Posted by boyo on Sep 10, 2010 20:32 (Sep 10, 2010 20:32)
A clone of Pacman, Hungry Horace was the first outing of William Tang’s blue blob way back in 1982 on the Beam Software / Psion / Melbourne House labels, available on the ZX Spectrum and C64 platforms. In the first of four adventures (the last -Horace ToThe Rescue not actually being released) Horace found himself in a park gathering food whilst avoiding the park guards. Collecting the sporadically placed bells would render the guards vulnerable, just like the effect the power pills had on the lovable yellow pizza in the original game. Unlike Pacman, you didn’t have to collect all the food to be able to progress to the next level, just get to the exit, something in itself a pretty much impossible task after level 5! As an extra added bonus Hungry Horace came with a level designer, although I doubt if anyone ever used it, much was the way the main game left you after 10 minutes!
A few months later and our little blue blob was on the piste in the uniquely named Horace Goes Skiing. A cross between Frogger and Eddie The Eagle, Horace has to initially navigate a rather busy road, get his skis from the shop and then get back across the road before tackling a rather daunting ski course. Released under the same labels and machines as the original game, Horace Goes Skiing was not a direct sequel to the first game, but was more of a spin-off. Horace starts the game with $40 (four lives to you and me) which is depleted by $10 each time he gets mowed down by a passing vehicle on his mission to cross the road. Why does it cost $10 I hear you all ask? It’s the fee for the ambulance to take him away and patch him up I tell you. Novel if nothing else. Grab your Skis from the shop, return over the road unscathed and then the real fun starts! Control Horace as he has to navigate between red and blue flags without hitting the trees and get to the bottom in one piece. Your reward? Back to the beginning with for more of the same albeit with a slightly harder difficulty setting.
The third and final game of those released in the Horace range greeted us in 1983 titled Horace And The Spiders. A ZX Spectrum only game needing 48K to play, Horace found himself trying to get over his arachnophobia by jumping over spiders whilst climbing a hill, swinging on spider thread to cross a bridge and making holes in a web so that the little critters would fall down them just so that the blue blob could get his serum home safely. Why? I have no idea, but if Horace is touched by a spider at any point during his travels it’s back to the start again. Using the same sprites as the previous two games, this outing had a little more to it in terms of playability and was arguably the best of the three.
After a bout of alleged illness (Tang, not Horace), the fourth game Horace to the Rescue was canned with his only other appearance being in the 1987 ZX Spectrum / C64 game Inspector Gadget and The Circus Of Fear where H had a small yet perfectly formed cameo. Ironically, a few people in the remake scene have made quite wonderful clones of the original games which you should check out if you get a chance.
I preferred Horace goes Skiing out of the 3, liked the way you could be run over by an ambulance and then pay $10 for the privelage of being taken to hospital in it...
Horace & the Spiders was good but thought the first 2 stages were mainly fillers for the last stage (especially the rope jumping bit which seemed a bit pointless to me).
Sep 21, 2010 15:42:55 (
Sep 21, 2010 15:42
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