Dynamite Dan II - ZX Spectrum/iOS

As it says in my bio, I've been playing games since 1983, when I received the seminal UK micro, ZX Spectrum, for Christmas. Back then, it seemed like every other game was a platformer of one kind or another and two of the best were the Dynamite Dan games, programmed by Rod Bowkett and released on the Mirrorsoft label. They are now also available in iOS versions - the first game is available as part of the Spectaculator Spectrum emulator app and the second game is a 69p in-app purchase in that app or for the same price as a standalone game (the photos here are from the latter app).

The second of the two DD games, Dynamite Dan II: Dr Blitzen and the Islands of Arcanum, was one of my favourite games on the system (which is saying something on a system that had 10,000 games released for it over its lifetime).

On iPad, the lower half of the screen is given over to the joystick/fire button

It was a flip-screen platformer, set across the titular Islands of Arcanum. In true 80s computer game style, there was a hokey, probably tacked on, plot linking all the onscreen action together. Series bad guy, Dr Blitzen, was enslaving the youth of the world by putting subliminal messages into vinyl pop singles (possibly commentary on the mid-80s rise of the PWE stable of singers? Or probably not...). You have to shut this evil enterprise down by - of course - finding a record on each of the islands and then playing it on the Island's jukebox, before grabbing a jerrycan of petrol to refuel your airship to travel to the next island.

In the 80s, that use of colour on Spectrum was like witchcraft

DDII featured a lot of innovative elements that are still being used in games today - health bar rather than lives, different coloured baddies having a different effect (e.g. a magenta enemy, when touched, would remove fuel (also magenta) from your inventory; a white enemy removing white bombs and so on); different enemy designs on different islands; secret passages that were only available if a particular object was held - which bears testament to its forward-looking approach. It also had - for a BEEP-y Spectrum, anyway - great sound.

The car park island.  As far as I got in the 80s

In common with pretty much all games of this era, it was insanely difficult - I only ever got to the sixth of the eight islands when playing on Spectrum in the 80s and I played it *a lot*. Back then, once you died, the player would have to go back to the very beginning of the game, to island 1 (very frustrating when you'd been on island 6). That type of game dynamic is unacceptable in the molly-coddled world of 21st Century gaming (thankfully) and the iOS version allows the player to manually save as they go along. Saves games can be reloaded after each (inevitable) death, making the game much easier (but still not easy) to complete.

As a result of playing the app I have now discovered, 25 years after I'd originally played the game, that the game is impossible to complete as envisioned in the instructions! Those instructions state that, on the last island (The Pressing Plant) after the record has been played on the jukebox, Dan must find a bomb and plant it in Dr Blitzen's (Pete Waterman's?) office, in order that the Doctor's nefarious plans cannot resurface. I played the record, found the bomb and what I took to be Blitzen's office (gold records on the the wall) but there's no way of planting or detonating it! I did wonder if I was doing something incorrectly but after a quick look around the internets, I saw it confirmed that the game could not be fully completed. I don't blame the programmer, Rod Bowkett, for who DDII was to be his last game before becoming a full-time musician/sound designer. He must have struggled considerably to put such game as there is into the Spectrum's 48k. No, I blame Mirrorsoft owner and pension-plunderer, Robert Maxwell. Just, y'know, because...

Rod Bowkett still has a public profile now (no mention of DD, sadly). It would be great if premier old games magazine 'Retro Gamer' could interview him regarding these games (and why the ending never made it into the finished game).

This screen features a VERY annoying shortcut

Despite the anti-climax at the game's end, it is still a very playable and enjoyable game, even today - I was playing DDII on iPad in preference to playing on my PS Vita while my family was watching The Voice - and great value for money. After 'completing' DDII, I found myself top of the worldwide Game Center leaderboard for the game, the first time I've been top of anything. Admittedly, there are only 33 entries in the leaderboard but still...