Bobby Bearing
Growing up as an only child I had quite a few toys. But one of my favourite things were marbles. Not actually playing the marbles game but turning them in to characters and pretending they were explorers , or school children or just about anything except marbles. Why am I telling you this?
Well, in 1986 'The Edge' published Bobby Bearing. Which featured this little ball and his quest to find his brothers who have been led astray by their bad cousin. Using 'Curvispace 3D' this was a pretty unique looking game at the time. But what made me play it was that storyline. It's as if someone had been watching my childhood games with my marbles and their adventures and had written the game with me in mind. I'm pretty sure no one had been lurking in the vegetable patch watching my childhood exploits! Plus at the time I was very busy leading my younger cousin musically astray by introducing him to heavy metal music , so it just seemed like the perfect game!
It's another great exploration game, with the added bonus of the blocks actually having a certain amount of camber to them so that you roll off them in a certain manner. There are jumps to be bounced over and obstacles to avoid and the occasional evil bearing to get pushed around by, if you can find them. It's a time based game, so far less frustrating than just being killed every time you fall off of something. In fact with those lovely ZX Spectrum colours it also brought back memories of Lego blocks as well. I had found a game that was summing up everything I loved about my childhood.
Very soon I stopped even trying to find my brothers or wayward cousin ( in the game that is!) I would just roll around marvelling at those fantastic graphics and occasionally getting squished under slabs. Because there was no instant death in the game it meant that you played for longer, annoyed your parents and heated up your Spectrum to sausage roll warming temperature! This was the first of the 'modern' Spectrum games that I took a real liking to. It showed me that life didn't end at Underwurlde or Sabre Wulf.
It wasn't played as often as the 3D Deathchase or Atic Atac and wasn't a game I introduced my father to. I think he would have become far too frustrated with some of the parts of the game where you have to line up over an air vent and would have launched the newly repaired joystick across the room. Plus I don't think there were enough bangs, crashes or bloodshed for him ! So it became another game that was Julie's solo game, it wasn't something any of my friends were playing or seemed to want to play either. Looking back on the game now I wonder if also my love of pinball and bagatelle played their part in my interest in this game as well.
Whether it was the Lego, the marbles or the pinball the images of this game stayed with me through out my adult years. But would it still entrance me as it had done when I was a child?
It does, to play this game takes me back to 6 weeks of summer holiday and playing with my marbles in the garden. It takes me back to care free days and happiness. I still have my marbles (some may disagree with that statement!) and now thanks to the wonders of emulation I have the game that goes along with them.
It does, to play this game takes me back to 6 weeks of summer holiday and playing with my marbles in the garden. It takes me back to care free days and happiness. I still have my marbles (some may disagree with that statement!) and now thanks to the wonders of emulation I have the game that goes along with them.