Gulpman - How do you like them apples?
You may have noticed, dear reader, that there is one very obvious computer game character that has remained absent for my random musings about my childhood. It's round and yellow ran / rolled/bounced around mazes chased by ghosts a lot. Well I'm afraid to say that I never made the acquaintance of Pac-man until much later in my life. I have no idea why this should have been , there was probably some perfectly wholesome adult reason for this .......but instead of the bouncy yellow fella , pills and ghosts I got Gulpman.
You are a stick person, you have to go round a maze and eat all the fruit , you are chased by four 'chasers' , but you have lasers to fire to send them back to their start positions. This was a game from 1982, from the very dawn of the ZX Spectrum. Back in those days , to have something on the screen in colour that moved with the speed of this game was , to my innocent eyes, very interesting.
I soon found out that this was a tricky game, limited lasers meant you had to decide when to use them and with the four chasers after you my initial goes were usually short lived. Even my father seemed unable to warm to this game, I wonder if our under exposure to the wee yellow fella had left us sorely lacking in the fruit eating department. But we tried again and gradually the game play got easier , tactics were worked out, lasers were fired and most importantly fruit was eaten.
So why is this game included in my little treasure trove of memories? Well , firstly because it was the first Pac-man-esque game I played. But there is something far greater than that about this game, it was a button that was called M on the game menu.
This magic button allowed you to choose which maze you started on. No more having to finish a level to see what other colour combinations the game designers had dreamt up. You just pressed that button and scrolled through. This was like being given a jukebox , or a mix tape ( the young 'uns may want to google those references !) Suddenly this game came alive for me, stuck on the first maze? Well of course I was , I could just play on an easier maze. You could also alter the speed and the grade of the game. This game was perfect for the un-coordinated game player, taking her first teetering steps in a Pac-man deficient world.
But for me the one thing that this game show cased was the Spectrum colour scheme. It mixed two colours together on the maze and as I saw them on this game , suddenly my childhood passion of colouring in also began to try out these colour combinations as well. Possibly this WAS the game that fuelled my love of the colour magenta and of cyan as well. It certainly was the game that made me realise that red and yellow can live happily side by side.
But there is still more nostalgia to be had from this game for me. Very much like the Space Raiders game invoking the taste of those chutney flavoured crisps. This game for me invokes the smell of a particular brand of perfumed felt tip pens that were essential for the youngster in the 80's.
But there is still more nostalgia to be had from this game for me. Very much like the Space Raiders game invoking the taste of those chutney flavoured crisps. This game for me invokes the smell of a particular brand of perfumed felt tip pens that were essential for the youngster in the 80's.
Strange as it may sound , this game actually smells of the 80's. It smells of raspberry, tomato, strawberry and cherry .A game about eating fruit , that actually smells of fruit, what's not to love?
In later years I was introduced to Pac-man. Gulpman was rarely played, it was confined to the historical interest section of my brain. But recently with the use of an emulator this game resurfaced and I was amazed to find that it still held those scents ( the above screen is raspberry and lemon.)
Pac-man may play better, may be more well known. The little yellow fella may have his face on more merchandise , his ghost buddies have even been known to appear on cushions. But Gulpman will always have one ability that Pac-man will never have. The ability to transport me back , through time , to a simpler age , where the most important thing was to make sure your artwork smelt of strawberries.
Pac-man may play better, may be more well known. The little yellow fella may have his face on more merchandise , his ghost buddies have even been known to appear on cushions. But Gulpman will always have one ability that Pac-man will never have. The ability to transport me back , through time , to a simpler age , where the most important thing was to make sure your artwork smelt of strawberries.