Rick Dangerous (1989) Commodore 64

Here I complete Rick Dangerous on the C64. I usually play on the Spectrum but chose the C64 here for several reasons. Firstly the game plays a little better: the Spectrum version tends to slow down at times which is distracting. It also looks better due to the C64's hardware sprites and in fact is one of the best looking C64 games on the IMO: I actually think it looks better than the Amiga version (the Spectrum version is pretty good too, and actually surprisingly colourful, but Rick moving in front of a textured background inevitably means a somewhat low colour, low contrast look).

But most importantly, level 4 is much easier on the C64 than the Spectrum as the flying rockets can be safely activated by crawling into them and this can even be used to the player's advantage. On the Spectrum the rockets are simple hazards and this makes the level MUCH harder -- to the point where I haven't completed the game yet! I suspect the Spectrum behaviour is the intended one but the C64 "bug" actually makes the game more fun IMO.

Rick Dangerous is largely forgotten now but I think it deserves more praise on the retro scene. It really is one of the greatest 8 bit scrolling platform games with a very unique mechanic and attack using guns and bombs (and Rick's poking stick!). It was written by Core Designs who later went on to program Tomb Raider and, when you consider both Rick and Lara Croft appear "inspired" by Indiana Jones, you can see Rick Dangerous is kind of "Tomb Raider on 8 bit" with all the suspense of exploring tombs, dodging traps etc.

In fact the game, which was released when the Speccy and C64 were reaching end of life, is really a 16-bit first design that was expertly shoehorned onto 8 bit computers. The conversion was done brilliantly and it's not often you get this feeling of smooth scrolling free exploration on 8 bit machines. The screen scrolls vertically (flip screen horizontally) with on-demand scrolling and this compromise makes it easier for the 8 bits to keep up without losing much of the visibility scrolling gives. Even the Spectrum was able to manage colourful scrolling levels with this design (albeit with lower contrast as Rick moves in front of textured backgrounds -- I'd like an option to delete these and just have a black background TBH). Rick's ability to both shoot and bomb was a new idea as well and the sequel, Rick Dangerous 2, allowed him to also slide bombs along the floor and over ledges for maximum devastation.

Played on VICE 3.6.1 recorded on OBS.

Time: 17:48