Wanted: Monty Mole

Last updated

Wanted: Monty Mole
Wanted Monty Mole.jpg
Developer(s) Peter Harrap [1] (Spectrum)
Antony Crowther (C64)
Publisher(s) Gremlin Graphics
Platform(s) Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
Release
  • EU: 29 July 1984
[2]
Genre(s) Platformer
Mode(s) Single-player

Wanted: Monty Mole is a platform video game published in July 1984 [2] for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 home computers. It is the first game released by Gremlin Graphics [2] and the first game in the Monty Mole series. Monty Mole is a fictional mole created by Ian Stewart, the director of the company. [2]

Contents

Gameplay

Commodore 64 screenshot Wanted Monty Mole Commodore 64 Gameplay Screenshot.png
Commodore 64 screenshot

The player controls the titular mole who has to travel around a coal mine collecting pieces of coal and other miscellaneous objects while avoiding various nasties and the infamous crushers. [3] The style of gameplay is typical of platform games of the 1980s. The ZX Spectrum version is a flip-screen game while the Commodore 64 version uses scrolling. [4] The game was inspired by the UK miners' strike of 1984–85, and even featured a character based on union leader Arthur Scargill. [3]

Music

Reception

Wanted: Monty Mole reached number 2 in the all-formats sales charts behind Daley Thompson's Decathlon [6] in the week up to 13 September 1984. It topped the ZX Spectrum charts in the same week [6] before being replaced by Daley Thompson's Decathlon the following week. [7] Gremlin Graphics reported that they had sold 20,000 copies in the first six weeks. [8]

The game received a positive reception from critics. Crash rated it 92%, describing it as a "fantastic Jet Set Willy type of game with excellent graphics and a good use of colour throughout". [9] Personal Computer Games gave it 80%, saying "if you can put up with a measure of frustration, Monty Mole will unearth a great deal of action for your money", while also praising the graphics. [10]

It also won Crash magazine's readers award for best platform game in 1984. [1]

Sequels

Related Research Articles

Ashby Computers and Graphics Limited, trading as Ultimate Play the Game, was a British video game developer and publisher, founded in 1982, by ex-arcade video game developers Tim and Chris Stamper. Ultimate released a series of successful games for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, MSX and Commodore 64 computers from 1983 until 1987. Ultimate are perhaps best remembered for the big-selling titles Jetpac and Sabre Wulf, each of which sold over 300,000 copies in 1983 and 1984 respectively, and their groundbreaking series of isometric arcade adventures using a technique termed Filmation. Knight Lore, the first of the Filmation games, has been retrospectively described in the press as "seminal ... revolutionary" (GamesTM), "one of the most successful and influential games of all time" (X360), and "probably ... the greatest single advance in the history of computer games" (Edge).

<i>Pssst</i> 1983 video game

Pssst is an action video game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game that was released for the ZX Spectrum in June 1983. In the game, Robbie the Robot has to protect his plant as it is attacked by various insects, each of which needs a different repellent to neutralise it. Pssst was the second game to be released by Ultimate, after Jetpac.

<i>Knight Lore</i> 1984 video game

Knight Lore is a 1984 action-adventure game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game, and written by company founders Chris and Tim Stamper. The game is known for its use of isometric graphics, which it further popularized in video games. In Knight Lore, the player character Sabreman has forty days to collect objects throughout a castle and brew a cure to his werewolf curse. Each castle room is depicted in monochrome on its own screen and consists of blocks to climb, obstacles to avoid, and puzzles to solve.

<i>Krakout</i> 1987 video game

Krakout is a Breakout clone that was released for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Thomson computers and MSX platforms in 1987. One of the wave of enhanced Breakout variants to emerge in the wake of Arkanoid, its key distinctions are that gameplay is horizontal in layout, and that it allows the player to select the acceleration characteristics of the bat before playing. It was written by Andy Green and Rob Toone and published by Gremlin Graphics. The music was composed by Ben Daglish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gremlin Interactive</span> British software developer

Gremlin Graphics Software Limited, later Gremlin Interactive Limited and ultimately Infogrames Studios Limited was a British software house based in Sheffield, working mostly in the home computer market. Like many software houses established in the 1980s, their primary market was the 8-bit range of computers such as the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Commodore 16 and Commodore 64. The company was acquired by French video game publisher Infogrames in 1999 and was renamed Infogrames Studios in 2000. Infogrames Studios closed down in 2003.

<i>Underwurlde</i> 1984 video game

Underwurlde is a 1984 action-adventure platform video game in the Sabreman series by Ultimate Play the Game for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. The player controls the adventurer Sabreman as he jumps between platforms in a castle and its caverns to find an escape past the exit guardians. Underwurlde features about 600 flip screen areas. Unlike other games of its time, Sabreman is not injured when touched by enemies and is instead knocked backwards. Underwurlde is the second game in the series, between Sabre Wulf and Knight Lore, and released shortly before the latter for the ZX Spectrum in late 1984. Another developer, Firebird, ported the game to the Commodore 64 the next year.

<i>Auf Wiedersehen Monty</i> 1987 video game

Auf Wiedersehen Monty is a computer game for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, MSX and Commodore 16. Released in 1987, it is the fourth game in the Monty Mole series. It was written by Peter Harrap and Shaun Hollingworth with music by Rob Hubbard and Ben Daglish.

<i>Monty on the Run</i> 1985 video game

Monty on the Run is a computer game created by the software house Gremlin Graphics and released in 1985 for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 16, written by Peter Harrap for the ZX Spectrum with the iconic in-game music on the Commodore 64 provided by Rob Hubbard. It is the third game in the Monty Mole series.

<i>Summer Games</i> (video game) 1984 video game

Summer Games is a sports video game developed and published by Epyx based on sports from the Summer Olympic Games. Released in 1984 for the Commodore 64, it was ported to the Apple II, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari 8-bit computers, and Master System.

<i>Lunar Jetman</i> 1983 video game

Lunar Jetman is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game. It was released for the ZX Spectrum in 1983 and later on the BBC Micro. In this sequel to Jetpac, the second instalment of the Jetman series, Jetman has to destroy alien bases whilst simultaneously defending himself, along with Earth, from a hostile alien race.

<i>Atic Atac</i> 1983 video game

Atic Atac is an arcade-adventure video game developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game, released for the ZX Spectrum in 1983 and the BBC Micro in 1985. The game takes place within a castle in which the player must seek out the "Golden Key of ACG" by unlocking doors and avoiding enemies. It was Ultimate's second game to require 48K of RAM; most of their previous games for the Spectrum ran on unexpanded 16K models.

<i>Cauldron</i> (video game) 1985 video game

Cauldron is a video game developed and published by British developer Palace Software in 1985 for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC home computers. It contains both platform game and horizontally scrolling shooter sections. Players control a witch who aims to become the "Witch Queen" by defeating an enemy called the "Pumpking".

Quicksilva was a British games software publisher active during the early 1980s.

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

Cyclone is a multidirectional helicopter game for the ZX Spectrum released by Vortex Software in 1984. It was written by Vortex co-founder Costa Panayi who also coded the similarly styled Tornado Low Level.

<i>Personal Computer Games</i> Defunct British magazine

Personal Computer Games was a multi-format UK computer games magazine of the early/mid-1980s published by VNU.

<i>Rambo</i> (1985 video game) 1985 video game

Rambo is a 1985 video game based on the film Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985). The game was designed by David Collier and Tony Pomfret with the ZX Spectrum version converted by Platinum Productions.

<i>Monty Is Innocent</i> 1985 video game

Monty Is Innocent is a video game written by Chris Kerry for the ZX Spectrum and published by Gremlin Graphics in 1985. It is a sequel to Wanted: Monty Mole released the previous year. While the game was marketed as Monty Is Innocent, it is never referred to by that title in-game; instead it merely displays Great Escape!. The inlay also features this title, on the newspaper that Monty Mole is reading in his cell.

<i>Daley Thompsons Decathlon</i> 1984 video game

Daley Thompson's Decathlon is an Olympic-themed sports video game developed and released by Ocean Software in 1984. It was released in the wake of Daley Thompson's popularity following his gold medals in the decathlon at the 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games. The game is a licensed adaptation of Konami's 1983 arcade game Track & Field.

<i>The Warlock of Firetop Mountain</i> (video game) 1984 video game

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is an action game published by Crystal Computing in 1984 for the ZX Spectrum home computer. It is loosely based on the adventure gamebook of the same name written by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, and published by Puffin Books in 1982.

<i>Mickey Mouse: The Computer Game</i> 1988 video game

Mickey Mouse: The Computer Game, also known as just Mickey Mouse, is an action game developed and published by Gremlin Graphics in 1988 for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum.

References

  1. 1 2 "Crash Readers Awards 1984". Crash . No. 12. Newsfield. January 1985. pp. 94–95. ISSN   0954-8661.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Gremlin – The Rising Star". Commodore Computing International. Croftward Ltd. December 1986. p. 27. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  3. 1 2 Purchese, Robert (13 April 2011). "Peter Harrap wants new Monty Mole". Eurogamer . Gamer Network. Archived from the original on 16 April 2011.
  4. "The Potty Programmer".
  5. Game review, Crash magazine issue 9, Newsfield Publications October 1984
  6. 1 2 "Charts". Personal Computer News. VNU. 22 September 1984. p. 5. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  7. "Charts". Personal Computer News. VNU. 29 September 1984. p. 4. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  8. "Top 50". Personal Computer Games. No. 12. VNU. November 1984. p. 21. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  9. "Wanted: Monty Mole". Crash. No. 9. Newsfield. 27 September 1984.
  10. "Personal Computer Games Magazine Issue 11".
  11. "Moley Christmas". Your Sinclair . No. 25. Dennis Publishing. January 1988. p. 17. ISSN   0269-6983.
  12. "School-developed Monty Mole Game Released for launch of Games Britannia 2013" (Press release). Games Britannia. Games Press, Gamasutra. 7 February 2013. Archived from the original on 10 January 2021.