Fingers hovered over the telephone dial for the umpteenth time: 0 – 8 – 9 – 1, they tapped, then 5 – 5 – 5 – 0 – 0 – 3. Within seconds a recording began that regaled callers with a bunch of hints and tips about Spellbound Dizzy, the fifth adventure game featuring Codemasters’ anthropomorphic egg. Sure, it came at a cost – 36p per minute if you were calling off-peak and 48p per minute at other times – but for those desperate to solve the game’s myriad mind-boggling puzzles, it felt worth every penny.
Spellbound Dizzy was difficult and frustrating but it was also varied and absolutely huge, with the latter fact worn like a badge of honour. As well as flagging up the game’s size on the packaging (“BIGGEST and BEST adventure yet,” it screamed), it was even mentioned in the game itself (click a message icon at the start of the Spectrum version, for instance, and it told you it was bigger than Dizzy III and IV put together). In fact, you couldn’t really play this game without knowing there were 105 rooms (in most versions, at least). But, boy, developers Big Red Software didn’t half make you work to see them all.
There was a simple reason for going large. “We were looking to achieve a new and bigger . That pretty much was it,” says programmer R Fred Williams. It was also to be the main attraction on. This featured another adventure game called , with the other three games being puzzle/action titles: , and either or depending on the platform.
