Jon Ritman did the programming and Bernie Drummond did the graphics. And the result was: Head Over Heels – an isometric platform game, published by Ocean Software, and featuring two different characters who can combine to become more agile.
Tag Archives: Retro Gaming History
Head Over Heels Week
Happy April Fools Day!
A celebration of jokes and humour, and – in our world – video games.
Written by Jon Ritman, with graphics by Bernie Drummond, Head Over Heels was first released in 1987 and is still a fantastic game to play now – across a number of different formats.
So every day this week we’re going to be celebrating Head Over Heels – a classic 3D platform game like no other – starting with the ZX Spectrum original, and covering all the different versions of the game as the week progresses.
Anyway: welcome to April. You lovely gaming fools.
The King of Grabs
Head Over Heels on The King of Grabs:
ZX Spectrum version, Commodore 64 version, Amstrad CPC version, MSX version, Atari 800 version, Atari ST version, Amiga version, PC version, Head Over Heels Week
Jet Pac, ZX Spectrum
Ultimate Play The Game‘s amazing Jet Pac is an early ZX Spectrum classic, first released onto an unsuspecting world in 1983.
Carrier Command, Atari ST
Realtime Games‘ 1988 hit, Carrier Command, is a compelling mixture of 3D simulation and real-time strategy.
In it you take control of a futuristic, robotic aircraft carrier and must work your way through an island archipelago, taking control of each island and competing against a rival carrier.
Missile Command, Arcade
Atari‘s 1980 arcade hit, Missile Command, is a frenetic and chilling race to destroy nuclear warheads raining down on your cities.
Digitiser: The Show, Kickstarter
Fellow blogger, and games mutha-lover, Mr. Biffo, has launched a Kickstarter Appeal for Digitiser: The Show, which can be found here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1534877882/digitiser-the-show-proper-retro-gaming-tv
If you don’t know: Digitiser is a long-running games-based publication that first began its life on Channel 4 Teletext (back in the olden days), before later evolving into a rather excellent website.
Digitiser is well-written, informative, funny, poignant at times, populated by a plethora of bizarre-but-hilarious characters, and also – it seems – branching out into more televisual style entertainment.
Covering modern and retro gaming, Mr. Biffo says of it: “This won’t be the kind of cheap-and-cheerful fare you typically find on YouTube; Digitiser The Show is a full-blooded gaming series, utilising professionals with decades of broadcasting experience to bring audiences something that will stand out as high quality – while being utterly unique, completely bonkers, and hugely ambitious.”
The guest line-up looks fantastic in itself. We think that this is gonna be big…
Again, the link is here: Digitiser: The Show on Kickstarter
Go and support them if you like the sound of it!
By Order Of
The King of Grabs
Deathchase, ZX Spectrum
An early ZX Spectrum classic, Deathchase was first released by Micromega in 1983.
Although it doesn’t look like much (especially in stills), Deathchase was (and still is) an exhilarating game, and is something of a tribute to the speeder bike scenes in Return of the Jedi (which was released the same year as this, in 1983).
Legend of the Mystical Ninja, Super Nintendo
Konami‘s classic Super Nintendo platform game, Legend of the Mystical Ninja (1991), is about as much fun you can have on this particular system – it is just so chock full of variety and fun that it is undeniably one of the best games on the SNES.
Continue reading Legend of the Mystical Ninja, Super Nintendo
Qix, Arcade
Qix is an early Taito arcade game – first released in 1981 – and featuring gameplay that requires the player to section off areas of the screen using a marker that can draw lines on the playfield.
Donkey Kong, Arcade
Nintendo‘s classic 1981 release, Donkey Kong, was the first appearance of Mario (and his missus, Pauline – whatever happened to her?) and was also the first ever video game to feature jumping. Yes: jumping.
The King of Grabs 