The ZX Spectrum's software library was very diverse. While the majority of the software produced for the system was video games, others included programming language implementations, Sinclair BASIC extensions, databases, word processors, spread sheets, drawing and painting tools, and 3D modelling tools.
Games
Your Sinclair top 10
Between October 1991 and February 1992 Your Sinclair published a list of what they considered to be the top 100 games for the ZX Spectrum. Their top 10 were:
Deathchase
Rebelstar
All or Nothing
Stop the Express
Head Over Heels
R-Type
The Sentinel
Rainbow Islands
Boulder Dash
Tornado Low Level
CRASH top 10
Between August and December 1991 CRASH published their list of the top 100 ZX Spectrum games, including in the top 10:
Rainbow Islands
Chase H.Q. RoboCop RoboCop 2 Dizzy Target: Renegade Magicland Dizzy Batman: The Movie Operation Wolf Midnight Resistance
Techradar's "Top 30"
Techradar published their list of the best 30 ZX Spectrum games in 2012, underlining which games stood the test of time.
Elite – Firebird Games
R-Type – Electric Dreams Software
Chuckie Egg: A'n'F Software
Manic Miner: Bug-Byte Software Ltd
Knight Lore: Ultimate Play the Game
Back to Skool: Microsphere
Football Manager: Addictive Games Ltd
Lunar Jetman: Ultimate Play the Game
Horace Goes Skiing – Beam Software
Boulder Dash – Front Runner
Sim City: Infogrames
Underwurlde: Ultimate Play the Game
Super Hang-On: Electric Dreams Software
Jet Set Willy: Software Projects Ltd
Rainbow Islands: Ocean Software Ltd
Tornado Low Level: Vortex Software
Ant Attack: Quicksilva Ltd
Chase H.Q.: Ocean Software Ltd
Deus Ex Machina: Automata UK Ltd
Lode Runner: Software Projects Ltd
Gauntlet: US Gold Ltd
Fantasy World Dizzy: Code Masters Ltd
The Hobbit: Melbourne House
Atic Atac: Ultimate Play the Game
Tetris: Mirrorsoft Ltd
Hyper Sports: Imagine Software Ltd
The Way of the Exploding Fist – Melbourne House
Daley Thompson's Decathlon: Ocean
Skool Daze: Microsphere
The Great Escape: Ocean
Notable developers
A number of current leading games developers and development companies began their careers on the ZX Spectrum. David Perry of Shiny Entertainment wrote Three Weeks in Paradise and Dan Dare. Tim and his brother Chris Stamper, along with Tim's girlfriend (later wife) Carole Ward and John Lathbury, published Jetpac, Atic Atac, Sabre Wulf and Knightlore: and many others, as Ultimate Play the Game, now known as Rare, maker of many famous titles for Nintendo and Xbox game consoles. Alan Cox wrote Blizzard Pass, and is an ardent supporter of open source software.
Other notable Spectrum game developers include:
Jonathan "Joffa" Smith wrote Cobra, Hysteria, Firefly and a conversion from the Green Beret arcade among other games which prove that smooth scrolling was never a problem on the ZX Spectrum, as long as the developer had the necessary technical knowledge. Matthew Smith wrote the seminal Spectrum titles Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy, proving that it was possible to have continual music during game play on a Spectrum; Nigel Alderton was the 16 year old author of Chuckie Egg, published by A'n'F Software on the Spectrum and BBC Micro; The first author of an isometric 3D game: Ant Attack, published by Quicksilva: was Sandy White; Julian Gollop wrote Rebelstar and Laser Squad; Jon Ritman was the author of Match Day and Head Over Heels; The Oliver Twins wrote the Dizzy series of games; David and Helen Reidy wrote Skool Daze and Back to Skool for Microsphere; Christian Penfold and Mel Croucher, of Automata, authors of Pimania, My Name Is Uncle Groucho, You Win A Fat Cigar and Deus Ex Machina; Paul Owens and Christian Urquhart, developers of Daley Thompson's Decathlon for Ocean Software; Philip Mitchell and Veronika Megler of Beam Software, who wrote The Hobbit published by Melbourne House; Platinum Productions (David J Anderson and Ian Morrison), authors of the conversions of Lode Runner, Beach Head and Rambo; Costa Panayi, who wrote Android, Android Two, Highway Encounter, Cyclone and Tornado Low Level for Vortex Software; William Tang wrote the Horace series of games (Hungry Horace, Horace Goes Skiing and Horace and the Spiders) for Beam Software, published by Sinclair Research and Melbourne House.