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31 августа 1995 |
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*******************************
* PART 6 - THE DIZZY STORY *
*******************************
This article is a homage to all the video
games with a certain Egg called Dizzy in
them. I know of 16 for the Spectrum, but
if you know of *any more* or have 128K
versions of games that I only have 48K
versions of (and of course Z80 snapshots
to my e-mail address would be even
better!) then please drop me a line.
I also know that Dizzy has appeared on
many other platforms. The C64 and Amstrad
CPC had virtually the same ones as the
Speccy (to my knowledge - feel free to
prove me wrong), but I know of different
Dizzy games available on systems such as
the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, the PC, and
even the Nintendo NES.
If you would like to help make this
article complete, then send me a list of
all the Dizzy games on these other
formats, and of course any more
information on the Speccy ones.
David.
PS. In October (95!) I'm off to
University, so I'll no longer be emailable
at the above address. I'll post my new one
to comp.sys.sinclair when I find out what
it is.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The Codemasters Story (taken from the
Dizzy2 tape-inlay)
==================
"David and Richard Darling first started
writing computer games when they were in
their early teens and still at school.
They duplicated the cassettes themselves
and sold them by mail order, taking small
advertisements in magazines.
>From these beginnings David and Richard
became contract programmers. They wrote
and sourced games for major best sellers.
On October of 1986 the Darlings set up
CodeMasters, their own company. From the
beginning they were determined to sell
only the best possible games at the lowest
possible price. One title, BMX SIMULATOR,
went on to become one of the worlds best
selling games. In less than a year,
CodeMasters has a string of Top Ten hits
to it's name. The company was the best
selling software house in Britain. David
and Richard are now 21 and 20 years old,
and are determined to continue what they
do best; producing top selling computer
games."
The Games....
=============
It should be noted that *all* of the games
listed here can be found as Z80 snapshots
for the Z80 emulator, BUT DON'T ASK ME TO
SEND THEM TO YOU!!!! They will soon be (as
I write this) available from one of the
main FTP sites which carry Spectrum
Snapshots. For more information on these,
have a look on comp.sys.sinclair.
Commercially Available Dizzy Games For The
Spectrum
========
All of these (to my knowledge) except for
Crystal Kingdom Dizzy and the compilations
were released as "budget games". This
meant they retailed at either 1.99GBP or
2.99GBP.
The Adventure / Platform / Puzzle Games
---------------------------------------
If someone says Dizzy games then this is
what they mean. Basically Dizzy has a
certain mission to complete, and this
entails picking up objects littered around
the world and using each one for a certain
task to achieve the overall goal. A simple
example from Dizzy (the original) is that
in order to enter the Graveyard you need
to find the Graveyard Key and take it to
the door. Drop the key next to the door
and you gain access to more of the world
map.
DIZZY Z80 47,104 [Dizzy 48K]
DIZZY2 Z80 55,660
[Treasure Island Dizzy 128K]
DIZZYЗ Z80 61,996
[Fantasy World Dizzy 128K]
DIZZYЧ Z80 57,607
[MagicLand Dizzy 128K]
DIZZYS Z80 90,091
[SpellBound Dizzy 128K]
DIZZYб Z80 46,966
[Dizzy Prince Of The Yolk Folk 128K]
DIZZY7 Z80 47,389
[Crystal Kingdom Dizzy 128K]
Dizzy (48K only)
****************
The cassette cover has a picture of Dizzy
falling down a waterfall in some caves,
and of him locked up in a prison. Two
humans are also on the cover, although
they don't appear in the game!
This is the original, and the one which
started the ball rolling. The plot went :
"Dizzy was exploring the haunted forest,
looking for some berries, flowers and a
piece of wood with which to make a club
when he uncovered a mystifying stone slab.
Brushing the dirt aside he was able to
read (after a great deal of head
scratching) the faint inscription
'The Avalwiffovee Potion'
Dizzy remembered his Eggfather had spoke
of such a potion. 'It is the only way to
rid our land of athletes foot, and it can
also be used to destroy the Evil Wizard
Zaks.' Dizzy trembled with fear as he
recalled these words. Zaks brought fear to
the village, he cast spells that turned
people old, made men blind and caused it
to rain every Sunday afternoon during
Cricket. Dizzy was determined to put a
stop to all this, he would be the hero of
the yolkfolk. He read on...
'Fill a potion bottle with cooked
Leprechauns wig, cloud silver lining,
Vampire dux feather and some troll brew -
cook the potion and throw it at Zaks to
dissolve his reign.'
He covered it up and quickly made ready to
liberate the land of KATMANDU."
To those who still don't know about Dizzy,
let me give you a brief idea of the game.
You control the egg, who has boxing gloves
for hands and boots for his feet (both red
in pictures but the entire sprite is white
in the game (apart from when he moves over
a non-black background, when he assumes
that colour...)), and you control the game
using 4 basic keys : left, right, jump,
and pick up / drop object. You can only
hold one object at a time, and this makes
the game so exciting (or annoying,
depending on your view-point), as you may
need one object at one end of the map that
you last used (and left) at the other end.
Objects which could kill you included
birds, vampire bats, spiders, apples,
stalactites, water, ghosts, and of course,
Zaks. Each could be killed with a certain
object, which respectively are Acme Bird
Seed, Clove of Garlic, Insecticide, Miners
Hard Hat, Miners Hard Hat, Plastic Rain
Coat, Ghost Busters Back Pack, and the
Avalwiffovee Potion.
Places included the Crystal Mountains, the
Haunted Forest, the Deserted Mine Shaft,
the Mushroom Kingdom, the Graveyard, and
Zaks' Castle.
The worst was the Haunted Forest, where
you had to jump over a gap that if you
didn't time exactly right then the "floor"
would disappear, meaning you would be
stuck on one side of the gap and unless
you were just about to complete the game
then that was it - you'd have to start all
over again. Annoying, but it did give the
game an edge that the sequels did not
have.
Also good in this game that was not true
of the sequels was that you could only
carry one item at a time, and also some
items could be used more than once.
Also mentioned through-out the game are
extracts from a poem, some of which are on
the lines of "there's a green-eyed yellow
idol to the North of Katmandu", "and a
broken hearted lady tends the grave of
made Carew", "and the yellow God forever
gazes down". These were hints of what to
do it the game, but I think they come from
a real poem (from which the game is based
loosely around), and I WOULD LIKE A COPY
OF IT IF ANYONE HAS IT OR KNOWS THE POET,
ETC!
Dizzy 2:Treasure Island Dizzy (48K & 128K)
******************************************
Cover shows Dizzy (complete with pirate
bandanna) being forced to walk the plank
into shark-infested waters by a pirate.
The 128K version was a pig to load : I
found on the +2, +2A and the +3 that the
only way to load it was go into 128K
Basic, type "spectrum" to put it into
pseudo-48K mode, then type J"" to load it.
Interestingly, the Z80 emulator will load
the 128K version straight from the Tape
Loader or from 128K Basic, but not the
"spectrum" way!
The first of many sequels. This was the
first game that allowed you to talk to
people to gain advice / objects, and also
the first in which you had to collect 30
items - in this case gold coins.
The plot goes :
"Dizzy was looking forward to the
round-the-world cruise he'd booked up for.
When he told the other Yolkfolk about the
good deal he found, they wondered just
what lay ahead of him...
Dizzy enjoyed the cruise at first although
there were far too many pirates on the
ship, the Grog was watered down, and he
didn't even know what a mainbrace was, let
alone how to splice it!
The captain, Long John Silver, was a
lovely old bloke with a kindly manner,
good at insulting and degrading the fare
paying punters. He was well balanced - he
had parrot on one shoulder and a chip on
the other - and he had a wooden leg which
he acquired when he fell out of his pram
when he was a kid.
Anyhow, their quaint little man o' war
found itself in still waters one
sun-soaked afternoon, and Dizzy thought he
would organise a game of cricket on the
aft deck. In a fit of blinding stupidity
he used LJ's spare leg collection as
makeshift stumps, and when they were lost
overboard he was made to walk the plank!
That was how he came to find himself
gently poaching on the silent, sun-kissed
beach of a seemingly deserted island... He
had to somehow find a way back to the
Yolkfolk and lodge his compensation claim
with the travel agent..."
In this game you could hold up to 3 items,
and every time you pressed enter the top
item on this list would be dropped, any
other items carried would move up the
list, and any item picked up would appear
at the bottom of the list.
Where as the first Dizzy had the Haunted
Forest as the major pitfall, Dizzy2 had
the fact that you only had one life.
That's right folks, screw up anywhere and
it's game over.
The novel feature of this game was that
once you got the snorkel you could go
underwater (for an unlimited amount of
time). However when you picked up anything
underwater the snorkel moved up the item
list and if you dropped it, Dizzy would
drown and it would be game over. This
often meant picking up a couple of items,
heading back for land to re-arrange the
list, then returning once more. Picking up
coins *also* moved the list, so again care
had to be taken.
The 128K version had distorted speech and
in-game music, and this game was a good
sequel even if it was slightly different
than the first one. This game was also the
first game to have "red herring" objects.
Dizzy 3 : Fantasy World Dizzy (48K & 128K)
******************************************
The cover shows Dizzy with telescope in
hand and, er, safari hat (I suppose) on
his head. Two dragons, a rhino, a castle
and another creature are also visible.
The plot :
"DIZZY & DAISY strolled through the
enchanted forest without a care in the
world... BUT SUDDENLY the Evil King's
trolls seized poor Daisy! She was send to
Wizard Weird's Tallest Tower, while Dizzy
was dragged away and thrown into the
deepest, darkest, dankest of the Kings
Dungeons in the bowels of Fantasy World.
DIZZY was frightened! Who knew what fate
awaited him... and he still hadn't done
this week's homework! But then he
remembered that he had a fresh green apple
that he had planned to give his teacher to
escape detention, and he cheered up. And
there was some bread and water on the
table! A cunning plan began to brew in his
mind...
But DIZZY can't do everything on his
own... you must help him!"
This was the first time we got to meet
some of the Yolkfolk other than Dizzy. The
ones featured here were Denzil, Dylan,
Dozy, Grand Dizzy, and of course Dizzy &
Daisy.
The Inventory once again changed. Still 3
items but this time you could chose which
to drop.
Again you had to collect 30 coins, and
things to note from this game were the
Illusion Room where only certain blocks
were solid and could be jumped on, and the
picture in the main hall which if you
stood in front of and pressed enter would
be enlarged to reveal the loading screen
of the previous game (Dizzy2). Also this
was the first game in which you took to
the clouds.
Dizzy 4 : Magicland Dizzy (48K and 128K)
****************************************
The cover shows Dizzy in safari hat again,
with a lamp in one hand and using the
other to remove the Excalibur sword from a
rock. An old man sitting in a tree playing
a pipe can be seen along with a troll (?)
running towards Dizzy.
The plot :
"The Evil Wizard ZAKS' is back! Like all
Evil Wizards he made certain arrangements
against his premature demise... He had
exacted a terrible revenge by transporting
the YOLKFOLK to a strange Fairy-Tale World
and casting evil spells on them to
imprison them there forever. Dizzy must
free the SIX Yolkfolk by breaking the
spells and then destroy ZAKS once and for
all before he can return home."
The game also lists the six Yolkfolk in
question :
"DYLAN: Dylan had been tangled up in a
bush, rooted to the spot!
DENZIL: Denzil has been frozen inside a
block of ice - ZAKS latest ornament for
his ICE PALACE!
DOZY: Dozy is lying on an Alter in Sleepy
Hollow - in a deep magical sleep from
which he may never awake...
DORA: Dora is in the Haunted Swamp -
turned into a Frog!
DAISY: Daisy has been Super-Enlarged and
imprisoned in ZAKS' Oubliette which she is
now too big to escape from!
GRAND-DIZZY: Grand-Dizzy is trapped in a
strange world on the other side of ZAKS'
Magic Mirror."
The most noticeable change in DizzyЧ is
that of an energy bar for Dizzy. Now when
he walks into a bird he is not killed but
his energy bar decreases. Energy can be
increased again by collecting a diamond
(of which there are 30...).
Again the tree-houses make an appearance
(last seen in Dizzy2), and probably the
most memorable thing is the mirror world
where the entire screen is swapped round -
and the controls too!
Dizzy 5 : Spellbound Dizzy (48K and 128K)
******************************************
Unfortunately, I left the Dizzy (and
Spectrum) scene before this one came out -
which is a shame as has been called the
Best Dizzy Ever by some people.
The cover depicts Dizzy opening a spell
book and magic stars coming out of it. The
leprechaun is sitting in front of him, and
Daisy is also shown on the front.
The BIGGEST and BEST Dizzy game yet! Over
100 AMAZING screens of cartoon FUN! Go
SCUBA DIVING! Take a WILD RIDE
underground! Save the YOLK FOLK!
Troubles afoot for Dizzy in his BIGGEST
and BEST adventure yet! Meet Dizzy's
magical chum THEO, the wizard with a
plethora of POWERFUL POTIONS! Dozy, Dylan,
Dora, Daisy and Grand Dizzy - the YOLK
FOLK - are all here too and they're in HOT
WATER this time! help Dizzy SAVE THEIR
SHELLS before they end up HARD BOILED!
Dizzy's been visiting his local friendly
Wizard Theo. Now Theo, who may be a dab
hand in the waving of wands area, is not
much cop at the filing-things away-neatly
department and he's left his book of
really powerful Spells lying round in his
laboratory. Whats more, the books been
left open at the page headed A Really,
Really Powerful Spell (That shouldn't be
read out loud). Whether Dizzy actually
read the heading is not known but -
yikes - he said the spell and it's caused
a catastrophe: Dizzy spirited all his Yolk
Folk chums and Wizard Theo into the
underworld! Cripes! There's only one
course of action open to the brave little
hero: read the spell again and spirit
himself into the underworld to save his
rotund group of pals!
DOING THE BIZ WITH DIZ
* Dizzy has to collect five rotating stars
and a special object to release each of
the Yolk Folk from the underworld.
* Check out all the objects and discover
if they can help Dizzy - some may enable
Dizzy to swim underwater while others help
him have a speedy journey through a mine
shaft (and some are really tasty!)
* Don't miss out on the mushrooms - they
can send Dizzy flying high!
* Don't leave any of the yolk folk or
Wizard Theo behind!
* More that 100 - 100! - different
locations await!
* Try dropping the rocks on the clouds.
However I'll give you a brief description
of the game. Again the energy bar is here,
although it's not only bad guys that can
drain it. Should Dizzy fall too far, he'll
sit down with stars circling his head, and
then shake his head to try and "get rid of
the cob-webs". Of course he also loses
energy for the fall. Energy can be
replenished by collecting food. Press
enter when in front of some and Dizzy will
actually stuff it in his mouth and chew
it! Dizzy is collecting magic stars in
this game.
Dizzy 6 : Dizzy Prince of the Yolk Folk
(48K and 128k)
***************************************
Again I have no first-hand knowledge of
the game, which I believe was only
available in a compilation pack.
The cover shows Dizzy on one knee, being
knighted. Behind him sits King Arthur
surrounded by guards and two lions either
side of the throne.
The Plot:
Battle Rockwart the Troll, meet Pogie the
Fluffle, avoid Shamus the Leprechaun,
summon King Arthur from his crusades and
wake Daisy from her hundred year snooze!
Grand Dizzy was feeling very down one day,
so Dizzy and Daisy decided to cheer him up
by baking him his favourite food, cherry
pie! So off went Daisy to get some
cherries from her cupboard but there was
none to be seen!
"Pogie's pinched the cherries!" she cried,
as she saw Pogie's pawprint in the
cupboard, "That darned Fluffle. Come here
you!" and Pogie promptly darted off into
the enchanted forest to escape Daisy's
rage.
Dizzy and Daisy decided to go into the
forest to catch Pogie and gather some more
cherries at the same time. Whilst
searching for Pogie they got lost and
found a castle, where they thought they
would find help, but it seemed deserted.
They looked in the castle for Pogie, but
Daisy caught herself on a mystic spinning
wheel. She started feeling really sleepy,
so she found a bed and went to sleep.
"Wake up Daisy, wake up" shouted Dizzy.
But before he could wake her up, Rockwart
the Troll caught him and locked him up
under ground!
HINTS AND TIPS
* Remember to collect the cherries!
* Keep away from Rockwart the Troll: he
eats eggs for breakfast.
* Beware of the evil Dizzy doppelganger.
The second Dizzy compilation was called
Dizzy's Excellent Adventures and included
Kwik Snax, Spellbound Dizzy, Dizzy Prince
of the Yolk Folk, Panic Dizzy and Dizzy
down the Rapids.
POTYF was made available on budget about 6
months after the release of this
compilation.
Again the energy bar as seen in the
previous two games, although this game
bears more resemblance to Dizzy 3 than 4
or 5, complete with an almost identical
first puzzle. Cherries are what are being
collected this time.
Because of this more dated look without
the Dizzy 5 polish, most people consider
this to be the starting point of Dizzy's
decline.
Dizzy 7 : Crystal Kingdom Dizzy
(48K (?) and 128K)
*******************************
Yet again, I never owned this so I'm
reporting my experience of the snapshot
and from what I've heard from various
sources.
Basically Codemasters shocked everyone by
releasing this as a full price game
(9.99GBP), and by changing the structure
of it.
>From what I've heard, the game is split
into levels, with you having to complete
all the tasks in one to move onto the
next.
Again this is pre-DizzyS style, however
they changed the animation for Dizzy's
jump and (in my opinion) have ruined it.
Also the energy bar from which we've
become familiar with has been replaced by
(up to) five hearts. Make contact with one
of the unkillable roaming worms or a
spider, torch, etc, and you lose a heart.
A few hearts are scattered around the land
which will replenish them. Cherries are
also there to be collected.
The twist in this one is that you can
actually go *in* the houses, etc. This is
vital to do since most contain a Yolkfolk
character who will ask you to do something
for them.
Again, what with this being a different
style from what people were used to and
also being full price, many people thought
ill of this one.
The Spin-Offs
-------------
These were nothing like the above
adventure games. The only like that they
had with Dizzy was that they had him in
the game in some sort of fashion.
BUBDIZZY Z80 44,697 [Bubble Dizzy 128K]
DIZRAPID Z80 43,286
[Dizzy Down The Rapids! 128K]
FASTFOOD Z80 47,890 [Fast Food 128K]
KWIKSNAX Z80 81,267 [Kwik Snax 128K]
PANIC_D Z80 46,647 [Panic Dizzy 128K]
Bubble Dizzy (48K and 128K)
***************************
Never owned this. The aim of it appears to
be to get to the top of the screen by
jumping on successive bubbles which burst
after a short time. Smaller bubbles rise
quicker but burst sooner, where as larger
bubbles last longer but rise more slowly.
Dizzy Down The Rapids! (48K and 128K)
*************************************
The tape cover shows Dizzy sitting on a
barrel, about to go over a waterfall
Behind him is a crocodile, two trolls, two
hippos and a dragon.
Dizzy and Daisy were out in the enchanted
forest picking blue berries for a pie they
were making for a dinner party.
"These berries aren't very big!" muttered
Dizzy, plucking the miniscule fruit from a
bush.
"I can see some bigger ones over there"
said Daisy Dizzy trotted over to the bush.
"These are still too small", he said
forlornly "We're never going to get
enough!"
"How about these?" pointed out Daisy
wandering yet further into the wood.
Before they knew it, the two eggs had
wandered far into the forest. By the time
they reached the banks of the Great
Torrent River, the two had become
hopelessly lost.
Suddenly Daisy heard a twig snap, Dizzy
span around to be confronted by Rockwart
the Troll and a gang of ferocious looking
henchtrolls. "I have you now little egg!"
breathed Rockwart in his most sinister
voice. Quick as a flash Dizzy grabbed
Daisy's hand and the pair ran desperately
toward the river.
"Hee Hee Hee!" laughed Rockwart manically
as the trolls moved in ever closer. But
Dizzy had a plan..."Jump in there Daisy"
he cried as he somersaulted towards an
abandoned apple barrel.
"We've escaped" he shouted back to the
trolls in glee. Daisy screamed because
Daisy could only see what was in front of
them.......
Again, never had this. Dizzy is going down
the rapids in a barrel (much like the
Toobin' arcade / computer game), and you
have to steer him down. Enemy sprites move
across the water in your path, fly at you,
or throw missiles at you, and you can
shoot back using a limited supply of
apples as your ammunition.
This game can either be played alone or
simultaneously with another player who
guides an identical Dizzy down at the same
time.
Fast Food (48K and 128K)
************************
Now this one I owned so I can give you the
plot:
"Dizzy's back! In Fast Food, Dizzy must
run around mazes scoffing loadsa food -
chickens, burgers, pizzas, milkshakes -
but there's a complication... look out for
these monsters...
BONZO He's slow and stupid, but he could
catch you if you don't keep an eye on him.
Bonzo is GREEN
WIZZA He's fast, but not too clever - run
if he follows you, and he'll probably take
the wrong turn at one of the junctions.
Wizza is YELLOW
PIPPA She's cute and deadly - she's dead
clever, but if you're quick you can outrun
her. Pippa is PINK
FIDO He's dead sneaky - he'll try and head
you off at junctions, so you should watch
him carefully! Fido is BLUE
As well as KETCHUP, MUSTARD, RELISH, MAGIC
BOOTS and more!".
The cover shows Dizzy being chased by a
cook who is trying to catch him to cook
him, along with other items of food all of
which have faces, arms and legs.
This game is basically like Pac Man,
except that there are fewer items to eat
and they move. Also power ups (and power
downs) are available.
Kwik Snax (48K and 128K)
************************
The cover shows Dizzy with safari hat on,
and a rope and lamp in each hand. ZAKS can
be seen in the background, a dragon is
chasing Dizzy, and items of food are
hovering in the air.
The plot:
"Dizzy and the Yolk Folk have outraged the
Evil Wizard Zaks and he's cast a sinister
spell which has sent them to the land of
personality. Dizzy can choose who to
rescue, but to be a true hero, he'll have
to save all his friends.
DENZIL thought he was cool and ended up in
the Land of Ice. Left to chill!
DYLAN spent most of his time with his head
in the clouds, and that's where he found
himself stranded high and dry!
GRAND DIZZY was old and a touch senile,
his fate was to be cast into Cuckoo Land
trapped by clocks and giant teddy bears.
DAISY was Zaks' greatest prize and he kept
her close to him in his Castle Dungeon
protected by his best henchmen."
There are four worlds, each one
progressively harder, with 5 levels in
each world.
You must move around stationary blocks
while pushing moveable ones to kill the
henchmen (which come back elsewhere on the
screen Pac Man style) and to gain access
to the pieces of fruit which you must
collect to complete the level.
After each level there is a
time-restricted bonus level, where again
you must collect the fruit. There are no
henchmen but you are on ice, which means
that Dizzy will keep going in the same
direction until he hits a block where you
can push him in one of the four
directions. Run out of time or get stuck
in a loop where you can't hit a block and
the bonus ends.
What has to be seen and heard to be
believed are the graphics and music on the
title and intro. screens. The intro. is
impressive, with funky speech announcing
the game and then the Dizzy Mob playing
music on their instruments. Each one moves
in sync with the music and it just looks
and sounds great... but only in 128K mode!
Panic Dizzy (48K and 128K)
**************************
The cover shows Dizzy running around a toy
factory with bits falling on his head.
Pogie is behind him, but does not feature
in the game (Dizzy hardly features in it
himself!)
DIZZY in his FANTASTIC TOY FACTORY! Fit
MAGIC SHAPES into GRAND DIZZYS INVENTION
to make NEW and EXCITING TOYS! Panic
Stations, Conveyor Belts, Vacuum Tubes,
and more! AMAZINGLY ADDICTIVE! Keep a cool
head....DON'T PANIC DIZZY!
One Day, GRAND DIZZY was putting the
finishing touches to his brand new
toy-making invention.
"Just got to tighten this last nut and
we're ready...ooooOOOH...eekk!" shouted
GRAND DIZZY as the spanner slipped and he
fell to the floor.
"UURGH!" moaned GRAND DIZZY, "I've got a
CRACKING EGGACHE, now I'll never finish
testing my new TOY MAKING MACHINE.
Whatever shall I do?!"
"Don't worry" replied Dizzy, "We'll help
you!"
So DIZZY, DAISY, DENZIL, DYLAN, DOZY and
DORA helped GRAND DIZZY to the machine and
manned their STATIONS.
Whilst DIZZY grabbed the CONVEYOR BELT
CONTROLLER, the others went upstairs and
threw the MAGIC SHAPES down the chutes.
"Click, Crunch...Cough, Splutter", the
machine kicked into ACTION!
"ooooOOOH, SLOW down...! Hang on..! Too
fast...!" cried Dizzy, but the others
couldn't HEAR HIM. The TOY MAKING
INVENTION just kept getting FASTER...
THE GAME
Like all of Grand Dizzy's inventions, the
magic toy making machine doesn't quite
work as well as it should. All of it's
cogs and wheel constantly need fuelling
with the special magic shapes. The Chutes
from which the shapes emerge continually
descend, when they reach the shape guard
at the bottom of the screen the toy
machine will seize up. The only way to
keep the chutes from reaching the bottom
is to fit lots of shapes through the guard
and into the machine.
THE AIM OF THE GAME
Line up the SHAPE GUARD with as many MAGIC
SHAPES as possible. Press FIRE to release
all MATCHING SHAPES. with 4 OR MORE
matching shapes at once, a TOY is created.
If the WRONG SHAPE reaches the bottom the
CHUTES will descend. The chutes will
slowly descend and the only way to get
them back up is to drop several shaps
together. The more shapes you get the
higher they'll go. If the CHUTES reach the
bottom the machine will STOP! Keep the
machine going as long as possible to make
lots of toys. Good luck and the best tip
of all....DON'T PANIC DIZZY!
This is the most dubious of all the
spin-offs. Four pipes disperse blocks from
the top of the screen and the pipes move
downwards as well. The blocks are
different shapes and you must align the
holes at the bottom of the screen to allow
the blocks to fall through. The only thing
that Dizzy does is stand at the top and
when you move the holes Dizzy pulls a
level to show this. Basically there was no
need for Dizzy to be in this game, and I
believe Codemasters just put him there to
try and sell it off as a Dizzy game.
The Compilations
----------------
I know of one for sure, called "Dizzy
Collection", which contained Dizzy, Fast
Food, Fantasy World Dizzy, Treasure Island
Dizzy and Magicland Dizzy. On the front
was an enlarged picture of the Magicland
Dizzy tape cover, plus smaller pictures of
the original tape covers of all the 5
games in the pack at the bottom. The pack
was priced at 9.99GBP.
The second compilation was called "Dizzy's
Excellent Adventures" and featured Panic
Dizzy, Dizzy down the rapids, Dizzy Prince
of the Yolk Folk, Kwik Snax and Spellbound
Dizzy. Prince was re-released on budget a
short while after. On the front was an
enlarged picture of the Dizzy down the
rapids tape cover, plus, as before,
smaller covers of all five.
The Cover-tape Freebies
=======================
These were given away "free" on Spectrum
computer mags. Some are cut- down
versions, some are identical, whilst
others (ie Dizzy 3.5) are complete games
in their own right.
DIZZY_YS Z80 47,095
[Identical to the original 48K]
D1-CRASH Z80 47,050 [A Crash
Special Edition of the original 48K]
D2-CRASH Z80 45,161
[A Crash Special Edition of Dizzy 2 48K]
DIZZYЗ-5 Z80 30,391
[Dizzy 3.5 (Crash Xmas Special) 48K]
Dizzy (YS cover tape) (48K only)
********************************
Don't get excited, this is identical to
the original except... it has an 0898
number at the bottom of the screen!
Dizzy : Crash Special Edition (48K only)
****************************************
This is a cut down version of the
original. Items have been moved and some
don't actually do anything but display a
screenfull of text advertising either
Crash or a Codemasters game. Other items
are missing meaning you are restricted to
a smaller area of the game map. All the
potion ingredients can be collected and
the game ends when you have put them all
in the potion bottle.
Treasure Island Dizzy : Crash Special
Edition (48K and 128K ???)
*************************************
Again, like the above game, this is a cut
down version. What does look horrid
however is the big 'Crash' Logos that
limit you to a small area of the map.
Also, whereas in the 'proper' copy of this
game where if you picked up a coin your
item list scrolled, in this it doesn't.
This however takes the fun/skill/annoyance
out of being careful how many coins/items
you collect underwater.
Dizzy 3.5 : Crash Xmas Special
(48K and 128K ???)
******************************
This was presumably given away on the
December Issue of Crash, and is a small
game.
The energy bar that's seen on Dizzys 4 to
6 is here again, there are only 5 screens
(well I can only get to 5 screens!), and
there are no coins, etc to collect.
I have a 48K snapshot but there *may* be a
128K one...
Other Special Editions
(and other Dizzy games)
***********************
There may have been other special edition
Dizzy games available, or there may be
128K snapshots of the ones I currently
have. IF YOU KNOW OR HAVE ANY OF THESE
THEM PLEASE TELL ME ABOUT THEM OR EMAIL
THEM TO ME! (NB : see note at beginning
about my email address!). Also if you know
of any Spectrum Dizzy games I haven't
got / covered, or indeed have a list of
games available on other systems then
please let me know also!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Thanks to David Crick for writing this
update to the story originally posted to
the newsgroup. For completeness, I have
added a few more pieces to the article (I
hope David doesn't mind!) These were - the
instructions for Spellbound, POTYF, Rapids
and Panic.
MAGAZINE RUN-DOWN
To rate each classic Spectrum Character,
we will look at the average of all the
scores their games received in the popular
Spectrum Magazines.:
Name Date YS CR
==========================================
DIZZY OCT 87 7 78
TREASURE ISLAND DIZZY MAR 89 8 87
FANTASY WORLD DIZZY JAN 90 88 94
MAGICLAND DIZZY DEC 90 90 93
SPELLBOUND DIZZY JAN 92 90 --
PRINCE YOLK FOLK JAN 93 71 --
CRYSTAL KINGDOM DIZZY DEC 92 70 --
FAST FOOD APR 89 63 68
KWIK SNAX DEC 90 92 92
PANIC DIZZY MAR 91 49 80
BUBBLE DIZZY FEB 92 80 --
DIZZY DOWN RAPIDS JUL 92 65 --
AVERAGE SCORES OCT 87-JAN 93 76 85
TOTAL SCORE 81%
Recently, David also made his collection
of Dizzy snapshots available to all by
having them uploaded to NVG UNIT ftp
site - see NEWS for more details.
In the PLAYING TIPS section of the mag,
you will also find our complete guide to
the Dizzy games!
==========================================
==========================================
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В этот день... 21 November