Can anyone name this BBC Micro game?

[Lee Bee]

Back in 1987 we had a BBC Micro in our primary school and on rare occasion we got to play a few games.

There's one I've been trying to track down for years, with no luck. It was an overhead flip-screen maze game where you travel along a grid of "roads", a bit like Postman Pat or Trashman except with narrower roads. Your character might even be some kind of delivery type guy. The game may have an alliterated title (such as "Bounty Bob").

The only thing I remember vividly about it was the jazzy little in-game tune, which I've recreated below (on the Speccy). It's been 36 years so may not be terribly accurate. I'd LOVE to hear the real tune again after all this time, if only to see how my memory has changed it!



@spider @equinox @dust hill resident @Journeyman

[PeterJ]

Maybe try here @Lee Bee:

https://www.bbcmicro.co.uk/index.php?se ... ze&on_G=on

I think you and @spider are secretly trying to morph us into BBC Computing!

[Lee Bee]

https://www.bbcmicro.co.uk/index.php?se ... ze&on_G=on

Thanks, that's extremely helpful, though for whatever reason I wasn't able to find it there.

I think you and @spider are secretly trying to morph us into BBC Computing!

LOL, It was Spider's thread which prompted me to ask. Originally I was just going to PM him, but after making the tune, I thought I'd share it with the forum as it's a nice little AY ditty if nothing else. Plus I know @equinox is a BBC guy too.

[Stefan]

Sorted on release date, commercial only and then started at the end. First lucky hit was Hell Driver - the music sort of sounds like random notes, but it also sort of sounds like your version.

[Lee Bee]

Hell Driver - the music sort of sounds like random notes, but it also sort of sounds like your version.

Thanks! Nice try, and that's the closest game I could find, too. But that's definitely not it! The roads were narrower, more like 1 character wide. My memory of the music may be a little off, but it's not THAT far off!

[just80sstuff]

Daredevil Dennis.

My 'posh' mate had a BBC and that tune still haunts me today!
Let me know it that's the game, if not a challenge you to get the tune out of your head.

[spider]

Maybe try here @Lee Bee:

https://www.bbcmicro.co.uk/index.php?se ... ze&on_G=on

I think you and @spider are secretly trying to morph us into BBC Computing!

No.

Spoiler

I did appreciate the palette on Mode2 however I did not appreciate the rectangular pixels (or the fact 20K was eaten out of 32K for it) if one did not have Shadow Ram available.

Bad Program

LOL, It was Spider's thread which prompted me to ask. Originally I was just going to PM him, but after making the tune, I thought I'd share it with the forum as it's a nice little AY ditty if nothing else. Plus I know @equinox is a BBC guy too.

Daredevil Dennis.

My 'posh' mate had a BBC and that tune still haunts me today!
Let me know it that's the game, if not a challenge you to get the tune out of your head.

That was one of the games I suggested eons ago would make a decent Speccy game too, its quite simple but fast paced.
Ah yes one or two of mine had Beeb's back when they were new tech. If I recall it was about possible to buy two new 48K's for the price of one Beeb. And that's not counting a disc upgrade. The music some (few) games played during tape load were nice though. Can't recall (too lazy) the model of Texas sound chip offhand however it was not quite as good as the AY one we had. imo.

@Lee Bee did you find out what game it was ?

[Lee Bee]

did you find out what game it was ?

Sadly not!

[Rorthron]

Maybe try asking on Stardot: https://stardot.org.uk/forums/

[Lee Bee]

Maybe try asking on Stardot: https://stardot.org.uk/forums/

Thanks buddy, I probably should do that. Though I'd try here first

[equinox]

I think you and @spider are secretly trying to morph us into BBC Computing!

We're too poor

[equinox]

The only thing I remember vividly about it was the jazzy little in-game tune, which I've recreated below (on the Speccy). It's been 36 years so may not be terribly accurate.

Well, your tune certainly kicks, Lee. As you suggest, I do know a bunch of Beeb games but I don't recognise this music.

Then again, how often is the music original? My experience has been that I know a tune from some awful ancient video game and then I learn "oh, actually that's a horribly butchered version of Debussy's Clair de Lune* or something". That shrieking off-tune Manic Miner piano is probably the first introduction to the Spectrum for many people on YouTube. I blush thinking about it.

obSpeccy: if your parents didn't educate you properly, which classics did you first learn via Spectrum? For me, "da -- da-da -- da-da-da-da-da-DAAA" will always be Whole New Ball Game. Can't remember what it is, actually. Bach, Beethoven, Beyoncé? Someone beginning with B. Also Egghead is the Mexican hat dance can-can? I think? And Dynamite Dan II brought things into the 20th century with a weird, rolling, rumbling version of Scott Joplin's ragtime The Entertainer. And Rockman: well, I doubt people paid much attention to music copyrights in those days (until somebody got a bit too interested in "If I were a rich man" in JSW), but classical was always safe.

Exercise for the reader: what (religious!) classic are we hearing in Bugbyte's BBC game Hunkidory here? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u2dQ3kfZVE

* Haha, I saw The Creator in the cinema today. There were four of us in the whole cinema because it was 11 o'clock on Monday. Film wasn't about AI at all, it was just the generic "angry military men and explosions" formula slightly updated. Three out of ten.

[worcestersource]

My little brother called Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, per the Alchemist tune “deelu deelu”. He was quite good as naming tracks. The level in Target Renegade with the dogs was given the title “Doggie Music”.

Specventure was good for teaching classic pieces as it told you what each tune was.

[Lee Bee]

Well, your tune certainly kicks, Lee.

Cheers, bud

Then again, how often is the music original?

Yes, I had wondered if it may not be original. Unlikely to be "classical", though. Distinctly 20th century, with a bluesy swing.

which classics did you first learn via Spectrum?

This could be its own thread, couldn't it?

One that comes to my mind is "Maple Leaf Rag" which featured in the brilliant piano-playing intro to Draughts Genius from 1987, which I first played it in March 1991 on a Crash covertape.

I also remember some other game I played on a covertape featuring the tune Washington Post March, which I enjoyed. Anyone know which game that was?

For me, "da -- da-da -- da-da-da-da-da-DAAA" will always be Whole New Ball Game. Can't remember what it is, actually. Bach, Beethoven, Beyoncé? Someone beginning with B.

I don't know the game, but your written description sounds distinctly like Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"?

Exercise for the reader: what (religious!) classic are we hearing in Bugbyte's BBC game Hunkidory here? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u2dQ3kfZVE

Ah, tip of my tongue. I'll ask my Mum in the morning as I know she can play that piece.

[equinox]

One that comes to my mind is "Maple Leaf Rag" ...

Check this one out:

I don't know the game, but your written description sounds distinctly like Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"?

Hooohhh that's amazing. You're right. FIFTY POUNDS, ladies and gentlemen!

(BBC Hunkidory)
Ah, tip of my tongue. I'll ask my Mum in the morning as I know she can play that piece.

It's Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring".
Well Lee you didn't win the Hawaiian holiday today, but you DO walk away with the Tasman +3 spellchecker, the Ocean top three, look at that, ladies and gents, he's got New Zealand Story there, he's got Chase HQ, Rainbow Islands, that'll keep him busy — and of course your fifty pounds. Give him a big hand, ladies and gents. Good night!

[Lee Bee]

I've had a great day out, Jim, it's been terrific, and I know the missus is going to like the computer games.

[TMD2003]

It's Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring".

Otherwise known as "that infernal tune that plays over all 199 levels of Lode Runner". By about level 10 your head will start to spin. How Rouslan Gordeyev had the patience to play through the entire game for four and a half hours - with Rollback, so it'll have taken a lot longer than that to beat each level and iron out the mistakes - I will never know. Maybe he's in a rubber room somewhere outside Nizhny Novgorod to this day constantly shouting "NIET! NIET!" and curses about Lode Runner and JSB in Russian.

Talking of Russia, Hunkidory also has a brief burst of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture beforehand. And if it hadn't been for the sound, it could have been a QL game, looking like it did with the Lego-brick pixels... in those colours, at least. Make it red, white and green and use Mode 4 for a winner.

I also remember some other game I played on a covertape featuring the tune Washington Post March, which I enjoyed. Anyone know which game that was?

First of all, to clear up Paul's confusion, Egghead (1)'s opening theme tune was the Mexican Hat Dance, Egghead II (To The Rescue) was the Can-Can. Because, there I was thinking that the covertape game with the Washington Post might have been one of those, and I checked them. It wasn't - but I'm sure I have witnessed that tune on a covertape game as well...

...it wasn't Corona Capers, which does feature the Washington Post in the end sequence, and I should know.

Lee - what kind of game was it, if you remember? It'll probably come to me soon enough and that'll be 101 in six darts. If Bully's Special Prize turns out to be a speedboat, at least there's a lot of water near me. Problem is, there's a lot of low bridges on Sixteen Foot Drain and nowhere to turn it round either. Come on, Anglian Water, build the Chatteris reservoir already!
(NOTE: the reservoir isn't due to be completed until around 2040, they'll have a five-knot speed limit on it or there abouts, there's massive local opposition to its existence, not least from the farmers who will have to stop farming on the country's finest farmland, and then there's the big question of why the wettest part of the country needs a reservoir when there's a constant struggle to take the water away to avoid flooding the land. It'll bet it's not for our benefit, it'll be for Rich Men North Of Richmond (Upon Thames), won't it?)

[Lee Bee]

LOL we're getting all the big personalities in this thread!

Lee - what kind of game was it, if you remember?

All I remember is playing it on a covertape around the beginning of 1991, with the Washington Post March playing in the title screen only. Oh and I think it was an isometric game.

[a few moments later…] Gosh, memory is such a funny thing, isn't it? Moments after writing the above, the game's title just randomly popped into my head. It's not even a game I remember playing, but my brain knew the title:

Spoiler

Hydrofool

So I was bang on with my recollection of it being on a covertape at the beginning of 1991 - Jan '91.

[equinox]

First of all, to clear up Paul's confusion

yeah mate I'll leave an alt-right easter egg for you when i release a great game in the next one or two years. You'll laugh when you see it.

For now: try to get the CSSCGC entry done, before my best friend Miri arrives to stay with me Oct-November. it would be embarrassing to do speccy stuff in front of her.

Any Speccy Nazis welcome to hang out with us in November. hahaha. especially if you know how the +3 Tasword spell-check worked, I've been studying this for so long.

STILL TRYING TO MAKE A GREAT REMAKE OF AN ANCIENT SPECCY GAME, but I want it to work on every platform. That is: tape (which means *literally skip the save prompts* because tape people don't want to do that) -- and +D -- and +3 -- and maybe ironically microdrive. i've done LOTS of work on this game. perhaps in 12 months.

Incredibly I keep being asked to go to "Revision 2024" (demoparty in Germany) I hate leaving my ****ing house. So if you want to put on an equinox mask and pretend to be me. Hit me up. bye

[Lee Bee]

Update: I am DELIGHTED to say that the game has now been identified! Big thanks to @Rorthron for pointing me to the Stardot Acorn forum, which led to the answer!

The game is Time Trucker



The reason I couldn't find it listed with other BBC games is that it's actually an educational game! (Those sneaky teachers, making us think we were having fun when we were actually learning!)

My memory of the game was fairly accurate. It has an alliterated title, and the gameplay is indeed rather like Postman Pat, with you playing a delivery driver.

For comparison, here's the original music:


And my re-make from memory:


Memory is a funny thing, and I have clearly embellished the tune a little, adding a few chords here and there. Some have commented that they preferred my version, LOL

Oh and there's also a C64 version, which is a much better version of the game:

[TMD2003]

Listening to this again, part of me was thinking "this would make an excellent soundtrack to a homebrew Dizzy game", though on further consideration it's a bit too... "bluesy". (Which is my way of saying "too many accidentials / weird intervals", "too much deviation from a major scale", and other such terms that only musicians will understand.) But it is a bit like what a trucker might be listening to in his cab.

Or, alternatively... it's similar to the tunes at the top of the Transport Tycoon soundtrack:







...all of which always sounds to me like the long-lost background music from a 'MURICAN version of Thomas The Tank Engine set somewhere in the Old West. "Once 'pon a taaahme there were a liddle ol' engine called Billy! Say howdy, Billy!" *whistle* "An' he worked in the maahnes in Tarnation Gulch haulin' all the ore an' takin' it to the crushers..." ...and so on and so forth, narrated by one of the members of ZZ Top - doesn't matter which one - instead of Ringo Starr.

So, Lee... fancy having a crack at any of those?

[Lee Bee]

...all of which always sounds to me like the long-lost background music from a 'MURICAN version of Thomas The Tank Engine set somewhere in the Old West. "Once 'pon a taaahme there were a liddle ol' engine called Billy! Say howdy, Billy!" *whistle* "An' he worked in the maahnes in Tarnation Gulch haulin' all the ore an' takin' it to the crushers..." ...and so on and so forth, narrated by one of the members of ZZ Top - doesn't matter which one - instead of Ringo Starr.

So, Lee... fancy having a crack at any of those?

Ha ha Nice tunes, I'm not familiar with the game. Will consider it. Though I'd sooner do a proper version of Thomas The Tank Engine theme tune, which neither of the games received, meanwhile Tim Follin absolutely NAILED the music for the SNES.