Gribbly's Day Out

Last updated
Gribbly's Day Out
Developer(s) Andrew Braybrook
Publisher(s) Hewson Consultants
Designer(s) Andrew Braybrook
Platform(s) C64, Acorn Archimedes
Release1985
Genre(s) Action
Mode(s) Single-player

Gribbly's Day Out is a Commodore 64 game by Andrew Braybrook, released by Hewson in 1985. [1] It was written over a three-month period. [2] The game is set on the planet Blabgor and centred on the exploits of Gribbly Grobbly and his attempts to rescue errant 'gribblets' from the landscape and return them to safety. A revised version was released on the Rack-It budget label. [3]

Contents

The heroes

Blabgorians possess the gift of psychic ability which allow them to levitate and move items with their minds, and as a result they evolved without hands (as they do not need them), a single foot (good for bouncing) and an oversized head (handy for containing large quantities of psychic energy). Gribbly Grobbly is a typical Blabgorian, and is tasked with the safety of the 'gribblets'.

'Gribblets' are infant Blabgorians; they have an armoured shell to protect them, but when flipped on their backs they expose their vulnerable belly and are unable to right themselves. They also have a tendency to leave the safety of home in search of adventure. Blabgor however is not a safe place; there are hordes of beasts roaming the landscape, eagerly searching for vulnerable Gribblets.

The Beasts

Seed Pods
With a resemblance to sycamore seeds, seed pods fly around the landscape. They are relatively harmless, though they hurt Gribbly when he collides with them. They are vulnerable to bubbles and are easily disposed of, however once they touch the ground they turn into Topsies.
Topsies
These mutated seed pods resemble worms with a suction cup on each end. They move backwards and forwards along the ground seeking out gribblets. When a gribblet is found, the Topsie flips the gribblet onto its back, making it vulnerable. They can still be killed by bubbles and hurt when touched. After a period of roaming the landscape, Topsies stop moving and encase themselves in a chrysalis.
Chrysalis
These do not move and can be destroyed by bubbles, but if left unattended too long, they hatch into Stompers.
Stompers
These resemble armoured Topsies. They cannot be killed by bubbles, but are susceptible to water and drown easily. If a Stomper encounters an overturned Gribblet, it absorbs the helpless creature and mutates yet again into a Flier.
Fliers
These are the final stage of evolution. They are susceptible to bubbles again and when killed they release the Gribblet used to create them, but gravity quickly takes over and this freedom will be short lived unless the Gribblet falls onto flat ground or is caught in mid-air.

The energy web

Another challenge is a large energy web, which covers large portions of the landscape and needs to be navigated carefully. Contact with the web is harmful, but certain sections of the web may be turned on and off to allow travel around the landscape. It was created to contain Seon, [4] a mutated Blabgorian [5] who was corrupted when he absorbed evil psi-energy. He was deemed insane and thought too dangerous to be free, so the web was meant to keep him out of trouble.

The game

The basic premise for the game requires the player to control Gribbly and navigate him through each of the 16 surreal 8-way scrolling landscapes in an attempt to locate and rescue eight baby Gribblets and returning them to the safety of the home cave.

Gribbly can hop and levitate [6] around each of the levels and can blow bubbles to defend himself. [7] Once a Gribblet is located, Gribbly can pick up the hapless offspring and carry it to safety. [8] Once only a single Gribblet remains on a level, the energy web fails, freeing Seon. [9] This usually results in a mad rush to get the remaining Gribblet to safety before succumbing to his attacks. Once all the Gribblets are either saved or killed, the level ends and Gribbly is transported to the next level.

Ports

A port by Coin-Age to the Acorn Archimedes (titled Gribbly's Day Out on the Arc) [10] [11] was released in 1992.

Other

Seven years after its release Gribbly's Day Out featured as the theme to a secret level found in the 1992 Amiga game Fire and Ice also designed by Andrew Braybrook. This level includes Seed Pods, Gribblets and an overall Blabgor landscape.

Related Research Articles

<i>Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2</i> 1987 video game

Rainbow Islands: The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 (レインボーアイランド) is a 1987 arcade video game developed and published by Taito, with the arcade version licensed to Romstar for North American manufacturing and distribution. The game is the sequel to Bubble Bobble from the previous year, and it is the second of four arcade games in the series. The game was ported to home computers and home video game consoles.

<i>Stargate</i> (1981 video game) 1981 video game

Stargate is a horizontally scrolling shooter released as an arcade video game in 1981 by Williams Electronics. Created by Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar, it is a sequel to Defender which was released earlier in the year. It was the first of only three productions from Vid Kidz, an independent development house formed by Jarvis and DeMar. Some home ports of Stargate were renamed to Defender II for legal reasons.

<i>Solar Jetman</i> 1990 NES game

Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship is a multidirectional shooter video game developed by Zippo Games and Rare and published by Tradewest for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in North America on September 1990 and in Europe by Nintendo on 26 September 1991. The game is the third installment of the Jetman series and was later re-released by Nintendo for their NES-based PlayChoice-10 arcade system in the United States in 1990.

<i>Paradroid</i> 1985 video game

Paradroid is a Commodore 64 computer game written by Andrew Braybrook and published by Hewson Consultants in 1985. It is a shoot 'em up with puzzle elements and was critically praised at release. The objective is to clear a fleet of spaceships of hostile robots by destroying them or taking them over via a mini-game. It was later remade as Paradroid 90 for the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST home computers and as Paradroid 2000 for the Acorn Archimedes. There exist several fan-made remakes for modern PCs. In 2004 the Commodore 64 version was re-released as a built-in game on the C64 Direct-to-TV, and in 2008 for the Wii Virtual Console in Europe.

<i>Starquake</i> (video game) 1984 video game

Starquake is an action-adventure platform game written by Stephen Crow for the ZX Spectrum and published by Bubble Bus Software in 1985. It was ported to the Commodore 64, MSX, Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit computers, Tatung Einstein, BBC Micro (1987), and IBM compatibles and Atari ST.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Graftgold</span> Computer game developer

Graftgold was an independent computer game developer that came to prominence in the 1980s, producing numerous computer games on a variety of 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit platforms.

<i>Monster Business</i> 1991 video game

Monster Business is a 1991 vertically scrolling platform game developed by Eclipse Software Design and published by Ascon that was released for the Amiga and Atari ST.

Andrew Braybrook is a software engineer and former game programmer. He created video games such as Paradroid, Gribbly's Day Out, Fire and Ice, Uridium and Morpheus. He also programmed the Amiga and Atari ST conversion of the arcade game Rainbow Islands.

<i>Zarch</i> 1987 computer game

Zarch is a computer game developed by David Braben in 1987, for the release of the Acorn Archimedes computer. Zarch started off as a demo called Lander which was bundled with almost all releases of the Acorn Archimedes.

<i>Ranarama</i> 1987 video game

Ranarama is a top-down Gauntlet-like action game developed by Graftgold and published by Hewson Consultants in 1987. It was released for the Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum home computers. The title appears to be a pun on rana, a genus of frogs. The game concept is similar to a previous game by Steve Turner for the ZX Spectrum called Quazatron, which was itself inspired by Paradroid, created by Turner's Graftgold colleague Andrew Braybrook.

<i>Dino Eggs</i> 1983 video game

Dino Eggs is an Apple II platform game designed by David H. Schroeder and published by Micro Fun in 1983. It was ported to the Commodore 64 by Leonard Bertoni and the IBM PC as a self-booting disk. Dino Eggs is Schroeder's second published game, after Crisis Mountain.

<i>The Brave Express Might Gaine</i> Japanese anime television series

The Brave Express Might Gaine is an anime television series begun in 1993, created by Takara and Sunrise under the direction of Shinji Takamatsu, and was the fourth in the Yūsha or Brave metaseries.

<i>Forbidden Forest</i> (video game) 1983 video game

Forbidden Forest is a game designed by Paul Norman, published by Cosmi Corporation in 1983 for the Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers.

<i>Quazatron</i> 1986 video game

Quazatron is an action game developed by Graftgold, and released in 1986 by Hewson Consultants. It was designed by Steve Turner for the ZX Spectrum.

<i>A View to a Kill</i> (video game) 1985 video game

A View to a Kill are two separate video games released in 1985 and based on the James Bond film A View to a Kill. The first, an action game titled A View to a Kill: The Computer Game, was developed and published by Domark. It was available for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MSX, and Oric. The second game, James Bond 007: A View to a Kill, is a text-based adventure for MS-DOS, Macintosh, and Apple II. It was developed by Angelsoft, and published by Mindscape.

<i>Space Gun</i> (video game) 1990 first-person shooter arcade game

Space Gun is a 1990 first-person shooter arcade game released by Taito. The game is set aboard a crippled space station that has been overrun by hostile alien creatures. The objective is to rescue human crew members while destroying the alien creatures. The game lets the player shoot limbs off the creatures, resulting in blood splatters.

<i>Jet-Boot Jack</i> 1983 video game

Jet-Boot Jack is a platform game written by Jon Williams for Atari 8-bit computers and published by English Software in 1983. It was ported to the Acorn Electron, Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, and Commodore 64. A C64-only sequel, Legend of the Knucker-Hole, was released in 1984.

<i>Fly Harder</i> 1993 video game

Fly Harder is a multidirectional shooter developed by Starbyte Software and published by Krisalis Software. The game was originally released for the Amiga in 1993. A port for the Amiga CD32 was released in 1994.

<i>Intensity</i> (video game) 1988 video game

Intensity is a 1988 action game designed by Andrew Braybrook, developed by Graftgold, and published by Firebird Software. It was released for the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum platforms.

<i>Stealth</i> (1984 video game) 1984 video game

Stealth is a pseudo-3D rail shooter designed by Tracy Lagrone and Richard Sansom. The game was published in 1984 by Broderbund for the Atari 8-bit computers and Commodore 64.

References

  1. ↑ Gribbly's Day Out at Lemon 64
  2. ↑ "Andrew Braybrook | Retro Gamer". 3 June 2014.
  3. ↑ "View a Scan".
  4. ↑ "Your Commodore Magazine Issue 11". August 1985.
  5. ↑ "ZZap!64 Magazine Issue 047". March 1989.
  6. ↑ "Your Commodore Magazine Issue 11". August 1985.
  7. ↑ "Computer & Video Games - Issue 045 (1985-07) (EMAP Publishing) (GB)". July 1985.
  8. ↑ "Computer & Video Games - Issue 045 (1985-07) (EMAP Publishing) (GB)". July 1985.
  9. ↑ https://i.prcdn.co/img?regionKey=E8C1G5VFMtrfK8M8xQpv1g%3D%3D [ bare URL image file ]
  10. ↑ Eshmade, Ben (Spring 1993). "Gribbly's Day Out on the Arc" (PDF). Eureka . p. 8. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  11. ↑ "Gribbly's Day Out on the Arc". Centre for Computing History website. Centre for Computing History . Retrieved 17 February 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.