| One Man and His Droid |
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One Man and His Droid is an action puzzle game created by hobbyist Clive Brooker on his ZX Spectrum 48K from easter to September 1985. It has only buzzer sound effects. He demonstrated it to video game publisher Mastertronic, who quickly named it and hired people for this Commodore 64 port, which adds more colorful flashes and background music.
You are a droid (herding dog) who deals with ramboids (dim rams on planet Andromadous). Each of the 20 levels consists of 2 parts: First, you have to make your way past over 200 ramboids. Second, you have to fence 7 ramboids into a teleport, at least 4 in the correct order. After completing a level, you get additional time, but not 9999 again. In later levels, you must dig tunnels.
The game got good reviews, but is still slagged off by gamers who don't understand it.
Screenshots
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The loading screen.
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The title sequence.
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Up against the stream.
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Small instructions.
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Doesn't hurt... I hope.
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I was aiming for 6400. :-(
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Music
Rob Hubbard was already known, and Mastertronic a good client. Besides an evergreen that was voted 50th favorite top SID by HVSC Crew and SID fans, Hubbard delivered 14 sound effects, 6 of which are unused. As usual for his driver at the time, each sound effect consists of two voices which drown out the melodies, leaving only bass and drums.
Recording
The song was recorded from the game:
- on a real PAL C64C with an 8580 R5 4091.
- in VICE 3.2 with C64C NTSC.
(Source: Hubbard's demo.)
Credits
(Game lacks audio credits. First known sources: ZZAP! 64 No.11 March 1986, code recognition.)
Game Rip
Audio Devices
This game uses the computer's built-in SID chip and sounds the same on every one of them. On NTSC C64s, it is faster and tuned at 457 Hz.
Releases
Links
