You’ll get Dizzy playing this action packed cartoon adventure as you somersault around Fantastic Mystical Kingdoms.
Collect the ingredients to kill the evil wizard ZAKS.
A brilliant game by brilliant programmers for brilliant games players!
“Dizzy” (also known as “Dizzy – The Ultimate Cartoon Adventure” or “Dizzy TUCA“) is the first game in the series to star the anthropomorphic egg.
Created by Philip and Andrew Oliver (The Oliver Twins) and published by Codemasters for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC 464 and the Commodore 64 in June 1987.
The game was also released as part of the 8-bit “Dizzy Collection” compilation.
The creation of Dizzy came about as an experiment Philip was conducting with the twins’ “Panda Sprites” graphics software program while they were working on one of their previous projects for Codemasters called “Ghost Hunters”.
Once “Ghost Hunters” was finished, the twins began creating their new cartoon game starring the egg shaped character, giving it red boxing gloves and boots, and taking place in a mysterious fantasy world.
Dizzy’s name came from the character’s tumbles and somersaults while jumping, a feature inspired by “Panda Sprites” which enabled them to rotate an image easily so that each frame didn’t have to be drawn manually.
However, the software distorted complex sprites so the character was required to be simple, hence the choice of an egg.
The gameplay involves collecting items and moving them to other locations where the item is required;
For example, at one point a raincoat is needed to protect Dizzy against damaging rain.
Or picking up a key and dropping it next to a locked door to unlock it.
But what makes the game more difficult is that you can only carry one item at any given time.
Unlike the later adventure games in the series which focus more on the inventory-based puzzles, this game features a very large number of hazards that impede your progress.
You start the game with 3 lives, each life is lost if you fall down pits, water, and coming into contact with wildlife or falling objects without carrying the correct item that will protect you against them.
There are also extra lives scattered around the map.
Located around some areas are mushrooms that allow Dizzy to reach higher places.
The game is known famously for the bridge that collapses when Dizzy walks along the tiny gap in the middle of it, making the game impossible to complete.
Stopping the bridge from collapsing meant jumping over that gap.
Also included in the game were lines from the poem, “The Green Eye of the Yellow God” by J. Milton Hayes.
The lines were shown in banners on certain screens which served as clues on how to solve some of the puzzles.
