#01 31 августа 1995

Part 6 - The Dizzy story.

*******************************
*  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!

==========================================
==========================================