Wednesday 21 February 2018

1,000,000 !!!

Well, here it is! The milestone of one-millionth visit to the blog was reached today, on the 21st of February, 2018. In addition to being now featured on two top retrogaming blog lists (many thanks for the more recent addition to The Great Setup!), this is definitely a milestone worth celebrating. Of course, since I figured this was coming sooner or later, I prepared this little video to express my thanks and thoughts on the matter. (Hope you can make out all the words, my recording setup is not perhaps the best for this sort of a thing...)


Saturday 17 February 2018

Frankie Goes To Hollywood (Ocean Software, 1985)

Developed by Denton Designs.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum version:
Programming by John Gibson and Roy Gibson
Graphics by Karen Davies

Commodore 64 version:
Programming by Dave Colclough and Graham Everett
Graphics by Karen Davies
Music by Fred Gray

Published in Europe by Ocean Software in 1985.
The C64 version also published in North America by Firebird in 1986.

Amstrad CPC version written by John Gibson, and published by Ocean Software in 1986.

NOTE: This entry also contains a slightly belated bonus tribute chapter to the recently passed Bob Wakelin, who made the cover art for this game, as well as a great deal of many other classic games of this era. May he rest in peace.

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INTRODUCTION & GAME STATUS


A long time ago in a Finnish village far, far away from any real access to anything that was going on in the real world, a young boy just about ready to take his first steps into computer gaming was utterly, blissfully unaware of anything resembling modern pop music. Right about that time, an oddly named pop group called Frankie Goes To Hollywood had released their few smash hit singles, as well as a couple of albums, before disbanding. The first time I actually learnt that Frankie Goes To Hollywood was a band was shortly after I had first come across this game on Ocean's compilation, The Magnificent Seven, and played it for a while. Like all the other best games have a tendency to do, Frankie the Computer Game (as it was otherwise known) and its brilliance took awhile to sink in. It didn't help, that I hadn't read anything about the game before playing it - not even the manual. See, part of the whole point in experiencing Frankie the Computer Game with as little knowledge as possible is the sheer surprise of discovery, but happily, it still manages to remain somewhat of a mystery. In case you want to keep this game as a mystery before you play it, do yourself a favour and stop reading now. If you're familiar with Frankie the game, read on.