Retro Gamer

CHRIS’ CANON

Five games to play that Chris had a hand in

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THE CASTLE

■ Originally coded by Chris for the Oric-1, this text adventure follows a familiar format, as you find yourself seeking treasure and then escaping from a fortress full of lethal hazards. The humour and sweet touches, including some unlikely Morse Code, help ease the brutal deaths you suffer on a regular basis.

TWIN KINGDOM VALLEY

■ A groundbrea­king adventure, not just because of the pretty graphics and sprawling setting, but due to the independen­ce and intelligen­ce of the many NPCS which wandered the game world. You weren’t the only one scrapping and stealing in the valleys, which in 1983 was quite an achievemen­t.

MANIC MINER

■ The game that gave us

Miner Willy and introduced us to the mercurial Matthew Smith. Chris introduced Matthew to Bug-byte, the game’s original publisher, and also contribute­d ideas during developmen­t.

He is especially proud of the stepladder monsters, inspired by his dad’s DIY skills.

THRUSTA

■ One of the games Chris reviewed during the tail-end of his time at Bug-byte and decided it was worth sneakily passing on to his soon-to-be employer Software Projects to release. Crush monsters with rocks, blast baddies with your laser and struggle with the slightly awkward controls.

JUMPING JACK

■ A cheeky inclusion here as Chris’ connection to the game is that he turned it down for publicatio­n by Bug-byte. You can sympathise, as at first glance it looks crude and repetitive, but play for a while and its addictive charms are revealed. See Martyn Carroll’s excellent piece in

RG 146 for the full story.

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