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MY 10 FAVOURITE BBC MICRO GAMES

4/6/2018

30 Comments

 
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When I was a lad there were basically three home computers that anybody had (barring those weirdoes whose parents had bought them an Oric or Dragon 32); the ZX Spectrum, the Commodore 64, and the BBC Micro. Generalising hugely, ownership of these three machines were - respectively - working class children, middle class children, and rich-o-posh kids who lived in mansions, and were called things like Peregrine and Farnsworthingtonsil and Trebuchet Bournville III.

Not to "bee" confused with a "model bee", the BBC Microcomputer Model B was designed by Acorn Computers for the BBC Computer Literacy Project (a way to introduce people to myriad joys of computer use).

Both the 16k Model A and 32k Model B were released in late-1981, and the system was sold with an emphasis on being boring (education) - which is why it was, for much of the 1980s, the computer of choice for schools. 

Nevertheless, like all gadgets, it soon became known for its games, and - due to the power it concealed beneath its nicotine-yellow carapace - it did games real good. 

Despite being a Spectrum owner, I was lucky enough to have access to the BBC through my mother. She worked in a school for naughty children, as a classroom assistant, and would regularly bring the school's BBC home for the weekend. Presumably, to stop them sneaking back into the school and stealing it (a gang of them once locked the headmaster in a classroom, stood in a circle around him, and passed an air pistol to one another).

The BBC was a proper powerhouse of a machine. Aside from the fact it was bigger and more expensive, the one I played on came with a proper monitor. Consequently, the graphics were sharper and more arcade-like than the C64 and Speccy could ever dream of. 

Now get this: here are my 10 favourite BBC Micro games. And no... Granny's Garden isn't one of them.
FRAK!
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With the benefit of hindsight, Nick Pelling's Frak! is painfully slow-paced, but this foul-mouthed platformer, with its big, colourful characters, felt like an interactive cartoon.

You played caveman Trogg who leapt around levels, dislodging big, hairy things by unfurling a yo-yo at them. Whenever he died, Trogg would exclaim "Frak!" via a speech bubble.  

Friends of mine swore there was an unofficial "adult" hack of the game, in which the yo-yo was replaced with Trogg's penis, which he would launch at scantily-clad women and babies. For a long time I dismissed this as the fevered fantasy of schoolboys, but no - further research suggest that this depressing abomination really did exist. Hilarious.
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CHUCKIE EGG
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Chuckie Egg was released on a whole bunch of formats, but the BBC version was far and away the best. For a game written by a 16 year-old - one Nigel Alderton (though the BBC version was put together by a different boy: Mike Fitzgerald) - it was remarkably accomplished. 

Though clearly inspired by Donkey Kong - what with the big-ass duck in the top-left of the screen - it had a quirky charm all of its own.

However, what made the BBC version definitive was that it boasted semi-realistic physics. The Spectrum version had its fans, but those fans were clueless buffoons who'd never had the privilege of playing it on the Beeb.
CASTLE QUEST
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Did Nintendo steal the idea for Metroid from Castle Quest? There are certainly similarlities between the 1986 Metroid and the 1985 Castle Quest, the latter being a garish, smoothly-scrolling action-adventure set in a wizard's castle.

Though it was perhaps more complex than it needed to be - there were 13 different control keys - it was nevertheless remarkably atmospheric, with the castle feeling like a real place despite its neon walls. There was even a £500 cash prize offered to the top four highest scorers.

Back in 1985 you could've bought a 24-carat gold house for that money, and paid Roland Rat to live in it with you.
CITADEL
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Citadel... Citadel... CIT-A-DEL... The main thing everyone remembers about Citadel was the digitised speech on the title screen - and when I say "everyone" I obviously mean "me".

Regardless, it was also a brilliant, gorgeous game in its own right. Another of several epic BBC action-adventure games (see also Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror), it was also quite progressive for the time - allowing the player to choose whether to play as a boy or a girl. 
HUNCHBACK
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When you think about Hunchback - obviously inspired by Victor Hugo's classic novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame - it's a tad problematic.

Indeed, with hindsight the inspirational novel would get all sort of stick today, for its racist depiction of gypsies, and troublesome portrayal of Quasimodo as a "grotesque" with a heart of gold. Apparently, the original arcade game had been meant to star Robin Hood until somebody mentioned that the character resembled a "hunchback". 

There were many home ports of Hunchback released by Ocean Software, but the BBC version was released first - although, it was originally an unofficial port by Superior Software. Like many BBC arcade games it was trouser-looseningly authentic to the original. 
SNAPPER
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Look at this: a near-perfect home version of Pac-Man. Indeed, this BBC game was arguably the best home version of Pac-Man of the 80s, and possibly even improved on the original by giving each of the ghosts their own personality. 

Snapper wasn't the only spot-on arcade conversion on the BBC Micro. As you shall see below. 
JCB DIGGER
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This was awesome; you had to drive around in a - yes - JCB Digger, digging holes, putting little monsters in them, and then filling them in. The scrolling was as jerky as anything, and it never won any awards for prettiness, but what it lacked in technical proficiency it more than made up with originality and the rare thrill of its official license. 
ELITE
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I wouldn't have survived this list if I hadn't included Braben and Bell's Elite on it, even though I had something of a love-hate relationship with the game. I mean - y'know - of course I thought it was a stunning technical achievement. Of course I know that it was ground-breaking.

​At the same time, I never really had a clue what I was doing, and never had the patience to trade and upgrade my ship into the fast fighter craft I'd wanted it to be from the outset. 

That didn't stop me trying, mind. I just wasn't very good at it. The Star Wars arcade game it was not.
PLANETOID
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Along with Snapper and the official BBC version of Tempest, this was probably the best arcade conversion on the BBC. Except: Planetoid wasn't an official version of Defender. For me, this is the definitive version of the game - which I played far more than the arcade game upon which it is "based". 
REPTON
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Yet another classic BBC game created by a talented 16 year-old, Repton was coded by Tim Tyler - who I have decided inexplicably was a cheeky boy with a heart of gold.

Repton spawned a couple of sequels, making it the most successful franchise on the system. There are similarities to the game Boulder Dash - reportedly, Tyler created it after reading a review of BD, though had never actually played Boulder Dash, but was more of a puzzle-like experience.

​In short, the main character had to navigate underground mazes, digging for diamonds, and avoiding falling rocks.

The BBC: a great games system, which deserves to be remembered as much than just a computer for privileged spods.
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30 Comments
Paul
4/6/2018 01:16:50 pm

I had a BBC Micro. I had to work for mine by loading button onto shelves at a local supermarket after school. I was so glad when I had the cash because that meant I didn't have to work in the shop any more.

The great thing about Frak is is you tried to pirate the game, the copy would play a version of the Captain Pugwash theme at you instead of the game loading! How fun was that? There were other hack versions that let you change the number of lives, what level you started on, etc..

Planetoids, Snapper and others were all unofficial copies of arcade games. The Electron version of Snapper looked a little less Pac-Man like - to keep lawyers happy, I guess.

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Corrus
4/6/2018 01:40:22 pm

Planetoids! That brings back memories.

My school was to backwards to have BBC micros - we had a Link 480Z - but my sixth form college had a room full of networked BBC-Bs. There was nothing multi-player available on it, but the network drive had Planetoids on it, which we could all play simultaneously at break times. I'm rubbish at shooters, and Planetoids was rock hard, but I got pretty good at it with all the hours I put into it over those 2 years. Good times.

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Stu Thomas
4/6/2018 01:47:20 pm

Dare Devil Dennis and Granny's Garden, how could you miss those out, tut. What a lovely article on some of the best games, aw FRAK. I have a FRAK coffee cup, just because.

Nostalgia of sunny days stuck in a class room playing these great games, and not getting bullied by the big girls. :-)

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MENTALIST
4/6/2018 02:29:05 pm

Ah, THERE's Snapper!

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Frumious
4/6/2018 02:30:29 pm

The best version of Chuckie Egg was CLEARLY for the Tatung Einstein, where I first encountered it. We all had Tatung Einsteins, didn't we? Eh? I've just read on Wikipedia that it was sort of like an MSX, and had a Spectrum emulation module you could get, truly a marvel.

Some more best BBC games are: Imogen, Starship Command, and Labyrinth.

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Lord Arse!
4/6/2018 03:19:28 pm

Ah, I remember little Timmy Tyler. Kept getting stuck down wells, the scamp. Good programmer, though.

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Burt Macklin
4/6/2018 03:45:47 pm

I just wanted to post my anger at the lack of Granny's Garden! I demand a full article on this gem post haste!

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Lummox60N
4/6/2018 04:51:17 pm

Ah, the Model B. Our Primary School was pretty well equipped, it had a "Computer Room" which was actually the library, and had FIVE Model Bs in it. FIVE!
I never really understood why playing Planetoids for a half hour every week was considered "educational", but I didn't ever complain. Mind you, our teachers thought we were miracle workers when we got games to load "All By Ourselves".
Mind you, in the later stages of Primary there was an attempt to make us learn "directions" by having us play "Spanish Main" - one group would be The Pirates and the others would be the, um, Sail Cops or whatever, and we'd take it in turns at the computer trying to outwit our opponents. Being children, and inherently untrustworthy, we actually had to leave the room while our opponents took their turns. It was quite a good game.

I thought I'd escaped Model Bs but when I got all growed up and set off to learn to be a teacher 7 years later. But it turned out that the standard classroom computer, in the North of Scotland at least, was still the bloody BBC. And teachers were STILL using the same software.

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Adam
4/6/2018 05:42:39 pm

A kid from my school appeared in a TV ad for the Acorn Electron.

Anyway, never mind all this. How about a review of your wedding day, written in the style of a Digi review, with scores and everything? Tell us how it went, Sir!

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Col. Asdasd
4/6/2018 07:36:26 pm

Privileged spod checking in. We borrowed one of these from a colleague of my dad's, along with a huge box of tapes that I surely couldn't have appreciated the worth of at the time. Certainly I didn't treat them with any due care, with my smeary chocolate-stained fingers and ribena-addled mind.

The system had loads of arcade clones. Along with those listed here I remember the decent Invaders, the serviceable Killer Gorilla, and Zalaga which had enormous sprites but was a blast to play.

As far as original games go, I remember most of them being punitively difficult, janky or outright broken, but when you're five years old that hardly matters. The medium was also young, and it showed, with games about anything and everything and mechanics that would completely defy any of today's tidy genres and delineations.

Anyway, games I like wot weren't on this list: Felix and the Evil Weevils, Twin Kingdom Valley, Magic Mushrooms.

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TheBuff1
4/6/2018 07:56:08 pm

But what about us Amstrad owners?!! Where did we fit in socio-economically?!!

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D
15/10/2021 10:41:23 pm

Amstrad came a bit later, amstrad CPC 464 owners were late comers to the party (also a bit posh , a monitor rather than a 14" portable TV??). It's like asking a Raleigh Grifter owner what about the Raleigh Burner? ;)
PS you needed to put the hours in for Elite!

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Gaming Mill link
4/6/2018 07:57:31 pm

I remember playing ALL of those games as a child. Me? I owned a humble Amstrad CPC 464 but my rich best friend (who lived in a mansion, funnily enough) had a BBC Model B and I'd regularly cycle four miles to spend time at his house on the weekends. Oddly, his elder brother usually took command of the computer - it was 'moved' into his bedroom - and he insisted on using some weird monitor that displayed only black and orange. Why he switched from the colour one I'll never know. He was quite generous though - he'd gladly let us play games, even though he was determined to get the rank of Elite in Elite most of the time.

As for Chuckie Egg? It is one of my favourite games of all times - a fast moving platformer that I never experienced again until Sonic The Hedgehog came out. When I went to that retro convention last year (and the first time I met Mr Biffo in person after being acquaintances for many years) it was the first game I saw as I made my way into that stinking room...and on a BBC B!

My Smoking Brother and very young nephew sat stood there in awe for about 30 seconds before wandering off as I played it for at least 15 minutes until some bloke came up and asked me to move because he wanted to load a different game.

I don't know why the room had such a funk. I thought it might have been because of the bar so I went to investigate. I soon realised it was more to with a lot of people not knowing much about personal hygiene.

My Smoking Brother and nephew went home and left me there. It cost me a fortune in taxi fares.

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Robobob
4/6/2018 07:58:05 pm

The only game I ever remember playing on the BBC Micro was Podd, that game where you typed random stuff like "Podd can run" to try and...make Podd run.

About 4 minutes in and you're already typing stuff like "Podd can explode" and "Podd can go fuck himself" just to see what actually happens, if anything.

I did play Hunchback (and the sequel) to death on the Amstrad CPC 6128, though.

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Matt Godbolt link
4/6/2018 08:52:24 pm

Two things! All of the above are playable online at https://bbc.godbolt.org (yay!)

And, more importantly! WOT NO EXILE!?!1!12 :)

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Lummox60N
4/6/2018 09:11:17 pm

Incidentally, my friend had a BBC Model B, his mum was a teacher.
I have disturbing memories of a "racy" Space Invaders clone.
It wasn't the content that was disturbing, though, it was trying to play the game with THESE awful, awful joysticks...
https://i.imgur.com/VDKm9eD.jpg

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Pronunciation Plod
5/6/2018 09:34:36 am

Minor YouTube celebrity Nostalgia Nerd has a habit of pronouncing 'BBC Micro' and 'Beh-Beh-Seh Micro', and it drives me frickin' crackers. Please tell him!

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Mark M
5/6/2018 11:34:23 am

I echo the sentiments about Granny's Garden. I remember it making me jump on my first failure! Our school had the LOGO turtle too.

Lunchtimes playing Repton 2 and Chuckie Egg, them were the days! :)

Also, a curse upon your house for neglecting the CPC. >_<

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oishiiniku
5/6/2018 11:56:51 am

This list is a good list.

The BBC Micro was the first computer we had when I was a kid. My dad borrowed it from his work indefinitely and my older brother and I spent countless hours playing Castle Quest, Citadel, Elite etc. A couple of extra 'doozies':

- Sim - you were an astronaut with a jetpack who had to avoid terrible enemies like a rabbit and the sun. It was ridiculously hard, even by 8-bit standards.

- Revs - we bought this from a computer show in Manchester. I don't remember much about the event except that we queued for HOURS to get in and it was stupidly overcrowded. Revs was a 'sophisticated' simulation of formula one racing and way too difficult for seven-year-old me. I liked watching my older bro play it though!

- Fleet Street Phantom - an educational game where you played a reporter solving the mystery of a mysterious saboteur. We had this at my primary school and I've no idea whether it was good or terrible, but they let us play a COMPUTER GAME AT SCHOOL so obviously it was the best thing ever.

Eventually we had to give the BBC Micro back to my dad's work and then a few years later my brother asked for a computer for his birthday. Hoping he would be getting either an Amiga 500 or Atari ST he was gutted on birthday morn to be confronted with a BBC Model B.

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D
15/10/2021 10:47:28 pm

Revs was Formula 3 ! Legendary Geoff Crammond. Mint game . Nun said .

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hoskdoug
5/6/2018 04:28:39 pm

I grew up with the fantastic Chuckie Egg on the Electron.

I remember about 15 years ago playing it on a Spectrum emulator for the first (and last) time, and feeling revulsion due to the hideous sprites and atrocious physics.

All the games featured here really felt like a lot of love had gone in to them.

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KingMonkey
6/6/2018 12:20:23 am

Had great memories of the BBC from my school days where me & one of my mates were granted the lofty position of 'computer monitor' which didn't involve having a cable up ur arse and displaying the picture thru ur eyes but in fact, wheeling the computer into whichever classroom was using it that day and playing games to 'test the setup'. Meant we would go in early and stay as late as we could playing some of the classics listed here as well as Daredevil Dennis, Mr Ee (my favourite) and even Postman Pat got a run out at one point!

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Kendall9000
6/6/2018 08:03:28 am

I was going to have a moan about you not including Exile, but then I remembered that it came out right at the end of the BBC's life. Most of the BBC owners I know never played it because they'd moved on to something else by the time it was released.

Starship Command would make my list for nostalgia reasons even if it wasn't exactly the most technically sophisticated game on the Beeb. That was the first game I got for my "educational" computer and I played it to death.

I am surprised that nothing by Ultimate made the list. I was never the biggest fan of the isometric ones like Knightlore, but I loved Sabre Wulf.

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Chris
8/6/2018 08:58:08 am

Wasn't Tim Tyler a German kid that sold his smile to the devil for the ability to win any bet?

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RoboJ1M
11/6/2018 11:52:23 am

You forgot one sub group of been owners.
Families containing a school teacher who gets school discounts for this stuff.
That's why we had a Model B, a disk drive, a 9 pin colour dot matrix printer, that cubic RGB monitor and an A3000 (with 2mb of ram so we could play lemmings 2)
They practically gave it all away to teachers, it was awesome.

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Mr Scorpio
12/7/2019 11:35:40 am

Good list, however you missed out THRUST and arguably the BEST defender clone ever created for the BEEB/Electron: GUARDIAN, it had superior animation, smoother scrolling and challenging but precise gameplay over Planetoid

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KingMonkey
19/7/2019 07:24:43 am

Re-read the title but this time pay special attention to the word 'my' and you'll hopefully have your answer as to why this was game was omitted.

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ron
6/8/2019 05:20:51 am

i'd love to know how to hack games on the beeb micro (extra live etc.) but, it appears no-one wants to let this little secret out.....p.s. my fave-rave is frenzy!!!!!

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squeaky
21/12/2021 07:03:58 pm

In what way did BBC Snapper add more "personality" to the ghosts than the original Pac-Man? They have their own separate chase-and-avoid habits in the original.

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IPNIGHTLY
18/2/2022 11:07:50 am

I didn't know that there was a Defender version called Planetoids! And what you call Chuckie Egg, I know as Space Panic, which I loved on the BBC. Thanks for the article, it stirred the almost dormant brain cells that I have left 😁

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