A classic UK video game from the 80s is about to become the most belated sequel ever, thanks to one of the original programmers.
Any British gamer who grew up in the 80s has likely played Head Over Heels, an isometric action adventure video game where you control two characters – one a floating head and the other a head on a pair of legs – to solve puzzles.
The original game was released for old home computers like the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, and later the Amiga, but unlike many games of that era it has persisted, with several fan remakes, including one that’s available on Steam right now and a completely different one on Switch.
Now, though, one of the original game’s programmers has released what’s being billed as a sequel; one that’s been almost 40 years in the making.
Titled Return To Blacktooth: A Head Over Heels Adventure, it has mostly been a solo effort by Colin Porch, an 81-year-old programmer who worked on the original game.
Speaking in an ITV interview, Porch explains that development initially began in 1989, after the first game came out, but work was abandoned due to the rise in popularity of game consoles.
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It wasn’t until Porch attended a reunion with fellow staff of developer Ocean Software that he was inspired to go back and finish development, telling ITV, ‘My old boss, a guy called Gary Bracey, he asked me, ‘What happened to the sequel you were doing?’ and I said, ‘Well, I abandoned it.’ ‘Oh, you need to finish it,’ he said. ‘Big demand for retro games now.’’
And so he did, although he did need to get permission from the rights holders of Head Over Heels, and half the battle was figuring out who that actually was.
‘Then we couldn’t find out who held the IP rights, the intellectual property right, to the characters in the game, which meant we couldn’t market it until we had their permission and found out who it was.’
Whoever it is, Porch must’ve been given the all-clear since he’s using Head Over Heels in the title and included the same characters in the final game.
It’s currently available on itch.io for $12.99 (which is just less than £10), where you can download it to either run through an Amiga emulator or on an actual Amiga computer if you have the know-how to do so.
Indie publisher Thalamus Digital Publishing is even offering a physical version of the game, though it won’t be available until later in the year.
The game’s credits also show that while Porch handled the design and programming, he did enlist help for the music and getting the game working on Amiga hardware.
It’s worth noting that original creators John Ritman and Bernie Drummond aren’t involved with the sequel and are only credited for their work on the first Head Over Heels.
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