King Kong - BBC Micro User - BBC Micro - Emulated, BeebEm - 1,960 points

King Kong is an arcade game for the BBC Micro. It appeared as a type-in listing in BBC Micro User Issue 2, April 1983. The program was written by 14-year-old Chris Roberts. And yes, it is that Chris Roberts, the one responsible for PC hits like Times of Lore and Wing Commander.

The game is a simple arcade game with a single screen. Unlike what you may initially think, you are not to climb the building. Instead, you use a helicopter to collect two girls from the side of the tower and deliver them safely to the ground. All the time, Kong is throwing objects at you. Once the girls are rescued, you fly back up to the top of the screen and machine gun Kong to death by hitting him 40 times. Succeed at this and you can do it again, but this time it is much, much harder!

You have three lives, and one is lost if you are hit by an object or collide with the skyscraper. If you crash into one of the girls, it is a straight game over, so take care! Control is not that easy, especially as you have to manually change the direction your helicopter is facing. You'll need to practice to get far, but it does not take too long to adapt.

It's not the greatest of games, as you would expect, but there is a playable game here - at least on the first screen! I think it is a good effort for someone's first publication. You can't ask for much from a game written in BASIC by a 14-year-old, but this marks the start of an illustrious career for the author and is notable for that alone. Just a couple of years later, he was producing some well-loved BBC Micro machine code games such as Stryker's Run.

This run was made on the 1st September 2024 using the BeebEm emulator on PC. The final score was 1,960.

Time stamps:
00:30 High score table - yes, I got a higher score on a previous unrecorded run.
00:34 Game start.
00:39 First life lost.
00:51 First girl picked up and safely deposited on the ground.
01:32 Second girl picked up.
01:38 Girl dropped off, now to kill Kong.
01:47 Machine-gunning begins.
02:05 Kong killed.
02:11 Round 2 begins.
02:26 Second life lost.
02:45 Third life lost. Game Over! Final score 1,960 points.
02:57 Initials entry and High Score Table.



Intro Music:
Music by: Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio
Title: Legend
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