There were many fine developers who worked on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum (and other retro computers) during the 1980's and into the early 1990's.

They managed to push the machine way beyond it's limitations and cram well drawn graphics, nicely animated sprites and two channel music into the small 48K RAM.

These guys were coding geniouses - and this is a little tribute to them.

Have a read over our selection of five - we're sure you'll agree that they all deserve a mention.

Raffaele Cecco was a stalwart developer for the excellent company Hewson Consultants (who were later known simply as Hewson.)

Hewson generally released quality titles, and Raffaele Cecco's games were usually well recieved by gamers and magazines.

Some of Raffaele's more well known hits include:

• Equinox (an arcade and puzzle game)
• Exolon (a superb shoot em up)
• Cybernoid (a brilliant flick screen shoot em up)
• Cybernoid II (the follow up game was arguably even better)
• Stormlord (A mystical arcade adventure)

All of these games were regarded as top quality and really highlighted what the Spectrum was capable of in the hands of a talented developer.

In the early 1990's Cecco moved away from 8-bit development and helped to develop the excellent First Samurai on 16-bit machines such as the Commodore Amiga. This excellent arcade adventure was a superb title on the Commodore machine.

Another stalwart of Hewson consultants, Steve Turner was behind lots of quality titles for the ZX Spectrum.

He had a hand in early 3D games before moving into the arcade adventure genre. Most of Turner's games were well received by the gaming public, and many are regarded as classics of the 8-bit era.

Steve Turner developed:

• 3D Space Wars (introduced the Seiddab in a good 3D arcade game. Note that 'Seiddab' is 'baddies' spelled backwards!)
• 3D Seiddab Attack (followed up the first game with even better 3D action that would run on a 16K Spectrum!)
• 3D Lunattack (the final game in the Sieddab trilogy was a superb 3D arcade game set on the surface of the moon. It was regarded as the best in the trilogy and was a huge hit. On top of all this it was also one of the few games to support the Currah Microspeech) 
• Avalon (The mystical wizardry adventure was something a little different and became popular)
• Dragontorc (More magical shenanigans proved to be an excellent title and a smash hit)
• Quazatron (The arcade game was well received and was a huge hit)
• Ranarama (The top down arcade game was likened to the classic Gauntlet - and was another great title from Turner)

Steve Turner also worked on the classic shoot em up Zynaps on the ZX Spectrum

Keith Burkhill was perhaps never quite given the recognition he deserved.

Keith developed many great titles on the ZX Spectrum before moving into the handheld gaming market in the 1990's.

Some of Keith's games include:

• Missile Defence (The excellent Missile Command game was by far the best version on the Spectrum. It could run on 16K and is still playable today. A classic)
• Gilligan's Gold (Inspired by 'Bagman' - this platform game was a big hit for Ocean Software)
• Commando (The conversion of the CapCom arcade game was superb and ended up being a big seller for Elite Software)
• Ghosts n Goblins (Another fine arcade conversion by Keith that was a huge hit for Elite again)
• Space Harrier (Keith almost pulled off the impossible by converting the arcade behemoth to the humble Speccy. Space Harrier was actually pretty good)
• After Burner (The arcade classic was squeezed into the Spectrum and really could not have been any better. Another great conversion that was a big hit)

Keith Burkhill's games were generally of a very high quality and most are fondly remembered.

A name that needs no introduction. Matthew Smith created one of the most well known games (and wekll known characters) in the entire universe.

Smith disappeared from the limelight in the late 1980's before re-surfacing in the late 1990's.

His games are legendary:

• Styx (This nice maze game got Smith going as a Spectrum game developer)
• Manic Miner (The 20 screen platform game really brought the genre to the home gaming market. An absolute classic.)
• Jet Set Willy (The second game featuring Miner Willy was a massive hit despite it being bugged!)

Matthew Smith became a legend due to his Miner Willy games and rightly so.

Jonathan Smith (or Joffa Smith / Joffa Smiff as he became affectionately known) was a highly regarded developer of Spectrum games.

He specialised in smooth parallax scrolling, 2 channel music and great arcade conversions. He was also well known for his off the wall humour which often made it's way into his games.

Some of his titles include:

• Pud Pud in weird world (The maze arcade game was picked up by Ocean Software and launched Jof as a Spectrum developer)
• Hyper Sports (The conversion of the Konami classic sports game was excellent and was a huge hit)
• Mikie (Another arcade conversion that was extremely playable and garnered plenty of accolades)
• Green Beret (The conversion of Konami's stab em up was excellent and was deservedly popular)
• Cobra (Super smooth parallax scrolling, 2 channel music and loads of humour made this 'loose' tie in one to have. Once again for Joffa and Ocean it was a big hit)
• Terra Cresta (Yet another great coin-op conversion for Imagine Software)
• Firefly (The mix of arcade action, collection and maze puzzles made Firefly a little different from other offerings. Another great game that featured 2 channel music)
• Batman the caped crusader (The 'Comic Book' game featured fantastic music and a unique 'frame view' to capture the look and feel of the classic Batman strips. An excellent game.)

Joffa Smith pioneered smooth parallax scrolling techniques and 'drum beat' music on the ZX Spectrum. After the Speccy era came to a close Joffa moved on to the 16-bit computers and developed on the Atari ST and the Commodore Amiga.

Mike Richardson was a talented developer of Spectrum games who developed a number of quality titles for Durell Software.

He specialised in technically proficient games such as Harrier Attack (squeezed into a paltry 16K of RAM!) and graphically astounding games such as Thanatos.

Mike's well known titles:

• Harrier Attack
• Combat Lynx
• Scuba Dive
• Thanatos
• Turbo Esprit
• Spitfire

Games such as Scuba Dive really broke from the norm at the time and many of these games are still playable today.