The BBC Micro was touted as an educational tool, if you believe Fred Harris (sorry kids). Most of us growing up in the 80’s will have used one at school, either doing some rudimentary programming, or playing with maths tools such as “Turtle”.
Killer Gorilla Screenshot on the BBC Micro
It also happened to have a great specification for replicating arcade games due to the colourful high resolution screen and multi-channel sound. Various publishers in the early days of the BBC chose to go down this route, with faithful renditions of Mr Do! (Mr Ee), Frogger (Hopper), Space Panic (Space Monsters) and Donkey Kong which, you guessed it, was renamed Killer Gorilla.
Killer Gorilla Game Advertisement
Killer Gorilla Gameplay on the BBC Micro
For some reason, in the Program Power (later Micro Power) version, they felt the need to replace Mario with a stick man. Quite how they felt this would fool Nintendo I don’t know, as in every other way this game was a carbon copy of the arcade game. The levels were recreated perfectly, and even had the “How high can you try?” message between stages.
I won’t dwell too long on the gameplay as we all know Donkey Kong, but this game had it all, as your not-Mario jumped and hammered his way across various levels to rescue his girlfriend. The gameplay was true to the arcade original, including the need to time your jumps to perfection to avoid the many different obstacles put between you and the big monkey. The sound was also pretty spot on, as well as the inter-stage screens showing your progress up the skyscraper.
I spent a lot of time on this as a teenager when I was supposedly “doing homework” on my BBC Micro. It was streets ahead of its contemporaries in replicating arcade games, which wasn’t lost on people not able to afford the pricey BBC Micro. I was very jealous of my friend who had one if these when all I could manage was a Sinclair ZX81.
Like many sports games, definately a game “of it’s era”. Who over the age of 35 could forget Daley Thompson’s cheeky performances in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics? He was a hero to every boy in the UK at the time, me included, and I once got to meet him at my local athletics club, albeit fleetingly…
Daley Thompson Hurdles
Anyway, this game was loosely based on Konami’s Track and Field, and was notable for 2 reasons:
1) Daley Thompson was a black athlete, and yet (probably due to the Spectrums dreadful pallette and colour clash) he appeared in the game as a totally white sprite
2) Daley Thompson’s Decathlon broke a LOT of joysticks due to the frantic waggling required to make Daley run – you could use the keyboard but the rubber membrane would also give up the ghost after too much bashing.
Like the regular Olympic event, the game is set over two days in which Daley must compete in the 100 metres, long jump, the shot, high jump and the 400 metres, 110 metres hurdles, pole vault, discus, javelin and finally the 1500 metres.
Using a similar approach to the Track and Field game on which it is based, waggling or button bashing is required to build speed, and buttons pressed at the right time to either jump or throw depending on the event. My personal favourites were the Javelin and the High Jump, which required both speed and perfect timing in order to progress. Each event required a certain score to qualify and move on to the next stage.
Despite looking a bit pale, Daley himself had some very smooth animation, with reactive controls that enabled some pixel perfect jumps to be executed, important at the later stages of the game which became very tricky.
The game was followed by 2 sequels on the Spectrum, Daley Thompson’s Supertest and Daley Thompson’s Olympic Challenge, as well as conversions for the Amstrad CPC and C64, but it was the original Spectrum version that will be best remembered by retro gaming fans.
JetPac was one of the first of the games released for the early 16k Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer, and developer Ultimate managed to fit a lot into the tiny memory. This game didn’t fit into any easily definable retro gaming genre, as it had a number of elements, being part shooter, part action-platformer. What it did do was deliver to early adopter Spectrum owners the arcade experience they had been looking for in their humble home computer.
JetPac for the ZX Spectrum
JetPac Gameplay
Due to the memory constraints of the basic 16k Spectrum model, JetPac did away with multiple screens and stuck to a very simple formula. Use your JetPac to collect space ship parts that fall from the sky, kill the aliens that try to attack you, build a rocket from the parts and take off in it when its complete. Then do it all over again, repeatedly, until you die. And that’s it.
JetPac loading screen for the ZX Spectrum
Despite the simple premise, one which would not hold the attention of many 10 year old game veterans today, Ultimate managed to build a sense of achievement into JetPac, as well as a desire to progress further through the game. You were pushed to tackle just one more screen, in order to see a new alien type with a different attack pattern. Every few screens you would get a new rocket, starting with an Apollo 13 style vehicle, and ending with a space shuttle (Tetris on the Gameboy also did this as a reward for completion).
There was also a great sense of colour in the game, from the garish alien designs to the multi coloured laser blast, but again due to memory limitations the only sound was the squeak of your laser and the plop when the aliens were destroyed.
JetPac screenshot on the ZX Spectrum
JetPac was a masterstroke of packaging in a time when memory was incredibly expensive. Developers Ultimate had to think about not only the gameplay but how they could most effectively fit it into the space available, and maximise the number of Spectrum owners that could play the game.
Jetpac forZX Spectrum Cassette Inlay
JetPac Critical Reception
Reviews of Jetpac on the ZX Spectrum were overwhelmingly positive, with several contemporary magazines lauding its graphics, gameplay, and overall design. Crash magazine praised the game for its “colorful and well-defined sprites,” deeming it “one of the best-looking games on the Spectrum.” The gameplay was frequently highlighted as a standout feature, with “Crash” describing it as “immensely playable and addictive,” while “Your Spectrum” echoed these sentiments, calling it “fast-paced and engaging, with responsive controls.”
Jetpac is a real scorcher…fast and frenetic gameplay that will have you coming back for more
Your Sinclair Magazine (1983)
Although the sound was recognized as basic due to the hardware limitations, it was still considered effective and adequate for the gameplay experience. The consensus among critics was that Jetpac was a landmark title for the ZX Spectrum, combining visually appealing graphics with compelling and addictive gameplay.
JetPac on other platforms
The success of JetPac on the ZX Spectrum lead to conversions various home computers of the era, each with their own strengths and limitations.
Commodore VIC-20 Version (1983)
The VIC-20 version of JetPac is much closer to the Spectrum than the BBC version, with almost identical graphics and gameplay. The game relied on an 8k expansion pack being fitted to the VIC-20, although still less memory than the already tiny 16k of the Spectrum.
The VIC-20 version of JetPac was a huge success, like the Spectrum it stretched the boundaries of what was possible on a simple home computer, and a standout title for the Commodore 64’s baby brother.
Vic-20 version of JetPac
There was never an official release for the Commodore 64, but unofficial conversions exist online.
BBC Micro Version (1984)
JetPac on the BBC Micro was visually different to the Spectrum version, with more chunky graphics and a quite basic sound effects. Gameplay was marred by annoying aliens which were incredibly difficult to avoid, resulting in a frustrating gaming experience.
JetPac for the BBC Micro
JetPac Sequels and Modern Revivals
Ultimate have survived to the present under different brands and owners, and as such have been able to sporadically revive the JetPac franchise.
Lunar Jetman (Ultimate – 1983)
Lunar Jetman was released by Ultimate the same year as JetPac, and is probably the closest thing to a true sequel to the original game.
In Lunar Jetman you had a buggy to ride around the planet surface, with items scattered across a map which was much larger than the side-scrolling screen. You still had to exit the vehicle to collect the items, and return to the buggy to refuel your JetPac. The mission in Lunar Jetman was to destroy 3 enemy bases using bombs that first had to be located and transported.
JetPac sequel Lunar Jetman
Development for the 48k Spectrum allowed more depth of gameplay and variety of graphics than the original, and it even featured voice synthesis if you had a Currah Speech Pack. It’s difficult to describe how excited I was to play Lunar Jetman on its release, and I wasn’t disappointed.
a worthy successor to JetPac
Crash Magazine (1983)
Solar Jetman (Zippo/Rare – 1990)
JetPac’s author Ultimate later transitioned to “Rare”, and in 1990 rebranded one of their acquired titles as Solar Jetman. The game was originally developed for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Zippo games, who were bought by Rare during the game’s development.
The links to JetPac and Lunar Jetman are tenuous, as there is no actual Jet Pack in the game. It’s more a gravity-based game, similar to arcade title Gravitar, where the mission was to use thrusters to safely traverse rocky landscapes. As such it is a sequel in name only, and due to poor sales of the NES cart, never made it to the Spectrum or any other home computer.
Jetpac Refueled (Rare – 2014)
Jetpac Refueled was commissioned after Rare were acquired by Microsoft, the original JetPac game being refreshed as part of the XBOX Arcade series of games.
The original game was enhanced with modern graphics and sound, and a number of new features introduced including weapons upgrades, smart bombs and a speed boost. The game also featured a 2 player mode, both local and online, where players could compete for high scores and places on a global league table.
JetPac refuelled was a remake rather than a sequel, given the almost identical gameplay. Although modern reviews claim it was an improvement over the original, its impact on the gaming landscape of 2014 was nothing like that of JetPac in 1983.
JetPac, like many of the early 16k Spectrum games from Ultimate, showed what could be achieved with fairly basic computer hardware. With this title Ultimate set a new standard for gaming on the home computer platform for other developers to follow, and established them as the premier games developer for the platform.
Mr Ee! came from a time when copyright law didn’t seem to apply to video games, otherwise this game would never have existed. Imagine taking the latest Super Mario game on the wii, copying it, calling it Super Dave and releasing it on the XBOX. That’s what Micro Power did with Mr Ee! on the BBC Micro, a blatant copy of The Mr Do! arcade game.
Mr Ee! Gameplay on BBC Micro
Mr Ee! : Not just another arcade clone
But there are plenty of blatant rip offs out there in video game history, and this is not the reason why Mr Ee needs to be celebrated. What it did, it did brilliantly, providing an almost arcade perfect copy of the original. The computer that made it possible was the BBC Micro, a home computer whose primary purpose was teaching IT in schools.
Mr Ee! Cassette Inlay
On seeing Mr Ee! playing on my friend’s BBC Model B computer, a kind of cross between Pac Man and Dig Dug, I knew I had to have one. Everything from the full colour graphics to the lively (if repetitive) music, shouted quality, and to me it looked and played just like the game I had played in the arcades. It was the first time that I realised that commercial quality gaming was possible on a personal machine. It is no suprise to read interviews with Adrian Stephens (the programmer behind the game) had spent hours playing the game in the arcades and had wanted to recreate that feel.
How to play Mr Ee!
Mr Ee! has unusually rich gameplay for an early arcade game conversion, with multiple game mechanics that must be mastered in order to progress.
Firstly, you have the ability to collect cherries to score points, which rack up with multipliers when you collect them in sequence. There are also monsters to avoid, which can be killed with a ball you can fire (one at a time), and bounces off the walls of the tunnels until it destroys and enemy or returns to you.
Mr Ee! On the BBC Micro- spot the difference
Then there are apples, which unlike cherries cannot be collected, but you can dig underneath them so they fall and crush anything (including you) in their path. Be careful as some monsters can also push apples off of ledges to try and kill you. The monsters, collectively known as creeps, are broken down into:
Regular Red Creeps, that look like dinosaurs and can only travel along existing tunnels
Diggers, which are purple dinosaurs that can dig their own tunnels
Alpha monsters, that are containers with letters inside them spelling out the word EXTRA, get all for an extra life. They can also eat apples!
Unlike PacMan where there was only one way to clear the screen and move to the next level, there were actually 4 ways to progress in Mr Do! / 2 in Mr Ee!
Collect the Cherries – Easy to do on the early levels but very low scoring. On higher levels it is a good last resort if you are under pressure from enemies and there are only a few cherries left to collect.
Kill all monsters – Even if there are munchers and alpha monsters on the screen the level will end when you kill the last regular monster or digger. This is helpful when you are score chasing and get overwhelmed with multiple monsters.
Get the Extra (Mr Do! Only) – Kill the alpha monster highlighted in the “extra box” at the top of the screen and the level will end immediately
Get the Diamond (Mr Do! Only) – A diamond will appear at random from an apple that has fallen and cracked open. Get it quick to end the level.
Mr Do original arcade game
Mr Ee! Remembered
Mr Ee goes back to a time when one programmer, part game fan / part self taught coder, could produce a commercial quality game at home and it become a huge hit, selling in thousands. Today this is just not possible, not even in the world of teenagers selling games through the app store. In this open market space a popular game will need programmers, artists, musicians, marketing teams and serious money in order to compete with the thousands of quality games available.
So hats off to the BBC and their indirect promotion of blatant plagiarism for the sake of the 80’s gaming public – it will never happen again.
It’s 1981, and I’m an 10 year old boy fascinated with the emerging world of personal computers. My dad would bring home a Commodore Pet machine from work, the same shape and size as a small car, over the Christmas period. I would spend hours playing Snake (yes, years before Nokia got in on the act) and various dungeon based games punctuated by, well punctuation, as the character “sprites” on screen were all “$”s and “&”s.
Sinclair ZX81At the weekend I would lurk around the local Tandy store (UK equivalent of Radio Shack, now long gone) and marvel at machines like the TRS-80 and TI994A, looking through the software catalogues and imaging how good the colour screens on these machines would be, and how advanced the graphics looked.
From here I would head off to John Menzies (another long forgotten chain of stores) and see what computer magazines were out. It was here I found the mythical Sinclair ZX81, on sales amongst the typewriters and led calculators. This was a chance to own my first proper computer, and for less that £80. My 11th birthday came, and so did the little black box with my new ZX81 inside. After unpacking the hefty manual, and plugging in to my black and white TV (tuned to channel 35) I was good to go.
So what next? Well, you were presented with a little blinking cursor, and that’s it. No hard drive, no windows, no mouse, no idea what day it is, who you are, or what it was doing yesterday. Every day was day 1 for a ZX81, and you had to tell it what to do, from scratch, every time.
So I read the manual. And I started programming, got my name printed on the screen, tried some FOR..NEXT loops, played with input and output, and then when I got to line 15 of my programme – “OUT OF MEMORY”. Yes I’d reached the 1k RAM threshold of the standard machine. Yes 1K – that’s 1,000 bytes. I’ve just saved this document in Word and so far it’s 12K. My toaster has more memory. Dad is promptly dispatched to Menzies for a 16K RAM pack and I can complete my program, albeit very gingerly, because whenever you bash the plastic membrane keyboard too hard the RAM pack wobbles and you lose all the code.
Master program completed (a question and answer session that tells a “knock-knock” joke), I want to save my magnum opus. Enter the cassette recorder, a new C90 tape, press play and record and type “SAVE”. A wobbly screen and a few seconds of squawking later, and the programme is saved for eternity – or until you tape over it with the Top 40 on Sunday.
Looking for some hardcore gaming action, I would peruse the back pages of the computer magazines, and send off a cheque or a postal order for the latest game – no online reviews, no screen shots, just the programmers often exaggerated description of the gaming delights on offer. Eventually the tape would arrive and you would spend several hours trying to get the tone of the recorder right in order to load the game correctly. It was pot luck if the game was any good or not, personal highlights for me were John Ritmans Namtir Raiders, and my all time favourite 3D Monster Maze. What these guys could do with a black and white low-res screen was amazing. Much of the rest were variations on letters chasing other letters around the screen in complete silence.
Time passed by, and I moved on to the Spectrum, what with it’s “real” rubber keyboard and flashy full colour graphics, and the ZX81 became redundant. I can’t however forget how it introduced me to the world of computing, and that I knew this was the start of something big.
Retro games reviewed including 80s arcade machines, classic consoles and early home computers
