Here at Flickering Myth we’ve caught glimpses of a new Dizzy game over on the horizon, coming from the direction of the Oliver Twins from Radiant Worlds for some time, but what we didn’t expect from this game was it is technically twenty-two years old and that it will also be free to everyone!
Just announced at “Let’s Go Dizzy!”, taking place at The Centre for Computing History in Cambridge is the brand new Dizzy game called, Wonderland Dizzy. Initially created by the Oliver Twins over two decades ago and lost in amongst numerous archived materials, it was teased – over on Twitter – back on the 20th June, but in truth very few people were aware what was found.
After attempts at loading this now antiquated disc, they were downhearted to discover the full game wasn’t actually on the disc, but the source code and graphics however still survived. So they contacted Jason Fitzpatrick at The Centre for Computing History in Cambridge and Andrew Joseph of Yolkfolk.com – the biggest Dizzy Fan site – who knew a person who may might be able to help. That person was Łukasz Kur, from Poland, who in just a few days turned these pieces of code around, into a working ROM image. This worked – slightly bugged – but it worked and it was hard.
The Oliver Twins spoke with Łukasz, firstly thanking him and then asking if there would be a possibility of fixing the bugs, as well as seeing if it would be possible to add a fun mode with infinite lives as gamers these days aren’t used to games being hard. They also told him to place his name on the front as “Special thanks to…”
After discussions about different languages being added the final file size came in just under 256K, this would have melted a Spectrum 48K (even a 128k would have weeped under the pressure), however by today’s standards this doesn’t even amount to two iPhone icons or around 15 seconds on a standard MP3.
It was during these discussions on the different languages Andrew Joseph sent a link to the Oliver Twins saying, “Hit this!” – you can too – he had placed the new Dizzy game within a browser at www.WonderlandDizzy.com.
Not only this, Andrew Joseph had also made some mock up box art based on the Radiant Worlds Dizzy artwork, which you can see at the top of the screen. Wonderland Dizzy came into to being twenty-two years after being written, it has finally appeared on our screens – for everyone to play – thanks to the combined effort from the creators of Dizzy and its fans.
Andrew Joseph’s Box Art
Also announced at “Let’s Go Dizzy!” was the Kickstarter launch for the new book from Chris Wilkins, who also wrote, “The Story of Ocean” [review here] as well as, “The Story of U.S. Gold” [review here]. This new book is titled ‘The Oliver Twins:- Let’s Go Dizzy!‘ and will tell the story about their beginnings and their decades within the software industry.
The Oliver Twins:- Let’s Go Dizzy!
If you’d like to know more about this book or make a pledge towards the Kickstarter then follow this link here. For more information on Fusion Retro Books you can visit their website here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zacfQI4xyhU
Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=W04aXcyQ0NQ
Originally published October 24, 2015. Updated November 29, 2022.
