Head Over Heels

Heading back to my Your Sinclair days

I stumbled upon Head Over Heels by pure chance today. It's been donkey's years since I played this on my old ZX Spectrum and seeing it again is a heartwarming reminder of my 8-bit days. Ocean released this tough isometric adventure in 1989 for the ST but I don't recall ever booting it up. Perhaps an 8-bit game wasn't appealing to me back then?

Head Over Heels is more complex than it first appears - solve puzzles using two characters who have their own skill sets. It's superb to see this game again and anyone who loved the "filmation" genre will surely be in heaven. The graphics are Spec-tacular with superb details and more colour than my old rubber Speccy could ever have dreamt of.

Head Over Heels is a huge and intriguing adventure offering many sleepless nights! Highly recommended.

AtariMania features this in their ST database including an interesting tidbit! Download Head Over Heels from 8BitChip as this supports a trainer and hard drive installation. Also, here is an interesting website for the ZX Spectrum version with maps, videos, and more which prove helpful.

Nebulus

Pogo the frog? Oh boy, this is gonna suck

Nebulus was released in 1988 by one of my favourite gaming companies, Hewson. It features an armed frog with big eyes called Pogo. But he isn't too happy with the thought of eight large sea-based towers and decides they need climbing and blowing up! Essentially, this is a platformer with some interesting pseudo-3D mechanics that provide a pretty unique visual style within an ingenious design. This is class programming as you will soon discover...

All towers are cylindrical with several platforms dotted all around the outside and nifty tunnels which offer a great way to quickly access the opposite side - if the current route appears a dead end. The world certainly revolves around little Pogo because he remains at the centre of the screen with horizontal movements causing the screen to scroll in a "three-dimensional" circular motion. Thus turning the tower around into view, it's quite brilliant.

Sounds rather insane, right? But let's ignore that initial opinion to check out this colourful screenshot...

Talk about going the extra mile and NOT sticking to 16 colours! Absolutely superb.

Frogs love water, right?

Getting through any of the towers will never be easy thanks to a barrage of unusual nasties to either shoot or avoid - and one that flies by to conveniently get in your way. Access to the top will involve careful strategy because your route is broken thus forcing you to use opposite sides of the tower depending on where you are. Always consider the option of using these tunnels to quickly nip through, they might come in handy to avoid those flying obstacles!!

Nebulus may sound easy but, it's actually very challenging and a brisk time limit allows little room for error. Bumping into an enemy will drop you down to the previous ledge, which is fantastic because that doesn't necessarily mean a frustrating loss of life, nor will it impede your momentum as you pick yourself up to try that part of the tower all over again. However, if there isn't a ledge to land on, you might fall even further down thus requiring lots of hefty backtracking.

Falling further still (and into the water) is strangely fatal for this froggy - the only frog ever to have existed who can't handle the deep waters. Yup, that means we lose a life! Also interesting is a bonus game featured between the levels - this has Pogo travelling to his next tower via a nice horizontal scrolling level. It's a shooter with lots of Psygnosis-busting smooth parallax scrolling! It should have been longer because I really enjoyed it a bunch (best viewed on a real ST).

Right then, you guessed it! Yep, it's time for another cool screenshot...

Another day and another tower to climb. Ahh, this one looks too easy, right?

16-Bit Sex Appeal!!

Throughout our adventure, the visuals are utterly tremendous. Nebulus is programmed by legend, John M Phillips, who treats us to a lovely display of great artwork and ultra-smooth framerates. Not only that but he spared no idle cycles, bursting the limits with a ton of extra shades for the backdrops. The end result is a game that puts others to shame. Isn't it incredible what the Atari ST cranks out - when programmed by somebody with talent and commitment?

The audio is equally impressive with gorgeous effects that are zesty and sharp totally suiting the gameplay styles. Also, a beautifully unique chiptune that I could leave running all day... it's captivating. Totally enchanting audio.

This is how all 16-bit games should look and sound. And that was all in 1988 too. Wow!!

Okay, ignore my jerky capture because this part scrolls so smoothly. And is great fun!!

The CryptO'pinion?

Nebulus can feel daunting thanks to its hefty learning curve, which is steeper than you might expect. With lots of practice, I guarantee hours of addictive gaming because Nebulus is a real firecracker. I love how it integrates both arcade action and strategic thinking using a fascinating visual style. In many respects, this game was ahead of its time.

Yes, it's pretty tough initially, but you will soon get the hang of this rather unique and wonderful shoot 'em up. In fact, I would personally rate it as an Atari ST classic—not only because of how it looks and sounds but also because of its addictive gameplay. Enjoy this beautiful piece of JMP magic, which is nothing less than an icon of the 16-bit era.

Floppy disks are available on Atari Legend

D-Bug and 8BitChip have a hard drive version!

Donkey Island

Monkey Island?

All the way back in 1997, Ed Cleveland (aka Eddie Cat) spent many moons working on a comedy adventure called Donkey Island. However, the latter end of the 90s were bitterly cold days with most of us having sold up and moved onto the world of Mac/PC. Sadly, it appears he got little feedback from us all and thus, decided to call it a day. I'm gutted!!

Well, that's my take on what I read. Whatever happened, it's a shame because his talent and dedication were on the way to creating something rather special. Yep, it's disappointing but at least he released this final/beta version work. This was very kind of him and, as is, it's more-than-worth downloading and playing.

Donkey Island is a graphical adventure quite different from what I expected. Think of something vaguely similar in style and content to Lure Of The Temptress or a Sierra On-Line game and you get the idea. But with a comical twist: we are Fred, a geek who loves playing games on his Atari ST. So he's a smashing lad and life is obviously TOS-taSTic!

However, that changed when he found out that Donkey Island, a game he had eagerly wanted, had been cancelled. Fred is crushed and cannot accept the news so he powers off the little green desktop computer and begins exploring his hometown to find out why it was cancelled. (Sigh, a feeling not new to ST gamers in the 90s!)

That's depressing, isn't it? Well, let's check out a screenshot to cheer us all up...

The cartoon design works really well and some drawings are superb!

He looks familiar O_o

Fred is controlled using the cursor keys which is very simple and effective. The keypad is used to interact with your surroundings and characters - who are incredibly entertaining and interesting, to say the least. It's now that I feel even sadder that this game wasn't finished because the style and sense of humour gone into making Donkey Island is quite beautiful. Although incomplete, there is a large town to explore with some cute surprises to discover.

In its current form, this is pretty much a broken adventure game but one we can still fully play. Getting around Fred's town is a cinch and we have all the abilities to investigate this horrifying gaming incident. Roam, explore, and never forget to chat with the locals. They're nothing like you are expecting and their humour is often superb!

Although unfinished, full exploration is possible and many characters are available to knock up a conversation with. Some rooms are complete whilst others are in an unfinished state. Yet, they are still available for us to rummage through, which is brilliant. I'm so happy this "beta" was released yet, at the same time, I am gutted. What a game this almost was!

Yep, we will never know what may have been. Here is one of the unfinished locations...

Sadly, some areas of the game will never be finished but at least they're left in for us to play.

Aesthetics

Each location is depicted using a cartoon style similar to a comic book which Fred walks through in a rather crude but functional fashion. The artwork isn't exactly brilliant but the amateurish quality works wonders and the characters are superb. I love the way we communicate with others and our surroundings which is quite unique in style.

The sound effects are good but what I really love is the technique used for speech - it reminds me of Charlie Brown's teacher. Come on, tell me you can't hear that too? Well, I think it's superb :)

So, visually and sonically superb so here is another screenshot. My daughter says he looks like me...

Exploration is always the key to success and there are lots of (hidden) locations.

The CryptO'pinion?

Donkey Island had incredible potential and would have been a hugely fascinating adventure. It still is of course, albeit unfinished. I've enjoyed playing what is potentially a killer product that offers a different approach to the genre whilst being thoroughly entertaining with a wonderful sense of humour, strange locations and the silliest characters.

Trust me, this is a hidden gem and something truly brilliant. I wholeheartedly recommend you play this!!

THE DOWNLOAD