Shovel Adventure: The next quest (Spectrum Next)
A downloadable game
This is a game for the ZX Spectrum Next.
There are several ways to play it:
- Actual ZX Spectrum Next or clone such as N-GO
- Emulators (Cspect, Zesarux)
- FPGA devices like MisTer or Sidi using the Spectrum Next cores.
* We recommend CSpect emulator for Windows users, it is very easy to run the game following the instructions included in the download.
Looking for a physical copy?
Physical editions can be purchased in our store, if you are interested visit us on:
Story
You are Johnny Palas, legendary archaeologist of Utrera. After extensive research you have finally solved the greatest mystery of ancient Egypt: you have located the secret entrance to the Pharaoh's Lholha Flowers chamber.
To find the entrance, you must enter the Great Pyramid and collect all the gems within a limited time. Only when you have unearthed all the gems can you take the Ankh and progress to the next chamber.
Fifty chambers await you and your shovel before you can access the secret entrance… Are you ready to accept the challenge?
Features
- This game is the ultimate version of Shovel Adventure, released before for the systems: Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum 128K.
- 50 levels (6 more than the original game)
- Boss stages
- 2 graphic modes: Next & Classic
- Load/Save your game on SD card
- 2xAY sound
- Joystick and keyboard support
- Redefinable keys (saved on SD card)
- Hi-Scores table (saved on SD card)
- 2 languages (English, Spanish)
Credits
- Graphics: Jarlaxe
- Code, Music & SFX: Antonio Pérez
- Original concept: Igor Errazking
- Testing: Perretes Group, Hicks, Javi Ortiz
- Trailer: Javier Fopiani
- Text review: Richard Hallas
- Special thanks: Duefectu, Boriel, em00k, Javi Ortiz, Bitfans_F3M0, Mr.Rancio, Dani Volatil.
The publication of this game has been made possible thanks to the 397 patrons who participated in the Kickstarter campaign that we carried out in July 2022.
We wish to express our most sincere gratitude to all of you who made this project a reality.
Visit us on Kickstarter for more info:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/patmorita/shovel-adventure-for-spectrum-nex...
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of 5.00€ EUR. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- New physical stock available!May 20, 2024
- New physical stock available!Jun 09, 2023
- Downloads available!Feb 07, 2023
Comments
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I really like the theme of exploring Egyptian tombs. I always really liked Oh Mummy and Heiankyo Alien. This is a good hybrid of them as i never imagined they would go together, with some extra power ups and boss battles. All great additions to the Oh Mummy and Heiankyo Alien formulae. The graphics are really nice, and I like that you can choose between the 2 graphical modes.
I made it to stage 5 with 2 lives, saved to slot 1. On another playthrough, I made it to stage 5 again with 3 lives and saved to slot 2. When I went to the menu again, slot 1 is now empty, and when loading slot 2, I start only with 2 lives. Is it because they're both on the same level that there's a conflict?
Also, suppose I don't want to be moving CSpect files around games every time I want to launch a different game, how do you run the game via the emulator? Could I drag the .gde or .nex files to the emulator?
Hi, thanks for the post. We will take a look to the problem with slots.
Yes, you can run any game by drag and dropping the .nex on the Cspect.exe file. The emulator will boot and run the game.
Actually, it seems that only 1 slot registers. I got to stage 11 and saved it to slot 1. The next time I was in the menu, save slot 2 (originally stage 6) was now empty, so it seems there's another related bug. Plus it seems that whenever I'm loading from a save, it starts me with 2 lives (and not the 3 lives at start or however many lives I had when it was saved).
Also I see, about using the .nex. Thanks!
Yes, lives are not saved.
In that case wouldn't it make sense to be able to load at the 3 lives you start with? Or is loading with 2 lives considered a penalty for not starting from scratch?
Congratulations for this game! I also have the old speccy version, and this one looks gorgeous. I like it a lot.
However, I have experienced a small glitch. The first time I installed the game, when I pressed fire (space) to start the game, there was a ~8 seconds delay where the menu seemed to be stuck/hung. After this initial delay, all next times I have started the game, there has been no delay at all.
I have been able to reproduce the glitch, copying the shovel folder from the zip and running it again. Again, the same 8 second delay at the first execution.
Could it be an issue with file access, maybe some file which is written the first time and not the next ones?
I am running on a N-GO with firmware 1.31 and core 3.01.10.
Hi David! Thanks for your comment.
When you start the game it just loads the graphics and music. It does not create any new file. We have never had that problem or similar. Have you tried another SD card? The game has been tested in hundred of cards for the physical reseale and they all worked perfectly. So I can be sure it is not something wrong in the game.
Thank you
Getting excited; waiting for the box to arrive. However, I´m having difficulties with the digital version. Can´t get it to run on 2.19.1.0. All I get is a black screen with some moving red "loading" bars on the border.
Edit: what finally helped was copying the entire shovel folder into the Cspect folder.
If you follow our instructions step by step you will not have problems to run the game using the . bat file included.
Thanks. I did that, but at least for me the instructions were a bit vague.
Was a big fan of the original game and this is also great, gives me another excuse to play it all over the game. Loving the change to the bonus screens to add bosses, and looking forward to see the new levels!
I did run into one bug, i somehow managed to have permanant boots powerup even after death, although it reset after changing level. I didn't manage to capture exactly how it happened, but i think i died almost directly after picking up the powerup when it happened.
https://streamable.com/ukfcii
Also i had a question about level 16, back in the original Spectrum version you were always guaranteed to get some sort of powerup to get past the Snake to get the top left treasure, but in this version it seems more random, several times i have had to sacrifice a life to complete the level because i would only get a boot or shovel powerup. Is this intentional or am i missing something?
https://streamable.com/dlp4yv
Thanks for posting this!
About the bug, it would be useful to see the moment when you died. I can see that power time is 0 but cannot find a logical reason for that if I cannot see the previous action. How did you die? time up? mummy? Please, let us know.
The snake in screen 16 can be perfectly avoided by entering in the entrance and wait until the snake is at the top right to go for the last gem. No need power up for this ;)
Cheers!
Unfortunately i wasnt recording when the issue occured, and didn't realise exactly what had happened until a little bit later. I *think* that i picked up the powerup and almost immediately died by falling into a hole that i had dug next to it, but i can't be 100% sure. Once it changed to the next level however everything went back to normal, although it did persist through death on the same level.
I have not been able to replicate it again since, but will keep a look out and let you know.
Thanks for the tip on screen 16, i didn't realise you could go onto the exit square!
I managed to replicate the boots thing a couple of times, again seemed to be related to dying when i had them.
Interestingly the second time it happened, picking up another set of boots started the powerup timer again and i then lost them at the end of the timer.
Hope this helps!
Fantastic little game. Great gameplay and love the classic mode also.
Looking forward to my physical copy.
Been looking forward to this after backing the game on Kickstarter for my Next (N-GO) - ansolutely awesome game. Graphics are gorgeous and the music is great! Can't wait to the get physical release!
A definate must for any ZX Spectrum Next owners collection
Thanks for your support and the lovely words. We are happy to see you like the game. ❤
I just got my key and enjoyed the first five levels. Brillant work! The gameplay itself was perfect already but the additional effects and graphical details make this version something special. I'd also like to thank you for the well prepared package where I only have to unpack the emulator files to be able to run the game (with some other games I had significant trouble to get the emulation working). Oh and congratulations to the release! :)
Thank you! We are happy to read comments like this. This means the effort and love put on the game is worthy.