Dizzy
(Code Masters, 1987)
This is the Dizzy adventure that started it all, and it’s stood the test of time well. Dizzy has to defeat the evil wizard Zaks by making a magic potion consisting of four ingredients – but finding them will not be easy. The graphics are reasonable and the music is quite cool as well, although there are no other sound effects. The game is a little easy (although there is a secret area which you will need to discover), and there are lots of extra lives to collect, but if you fall into the trap in the haunted forest, you won’t be able to carry on. It’s very annoying and loses the game some marks for me. A cut-down special edition of the game for one of Amstrad Action’s covertapes also exists.
See also: Bubble Dizzy, Crystal Kingdom Dizzy, Dizzy Down the Rapids, Dizzy Panic, Dizzy: Prince of the Yolkfolk, Fantasy World Dizzy, Fast Food, Kwik Snax, Magicland Dizzy, Spellbound Dizzy, Treasure Island Dizzy.
Watch YouTube videos of this game by:
ChinnyVision,
GameHammer Classic Gaming,
Metr81,
Novabug.
Dizzy Dice
(Players, 1987)
Despite the name, this is not a dice game but a fruit machine simulation, although it doesn’t have all that many bonus features. However, if you score points, you are always given the option to gamble by guessing what type of fruit will be selected on a spinning wheel. If you are very lucky indeed and manage to light up six fruits in the correct order, as shown at the bottom of the screen you can play a dice game in which you can win up to 200 points by guessing whether the next roll of the die will be higher or lower than the previous roll. As well as playing a ‘normal’ game, you can also try to break the bank by amassing a certain number of points. The graphics are colourful, as one would expect, and I actually like its relative simplicity, although if you want a fruit machine simulation with lots of bells and whistles, this isn’t it.
Dizzy Down the Rapids
(Code Masters, 1991)
It’s yet another silly game with Dizzy thrown in so that it might sell. Dizzy’s in a barrel and he’s floating down a river, and he’s got some apples that he can throw at any creatures who’ll sap his energy. It’s totally unexciting – the game moves at a terribly slow pace, firing apples doesn’t remove most of the creatures, and it’s much too difficult – you can’t avoid the creatures and you lose too much energy. Still, a barrel isn’t exactly the most manoeuvrable of objects, isn’t it? The only good thing about the game is the cutesy music.
See also: Bubble Dizzy, Crystal Kingdom Dizzy, Dizzy, Dizzy Panic, Dizzy: Prince of the Yolkfolk, Fantasy World Dizzy, Fast Food, Kwik Snax, Magicland Dizzy, Spellbound Dizzy, Treasure Island Dizzy.
Watch YouTube videos of this game by:
ChinnyVision,
GameHammer Classic Gaming.
Dizzy Panic
(Code Masters, 1991)
Grand Dizzy’s toy-making machine has gone haywire and Dizzy has been left to control it! Random shapes fall out of the machine and you’ve got to align them with the correct slots at the bottom to make the toys. It’s a bit like those toys for two-year-olds where they have to work out which shapes fit in which holes. It’s yet another game that only features Dizzy so that it’ll sell, and this one’s absolute rubbish. It’s unoriginal and boring, although the younger ones might like it.
See also: Bubble Dizzy, Crystal Kingdom Dizzy, Dizzy, Dizzy Down the Rapids, Dizzy: Prince of the Yolkfolk, Fantasy World Dizzy, Fast Food, Kwik Snax, Magicland Dizzy, Spellbound Dizzy, Treasure Island Dizzy.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
GameHammer Classic Gaming.
Dizzy: Prince of the Yolkfolk
(Code Masters, 1991)
The troll has taken over the king’s castle and the princess has been captured! Only Dizzy can save the day in the smallest of the seven adventures which Dizzy stars in – there are only about 30 rooms. It was also supposed to appear exclusively on the Dizzy’s Excellent Adventures compilation, but it was later released as a stand-alone budget game anyway! The graphics are quite good and a nice little tune plays in the background. You also have to collect cherries, which replenish your energy. It may be smaller than the other Dizzy adventures, but it’s still a challenge.
See also: Bubble Dizzy, Crystal Kingdom Dizzy, Dizzy, Dizzy Down the Rapids, Dizzy Panic, Fantasy World Dizzy, Fast Food, Kwik Snax, Magicland Dizzy, Spellbound Dizzy, Treasure Island Dizzy.
Watch YouTube videos of this game by:
GameHammer Classic Gaming,
Xyphoe.
DJ Puff
(Code Masters, 1992)
Puff has now become a DJ, but Captain Krip has stolen his collection of vinyl records, and Puff must find them all. Unlike Puff’s last outing, this is a platform game consisting of five levels. You can kill enemies by hurling fireballs or throwing bombs at them, but be careful you don’t land on water or spikes! There are also some bricks with numbers on them; try shooting them and see what effects they produce. No game starring a DJ would be complete without some music, and the tune that plays throughout the game is reasonably good, although not brilliant. The graphics are rather garish but suit the game well, but the game is marred by the poor collision detection which decreases your lives needlessly and makes reaching the second level very difficult.
See also: Little Puff.
Dr Doom’s Revenge!
(Empire, 1989)
Dr Doom has stolen a nuclear missile and has threatened to blow up New York. Spiderman and Captain America enter his castle in a bid to stop him from carrying out this deadly attack. This is a beat-’em-up consisting of five levels where the two heroes meet some of Dr Doom’s companions from the Marvel comic books. In each level, you control either Spiderman or Captain America, and must defeat two enemies in order to go to the next level. The graphics are absolutely stupendous, and the comic strip sequences that introduce each level are very well rendered. However, one senses that this game is an example of “all graphics and not much gameplay”, since the game is slow and not very large, and the sound effects are very poor.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Novabug.
Dr Roland
(Glasnost Corp, 2021)
Some of Dr Roland’s patients have been infected with viruses, so you must help by destroying all the viruses so the patients can recover. Each level contains viruses of three different colours, and you must destroy them by aligning falling lozenges so that four elements of the same colour form a line. If you’ve played the Nintendo game Dr Mario, you’ll recognise the concept straight away. In fact, when Dr Roland was entered in the 2020 #CPCRetroDev Game Creation Contest, it was disqualified for this reason, as the organiser was concerned about potential litigation from Nintendo. The graphics are cute and colourful, although the music becomes a bit annoying after a while, but it can be turned off. The gameplay becomes hectic fairly quickly as the lozenges fall faster and it’s quite a challenge even to complete the first few levels.
Dr Scrime’s Spook School
(Mastertronic, 1988)
You’re a pupil at Dr Scrime’s Spook School, and you have to show your worthiness by taking a series of tests. It’s actually set in his large mansion, where you’ll encounter some rather strange guests, such as a hunchback, a werewolf and a mummy. Your first test is to use whatever you can to fill some holes in the walls around the mansion. However, when you find out that none of the objects seem to work and you can’t fill any of the holes, you’ll soon tire of the game. It’s got a cartoony feel to it and the graphics aren’t bad, but that counts for little when you can’t work out what to do.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
GameHammer Classic Gaming.
The much-loved TV series makes its way to the CPC. Licensed games are hit and miss, but this is more of a hit. A warning though – it is one tough game. It’s very large but your progress can be saved. I really like the graphics; they evoke the location very well. The Doctor looks exactly like he should and there are some nice sprites inhabiting the environments (the pink Daleks – sorry, Controllers – among them). One negative is sprite flicker on the Doctor. The game is a puzzle/platform game where you must seek out useful items, assisted by a programmable feline robot. The game features the famous theme tune which is fairly well done. All the good work is almost undone by the controls. A few slight improvements would make this a classic.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Xyphoe.