Category Archives: Codemasters

Spellbound Dizzy, ZX Spectrum

Also known as Dizzy V (five), Spellbound Dizzy was once again designed and coded by Big Red Software and was first published by Codemasters in 1991.

Spellbound Dizzy was the biggest Dizzy game yet, with 108 screens to explore, and it had a slightly different graphical style to previous games. Message windows were made to look transparent, with background graphics shown as dark blue on top of which text was overlaid, which is a neat little detail that works well. Dizzy himself looked the same though.

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Dizzy 3 and a Half, ZX Spectrum

Dizzy 3 and a Half was released for free on a Crash magazine cover tape (issue 84, January 1991) and basically serves as an introduction to (and a sales device for) Magicland Dizzy, the fourth Dizzy adventure.

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Magicland Dizzy, ZX Spectrum

Magicland Dizzy is the fourth Dizzy adventure game and the first game in the series not designed and coded by The Oliver Twins. Instead it was designed by Neal Vincent and coded by Big Red Software, with The Oliver Twins retaining creative oversight.

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Fantasy World Dizzy, ZX Spectrum

The third Dizzy adventure, Fantasy World Dizzy, was again designed by The Oliver Twins with graphics by Neil Adamson. It was published by Codemasters in 1989, initially for the ZX Spectrum, but also later for all the major formats at the time (Amstrad CPC, C64, Amiga, ST, and MS-DOS).

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Treasure Island Dizzy, ZX Spectrum

Treasure Island Dizzy is the second game in the Dizzy series and was first released by Codemasters in 1988. It was again designed and coded by The Oliver Twins and once again features everyone’s favourite anthropomorphic egg, Dizzy.

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Dizzy: The Ultimate Cartoon Adventure, ZX Spectrum

The first Dizzy game, and featuring a walking, talking egg that would become synonymous with “cartoon adventures” on the ZX Spectrum, and also budget releases from British software house Codemasters.

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Cosmic Spacehead, Megadrive/Genesis

Cosmic Spacehead is a 1993 Sega Megadrive release for British publisher Codemasters. It is, in fact, an enhanced remake of a previous Codemasters game, Linus Spacehead’s Cosmic Crusade.

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Micro Machines V3, PlayStation

The third Micro Machines was released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation. In V3 the environments and vehicles are all 3D-modelled, and the action is displayed at a slightly tilted angle, rather than directly overhead.

The same excellent gameplay mechanics of the previous games have been retained though. Mostly revolving around getting ahead of your opponents in order to push them off-screen.

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Micro Machines, NES

This 1991 release from Codemasters is the first game in the award-winning Micro Machines video game series and – boy – does it kick-start the series in style!

In fact: it established the staples that make the series so good, like the themed tracks, and the ‘race-to-the-edge-of-the-screen’ style racing.

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Mission Jupiter, ZX Spectrum

Codemasters released this Derek Brewster game in 1987 under the title of Mission Jupiter (also known as Jupiter Mission in some territories).

It’s a simple side-scrolling shooter with a guy wearing a jet pack.

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