| The Years |
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1962-1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 |
| The Games |
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(Bug Byte - 1983) This adaptation of the Atari 800 hit Miner 2049er is still considered by many to be the finest platform game ever produced for the Spectrum. While later examples of the genre displayed improved graphics, few matched the sheer playability of Matthew Smith's seminal classic. You must guide Miner Willy through twenty levels, collecting a number of keys which are scattered about platforms roamed by nasties. To add to the pressure Willy has a limited air supply for each room. As well as being fiercely addictive, Manic Miner was also the first 'mega' game to be released for the Spectrum. That is to say it created a degree of excited interest about itself that had never been seen before.
(Ultimate - 1984) Once-upon-a-time platform games were strictly side-on 2D affairs. Then Knight Lore arrived. As Sabreman, you must negotiate a series of trap-laden rooms in order to reach the cure to a disease which transforms you into a werewolf at sunset. Compare most other games of 1984 (including the mighty Jet Set Willy) to Knight Lore and they appear dated. Even Sabrewulf, Ultimate's other big release of the year, looks strangely primitive in comparison. It's all the more amazing, therefore, that Knight Lore was completed first. As Tim Stamper said in a 1988 interview, "Knight Lore was finished before Sabrewulf. But we decided then that the market wasn't ready for it. Because if we released Knight Lore and Alien 8 - which was already half finished - we wouldn't have sold Sabrewulf. There was a little bit of careful planning in there. They could have had Knight Lore possibly the year earlier, but we just had to sit on it because everyone else was so far behind." I think this quote alone demonstrates the extent to which Ultimate ruled the industry roost. This sounds like arrogance, but it wasn't. They really were that far ahead of the game.
(Software Projects - 1984) When several disgruntled Bug Byte employees left to form Software Projects at the end of 1983, Matthew Smith went with them, taking with him his work-in-progress, the follow-up to the year's smash hit, Manic Miner. It became the most eagerly awaited game of the year. Magazines fought for exclusive screenshots or an interview with the man himself and by the time it was released to universal praise, the game had already earnt itself a kind of mythical status. JSW took the basic premise of Manic Miner and transferred it to a massive mansion containing dozens of rooms filled with nightmarish obstacles and the inevitable objects to collect. The game was hugely difficult, requiring a certain route to be taken, otherwise it killed you off (the famous Attic bug). The lunatic, Pythonesque graphics were copied in many other platformers, but the inspired brilliance of JSW was never matched. The popularity of his two hit games canonised Smith as an eccentric young genius of almost legendary proportions. Sadly, his success and excessive lifestyle conspired to propel him into a drug-fuelled decline. He disappeared off the radar for many years but is now back in circulation. Matthew Smith has a website here.
(A&F - 1984) Chuckie Egg is still one of the most fondly remembered platform games of the golden era of home computing. There are comparisons to Donkey Kong to be found in this frantic egg-collecting game. You must guide your little egg collector (Hen House Harry) through increasingly difficult levels, jumping platforms, riding elevators and scaling ladders to avoid the attentions of the patrolling hens. During later levels a giant chicken that had previously been caged at the top of the screen flaps after you. It's nerve-wracking, addictive and head-bangingly frustrating, but you'll be playing it again and again. A slightly inferior sequel was released in 1985 which had more of Jet Set Willy about it that the original. In a 1998 interview, Nigel Alderton, the author, revealed that he was planning a third Chuckie Egg game. Watch this space.
(Mirrorsoft - 1985) By the end of 1985, traditional platform games had gone out of fashion. Therefore, this game is anything but conventional. Take the story for instance: there are eight islands, each containing 24 screens and 32 randomly strewn objects for you to collect and use. You arrive at each island by airship. Your objective is to explore each island, find a record, play it on the jukebox, collect some fuel for the airship, then move on to the next island and do the same again. On the final island you must destroy the jukebox and then escape within three minutes. Straight forward enough? There are the inevitable monsters to avoid who will otherwise drain your energy and more annoyingly, pinch crucial items. It's extremely entertaining, highly original and very challenging.
Here some more top quality strategy games that I can recommend to you. Alien 8 (Ultimate – 1985) The follow up to Knight Lore. It is graphically very similar, using the same isometric 3D perspective, but this time set aboard a spacecraft rather than in a trap-riddled castle. There were grumbles at the time about its similarity to Knight Lore, but it is more playable than its prequel and who can blame Ultimate for making full use of the revolutionary graphics that they had developed. In fact, it was arguably the last game of real quality that Ultimate released. Booty (Firebird – 1984) Up until the release of Booty at Christmas 1984, budget games had been treated with contempt. They normally consisted of unwanted titles that had been bought up by a company looking to enter the games market (check out the Pulsonic back catalogue for an example of this) or quickly produced, tacky efforts which assumed that any taste the buyer might have would be put aside in favour of the low price. Firebird (owned by British Telecom) changed this preconception with Booty. You play Jim the cabin boy and must explore an old galleon collecting (you guessed it!) booty. Apart from avoiding nasty pirates, you also have to find keys to progress past the numbered doors that block your way. Great fun and an enduring favourite of the time. Bugaboo the Flea (Quicksilva – 1983) Quite a few decent Spectrum titles came out of Spain over the years and this novel game was no exception. It was produced by an outfit called Indescomp who also produced Fred for Quicksilva shortly afterwards. Sadly, we saw little else of their work thereafter, but Bugaboo is a fine reminder of their talents. As the flea of the title you find yourself stranded at the bottom of a deep gorge on an alien planet. Your only way out is to bound onto the countless ledges. Judging the strength of your leap is tricky and even if you do make a clean jump, there is all matter of foliage to prevent a safe landing. To make matters worse, after a while a flea-eating dragon appears on the scene to gobble you up. Even if the sound is annoying, it's a very novel game that is head-bangingly frustrating. High Rise Harry (Blaby – 1983) The 'painter' was the type of game that has probably been forgotten by many people as having ever existed, although in the Spectrum's early days there was quite a choice of titles of its sort on the market. Most of them involved guiding a character around a maze, avoiding baddies and colouring it in as he goes. The best of these (in my opinion anyway) was Highrise Harry which managed to combine platform elements into its gameplay. As Harry you must rustproof a construction of girders. In your way are the roaming nasties who must be avoided by leaping over them. To help Harry get about there are also ladders, lifts and slides. The graphics may look small and simple, but it's a good old fashioned platformer at heart and plays remarkably well.
Owing a great deal to Ultimate’s Underwurlde, Nodes of Yesod is a vast and beautiful platform game of the very highest quality. The graphics were crisp, smooth and original, the sound astounding (there was even some convincing speech at the end of the loading screen) and the gameplay painfully addictive. If the game had a drawback, it was that it was virtually impossible to complete. As Astronaut Charlie, you must leap and tumble about the underground caverns of the Moon collecting crystals. Simple enough, but the presence of an enemy astronaut who steals your crystals on contact makes the game frustrating and nigh on impossible. It doesn’t keep you from coming back for more though, if only to explore the gloriously designed caverns. While the game was being written the data was stored on Sinclair Microdrives. In keeping with their reputation, everything was lost and had to be completed again from scratch in a fraction of the time. Consequently the finished product was never as good as the original but few people who’ve played it would have any complaints. A sequel, Arc of Yesod, was released later the same year. The graphics and theme were very similar, but it was still a stunning game. Technician Ted (Hewson – 1984) At a time when the market was being flooded with platform games – many of dubious quality – Technician Ted stood above the crowd. It sported excellent graphics, good sound and progressively difficult screens to traverse. Unlike many platformers, each level requires a great deal of thought and careful manoeuvring to tackle. The game also featured the first counter to appear on the loading screen of a Spectrum game.
Mick the Mechanic. Now there's a character name that was never really going to catch on. Shame really if this cracking game is anything to go by. On each of the 26 levels you must collect enough oil from the tank at the top of the screen to start your car and progress. At the bottom of each screen is a garage with a car in it, which remains invisible until you begin to pour oil over it. Once enough oil is deposited, it will drive off and you move onto the next level. The usual platforms, ladders and ropes allow Mick to move about, plus trampolines which can be used to spring up to higher platforms. The baddies in this game come in the form of Arabs who are a little peeved at this wrenchmonkey nicking their black gold. Luckily a drop of oil spilt in the right place causes the Arabs to slip up, rendering them harmless for a few moments. Unfortunately, it can also put Mick on his arse, so be careful. Wanted: Monty Mole (Gremlin – 1984) Despite the enormous success of Jet Set Willy in 1984, it was the first outing of Monty Mole that was voted by Crash readers as the best platform game of the year. Like Willy, Monty is a miner. At the time of its release, the terrible blight of the miners’ strike was still recent news and was the theme of this terrific platformer. The graphics are large and colourful, Monty is a loveable little scamp and the general opinion at the time was that the game was every bit as good as JSW. He was certainly more prolific, featuring in three sequels, making him one of the most enduring computer characters of the Spectrum era. Home |
In 1981, Universal released Space Panic in the arcade. It was a levels and ladders game that became famously adapted for home computers and consoles as Lode Runner. It was the original 'platform' game. The first of its kind to make any serious impact though was produced in the same year by Nintendo. It was called Donkey Kong, featuring a character called Jumpman. On its US release, the staff at Nintendo's American HQ renamed the character after their building's landlord: Mario.
When, in 1983, Matthew Smith adapted Atari 800 hit Miner 2049er for the Spectrum in the form of Manic Miner, platform games truly arrived - along with the Spectrum's first popular videogames character in the shape of Miner Willy. When the sequel, Jet Set Willy, appeared the following year, it began a frenzy of imitations that turned 1984 into the heyday of the platform game. Nearly every major software house got in on the act with a glut of new platform heroes: Monty Mole, Technician Ted, Dynamite Dan and many more.
