Coming a close second to Zork for the position of Infocom’s moast famous title, THHGTTG (hehe) is the adaption of Douglas Adam’s story of the same name. You play Arthur Dent, and your home (and planet) has been destroyed by a Vogon constructor fleet to make way for a hyper space by-pass. Rescued by your friend (who, unknown to you, is an alien) you will travel to alien worlds and into the past and future to discover the true nature of your, and mankinds, existance.

Most of the plot elements and great characters from the book have been transposed into the game, and it is this that is the game major shortcoming. Fans of the series will find little challenge in the game at all, everyone else will find some of the puzzles to be HIGHLY obscure and difficult.

This is a hard thing to disregard but if you can you will find THHGTTG to be a interesting game, utterly faithful to the original story.

Not one of my favourites, but I recommend it anyway.

When I started the game, the credits started rolling. When the credits stopped you just started playing. It isn’t before you can speak to King Edward that you know what your mission is (Getting a chest, a mirror and a shield). The story in the game is quite short and it only contains on page of text, making it very short.

You start as Sir Graham, just outside the castle and when you met King Edward, he tells you that you must go on a quest, because King Edward is dying and if you manage to complete this quest you will inherit the throne and also because your kingdom is weak and poor and if you get these 3 things, your kingdom will become strong and wealthy. You have to get a magic mirror which can tell the future, a magic shield which protects the bearer from any mortal harm and a magic treasure chest that is always filled with gold coins. There isn’t much more of a story in this game. A part the makers could have spent a lot more time on.

The graphics are like the regular Sierra game graphics at that time (like in Space Quest 1, Leisure suit Larry 1 and Police Quest 1). The graphics isn’t that bad even though they dent to interfere with the game play.

The game play was okay, with some nice puzzles, but like in so many Sierra games, it can become quite annoying. You can die and if you die and haven’t saved for a long time and die, you have to go back to the old save and do all the things you just done all over. This can be very annoying. Also there are things that try and kill you if you enter the map where they are, and there the witch is by far most annoying.She got me probably a dozen times. I also noticed that if you enter another screen and there is a tree where you entered, you will get stuck in the tree and that is quite annoying.

There isn’t much sound in the game, some music when you die and when you accomplish great achievements. There isn’t much more sound or music in it.

This game could have been far worse than this but also a lot better. There wasn’t really a story and you had to figure out most times what to do on yourself and there wasn’t a real story that helped you do it. The game play was sometimes annoying, but not at all as annoying as in games like Space Quest 1, and it was a lot easier to avoid dieing. This is a great classic though and if you do want a classic then you should get it.

2.5 out of 5

Yeah! Horror stories – I love ‘em. I was weened on Lovecraft, clothed by King, taken to school by Koontz… erm… pushed over in the playground by Rice… yeaaaah.
Anyway, back to my point – I love horror stories (and before you start, yes I wear lots of black, no I am not a Goth.. so eat me!)

The Lurking Horror was Infocom’s only attempt at a game with a horror setting. The game itself is not too hard (though it does have some very obscure puzzles) and IMO has a great plot. You are a student at GUE tech (a name that will be familiar to fans of Zork) and one night you have an irrestible urge to explore the universities basement. Well, the actual story is much more interesting and well thought out, but to learn more you will have to play the game and not rely on the description of someone who has the writing skills of a mental patient.

The pace of the game works very well and the puzzles and plot blend together perfectly, the many memorable characters and twists in the game also add to the experience.

I enjoyed The Lurking Horror, it might not appeal to everyone but for a desensitised horror fanatic like me it was great.

Two um.. clawed, bleeding thumbs up!

(god I suck!)

Ah… Space Quest in the days when you could call your character whatever you liked – before you were always “Roger Wilco”. Space Quest back in the days where the emphasis was on the tricky puzzles and not the humour. Space Quest in the days of the “typical” Sierra RPG. It comes as no surprise that Space Quest is, very much, a typical Sierra RPG of the time.

For those of you who’ve seen Police Quest or Kings Quest, you’ll know what I mean. You walk a character around the platform-style level using the arrow keys (pressing the direction you’re already going in if you want to stop). If you’re not close enough to things, you can’t interact with them. That’s the graphical element of the game. The rest of the game is all conducted in text entries you make in the form of commands to your character (e.g. Pick up rock, kill dwarf, etc.).

Some people like the old-style text-RPGs and I often find them entertaining, except for those irritating moments when there’s something you’re SURE you can do, but you’ve got to find the right way to express it first. Especially when you have a blinkered writer who only puts in the entry “Look at console” rather than “Use console, use computer, use keyboard, type, etc. etc.” assuming that everyone will intimately know the working’s of the programmer’s mind. If they don’t, hey – why are they playing the game?

During Space Quest, I found myself stuck for 10 minutes at one computer screen trying to work out what I was supposed to do. “Push button, press button, use button, look at button”. I tried “press switch, turn knob, use thing” everything that I could think of to describe the action of pushing a button. My friend suggested that since the button is labelled “Open Door”, why not type “Push open door button”. He was right. Then again, he failed dismally at using any of the vital computers because he didn’t think of “look at console”.

Space Quest, I am convinced, was play-tested only by the people who wrote the game. They tested whether it was physically possible to go from start to finish – not whether it was actually possible for someone who’d never seen the game before to complete it. Sierra also love to make their puzzles complicated, which really doesn’t help. Nowhere is there a handy syntax list of available commands, or any indication of what you’re actually supposed to be doing. You just keep on trying until you go insane, get forced to resort to a walkthrough or burst a blood vessel after dying yet again after doing the slightest thing wrong.

Did I mention the start of the game? You’re on a ship invaded by aliens (who walk around randomly and kill you on-sight, your only warning being that you hear footsteps, which doesn’t tell you from which direction) which is about to blow up (you have about 10 minutes to escape)…but you don’t know it’s about to blow up – and the only way you can get out is to wait in a room for at least half a minute for a wounded scientist to appear. You don’t know he’s coming, so what would possess you to wait in a room doing nothing for half a minute if the ship is counting down to explode?

Sadly, Space Quest did actually have all the ingredients for a really great game. Sure, the interface was bad (and they didn’t get that sorted out until Space Quest 5) and it was exceptionally complicated and difficult, but the ideas were there…and once Sierra realised that the humour was what made the game great, not the difficulty of the puzzles, they were onto a winner.

Graphics: 5/10: Typical Sierra RPG graphics of the time. Blocky, expressionless, slow-moving sprites. Difficult sometimes to tell what objects are in a room.
Sound: 3/10: Even though digital sound was around in other games, Space Quest uses the internal sound card. There’s nothing special at all about the sounds, but because it has the Space Quest theme, it gets a 3.
Gameplay: 0/10: Honestly, give me the monkey who wrote the interface and I’ll introduce him to a queue of people who want to shoot him for making the game almost unplayable.
Originality: 9/10: A very original idea, which later went on to the comic mastery which was Roger Wilco – rivalling Monkey Island.
Long-Term Interest: 1/10: After you’ve completed it, you’ll never want to go back. Most likely, unless you’re really determined, you’ll never get past the second (or even the first) section of the game.
Overall: 3/10: Typically difficult Sierra RPG which really ruins a great idea.

Note: This game was originally made in 1986, the VGA version was released in 1990.

Space Quest 2 was released as quickly as possible following the success of Space Quest 1, which has been something which has always surprised me. I never got on well with the first in the series, cursing the unresponsive text-based interface and general feeling of “what AM I supposed to be doing?”. Nevertheless, I began playing Space Quest 2 with an open mind. Which lasted for about the first 5 minutes.

The introduction is more impressive than in SQ1, and sees you (still not Roger Wilco, yet…) sweeping a hangar and, when disturbed, letting your broom fly into space (okay, the graphics of that weren’t great, but it made me laugh. What’s that, 3rd time this week?). My heart soon sank, however, when I saw that the same interface was back. The graphical-movement, text-interaction interface which Sierra never quite managed to master. The game is, in layout, just like the first – only with a different storyline and slightly more thought-out graphics.

So, I thought, I’ve got to leave the hangar. First thing I did was step onto what looks like a platform to the right…and fall off the spacecraft to my death. Dying is usually the thing I do most frequently in Sierra games, and it never fails to annoy me. Reload the game, this time making sure I step EXACTLY onto the platform. Down I go into oblivion once again. Three tries later, I’m now convinced there has to be another way. That thing on the roof looks promising…but how do I get there? Accidentally, I find out that I’m wearing magnetic boots and can walk up the wall (as if walking up the wall is the first thing you’d try). My initial hope that Sierra might at least give you an idea of what you’re supposed to do vanishes.

Still, I’m at the thing on the roof and I walk across it. Nothing. I walk back across it. Nothing. I wait on it for a few seconds. Nothing. Cursing, I consider whether or not to call up my friend (as two heads are better than one) when I suddenly end up in the next room. Sierra always value large amounts of patience, despite never giving you any indication if what you’re doing is right or wrong.

After that shaky start, I continue through the game without much of a hitch. A mysterious kidnapping from an old enemy in SQ1 ends me up on a strange planet, where I’ve managed to escape and people are looking for me. I start to remember the horrors of SQ1’s first level and, yes, here we are again. Killed if you get seen and left with no idea of where you’re supposed to go or what you’re supposed to do. Oh, by the way, there’s a concealed pit in the landing area for you to fall into and die. Why is it there? No reason…just another thing to kill you, as if the game wasn’t hard enough already.

Cursing, I eventually shut the game down and proceeded once more, this time armed with my friend at my side (who had the walkthrough, in case we got drastically stuck). After completing the game, getting utterly foxed by the interface or incredibly obscure puzzles no less than five times, I was left with the same feeling as SQ1. What a great idea – if only Sierra had put more time into getting people who’d never seen the game before to play it, and then look at where they got terminally stuck and why.

On the plus side, SQ2 has a fair amount of humour and there are moments when you have the great feeling of the game being challenging enough to make you think, but not so hard that you can’t puzzle it out at all…ever. It has its moments of that feeling far more often, but real die-hard Space Quest fans or, for that matter, RPG players who grew up on text-based games and know all about how to say “press the button” in a hundred different ways until they find the right one will probably enjoy the game a lot. If you don’t fall into the above categories, don’t expect too much and you won’t be disappointed.

Graphics: 6/10: Sierra sorted the problem of clarity and it’s now easier to tell what objects are. Other than that, the graphics are a bit of a let down in their blocky and blobby nature.
Sound: 3/10: Marginally better than the first, but still utilising the internal sound card when there were games out there making use of wave and midi formats. Weird.
Gameplay: 2/10: Far too many frequent moments of “what am I supposed to be doing?” and the interface just doesn’t make the game easy or rewarding to play.
Originality: 7/10: Nothing much different from the first in the series, which was disappointing, although the Space Quest idea itself still had a lot of aces up its sleeve.
Long-Term Interest: 3/10: The funny moments might make you want to play the game more than once to see them again, but since completing the game itself is such an uphill struggle you may never even get that far.
Overall: 4/10: Some improvements on the first, but a real let-down to the other games in the series.

I guess before I get started I should say i’m prejudiced against Sierra adventures, in fact I have a natural dislike of any point and click adventure games in which it is possible to die (gimme Lucasarts all the way baybee!)

With that said, Space Quest 3 isn’t too bad at all.

The game carries on from SQ 2. Having escaped in a cryo pod from Vohaul’s asteroid he is picked up by an automatic garbage ship.. and so our next adventure begins.

SQ 3 was the first in the series to use Sierra’s AGI system, which among other things added mouse control to the game. It makes playing quite a bit easier now that you dont have to rely solely on cursor keys and the parser (which is still present BTW).

This is the first Space Quest game that I enjoyed playing, and although it retains many of the previous games flaws (such as an annoying habit of killing you with little or no warning) it improves on them in many areas.

I remember I helped my sister buy a computer for the business that her and her husband ran. It was a top of the line 486 with 16mb ram, and a CD player… yes can you believe it, it had a CD player.. and this was no wimpy sx system but a dx. That system rocked. At the same time they bought that computer I got my very first CD-ROM game. Space quest 4.

This game was not only sweet on the graphics, but the thing would talk to you. It had voice I kid you not, real life voice on it. I remember playing this game for hours. It was funny, it was neat to look at, and did I mention it talked to you? Well about a month ago my granddad in-law gave me the full collection of space quest games he found in a bargain bin. First game I went to on that was space quest 4, and would I be disappointed after all these years, and after all this advancement in games? No way. The game is still very cartoon like, and still very funny. There are easy puzzles in it, there are hard puzzles in it. If you are a space quest fan you will especially like the little sequence where you travel back to space quest one and play on the old EGA graphics.

The point and click is easy to use, and the only draw back with the voice is that the narrator does get a little annoying after telling you for the tenth time that you can’t click there. The death sequences are fun to go through, and the story is up to space quest standards.

I have played all space quest games many times now and this one is still my favorite of all of them. You will not be disappointed on this. And though this download may not have the voice (don’t know if it does or not) you will still laugh at this game. And another thing that makes it great is that any one of any age can play it. Nothing crude nothing obscene just good clean fun.

I give this game a four out of five on the paully scale.

After his adventures through time in SQ4, Roger Wilco is back as a cadet in StarFleet Academy (Star Trek spoof alert eh?).

This is by far my favourite game in the series, the graphics are great, the humour is not too subtle, but not too in your face (for the most part anyway) and I loved piloting the star ship – a great idea IMO.

I do have a few gripes though, the humour can be a little groan inducing at times (Captain Quirk… riiiight) and some of the arcade sequences are tiresome.

A great adventure game IMO, but suffering from the same flaws that I associate with most Sierra adventure games.

Get it.

Trinity is truly an epic story, starkly serious and mature throughout and, it must be said, beautiful and moving in places.

You play an American tourist in London when World War 3 erupts. Through a series of events you find yourself stepping through a magical portal into a world where the real and unreal combined. You will be transported through time and space to such locations as the New Mexico desert (the plot as a whole is about nuclear weapons).

The game wont appeal to everyone, some wont understand the story and its more metaphorical parts, some will be daunted by the difficulty of the puzzles in the game, but for everyone else Trinity will be a very rewarding experience.

An adult game in the sense that it has a more mature and complicated plot than most games, but one that is worth investing your time in if you are up to it.

Zork 2 is a continuation of the story from.. yes, you guessed it, Zork 1. I should point out here that although the series should be played in order, each part is independant of the rest, so you no experience of the first 2 games is needed to play Zork 3 for example.

The story : arrying on from the first game, you are exploring a region of the underground empire ruled by the powerfull (and senile) Wizard of Frobozz. Your goal? To deftat the wizard and gain control of his powers.

Almost everything that I wrote about parser and appearance for Zork 1 applies to Zork 2. Of the game’s faults I think the review on The Adventure Collective says it best :

Zork II has long been regarded as one of the most difficult game in the Zork series. The puzzles are devious, and clues are too scarce. The game also suffers two fundamental flaws in adventure game design–the “resurrection” fallacy and the “dead-end” fallacy. The resurrection fallacy states that an adventure game must never require the player to die or fail in the game in order to gain information that is subsequently required during the replay to complete it. Many puzzles, such as the ones involving the “dehydration” cakes, the brick, and the “shrinking” candy, are examples in which the solutions must either be guessed or deduced only after the player makes an incorrect choice and fail to complete the game.

In contrast, the dead-end fallacy refers to any situation whereby the player cannot finish a game because a puzzle or an item has been missed which the player now no longer can access. This leads the player down the long path of a dead-end. The player must then restore to an older saved game to replay the key sequences. Puzzles, such as the ones involving the red sphere, the “dehydration” cakes, the “shrinking” candy, and the matches, are such examples.

Personaly I prefer the first game in the trilogy to this one, but it’s still worth the 10 seconds that it’ll take for you to download it.

Zork 3 continues on directly from where Zork 2 left off. You find yourself in a heap at the bottom of some stairs where you recieve a vision of an old man who tells you to seek him out. See it’s back in to underground empire to find the man, and learn your fate.

Zork 3 differs from the first 2 games in that it has something of an underlining story, apart from that it is very familiar. Once again the game is parser driven/text only and once again it suffers from the same annoying flaws.

A decent enough game, and a worthy addition to the series (if you’ve played the first two then you know you are going to get this – so go for it )

It’s very hard to review a text only game over 20 years after it’s creation. With todays uber-mammy-jammy 3D graphics and superduper interactive digital surround sound doodahs (no, I have no clue what I’m on about) giving an opinion on such a game with an open mind is hard to say the least, so to begin I want to quote a short review from 1983:

The Zork trilogy, which chronicles happenings in a vast realm known as the Underground Empire, is the most famous of the all-text adventure games. Fantastic creatures, magic spells, and diabolical traps abound at every turn, and each room or area is described in long paragraphs of rich detail, helping the player visualize the setting.

In the first saga, titled The Great Underground Empire, the player begins outside a strange house that holds the hidden portal to the underground. Once below, the adventurer will rarely see daylight again until he finishes Zork III. Inside the house may be found a lamp and an ancient elfin sword. Whenever the computer tells you the sword is emitting a blue light, watch out: Dangerous creatures are around.

The intermediate level Zork II: The Wizard of Frozzbozz [sic] goes ever deeper into the underground realm, and the adventurer must now deal with dragons, unicorns, and a carousel of spinning death. Randomly appearing throughout the dungeon is the Wizard of Frozzbozz himself, who casts spells that all begin with the letter F (freeze, float, fluoresce, etc.). In the third game, The Dungeon Master, which is geared for the expert level, the player is faced with very complicated riddles to solve and finally must duel with the dungeon master of the title.

Though interconnected, each part of the trilogy is solvable separately. Zork I, the simplest, is a great game for first-time adventurers. The second and third installments become progressively more difficult.

Created by Marc Blank and Dave Lebling, the Zork trilogy has set a national standard for excellence in puzzle design. It will delight the game player with many months of adventures.

Right, read that have you?
Mind sufficiently opened?
Then I shall begin.

A little bit of the games story to begin with I think. In Zork you play an adventurer/treasure hunter in the ruins of a great empire (and underground empire no less), equip yourself, find treasure (and bring it back to your trophy case), kill monsters, solve puzzles – all standard stuff nowadays really (damnit! didn’t want to say anything like that).

Ok, what you need to keep in mind is that Zork was released in 1982 – 20 years ago as I write this review. At the time the text parser was considered something of a revolution, and it does still hold up well compared to more recent IF (interactive fiction) games. The parser can handle complex strings of commands and prepositions (get the apple and the sword of pointy death). Visually the game is nothing to look at, just a scrolling screen of text – HOWEVER, this can be considered a bonus as it allows us to concentrate on the task at hand and allow your mind to form the visuals itself (hey it’s just like reading a book! … you know… book… one of those leafy paper things you retarded child).

Gameplay is mostly comprised of “use the correct object in the correct place” type puzzles, with a few needing to be solved in a certain order or at the correct time. There are one or two annoying mazes in the game and because there is no automapping feature this spoiled things a little for me, the game also has a tendency to kill you almost randomly – another of my pet hates.

Guess I should wrap this up eh? (watch and see how trite I can make this)

Well what can I say; it’s a classic, the first game of its type. PLUS, it has been released as freeware so you really have no excuse for not owning the game.

Thumbs up, highly recommended and all that jazz.

Just download it, ok?

Zork Quest 1 and 2 were part if Infocom’s interactive comicbook range (Infocomics) and neither have much to do with the Zork universe as it is told in the original games.

Zork Quest 1 revolves around you hunting for treasure in the ruins of a castle – somewhat like the original Zork except for the additions of graphics, sound and animation.

Of these new additions it is hard to say anything positive, if anything they detract from the story telling process, which is what makes Infocom adventures so good in the first place. The story itself is quite good, and it’s probably best if you see this as an Infocom adventure lite

Play this, then go and play some of the other Infocom games on the site, you’ll see what I mean.

Zork Quest 1 and 2 were part if Infocom’s interactive comicbook range (Infocomics) and neither have much to do with the Zork universe as it is told in the original games.

Zork Quest 2 carries on from where the first game left off. The land of Quendor is at last at peace, but a sorceress has stolen a powerful spellbook with which she intends to wreak havoc on the land. It is upto you and your band of brave heroes to stop her.

Of the graphics and sounds it is hard to say anything positive If anything they detract from the story telling process, which is what makes Infocom adventures so good in the first place. The story itself is quite good (much more interesting and longer than Zork Quest 1), and it’s probably best if you see this as an Infocom adventure lite

Play this, then go and play some of the other Infocom games on the site, you’ll see what I mean.

Okay to start off you should know that I am referring to the games on the ZX Spectrum (128k for the tech-heads). This is because more games came out on the Specky (Spectrum) and its that which the games were originally coded on (they were ported to many other systems including the Amiga and the PC).

Okay, so you may be asking, “so what the hell is Dizzy?” Well, it’s a game that was made on the ZX Spectrum in the 1980′s but finished its reign on the PC and Mega-Drive (Genesis for the Americans). The basic concept of the game is that you are a egg that is called surprisingly enough Dizzy, you are part of a small village that has “the yolk folk” inhabiting it. The Yolk Folk are your family and friends.

The basic plot is unusually the same in these games “Zack the evil wizard has captured Dizzy’s friends and girlfriend, Dizzy is obviously pissed at this and sets off the find his friends to defeat the evil wizard Zack”. You accomplish this task by jumping around many, many screens of pure fun picking up objects and solving tasks.

In all there were 7 PURE Dizzy games (Dizzy, Treasure Island Dizzy, Fantasy Land Dizzy, Magicland Dizzy, Spellbound Dizzy, Prince Of The Yolk Folk and Crystal Kingdom Dizzy. (There was another game called Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy that was released on the Mega-Drive and the PC but I don’t count that as being pure for reasons specified later). Dizzy also formed a few Spin-offs, the obvious ones being Kwik Snax (which was a puzzle game that had a super cool Dizzy rock band in it ), Fast Food Dizzy (PAC-Man Rip-off ), Dizzy Down The Rapids (Action game involving Dizzy in a barrel and apples), Panic Dizzy (another puzzle game) and Bubble Dizzy (in which you had been thrown off a pirate ship into the deep water and have to find you way up to the surface by riding bubbles. Hell a magazine (crash magazine) even made its own version of Dizzy (Dizzy 3 1/2) as the release of Dizzy 4 was getting close.

If you’re still in puzzlement of why the creators (the Oliver Twins), created their whole game around a load off eggs! Then think of it this way; Mario is one of the best selling game series ever and that is about a Italian plumber created by some guys in Japan… go figure?

The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy (Mega-Drive and PC only):
This was the worst Dizzy game by far, it was just a cheap attempt at getting a few extra bucks. This game basically combined elements of all the other dizzy games and like Crystal Kingdom was just a platform game with easy puzzles.

The plot of this game I have to say I have absolutely no idea played it for about 10 mins, realized it was crappy, turned it off and hung my head in shame at the disappointment of this game. I have to admit this was Code-Masters fault and NOT the Oliver Tiwns, as they were the specky people.

Graphics are the best seen on a dizzy game and so is the sound, in my view this game is not really worth the floppy disk it came on.

Music:
Just HAD to put this in, the music is great! The tunes stick in your head for years.

Conclusion:
Defiantly worth getting, even if you’re not a fan of platformers. Gords
statement: ” Whoopee Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Ahh crap I jumped in the water”

Bad things about Dizzy:
Yes there are some bad things about these games :O. Basically the controls are one, as you can sometimes jump too far or to short and you die, you can lose all of your lives on one small part like jumping over a lake. After you have got real far and that happens, you get pissed off quite a bit.

Okay to start off you should know that I am referring to the games on the ZX Spectrum (128k for the tech-heads). This is because more games came out on the Specky (Spectrum) and its that which the games were originally coded on (they were ported to many other systems including the Amiga and the PC).

Okay, so you may be asking, “so what the hell is Dizzy?” Well, it’s a game that was made on the ZX Spectrum in the 1980′s but finished its reign on the PC and Mega-Drive (Genesis for the Americans). The basic concept of the game is that you are a egg that is called surprisingly enough Dizzy, you are part of a small village that has “the yolk folk” inhabiting it. The Yolk Folk are your family and friends.

The basic plot is unusually the same in these games “Zack the evil wizard has captured Dizzy’s friends and girlfriend, Dizzy is obviously pissed at this and sets off the find his friends to defeat the evil wizard Zack”. You accomplish this task by jumping around many, many screens of pure fun picking up objects and solving tasks.

In all there were 7 PURE Dizzy games (Dizzy, Treasure Island Dizzy, Fantasy Land Dizzy, Magicland Dizzy, Spellbound Dizzy, Prince Of The Yolk Folk and Crystal Kingdom Dizzy. (There was another game called Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy that was released on the Mega-Drive and the PC but I don’t count that as being pure for reasons specified later). Dizzy also formed a few Spin-offs, the obvious ones being Kwik Snax (which was a puzzle game that had a super cool Dizzy rock band in it ), Fast Food Dizzy (PAC-Man Rip-off ), Dizzy Down The Rapids (Action game involving Dizzy in a barrel and apples), Panic Dizzy (another puzzle game) and Bubble Dizzy (in which you had been thrown off a pirate ship into the deep water and have to find you way up to the surface by riding bubbles. Hell a magazine (crash magazine) even made its own version of Dizzy (Dizzy 3 1/2) as the release of Dizzy 4 was getting close.

If you’re still in puzzlement of why the creators (the Oliver Twins), created their whole game around a load off eggs! Then think of it this way; Mario is one of the best selling game series ever and that is about a Italian plumber created by some guys in Japan… go figure?

Magicland Dizzy:
Well guess who has gone and captured all the Yolk Folk. Yup that’s right that evil wizard Zack again. Sheesh you think he would of learned that dizzy kicks his arse every time, n what does he want with eggs other than to eat them, I digress.

This is the dizzy that the ever popular walking on clouds was brought into the limelight, but float on them too long and the earth shall soon become closer to Dizzy’s boots (you can now walk on clouds but you sink if you stand still).

In this episode your duties range from persuading a witch to perform magic, to kicking Ogre’s arse’s (literally). The graphics and sound are better in this one I reckon ). Well worth playing, I leave it

Music:
Just HAD to put this in, the music is great! The tunes stick in your head for years.

Conclusion:
Defiantly worth getting, even if you’re not a fan of platformers. Gords
statement: ” Whoopee Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Ahh crap I jumped in the water”

Bad things about Dizzy:
Yes there are some bad things about these games :O. Basically the controls are one, as you can sometimes jump too far or to short and you die, you can lose all of your lives on one small part like jumping over a lake. After you have got real far and that happens, you get pissed off quite a bit.

Fast food dizzy was another of codemasters attempts at milking the dizzy franchise, and man was this one sooo see through or what! It’s basically a Dizzy version of Pac-Man with cool cut scenes in the middle of every few stages. There’s not any kind of plot to describe as well cos ummm yea dizzy now works in a fast food joint that’s inhabited by ghosts… i guess. anyway the graphics aren’t anything to boast about. its a refreshing change from the dreary pac-man series that never seems to end (how they have made so many games that are exactly the same apart from a bow or something apples and got away with it is a mystery to me).

if you’re into pac-man type games then you will prolly like this, and if you’re just looking for some time to waste for 15 mins while you wait for your TV program to start then this is prolly the game for you

This game has not been reviewed. If you would like to submit a review and be credited, then please contact us.

Okay to start off you should know that I am referring to the games on the ZX Spectrum (128k for the tech-heads). This is because more games came out on the Specky (Spectrum) and its that which the games were originally coded on (they were ported to many other systems including the Amiga and the PC).

Okay, so you may be asking, “so what the hell is Dizzy?” Well, it’s a game that was made on the ZX Spectrum in the 1980′s but finished its reign on the PC and Mega-Drive (Genesis for the Americans). The basic concept of the game is that you are a egg that is called surprisingly enough Dizzy, you are part of a small village that has “the yolk folk” inhabiting it. The Yolk Folk are your family and friends.

The basic plot is unusually the same in these games “Zack the evil wizard has captured Dizzy’s friends and girlfriend, Dizzy is obviously pissed at this and sets off the find his friends to defeat the evil wizard Zack”. You accomplish this task by jumping around many, many screens of pure fun picking up objects and solving tasks.

In all there were 7 PURE Dizzy games (Dizzy, Treasure Island Dizzy, Fantasy Land Dizzy, Magicland Dizzy, Spellbound Dizzy, Prince Of The Yolk Folk and Crystal Kingdom Dizzy. (There was another game called Fantasitic Adventures of Dizzy that was released on the Mega-Drive and the PC but I don’t count that as being pure for reasons specified later). Dizzy also formed a few Spin-offs, the obvious ones being Kwik Snax (which was a puzzle game that had a super cool Dizzy rock band in it ), Fast Food Dizzy (PAC-Man Rip-off ), Dizzy Down The Rapids (Action game involving Dizzy in a barrel and apples), Panic Dizzy (another puzzle game) and Bubble Dizzy (in which you had been thrown off a pirate ship into the deep water and have to find you way up to the surface by riding bubbles. Hell a magazine (crash magazine) even made its own version of Dizzy (Dizzy 3 1/2) as the release of Dizzy 4 was getting close.

If you’re still in puzzlement of why the creators (the Oliver Twins), created their whole game around a load off eggs! Then think of it this way; Mario is one of the best selling game series ever and that is about a Italian plumber created by some guys in Japan… go figure?

Prince of the Yolkfolk:
Well this is another game in which people should download if they are not sure, as this one is very user friendly. But I have to say it’s the second easiest of the group (being so easy my 6 year old niece got quite far in it, but then she had to go home as it was tea time. I digress again)

In this game, Daisy has gone missing and the king has left the kingdom again :O something must be wrong. You start off trapped in a house under the ground with a locked door blocking your only way out, your only objects to hand are a pile of leaves, matches and water (Humm whatever shall we do).

Your tasks range from visiting heaven to crossing the river Stinx (the so-called river that you have to cross to get to hell). This game has great graphics and sound and is great fun to spend a while sitting in front of the computer staring at an egg bounce around).

Music:
Just HAD to put this in, the music is great! The tunes stick in your head for years.

Conclusion:
Defiantly worth getting, even if you’re not a fan of platformers. Gords
statement: ” Whoopee Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Ahh crap I jumped in the water”

Bad things about Dizzy:
Yes there are some bad things about these games :O. Basically the controls are one, as you can sometimes jump too far or to short and you die, you can lose all of your lives on one small part like jumping over a lake. After you have got real far and that happens, you get pissed off quite a bit.