ChinnyVision: Fiendish Freddy's Big Top Of Fun

[chinnyhill10]

Purchased my CPC version on the strength of the Amiga review alone! Glad I got disc though, I imagine tape was no fun at all. No budget re-release (I suspect for that reason) either, that I know of.

In an era where we were seeing more and more licenses, a great original IP game for the CPC.

[Shaun M. Neary]

I had this on tape! Rented it from the games shop in the city, kept it for a week, and recorded it before returning it.


You gotta remember, for those of us stuck on tapes (and there were quite a lot of us!), we didn't know any different. We didn't really appreciate the speed of disk loading... until we saw someone else or finally got the upgrade. In my particular case, I went from 1986-1993 before experiencing a disk load. I used to use tape loading times to do homework or root out a music tape to play along (I used to turn the sound down on a lot of games as I used to hate the sound of a game interfering with my music).


It certainly wasn't the worst multi loader either, I think each level was less than a minute per level. I definitely had a lot of fun with this. I also recall myself and a mate of mine nearly falling off our chairs at the end of the first level where you had to practically dive into a cup. It was some of the funniest shit I'd seen at aged 14!


I see the C64's bland as butter palette well in action yet again. 


Damn it, I'm gonna have a game now, I think. =D

[chinnyhill10]

It certainly wasn't the worst multi loader either, I think each level was less than a minute per level.

I assume, given the sheer amount of disc access and having to flip sides of the disc that stuff must have been cut from the tape version.


For example at the end of every level (which if you are rubbish at it could last as little as 20 seconds for some events) it loads the judges and then loads the next level. Were the judges cut or simplified? Was there alot of winding back and forth? Or perhaps did they save the judges sequence several times on the tape to prevent you needing to wind the tape?

[Shaun M. Neary]

I assume, given the sheer amount of disc access and having to flip sides of the disc that stuff must have been cut from the tape version.


For example at the end of every level (which if you are rubbish at it could last as little as 20 seconds for some events) it loads the judges and then loads the next level. Were the judges cut or simplified? Was there alot of winding back and forth? Or perhaps did they save the judges sequence several times on the tape to prevent you needing to wind the tape?

The tape was quite long, so the judges reactions were duplicated at the end of each event. It wasn't an Outrun type deal where you had to rewind and fast forward the tape to different sections. Outrun was probably the biggest multi load nightmare on tape. Once you've endured that, one will endure anything. To my knowledge, nothing was cut. I just don't really think it sold all that well as a game unfortunately, which might justify not being released on budget. I don't think Mindscape had a deal with any of the bigger budgets like Kixx or Hit Squad, I don't think any of their games ended up on budget, come to think of it, but I could be wrong on that.