Head Over Heels (video game)

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Head Over Heels

Developer(s)	Ocean Software
Publisher(s)	Ocean Software
Designer(s)	Jon Ritman (programming), Bernie Drummond (graphics), Guy Stevens (sound), F. David Thorpe (loading screen)
Platform(s)	Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, MSX, ZX Spectrum
Release date	1987, 1988, 1989
Genre(s)	Arcade adventure
Mode(s)	Single player
Media	Cassette, Floppy disk
Input methods	Keyboard, Joystick

Head Over Heels is an arcade adventure, released in 1987 for several popular 8-bit home computers, and subsequently ported to a wide range of formats. Originally, the working title for the game was Foot And Mouth ^[1].

Visually, Head Over Heels bears a number of similarities with Ultimate Play The Game's Knight Lore and Alien 8. It uses an isometric engine that is similar to the Filmation technique first developed by Ultimate. Head Over Heels is the second isometric game by Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond, after the Batman computer game.

Heels tries to catch a ride. (Amstrad CPC)

The game introduces an original concept: the player controls (initially separately) two characters instead of just one. The two characters have different abilities (Head can jump twice as high, control himself in the air, and fire doughnuts from a hooter to paralyse enemies; while Heels can run twice as fast, climb certain staircases that Head cannot, and carry objects around a room in a bag), which become complementary when the player combines them together after about a sixth of the game. Compared to its predecessors, the game offers unique and revolutionary gameplay, more complex puzzles, and more than 300 rooms to explore.

Drummond contributed some famously surreal touches, including robots (controlled by push switches) that bore a remarkable resemblance to the head of Prince Charles on the body of a Dalek. Other surreal touches include enemies with the heads of elephants and staircases made of dogs that teleported themselves away as soon as Head entered the room.^[2]

In 1994 its authors wrote Monster Max, another isometric video game, for the Game Boy. The game, although monochrome, is twice the size of Head Over Heels.^[3]

1 Plot
2 Conversions and remakes
3 Critical reaction
4 Comparison of various formats
5 Cultural references
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Plot

Headus Mouthion (Head) and Footus Underium (Heels) are two spies from the planet Freedom. They are sent to Blacktooth to liberate the enslaved planets of Penitentiary, Safari, Book World and Egyptus, and then to defeat the Emperor to prevent further planets falling under his rule. Captured and separated, the spies are placed in the prison headquarters of Castle Blacktooth and must first escape, then break through the market to the orbiting Moonbase where they can teleport down to the planets to locate and reobtain the stolen crowns. Liberation of the planets and defeat of the Emperor will allow Head and Heels to return to Freedom as heroes.

Ritman admits that storyline lacked real connection to gameplay. In an interview for Edge magazine, he stated that he "made the whole game up and then added the bullshit in the last ten minutes."^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Conversions and remakes

Head Over Heels was first released in 1987 for Z80-microprocessor-based home computers (ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX). Due to its huge success, it was later ported to other platforms including the Atari XL/XE and ST, Amstrad PCW, Commodore 64 and the Commodore Amiga.

The latest remake of Head Over Heels (for Windows, Mac OS, Linux and BeOS) by Retrospec is available as freeware on their website.[1]. It was recently^[vague] voted the second best remake ever by PC Zone magazine.

A different remake is available at helmantika.org [2], and a new remake, using renderized graphics, is in progress from the same authors^[4].

[edit] Critical reaction

Your Sinclair awarded Head over Heels 9/10 in the June 1987 issue^[5] and the game was placed at number 5 in the Your Sinclair official top 100.

CRASH magazine gave Head over Heels 97% and called the game "The best fun you're likely to have with a Spectrum for quite some time".^[6]

[edit] Comparison of various formats

In this scene we see Head and Heels separated at the start of the game.

The ZX Spectrum version featured some colour, although the main play area was largely monochromatic to avoid attribute clash.	The Amstrad CPC version featured four-colour graphics (two colours less than the ZX Spectrum but better distributed).
The same scene in the Atari 8-bit conversion. This version is fully monochromatic.	The Amiga version took advantage of the machine's colour capacity to provide a richer visual experience.

[edit] Cultural references

This game is parodied in the DVD release of The IT Crowd series one. In the DVD menu system, a game very similar to Head Over Heels, but with characters from the TV show, is played while you choose an episode.