what are the best platform games?

[lucifershalo]

According to you,
what are the best platform games?
one screen?
and multiple screens?

[The Kraken]

Chuckie Egg, natch.

I have something of a soft spot for Wallaby, even though Level 5 is insanely difficult. I guess it's the nostalgia factor.

[Dave Footitt]

Yeah deffo Chuckie Egg.

In fact, if it wasn't for the BBC version of that game, it wouldn't even be worth mentioning IMHO

I do rather like Manic Miner of course. Contraption is another good one, although a bit tricky!

[retroclinic]

Flicky (Sega arcade game from the mid 80's) is cutesy and addictive, but I'm not sure if it was ported to the Beeb? Bonanza Bros too...and don't forget Wonderboy! (You can tell I'm Sega biased can you?)

/agree on chuckie egg, also Manic Miner was hugely popular in it's day, especially on the Speccy, altho I find it awkward to play.

[Samwise]

CE on Amstrad and Electron were also up to the same playability as the beeb.

Sticking on-topic, I guess we should mention Jamie Woodhouse's Qwak first published as part of Superior Software's Play It Again Sam 10 compilation. That was a popular platformer, and has been ported to a fair few modern platforms.

Peter Scott also produced a fair few entertaining platformers, such as Pandemonium.

Sam.

[Kecske Bak]

For me it was always Magic Mushrooms - I loved playing it, and it was the first game I ever had with a level editor.

The Electron version of Frak! is a programming masterpiece. Far better than the Beeb version - editor, more levels, proper collision detection - if only there was a version with the Electron engine and the Beeb graphics!

I got Qwak! on PIAS10 and played it an enormous amount - I really admired the Japanese/Bubble Bobble style graphics.

On other platforms, Gribbly's Day Out on the Commodore 64 was my favourite.

[lucifershalo]

Yes my question was for Beeb computer

[AndyF]

JSW is good (tip: use the disk version not the cut down tape version) , smooth and quick enough to play too.

MM, it seems very flickery and slow compared to other platforms on the 'B.

[fwibbler]

Some of my favourites are:
Bug Eyes II
Smash and Grab
Killer Gorilla
Helter Skelter
Spooks and Spiders
Hard Hat Harry

Manic Miner is not too good on the BBC (IMO) I prefer the Spectrum version

[Jeremy Grayson]

Very soft spot indeed for the charm and beauty of Nutcraka, and for the ingenuity of its stablemate Load Runner. Honourable mention also for Wizzy's Mansion - fast, noisy, responsive and plenty anarchic.

gc

[Dave Footitt]

Haha and the plot for Vindaloo

[Benjy]

Manic Miner is not too good on the BBC (IMO) I prefer the Spectrum version

Despite me being a diehard Beeb kid, I have to agree with you on Manic Miner. That game excelled on the ZX81 and CPC464.

For the Beeb,

Vertigo
Qwak!
Killer Gorilla (already mentioned above)
The Tony Oakden platformers (Quest, Starport etc)
Ricochet
Citadel 2
Felix In The Factory
The Network

Would Exile count?

[retroclinic]

Manic Miner is not too good on the BBC (IMO) I prefer the Spectrum version

Aye, but they got the "feel" right with Jet Set Willy though didn't they? That plays much more like the speccy MM.

Mark.

[ivor_the_injun]

Rock hard, but I kept going back to Tarzan Boy.

Blagger was also pretty tricky, and in hindsight was probably a terrible game. Added to that, my copy was one of those tapes that would only load once every 5 times you tried, but it was pretty addictive.

Another one out of leftfield - Blue Ribbon's Condition: Red.

[Kecske Bak]

The Tony Oakden platformers (Quest, Starport etc)
Ricochet
Citadel 2
Would Exile count?

A lot of these games, though excellent, I'd really class as arcade adventures rather than platformers - although they all have platforms their gameplay involves manipulating objects to solve puzzles.

[davidb]

Don't forget the classic Mario Bros. clone, Drain Mania!

[Cybershark]

Not the best gameplay-wise, but Nutcracka blew me away (from a technical aspect) when I first found it on the Stairway archive.

[RETRTOKID]

I quite liked Mineshaft by Durell, though some screens were impossible to complete.

Blagger was another favourite, as close as you could get to 'Manic Miner' on the Electron, though the drone of the the sound when you moved gave you a headache after a while.

[Dave Footitt]

Yeah Mineshaft wasn't bad

I also spent a lot of time on Karl's Kavern, I did love the Software Projects art on the game covers!

[davidb]

For a multi-screen game, Shark is pretty good fun. For a puzzler, Breakthrough is worth looking at.

[MatthewThompson]

I just had a go at Mineshaft after all these years and interestingly on RISC OS using !6502em if I press
Escape the game moves onto the next level, and if you keep doing this you can see all the levels and the game completes itself, you see the final screen and then it starts again.

Was the original release like this, or is this a hacked version I have ? makes it pointless playing it if you can just skip
a level like that.

[jbnbeeb]

Could never play it very well but was always impressed by the graphics and sound of Ghouls.

Likewise.. lovely graphics and animation on Contraption..(best and smoothest sprites in a Beeb game?) but was very difficult.

Always had a soft spot for Jet Set Willy .. more playable than above two. Played it first on a friends C64 - which had superb intro music (Moonlight Sonata) .. Beeb version seemed to come out a good yr or two after release on Spectrum?

..and Chuckie Egg and Citadel.

I remember I had Tarzan on a compilation tape before I had a disc drive (didn't play tapes much after disc!) .. loaded it up tonight on emulator. Wow what a seriously hard game that was too! I don't know how I had the patience back then!

[Michael Brown]

The original BBC tape of Mineshaft lets you press Escape to change a level. I remember this from BITD when I had my Beeb and it is not a bug or hack but a feature (although a strange one as it looks more like a deliberate sort of cheat and Nick and Julian didn't feture it again in any of their other games that I have).

Don't know about the Electron version though.

[mjforbes]

Don't know about the Electron version though.

Yep - the Elk version also had the 'level-skip' feature. Perhaps this feature was added as the authors realised that the game was (in places, at least) incredibly hard, and to stop people giving up and loading up Chuckie Egg, decided to include it, so that if one was utterly bamboozled by a certain level, they could skip forward and try another. Does seem to be a very odd, and blatant cheat though.

M

[MatthewThompson]

Interesting to read that about Mineshaft, but kind of makes trying to complete it now a pointless exercise, as you can just skip the screen if you get stuck, suprised such a feature was left in, ideal for level testing but in the actual game seems really strange.

Totally agree about Ghouls, excellent sounds and graphics and stood out from many other platfom games, it was a bit tricky to play but it's only real downfall was that it only had 4 levels, shame.

Contraption was indeed an excellent game, superb graphics but I remember it being quite hard too, maybe have to revisit it again sometime. Another good platformer was Tynesofts Mouse Trap.

As for Jet Set Willy yes it came out on the BBC later on as Tynesoft did a whole number of conversions for the machines that Software Projects didn't release it on. They did a pretty good job converting it too, the only real difference was the lack of Moonlight Sonata on the title page, oh and you could complete the BBC and Electron versions which you couldn't to start with on the Spectrum.

[MatthewThompson]

Creepy Cave by Atlantis was a nice cheap and cheerful little platformer, nothing amazing, but one I remember playing
quite a bit.

[Jeremy Grayson]

Interesting to read that about Mineshaft, but kind of makes trying to complete it now a pointless exercise, as you can just skip the screen if you get stuck, suprised such a feature was left in, ideal for level testing but in the actual game seems really strange.

I can't speak for the original tape version, but the level skip does actually cr*p out after repeated use on the version featured on Beau Jolly's 10 Computer Hits Volume 3. From memory I think it crashes the game completely rather than returns you to a hi-score screen or similar, but it must be a decade and a half since I fired it up last so I can't be entirely sure.

I also half-remember that it only does this after you've gone round all the caverns in the game - by either a combination of playing and skipping levels, or else by just skipping the lot - more than two times (i.e. at the final cavern, hitting Escape again loops back to cavern one).

Something for someone to test today if the tennis gets rained off again, perhaps.

gc

[Steven666v2]

Rock hard, but I kept going back to Tarzan Boy.

Blagger was also pretty tricky, and in hindsight was probably a terrible game. Added to that, my copy was one of those tapes that would only load once every 5 times you tried, but it was pretty addictive.

Another one out of leftfield - Blue Ribbon's Condition: Red.

It was pretty easy. https://youtu.be/GPTo3SxjnHM

[Steven666v2]

I just had a go at Mineshaft after all these years and interestingly on RISC OS using !6502em if I press
Escape the game moves onto the next level, and if you keep doing this you can see all the levels and the game completes itself, you see the final screen and then it starts again.

Was the original release like this, or is this a hacked version I have ? makes it pointless playing it if you can just skip
a level like that.

The original on original hardware was like this. Gives you a chance to practice levels. All levels are completeable.

[barbarossa69]

Boffin (and Boffin 2)
Vindaloo
Chuckie Egg

Also I really liked Manic Miner!