Split Personalities (computer game)

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Split Personalities

Developer(s)	n/a
Publisher(s)	Domark
Release date(s)	1986
Genre(s)	Puzzle
Mode(s)	Single Player
Platform(s)	C64, ZX Spectrum
Input	Keyboard

In 1986 when the C64 was at one of its greatest points in production, Split Personalities (first released as Splitting Images) was released. Known as the sliding tile game, Split Personalities you had to slide well-known figures' faces back together.

Image of the in-game figure of Margaret Thatcher.

[edit] Gameplay

The game presents you first with a blank screen to play with. You control a flashing cursor which can be moved at will over the canvas. Press the fire button and the first piece of the puzzle will slide out on to the playing area. Move the cursor on to this piece and then you can slide it around the screen by holding fire before moving the stick in the direction you wish the block to move. At this point it is also worth looking at the miniature version of the picture you are trying to assemble which is handily placed above your score. Here the full grid is present, and the block in play is highlighted so you can tell where it needs to go. This comes in very useful on some levels where position is not obvious from the scrap of picture held on any one block (indeed, certain screens include several identical blocks, get them in the wrong place and your finished portrait will look perfect but you won't finish the level).

[edit] Spitting Image

Unfortunately for Domark the lawyers from the satirical TV puppet show Spitting Image decided the original title, Splitting Images, was a little too close for comfort hence the swift rebranding exercise. The new name more than adequately sums up the object of the game though, which is to put back together the faces of a selection of well known public figures.