You Won’t Believe Which Console Just Got a New FPS

It’s not every day that a console launches a new first-person shooter, but it’s even rarer to happen on a system that’s been featured in museums. FPS titles have been around for a long time, as the first, Maze War, was developed in 1973. The genre expanded with the introduction of Wolfenstein 3D, which became highly popular when it was released on computers in 1992. The success of that game and others resulted in the genre we know today, which is dominated by the likes of Counter-Strike, Doom, and Call of Duty, among many others.

Hackaday revealed on December 7, 2025, that a brand-new FPS has made its way onto, of all things, the ZX Spectrum. The game is called World of Spells, and Jakub Trznadel developed it for the system, which was released in North America all the way back in 1983. While it’s not as well-known today as other 8-bit systems of the era, the ZX Spectrum was nonetheless a popular and prominent console during the earliest days of personal computers and home video game systems. Still, it’s unusual for anyone to program a new game for a system that was discontinued in 1985.

World of Spells Is the First FPS on the ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum came and went, selling quite well in the United Kingdom, where it was developed. As a result, it’s not as well-known in the United States, but it still has plenty of fans. This is apparent, as it’s no easy task to code an FPS on a system with limited capabilities restricted to hardware from the early 1980s. World of Spells shows clear inspiration from Wolfenstein 3D, as it employs the same 3D raycasting techniques to create its world. The engine Jakub used can reach up to 80 frames per second, which is impressive given the system’s capabilities.

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The game itself is fully fleshed out, as shown in its launch video above. The video shows the gameplay, and while it looks dated by today’s standards, it’s nonetheless a technical achievement that would likely have elevated the ZX Spectrum had it been officially released decades earlier. World of Spells was coded for the system’s hardware, but you don’t need one if you’d like to play it, as it works just as well on a modern emulator. That’s good, seeing as working ZX Spectrums don’t come along as often as something like an Atari 2600.

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If you want to play World of Spells yourself, you can download it here and fire up an emulator. The cost to download a copy is $6.00, and if you’re a fan of early FPSs, it’s worth the cash. The game’s description says you’ll get to “Rescue the princess, battle ghosts and dragons, and experience a kind of 3D adventure that never existed back in the Spectrum’s golden era.” You can also order a physical tape copy for use on a ZX Spectrum 48k/128k if you’ve still got one. That’ll set you back £12, or around $16.

Are you planning on checking out World of Spells? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!