Engineer Humpty
Humpty Dumpty, reimagined as an arcade engineer — one of three Artic Computing games built around the nursery rhyme character in 1984.
Treasure Island Dizzy
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Created by twin brothers Philip and Andrew Oliver and published by Codemasters in 1988, Treasure Island Dizzy is the second outing for the egg-shaped hero with the boxing gloves, and the one most often cited as the series' finest hour. Shipwrecked on a mysterious island, Dizzy must explore, collect, and above all think his way to treasure and freedom.
Gameplay
Dizzy can carry only a handful of items at once, which turns the whole island into an inventory puzzle disguised as a platformer: the right object, carried to the right place, at the right time. A magic bean planted in the correct spot, a key found through patient exploration, a rope bridge that needs building before it can be crossed — nothing is solved by reflexes alone.
Technical notes
The graphics are simple and cheerful rather than showy, in keeping with Codemasters' budget-price positioning, but the physics are cleverly forgiving — an egg, sensibly, cannot survive a hard landing, and the game telegraphs this rather than punishing you for the metaphor. The puzzle logic throughout is fair, well-clued, and rewards curiosity over precision.
Verdict
Charming rather than flashy, and fondly remembered less for technical showmanship than for genuinely well-made puzzles wrapped in a fairy-tale island setting. A landmark of British budget software history.
Score breakdown
Play & download
- Treasure Island Dizzy at Spectrum Computing — full credits, magazine reviews and history at Spectrum Computing.
Nothing is hosted on this site — the links go to the external sites credited above. See the Downloads page for more archives and emulators.
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