original in computer shops. So decades later, I found myself sitting down and getting it into a form where it could actually be released.

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It's not fantastic, maybe on a level with some of the Mastertronic offerings back then. But you can download it, bugs and all (there are a few). Still, it has a nice loading screen and some three-channel music – I also came across a program that I'd written to enable me to build tunes up a note at a time. That might get a release too at some point!