Dizzy The Egg

DeejayBinaryTweed

Who here remembers Dizzy, and who would like to see a remake on modern platforms?



Treasure Island Dizzy was the first game I 'bought' (pointed to in a shop with my Dad) when I was about 6. I remember not being able to concentrate at school when I discovered there was a second island, and it was like the school day just wouldn't end!

DarkWarrior

While I remember Dizzy and liked Dizzy we don't need a modern remake on modern platforms.

It'll be Dizzy's carnival games or some shit like that.

ben0207

I'm with DW. I'd rather have fond memories than shattered hopes.

DeejayBinaryTweed

It'd be interesting to see how many Americans are aware of Dizzy - I think it was onl really big in the UK, but I could be wrong...

Nocren

IIRC Codemasters had a few UK imports for the NES as bootleg carts. MicroMachines and Dizzy were among them (Can't recall which particular Dizzy it was). I think Ultimate Stuntman was another. I was surprised at the quality of these bootlegs too (previous experience was these weird blue cartridges with bad ports of bad PC games) I rented MM when I was living in Texas from an awesome mom & pop place.

ben0207

My guess is none. Whilst we were playing C64, BBC Micro (and later the Amiga etc) etc they all had the NES. (and later the SNES)

So have great memories of awesome games like Elite, Silkworm, Dizzy, Elevator Action* they just have the crap released on their sily toy**




*Not awesome
**Kidding!

fragglefart

DeejayBinaryTweed wrote: »

Who here remembers Dizzy, and who would like to see a remake on modern platforms?

Oh man I had that game it was hard as Hell

Dagrabbit

There were several Dizzy games for the NES on that Codemasters plugin thing that promised better graphics and sound. It had Bignose, and some sports games as I recall, but I mostly just played Dizzy. The games were good. I'd love to see them polished up as a DS or XBLA games, since I think the controls were pretty poor, but the puzzle solving was grand.

ben0207

Just looked at what your company does.

A: You are awesome, assuming you're developing with the respect, care and attention these projects deserve.
B: UK:R reprazennnnntttt
C: Do Frontier: Elite II and Stunt Car Racer and I'll pay any price. Cash, blood, my girlfriend - you name it.

DeejayBinaryTweed

Hmm... That reminds me, XBLCG needs a conversion of Advanced Lawnmower Simulator Pro.

Rami

I remember wanting one of the Dizzy games really bad when I was a little kid. I asked my parents for it for christmas but I didn't know the full title, just 'Dizzy'.

That got me the wrong one. It was essentially a point n click adventure with Dizzy, but I loved it anyway. First PnC I ever played too.

ben0207

DeejayBinaryTweed wrote: »

Hmm... That reminds me, XBLCG needs a conversion of Advanced Lawnmower Simulator Pro.

That was a Llamsoft thing wasn't it? Or did he just do a remake?

Either way, it's Jeff Minter, so expect an overly flashy, borderline unplayable mess that looks like a WinAmp visualiser circa 2002 any time soon. Then expect him to bitch and moan when his unplayable pretentious trash does half as well as the respectful remakes and ports on XBLA.

DeejayBinaryTweed

Rami wrote: »

I remember wanting one of the Dizzy games really bad when I was a little kid. I asked my parents for it for christmas but I didn't know the full title, just 'Dizzy'.

That got me the wrong one. It was essentially a point n click adventure with Dizzy, but I loved it anyway. First PnC I ever played too.

Heh, I remember being so obsessed with Dizzy that my eye would pick out any word with two z's in on any page I was reading. I think I wrote a letter to Codemasters as a kid to suggest a new game too...

TVs_Frank

DarkWarrior wrote: »

While I remember Dizzy and liked Dizzy we don't need a modern remake on modern platforms.

It'll be Dizzy's carnival games or some shit like that.

Dizzy Xtream. He's a brown egg with a gun now.

Dagrabbit

http://www.nesplayer.com/features/aladdin/aladdin.htm

Here we go. The Aladdin Deck Enhancer. Did anyone else actually buy this thing?

DeejayBinaryTweed

TVs_Frank wrote: »

Dizzy Xtream. He's a brown egg with a gun now.

I'd like to alert you all to UK:Resistance's Blue Skies In Games campaign. A noble cause if ever there was one, and we'll be carrying that banner from Monday!

Geod

One time I was walking through a flea market when I was younger and found a gold NES cartridge. On the cartridge was 4 games, including one called "Go! Dizzy Go!" I bought it, and if I recall the game was horrible. That's my entire knowledge of Dizzy games. I'm curious if the cart was a bootleg or not.

DeejayBinaryTweed

Dagrabbit wrote: »

Here we go. The Aladdin Deck Enhancer. Did anyone else actually buy this thing?

Not many, I don't think. However winning the court case with Nintendo did pay for the Darling brothers' new sports cars!

I remember back in the day when Codies were always trying new stuff, like the J-Cart. Micro Machines 8 player without the need for a multitap!

DeejayBinaryTweed

Geod wrote: »

One time I was walking through a flea market when I was younger and found a gold NES cartridge. On the cartridge was 4 games, including one called "Go! Dizzy Go!" I bought it, and if I recall the game was horrible. That's my entire knowledge of Dizzy games. I'm curious if the cart was a bootleg or not.

That was genuine, I'm afraid. Go! Dizzy Go! was one of several arcade-style spin-offs, and unfortunately the worst of the lot IMHO. You should check out Fantastic Dizzy on Megadrive/Genesis, or Magicland Dizzy on the Speccy/C64/Amiga. The gameplay was radically different: platforming with puzzles, essentially.

Cherrn

I played a ton of Prince of the Yolkfolk back in the day. It was probably my first metroidvania (Well, it almost counts as one!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbcEO5e8PV0&feature=channel_page

Best music ever.

Jam Warrior

I tried a few dizzy games when I were a kid as the item puzzles were very much my thing. Problem was the unforgiving mediocre platforming wasn't my thing at all and I swiftly gave up.

No death in adventure games goddamnit! Lucas Arts knew the right way to do it.

DeejayBinaryTweed

Jam Warrior wrote: »

No death in adventure games goddamnit! Lucas Arts knew the right way to do it.

Exactly. Adventures games are about the puzzles and exploration, and allowing player death just takes away from that experience. That said, you've got to do something to make sure the environments are fun to traverse, and where there's fun there's usually challenge.

Rami

Cherrn wrote: »

I played a ton of Prince of the Yolkfolk back in the day. It was probably my first metroidvania (Well, it almost counts as one!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbcEO5e8PV0&feature=channel_page

Best music ever.

I had this too, it was awesome.

I can still remember a lot of the puzzles. The lion with the thorn, the depressed princess, the bridge builder, the harp, the mouse trap...

DeejayBinaryTweed

Yeah, from Fantasy World onwards they tended to use a lot of folk tale elements. It's quite a good idea really, as it means most players should have some awareness of what the puzzle is and what it's solution should be.

Zek

DeejayBinaryTweed wrote: »

Jam Warrior wrote: »

No death in adventure games goddamnit! Lucas Arts knew the right way to do it.

Exactly. Adventures games are about the puzzles and exploration, and allowing player death just takes away from that experience. That said, you've got to do something to make sure the environments are fun to traverse, and where there's fun there's usually challenge.

I don't think there should be death around every corner like the old school games, but it's silly to go far out of your way to avoid it in obviously fatal situations. I don't want to get in a fight where the other dude just stands there until I figure out what to do. They should just reload you right before the danger if you die rather than forcing players to be paranoid about saves.

DeejayBinaryTweed

Zek wrote: »

DeejayBinaryTweed wrote: »

Jam Warrior wrote: »

No death in adventure games goddamnit! Lucas Arts knew the right way to do it.

Exactly. Adventures games are about the puzzles and exploration, and allowing player death just takes away from that experience. That said, you've got to do something to make sure the environments are fun to traverse, and where there's fun there's usually challenge.

I don't think there should be death around every corner like the old school games, but it's silly to go far out of your way to avoid it in obviously fatal situations. I don't want to get in a fight where the other dude just stands there until I figure out what to do. They should just reload you right before the danger if you die rather than forcing players to be paranoid about saves.

A more recent motivating factor in games is to take away something you've earned, but can regain. I think games like Geometry Wars and Every Extend Extra Extreme demonstrate this best with their score multipliers. I mean, in E4 you have to come utterly inept to get a game over!

Camui

I remember they were once selling the game on the Home shopping network, and I wanted it so bad.

DeejayBinaryTweed

Codies made the C64 version of Treasure Island Dizzy available legally for free.

Nocren

Zek wrote: »

DeejayBinaryTweed wrote: »

Jam Warrior wrote: »

No death in adventure games goddamnit! Lucas Arts knew the right way to do it.

Exactly. Adventures games are about the puzzles and exploration, and allowing player death just takes away from that experience. That said, you've got to do something to make sure the environments are fun to traverse, and where there's fun there's usually challenge.

I don't think there should be death around every corner like the old school games, but it's silly to go far out of your way to avoid it in obviously fatal situations. I don't want to get in a fight where the other dude just stands there until I figure out what to do. They should just reload you right before the danger if you die rather than forcing players to be paranoid about saves.

I remember that in Lucasarts games the character would make a comment about how "Are you crazy? This is going to kill me!", "Hmmm.... nah.", or "I probably shouldn't do that. It might hurt. A LOT." Where as in the Sierra games it was <move to cliff>, <jump of cliff>, "You are dead." or "Game Over."
Anyone play Police Quest? You had to do a four point inspection on your car before you climbed in. Otherwise you would get a flat on the way to a call and the perp would get away, and thus the "Game Over."

Rami

I remember falling of the cliff in Monkey Island for the first time, about 75% through the game, and thinking 'oh fuck i've died'. That was a suspensful 8 seconds.

The Reverend Dr Galactus

Spellbound Dizzy was my first game of moderately epic scope. I was never able to complete it until an Amiga emulator with savestates made it possible 12 years later.

You were stung by killer bees!

The ending was kind of lame.

EmperorSeth

I played the original NES version, I think. Nevermind the death, it was the total inability to save that got to me. I remember playing for 3 hours, memorizing that DAMN mine cart sequence beforehand, and still dying 91% of the way through.

DeejayBinaryTweed

Yep, that mine cart bit drove me mental too.

I still haven't completed Spellbound or Fantastic dizzy, despite the advent of emulators

Alistair Hutton

ben0207 wrote: »

DeejayBinaryTweed wrote: »

Hmm... That reminds me, XBLCG needs a conversion of Advanced Lawnmower Simulator Pro.

That was a Llamsoft thing wasn't it? Or did he just do a remake?

Just a remake, the original "Advanced Lawnmower Simulator" was written by Duncan MacDonald of your Sinclair fame.

Possibly the finest game of it's generation, and the numerous clones and remakes of it are a testament to it's popularity.

DeejayBinaryTweed

Alistair - the wife's loving the penguinness of the game.

You know what else I'd like to see, but could probably never get past certification? A spiritual successor to How To Be A Complete Bastard.

Akatsuki

Man I have Fantastic Dizzy for Mega Drive/Genesis! So awesome! I haven't played it in ages, but it was impossibly hard back when I was a kid.

Zilla360

EmperorSeth wrote: »

I played the original NES version, I think. Nevermind the death, it was the total inability to save that got to me. I remember playing for 3 hours, memorizing that DAMN mine cart sequence beforehand, and still dying 91% of the way through.

Out of curiosity; was it also on an 'unlicensed' cart in the US? I remember you had to reboot the NES a couple of times before it would even work.

I also made an incredibly crude Dizzy text adventure at the age of 7 on my Amstrad, I was so proud of it. :P

GSM

I found the fastest way to beat spellbound dizzy. Just play as far as the umbrella and the drill bit, walk to the windy shaft, climb up the clouds on the left, and back right, and time the jump so that you jump right into the column of wind, and then back left, and you can get into the cavern in the ceiling without rescuing anybody.

Also, prince of the yolkfolk has the second best music, compared to spellbound. But I really did like prince of the yolkfolk too.

brynstar

I had that unlicensed Quattro Adventures cart for the NES, or at least I think that's what it was called. It had Treasure Island Dizzy on it. I enjoyed that, as well as the other games on there actually.

It had a crudely-designed switch on the back to allow changing between games.

Alistair Hutton

DeejayBinaryTweed wrote: »

Alistair - the wife's loving the penguinness of the game.

You know what else I'd like to see, but could probably never get past certification? A spiritual successor to How To Be A Complete Bastard.

Things that will never happen again, a game where you get points for vomiting in someone's coat then pouring laxative into the cocktail bowl.

Things that might happen again, a game where when you open an umbrella in doors you turn into a cooker.

On the subject of penguins, if you get the full game then there are captured Penguins, bound hand-and-foot (well, flipper-and-foot I suppose) to rescue.

Mr_Grinch

I think I've completed every dizzy game and my favourite was always Fantasy World Dizzy with Magicland being a close second.

I've got the Dizzy collection on my CD32 (Dizzy Big 6) which has:

Prince of the Yolkfolk, Crystal Kingdom Dizzy, Magicland Dizzy, Spellbound Dizzy, and Fantastic Dizzy.

To be honest though I preferred the earlier ones. The first was PUNISHINGLY difficult, Treasure Island wasn't too bad but had that damn frustrating trap on one of the earlier screens that kept getting me. Other irritations included your inventory cycling. So rather than being able to select what item you wanted you had to go through each one (iirc)