Games that remind me of my childhood Number 5 : Tom Thumb (Commodore Plus 4)

Sticking with the Commodore Plus 4, Tom Thumb was again another game which was miles better on the Plus 4 than the Commodore 64 version.  Written by renowned Plus 4 programmer Udo Gertz, the game had you play Tom, and required you to explore 178 screens of platform action, avoiding baddies, collecting treasure, and finding keys to unlock doors.

The game itself is a straight-forward platformer, but one of the things I remember most about this game is the ability to see parts of the game which you would not be able to reach until much later on.  This added much more lastability to an already addictive game.

Me, finally reaching the final screen from Tom Thumb

It took me over 22 years to finally finish this game (read about it here), without cheating, and what did I get when I reached the end?  Nothing!  Well, besides having to start the game from the beginning again but with items and baddies in different locations.  It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for a bug which resulted in your character not being able to get any further in the game due to some spikes above a ladder which you needed to get through.  Unfortunately when you touch the spikes, you lose a life and go back to the last save spot (the last door opened, key or treasure collected).  It was impossible to get past the spikes, so you could never finish the game for a second time.

The game did have a good feature (although I am not sure if was ever intended as a secret cheat or not) : Normally when you had lost all of your lives, you would start the game from the very beginning.  If you ran out of lives, simply pull down on the joystick and you would start from the same location as the last key or treasure collected.  Very useful, although your score would reset back to zero. 

I dread to think how many hours I've spent of my life playing this game.  I even started to write a remake of it several years ago, but lost most of the source code thanks to a catastrophic hard drive failure (my fault for not making regular backups).  I did manage to salvage some of it, and it is playable, but I lost so much.  I don't seem to have time to finish it...  Maybe one day....

My version of Tom Thumb - unfortunately never finished

My version of Tom Thumb - unfortunately never finished

My version of Tom Thumb - unfortunately never finished

As mentioned earlier, the game is VERY big.  Csabo over at Plus 4 World has painstakingly put together a map of the entire game.  You can check it out by clicking here.

I have many fond memories of this game.  Well worth a play if you get a chance!

Time for an upgrade...

One of the fun parts of my job as Network Manager is buying new computer hardware for the school I work in.  My team and I have recently upgraded one of our classrooms and have replaced some aging HP workstations with a new suite of Acer Veriton computers with i3 processors.  Not as high spec as the i5's we bought last year for two other classrooms (budgets are tighter afterall!), but seeing this room now makes me think back to when I did I.T. at school, and what we had available to us back then :- one classroom containing some BBC Micros ("Model B" I think) and a few BBC Master computers, and another classroom with a handful of RM Nimbus 186's...

...  Now, as you know, I'm a big fan of old/retro computers, but I wish we had access to this kind of classroom when I was at school!

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Saying that, playing "Frak!" and "Dare Devil Dennis" during lessons was much easier on a BBC!



Thanks!

When I first started the Captains-Blog exactly 6 years ago, I never expected many people to read it - maybe close friends and family, and that was all.  Anyway, having a quick look on my Blog stats, I'm surprised to see that so many visitors from all over the world have come to visit recently.  Anyway, I just wanted to say a big hello to everyone who comes by, no matter where you're from.  It's nice to know that I'm being read all over the world, and it means a lot to me.

HELLO.... and thanks!

Games that remind me of my childhood Number 4 : More Adventures of Big Mac - The Mad Maintenance Man (Commodore Plus 4)

Time to go back to 1985, and one of my favourite games on the Commodore Plus 4 computer...

Big Mac (the actual title being "More Adventures of Big Mac - The Mad Maintenance Man") was one of those games which I was addicted to when I was young.  My Dad and I would play this for hours on end, although I could never beat him!

15 levels of pure platform goodness which involved you as the player negotiating some well-designed levels featuring guns that fired at you, plungers that move up and down ready to squash you, disappearing floors, and numerous switches which needed to be activated to get you further on each level and to allow the exit to appear.  You also had a limited amount of time to complete each level before your air ran out.

Released by budget software publisher Mastertronic for £1.99, I had this game on both the Commodore Plus 4 and Commodore 64, although this was one of the rare titles which was actually better (both graphically and better to play) on the inferior Plus 4.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

Level 6

Level 7

Level 8

Level 9

Level 10

Level 11

Level 12

Level 13

Level 14

Level 15

And here is a screenshot from the equally-as-good-to-play-but-not-so-good-looking C64 version.

Classic gaming at its best!

Games that remind me of my childhood Number 3 : Street Beat (Commodore 64)

Street Beat was another great game released for the Commodore 64/128 by Mastertronic for a pocket money friendly £1.99.  The aim of the game was simple...  You play a character called Rockin Rodney, who has just started a new job at Significance Records.  You must wander town, collecting audio cassettes from various houses and returning them to your place of work.  The only thing is, you need to get a certain number of people dancing before you can drop the tape off at Significance Records.  You do this by using the ghettoblaster which you carry on your shoulders.  You basically shoot musical notes at the passing pedestrians to get them dancing.  Using F1 and F4, you can change the volume of the music - the louder it is, the further the musical notes go (although you're more likely to get nicked by the local police).

You have to watch your batteries though.  Pop into electrical stores to replenish your ghettoblaster batteries should they get low.  If the batteries run out, you lose all the people you've got dancing and you have to start all over again.

Every now and then you are notified of a dancing/house party which you can gate crash.  If you are successful in finding the right house, you can increase the number of people dancing greatly.

You also have to watch out for various characters who make playing the game difficult, including :-

• Tone Deaf Walker - He'll damage your ghettoblaster and you'll need to find a repair shop to get it working again.  Don't let him touch you more than once otherwise your ghettoblaster will be irreparably damaged and the game ends.
• Psycho Killer - This guy will kill you and instantly ends the game.
• Gangster of Groove - If you let these guys touch you, they steal your tape.

The town is quite large, and it can be difficult to find a house with a tape to collect (indicated by a random flashing front door).  Fortunately if you bump in to a character called Jumping Jack Flash, he will teleport you to a house with a tape (or Significance Records if you already have collected a tape).

There are 10 tapes to collect, and you have to collect them all and get them to Significance Records before your on-screen tape counter reaches 999.

I spent many hours of my childhood playing this game, and even after 25 years I still have not finished it.  I think the most tapes I could find is 8 (out of 10).  Graphics are simple but effective, and there is a good number of tunes to listen to when you collect a tape.  This game was actually a re-release of a game called Ghettoblaster - Both games were the same, but with a few minor changes such as different music.

May the funk be with you.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Get N, or get Out!

One of the biggest mistakes I've ever made in recent times was selling my Nintendo 64.  I didn't have a massive collection of games for it, but the ones I did have were some of my favourite games from all the consoles I had at the time.

Anyway, I'm happy to say that I have recently corrected that mistake and have acquired a new Nintendo 64 (thanks Ebay), complete with two of the best games I've played on the system - Goldeneye 007 and Star Wars - Shadows of the Empire.

I remember buying the N64 on release day, way back on Saturday 1st March 1997.  Like most people, I bought it with Super Mario 64, and additionally I bought Star Wars Shadow of the Empire at the same time.  I also remember it not being cheap - Both games came to just under £100 alone, and the console was £250 - ahhhhh, those were the days when I had money to spend!

Thanks to emulation though, I found myself playing N64 games on my PC using a great emulator called Project 64.  This led me to selling my Nintendo 64 four years ago.  The problem with this emulator was that even though Super Mario 64 could be emulated 100% perfectly, both Goldeneye and Star Wars would not play properly at all, with numerous graphical glitches.

I really missed those games...

Will I ever replace the games I had before?  I doubt it to be honest, but for the price I paid for this N64, it's so nice to play these great games again.  What's difficult to believe is how the console is now considered 'retro', afterall it did come out over 15 years ago.  Another reminder of how old I am getting.