Todays gem from the vault of gaming history is the 1987 ‘Codemasters‘ classic ‘Treasure Island Dizzy’ for the Commodore 64 (amongst other systems). Treasure Island Dizzy was the second game in the Dizzy series, which eventually went on to span fourteen games and seven years. This game was a marked removal from the first game, shifting the focus from killing enemies to solving puzzles in an almost point & click style. The game saw our eggy hero trapped on a desert island on a quest to get a boat to reunite him with the rest of the ‘Yolk Folk’.

In case you were wondering how the lovable egg ended up on the island, Dizzy decided to take a well earned holiday after all the excitement of his first adventure, but being a bit tight he decided to take a cheap cruise on a pirate ship. While on the boat, Dizzy and his friends decided to play a game of cricket, but they were missing a wicket and decided to use the captains peg leg as a substitute. As you can guess, the captain was none to pleased and made Dizzy walk the plank, leaving him stranded on Treasure Island. Once you are in to the game, there is two islands and a stretch of sea for Dizzy to explore and solve the puzzles to find the pieces to make his boat, but this is not the only challenge you have to complete. Before the evil shopkeeper will let you leave the island you must find the 30 gold coins hidden around the game, some are obvious, while others are completely hidden behind bits of scenery.

This game was fiendishly difficult, and you only had one life to complete it in, harsh! Make one mistake late into the game and that’s it, your all the way back to the start. I’m sure I broke at least one joystick by throwing it at a wall in frustration playing this game! The inventory system was dodgy to say the least too, you could only hold 3 items at once, meaning you could accidentally make Dizzy take off his snorkel underwater and he would die instantly! Unique to the C64 version of the game was a useless item called ‘Sinclair Abuser Magazine’, a parody of ‘Sinclair User‘ magazine (a popular ZX81 magazine), highlighting the rivalry between the two companies.

I did finally complete this game after many years of playing it, an achievement I am proud of to this day. This was definitely my favorite of the Dizzy games, despite its difficulty. It was challenging (to a seven year old anyway) and fun to play… What more could you want?

You can now download the PC version of Treasure Island Dizzy for free from the Codemasters website.

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