Game of the Week: Treasure Island Dizzy

Professey Chin

Woooo! Number 1!

So many different games could have been picked for this but Dizzy (and this one in particular) won out due to it being the biggest, absolute bastard of a game I came across in my entire childhood.
The first computer to come into our house would have been my sisters Atari ST which she got with games like Space Harrier, Bomb Jack, Ikari Warriors & Impossible Mission 2. My parents decided to give me a game for it which ended up being this git!

In a lot of ways I had to admire it since the majority of the puzzles in it are very fair and the thought behind them makes perfect sense (which all the Dizzy games seem to have in common). Its the absolute unforgiving nature of this game in the series that caused many hours of frustration:
- No saves (that I can recall anyway)
- 1 hit kills
- Only 1 life
- 3 item inventory (that could only be used in the order you pick them up in so if you go underwater and pick up your snorkel before the item you have to use, youre fcuked).
If you havent played it before, you could get the spectrum version free from Codemasters website (not sure if you still can), but the ST version seemed to have been the best released so id recommend the SainT emulator.
Word of warning though. It will drive you bananas :mad:

DinoRex

haha... This is probably what I was going to pick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6klzhxDtI30

It was the C64 version I first experienced and this was the first Dizzy game I ever played and easily my favourite. It just seems to have a much tighter design than the other ones. Love the music.

But it was sooooo... difficult. Especially the maddening underwater inventory management. Trying to use the crowbar to lift the rock without dropping the snorkel too required some amount of forward planning. I think it probably took me years to properly beat the whole thing... and your reward at the end? Sitting on an even smaller desert island.

I wasn't as crazy about the Amiga version. There's a NES version out there as part of a Codemasters 4 game cartridge, it's not bad and probably the easiest route to emulate the game if you want to play it today.

Retr0gamer

Don't remember much of this game other than the 1 life thing driving me mad.

vangoz

That music rocks, look forward to playing it, although I envisage many profanities being shouted at the TV while doing so

Andrew76

Great choice Mega Chin. I've only played the Dizzy games on the C64, I can't remember if it was Treasure or Fantasy Island that I encountered first. I defo remember Fantasy with the crocodile's mouth you had to jump on when closed to get over the water. Must try give Treasure Island a go.

The music was always cool in those games and I love the way sometimes you have to jump to the next screen rather than it just scrolling.

Which was the one with the clouds you could jump on with the coins on?

Professey Chin

This is the version that destroyed my mind for the best part of 2 decades

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOtEo5bAS8c

Actually I just got flashbacks of some of the bugs(enemies not glitches). When you hit them, it caused an effect like reversed your controls for a few minutes.
That caused numerous deaths too!!

Mr.Saturn

The music on the C64 version is brilliant. It'd have to be, it's taking my mind of the fact I'm not getting very far.

Dr Bob

TI:dizzy..well...it's not Japanese so theres a few lads here who wont have played it

sure I'll do a review video of it (any excuse eh!) during the week and post it
ST version eh? I remember playing the c64 one (and how much pain it caused me )

Professey Chin

I do prefer the C64 music but the STs graphics are much easier on the eyes for me :pac:

Professey Chin

Mr.Saturn wrote: »

The music on the C64 version is brilliant. It'd have to be, it's taking my mind of the fact I'm not getting very far.

Imagine trying to figure it out when youre 5/6 years old. I was 23 before I completed it! (and even then I needed a guide for some of the coins )

Actually that was another bastard. You need all those coins scattered around to complete the game but theyre hidden behind bushes & doors & crap without any indication!!

DinoRex

The Amiga and ST versions seem pretty close.

Much better music on the Amiga of course though...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgDhnolRV28

Yikes... to think the whole thing can be completed in just half an hour if you know what you're doing...

Mr.Saturn

Mega Chin wrote: »

Imagine trying to figure it out when youre 5/6 years old. I was 23 before I completed it! (and even then I needed a guide for some of the coins )

Actually that was another bastard. You need all those coins scattered around to complete the game but theyre hidden behind bushes & doors & crap without any indication!!

Hmm, I can see this is from a time in gaming before the phrase "breakin'em in easy" was coined.

Professey Chin

Disgraceful isnt it. 30 minutes if you know what youre doing. 20 years if you dont :pac:
Sign of a good puzzler though

mikemac

Wasn't my favourite Dizzy, that was Dizzy down the rapids
I had all the Dizzy games for my Commodore

I remember this one and it was right bastard of a game, incredibly difficult.
Don't think I ever got that far in it, certainly didn't clear it

Isn't it great how catchy music in the old games was. That music from the video is excellent

DinoRex

I picked up the original Dizzy game after enjoying Treasure Island so much and to be honest, despite the fact you had 3 lives in it, I found it much more difficult as the map was so sprawling. Items would have to be used about 50 screens away from where you found them.

Mr.Saturn

It's kinda pointless putting in on infinite lives. You just respawn into an infinite deathloop.

CiDeRmAn

I'm going to sit this one out, I feckin hated the Dizzy games, with a passion!

Pyongyang

Allow me if I may to declare that I absolutely adored Treasure Island Dizzy on the C64. It's a true classic and brings back some of my fondest (and angriest) gaming memories.

Truth is I never finished the game.

See there's this jump you have to make from one hut to another, near the top of the screen about 75% of the way through the game. Let me tell you I spent the BEST PART OF A FECKIN WEEKEND!

A FECKING WEEKEND OF LEAVING MY C64 ON AND TRYING THAT STUPID JUMP!

NO MATTER WHAT I DID THE STUPID BLOODY EGG WOULD NOT MAKE THE STUPID BLOODY JUMP!

AJKSHGKUGDKUGFKUGK!UGKUGUGUGUYYU!YYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I HATE THIS BLOODY GAME! ARRGGGHHHH!!!!!

Professey Chin

I think you should go back and try that jump now :pac:
Im pretty sure I know the 1 youre talking about and it nearly made me burn the house down!

DinoRex

Jumping on the motor boat without going in the water and drowning right at the end was a serious pain as well...

Pyongyang

Mega Chin wrote: »

I think you should go back and try that jump now :pac:
Im pretty sure I know the 1 youre talking about and it nearly made me burn the house down!

I actually dare not revisit the game for fear of throwing my computer out the door and across the road.

I'm pretty confident you know exactly the jump I mean. I just remember it being absolutely infuriating. I thought it was a flaw in the map design and resigned myself to the fact I will never finish the game.

I'm reasonably happy to go to my grave without ever finishing it as I fear if I revist the game I'll just end up like Eddie from Bottom:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGU96Td1wME

CiDeRmAn

The only good thing is that an emu will let you take a snapshot before the ill fated jump and at least you don't have to endure working back up to that point again and again.
Still hate it though!

da gamer

unfortunately i cant add much to this game of the week as i have never played it. im gona do a bit of research on it though, im always up for widening my gaming knowledge!

Lorfarius

I used to be able to finish this in my sleep when I was a kid but 25 years later I can't remember next to anything! The weird thing is it was probably my least favourite Dizzy game, Fantasy World was (in my mind) the best of the bunch. I'd spend forever as a kid exploring the map, drawing it on graph paper, sketching pictures etc.

Dr Bob

I played it , then I remembered how damn BROKEN the difficulty is!And that horrible rolling jump! and the sudden death...with one FREAKIN LIFE!!
Had a look at the ST one , and threw the result up on the youtube channel
(the name is probably a hint of what I thought of it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQL_UqpzIL4

Interesting choice , but I am not a fan! sorry.

DinoRex

Was it Fantasy World Dizzy that had the invisible wall? That bit used to drive me nuts as the whole background is just one big wall with only parts of the wall being platforms that you couldn't distinguish from the rest of the background.

But yes... I used to draw the maps as well, especially for the original Dizzy.

One thing that's worth mentioning about these games though is how cheap they were. On the 8-bit systems anyway, they were just £2.99 each. They went to full price games later in the series though, I think Magicland Dizzy was a full price game.

Professey Chin

I should point out one of the main reasons I picked this was to melt peoples brains :pac:

Dr Bob

Mega Chin wrote: »

I should point out one of the main reasons I picked this was to melt peoples brains :pac:

well mine is currently dribbling out my ears at present:)
Thanks!

CountryJoe

Fantastic game, used to have all the Dizzy games for the C64 when I was a kid, only ever got half way through the game though.

Optimus Prime

Loved the Dizzy games years ago, to be honest i cant remember a whole lot about them, I do know i never ever came close to finishing any of them. I just bought a few of the dizzy games there over the weekend for the C64 to play them again!

mondeo

The first Dizzy game I played was Crystal Kingdom, then came Treasure Island. I remember back in the day reading some games magazines of readers writing in complaining how hard it was only having one life. I only ever played it on the Spectrum and I still have it of course, played it again a few months back and enjoyed it