Roland (game character)

Roland was a game character developed in 1984 by Alan Sugar, CEO of Amstrad, and Jose Luis Dominguez, a Spanish game designer. The character was named for Roland Perry, a computer engineer who worked for Amstrad. The idea was to have one recognizable character in a number of different computer games in a bid to have the Amstrad CPC compete with the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64.^[1]

Games in the Roland-series

• 1983: Roland in the Caves^[2] (Amstrad CPC version of the Spanish game Bugaboo (The Flea))

• 1983: Roland on the Ropes^[3] (made in Spain by Zigurat and marketed there and elsewhere as Fred^[4]): Roland had to collect bullets, treasures and maps while climbing ropes to get out of a tomb/pyramid. Some villains can be destroyed (skeletons, bats, mummies) while some can only be forced to change direction (ghosts) and some have to be jumped over (dripping poison, rats, scorpions). When the game ends, the end music is the Funeral March. The game was released for the Spectrum and the Commodore as well, and was later remade for the PC.^[5]

• 1984: Roland Goes Digging^[6] (by Amsoft for Amstrad CPC) - a Space Panic clone

• 1985: Roland in Time^[7] (by Amsoft for Amstrad CPC)

References