A Whole New Ball Game - A Dyslexic Discovery
Now dear reader, I'm going to zoom forward to 1989, I know that is a little bit of a shock. But I never promised this journey was ever going to be chronological. A few things have changed in 1989, first off the ZX Spectrum now has it's DK'Tronics keyboard so no more rubbery keys and secondly we now have access to Crash Magazine (which means cover cassettes ) .
Perhaps I should explain about cover cassettes , these came on the front of a magazine full of computer games. Now it has to be said some of these were not very good games, but occasionally there were some utter gems.
Perhaps I should explain about cover cassettes , these came on the front of a magazine full of computer games. Now it has to be said some of these were not very good games, but occasionally there were some utter gems.
This one in particular meant a lot to me. It was written by Pete Cooke and appeared on the cover cassette on Crash Magazine. I dutifully attempted to play every single game on every cover cassette I bought, some were played once, some became firm favourites (this was a firm favourite.) The aim of the game is to direct a ball to collect yellow energy pills by using various surfaces to bounce the ball off of. But there are also more exciting obstacles as well to speed you up and slow you down and transport you to various other parts of the screen.
Plus this game also came with a level designer, so you could have hours of fun designing levels for your friends to play, or in my case make even easier levels so that I could get more game play. It was a unique little puzzler , I think Lemmings was at least a year away and I certainly had no knowledge of it. So to me this was a brilliant game that was very absorbing and made me think.
But despite all my praise for it's uniqueness that's not the whole story behind why it features here. Often in this blog I've talked about my inebriated octopus gaming skills, the fact that if a game has more than 4 keys I will end up crashed into a tree/space-station/temporal rift (delete as appropriate ). This game made me realise that perhaps I wasn't just a klutz, perhaps there was another reason for my complete and utter lack of co-ordination when trying to control something on a screen/amusement arcade/with wheels (delete as appropriate.)
The above screen , dear reader, you should be able to solve possibly just by looking at the picture , once you work out what all the little blocks do. I'll let you into a secret, my head can't predict which way the balls will bounce off those gates. Even today I have sat looking at it for a few minutes and I just can't do it.
Does that mean I'm thick? Well, hopefully no, I can play musical instruments, I used to do gymnastics and trampolining , I play badminton and I very rarely fall over things. So why was I so thick when it came to this game?
Does that mean I'm thick? Well, hopefully no, I can play musical instruments, I used to do gymnastics and trampolining , I play badminton and I very rarely fall over things. So why was I so thick when it came to this game?
It was a few years after I discovered this game that during a maths tutorial at college the tutor took me to one side and explained I may be dyslexic. I at first denied it , I loved reading and writing , my maths skills were above average, but I couldn't hide the fact that left and right were alien concepts and when I became stressed numbers would get written the wrong way round.
It was this game that I thought back to , those mirrors that caused the confusion on which way the ball would bounce. Was this the reason I was unable to play Chequered Flag ? The reason I felt so panicked when playing Gulpman ? Suddenly life had become ...well ..A Whole New Ball Game
It was this game that I thought back to , those mirrors that caused the confusion on which way the ball would bounce. Was this the reason I was unable to play Chequered Flag ? The reason I felt so panicked when playing Gulpman ? Suddenly life had become ...well ..A Whole New Ball Game
Now many, many years later I no longer deny the dyslexia, the only thing it has ever really prevented me from doing is holding a driving licence ( in my head reversing can't happen .) But I am thankful I played this game and it gave me reason to pause and just wonder
if perhaps I'm wired up a little differently/ I'm unique/ I'm me and wouldn't change it for the world.
No need to delete as appropriate , be yourself and rise above your limitations.
if perhaps I'm wired up a little differently/ I'm unique/ I'm me and wouldn't change it for the world.
No need to delete as appropriate , be yourself and rise above your limitations.
