PrinceWatercress plays Freddy and the Spiders from Mars

The game may be simple, but at least the dream is as nonsensical as those I've had in real life.

Longplay

Freddy and the Spiders from Mars is a type-in game for the BBC Micro from 1985, from Issue 38 of Input Magazine.

Freddy is a window cleaner with an intense dread of spiders. He's been to his doctor and innumerable specialists who cannot cure his condition. Things are so bad he now has a recurring nightmare, concerning a Martian spider, a collection of balloons, and his favourite hobby, archery.

Frequently he wakes up bathed in sweat after dreaming of beings stranded on his ladder equipped with a supply of arrows. He has been trying desperately to burst balloons, which if allowed to reach the spider's cage above hie head, unlock the doors which imprison the beast.

Help Freddy burst the balloons, or he'll end up as the spider's breakfast! Points are awarded for each balloon Freddy bursts. If he lets through three balloons, the Martian spider is released.

A and Z move up and down, while Space fires an arrow. At the top of the screen, you'll see your current level, how many balloons you have left before moving on to the next level, your current score and the high score for the current session.

As you can probably guess, you'll be climbing up and down a ladder while firing an arrow, hoping to hit a balloon. You can only have one arrow on the screen at a time, so you'll really need to be good with your shots, especially when the balloons, which always show up one by one, show up at different points from the ground. If you can time things right, you can stand in a certain spot on the ladder, fire at a certain point depending on how close the balloon is to you, and hit the target every time.

As mentioned in the instructions, you can only miss three balloons before the Martian spider is freed and Freddy gets eaten in his absolutely nonsensical dream. Thankfully, whenever you reach a new level, all of the walls blocking the Martian spider from being unleashed will be restored, and you'll be back to the three misses. But beware, as the balloons move faster which each new level, and they get pretty fast pretty quickly. I usually never make it past level 3. As a result, sessions of this game do not last very long.

The game is great for what it is, especially when you consider that it is a free type-in game. The graphics are easily identifiable, the only sound you get is the balloons popping, and the controls work like they should. However, like most of the other games that I've played for the BBC Micro, you'll get enjoyment out of the game for a few minutes max before moving on to something else. Is the game still worth looking at? Well, yes. I still have an itch to shoot down some balloons, even if poor Freddy is going to be devoured before Level 3 is over every single time. 

PrinceWatercress plays Alice in Wonderland (GBC) - Part 6 of 6

In this entry, we finally meet the Queen of Hearts and find out that getting home is anything but easy.

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Now that we have all four of the card pip badges, we can enter the castle in the north end of Wonderland, meet the Queen of Hearts, play croquet with her and win the game. Before I do that however, I head back to the area before the tea party in the Mad Hatter's area and keep going in and out to get enough stars for the White Rabbit races.

For the third race, go right at the beginning, then go through the right path again. After the two stone bridges,  take the middle path as soon as you are able and keep running forward. You just beat the rabbit in record time. Talking to the Brush Dog leads to another bonus area. This time, you'll have to go to the top and use the platforms on the way. Head to the right, get to the mini-mushroom and drop all the way back to the start. You'll need to go up with the platforms, enter the narrow paths and run off the edge to get on the next platform when it comes your way. Jumping will not work. If you take this path, not only will you not need the key to open the door in this level, but you can also find the next teapot.

For the teapot, you'll need to stand on the dark blue rock platforms to drop down. After the first one, take the second one three times, then go all the way to the right and stand on the last one for the last set. Get big again, then head upwards for the teapot and the exit. 

For the fourth and final race, take the right path after the first bridge, the left or middle path after the double bridges, then the left or middle path again after the third and last bridge area. This leads to the final bonus area once you talk to the Brush Dog. It looks much like the first one, but it's definitely different. Watch out for the vulture umbrellas as you drop down from one area to the next. Near the end, you'll need to head to the right shrink down, then go down one more level to get the teapot here. From here, you'll have to use the platforms in the lower-left corner to get back to the start. Stay to the right as you drop down towards the bottom again to get the key. You'll be able to open the door and get out of here.

It's time to enter the castle and face the Queen. Once you enter the hedge maze, you'll need to paint the roses red. The eighth and final teapot will be to the right of where you start, but thankfully, it's really easy to get to once you see it. As for the rose bushes, stand on the X on the ground near them and press A to paint them. Once you paint all four trees, you'll meet the Queen.

From here, you're playing three rounds of croquet with three games each. You'll want to press A when the arrow is pointing straight up towards the top of the screen. In this game of croquet, you'll need to hit the ball so that it goes underneath the card guards who are arched back on the ground. Round 1 is fairly simple, but Round 2 is a little more complicated, as you'll have to time it right so that you can hit the ball when the guard is in position. Since the bird that acts as your croquet mallet beats its wings before you get into position, you'll have a little bit of a delay between when the next part starts and when you can actually press A to swing. Also, you'll always have it harder than the Queen.

If you miss at any point, you'll get a game over, and you'll have to play the current round that you are on again if you continue.

In Round 3, you'll have to shoot past two guards, and this time, the guards move back and forth in opposite directions from each other. 

After making it past all three shots of Round 3, the Queen of Hearts will want your head cut off, and you'll be in another maze area. Avoid the card guards as you run around the maze and make it to the exit. Thankfully, getting through this area is not incredibly hard, and there are two specific areas where you can refill a hit point.

You'll then have to fight the card guard himself. Stay in the center of the room and jump on the guards as they show up. If you hold A while jumping off a guard's head, you'll get a higher bounce off of them. As you defeat the guards, they will show up more and more quickly, but if you use the high bounce, you'll have an easier time getting through. When you defeat enough card guards, you'll beat the Queen and you'll beat the game. Alice will get past the gatekeeper, leave Wonderland, and end up back in the real world. You'll unlock some art in the art gallery (which we'll have all the art for at this point, so you can make pictures you can print with the Game Boy Printer with everything the game gives you) and the second stage for "Where in Wonderland?" You'll also have beaten Alice in Wonderland!

"Where in Wonderland" is a separate game mode where you play hide and seek with the White Rabbit. You'll have two places to choose between if you've beaten the game - the beach and the farm - and you'll need to run around as Alice with the same controls that you have in the top-down overworld sections. From here, stand in a certain section, and if you see a circle where you are standing, press A to see if you've found the rabbit. Cold means you're way off, Warm means you're getting closer, and Hot means you've found the White Rabbit. If you find the Rabbit within the time limit on the lower-right corner of the screen, you'll get a point; if you can't find the Rabbit within the time limit, the Rabbit will get the point. If you play two-player mode, you can just pass the Game Boy Color between yourself and a friend.

With that taken care of, that's the game!

PrinceWatercress plays Alice in Wonderland (GBC) - Part 5 of 6

It's time for the tea party...and it's really, really annoying.

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It's time to head back to the Mad Hatter. This time around, we have the fresh biscuits, and once we show up at the tea party with them, everything goes nuts. You'll need to get a key from the Doormouse to unlock a gate.

You'll need to do this three times. You'll need to use the arrow in the top center of the screen to figure out where the Doormouse is, reach the Dormouse, get the key, and then get to the gates and unlock the next gate. You'll also have to avoid both the Mad Hatter and the Marsh Hare once you have the key and you're able to run to the gates, and if you come into contact with either of them on the way there, you'll lose the key and you'll have to get it again. Thankfully, once a gate is unlocked, it stays unlocked. 

After unlocking all three gates, you'll face the Mad Hatter himself. Duck to avoid the hat, then jump on the Mad Hatter's head while it is still bare. After about five or six hits, the battle ends, and you'll get the Diamond Medal.

PrinceWatercress plays Alice in Wonderland (GBC) - Part 4 of 6

In this entry, we meet the Caterpillar and float around in a bubble to spell our name.

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Our next destination is the Caterpillar. Be sure to jump left and hit the Mini Mushroom to get the stars in the lower section at the start. Brambles hurt, so don't land on them.

From here, you'll be taking a ride of the bubbles. Bubbles will pop out of the plants in this area. Jump into a bubble to ride it, then move around with Left and Right. If you hit a ceiling, the bubble will pop. Interestingly, being small makes it a little easier to get enveloped by a bubble so you can ride one. If you need to get out of a bubble early, just jump.

There are two items to look for in the second section: a teapot and the Carpenter's hammer. The hammer will be more to the left, while the teapot will be more to the right.

You can stand on the ladybugs to move across the brambles safely if you see them.

In the third section, you'll meet the Caterpillar. You'll need to spell your name (Alice) on the way to the top, and the lower-right corner will show which letters you've picked up. If you find a Mini Mushroom, be sure to explore the nearby area, as you might be able to find a letter for Alice's name.

Watch out for the mosquitos, as they will pop your bubbles if you run into them as they fly in place. 

Once you fully spell your name, you'll get a Spade Medal, then you'll leave.

We have our second race with the rabbit, since I have enough stars to do this after the Caterpillar. For the maze, it's middle, left, middle, left, and after the winding path, it's right, left after the next winding path, and after the final winding path, keep to the right.

Giving the hammer to the carpenter nets you fresh biscuits for the Mad Hatter.

Speak to the Brush Dog for the next bonus area, you'll have a more linear that goes from left to right. As a result, it's a lot easier to get all of the stars here. You'll find a teapot in plain sight at the end.

PrinceWatercress plays Alice in Wonderland (GBC) - Part 3 of 6

In this entry, we head to the White Rabbit's house, and just like in the movie, Alice gets enormous.

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The path to the rabbit's house in the overworld has a pink stone wall. To get the stars on the way to the house, you'll have to leap on the enemies walking along the stone wall. You'll have only one shot to get those. You'll also have to jump on the duck with the horn head to get the higher ones, and you have infinite tries to get those.

Unless you have the key with the rabbit head, you're not entering the house. Once you have it, though, you'll have plenty of bookcases and plenty of platforms. You'll need to explore to find not only the key to the door, but also the Walrus' Cane.

Run past the lanterns to get past them and the flames that they leave, and be ready to jump over the moving flames. The lanterns re-spawn immediately after they drop and their flames disappear, so keep an eye out for them.

To get the hand enemy to lower, you'll need to hold the B button and run towards it. This will cause the enemy to lower and wag a finger at you, leaving it vulnerable to a jump attack. 

The green plants will hurt you if you approach them, so stay on the platforms above them.

The red seat cushions are trampolines, and you'll need them all the way to the right of where you start in the fourth room to get the key. There will be another key on the way, and you'll need both key to unlock the ultimate challenge for this area: the cookie that makes Alice big.

Alice eats the cookie and gets so big that she is trapped in the rabbit's house, causing the White Rabbit to believe that a monster is in his house (when it's really Alice).

From here, you'll play as Bill the chimneysweep. Left and Right on the D-Pad moves Bill left and right, A picks the ladder up as well as places it, and Down on the D-Pad ducks. Up on the D-Pad near an upright ladder allows Bill to climb. Since you cannot jump as Bill, you must fall to reach certain ledges. You'll need to duck to avoid the birds that fly, and you'll also want your ladder in your hand as you do this, as the birds will knock the ladder down. Thankfully, the game is very good at telling you exactly where you need to go, although you will have to go against the arrows to pick up the teapot that is in this area.

Once you make it to the top of the house, the Dodo will stuff Bill into the chimney, causing chimney dust to go everywhere and make Alice sneeze, which returns her to normal size, while Bill gets launched into the air. You'll then get the Club Medal for completing this area.

Returning the cane back to the walrus will give you a compass.

PrinceWatercress plays Alice in Wonderland (GBC) - Part 2 of 6

In this video, we start exploring Wonderland in an attempt to return home. After finding some lost items, we start making some headway.

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When you finally wash ashore in Wonderland, a good amount of the game will be in a Zelda-like overhead perspective. You can move in eight directions with the D-Pad, and holding B will allow you to run. You can still jump with the A button, even though it admittedly feels a tad different compared to the side-scrolling sections, of which there will still be a few.

The pencil birds are enemies and can be defeated with a jump attack, although I leave them alone simply because I can.

The Brush Dog will whisk you away to a bonus area if you talk to him while you have 100 stars in your possession, which is replaced with the sprite of the White Rabbit running. I'll mention the bonus areas when the time comes, although the Brush Dog does mention that you will have to race the White Rabbit.

By walking up to signs, you can read them. The arrow signs will take you to the four stages of Wonderland that you will have to enter and clear before you can enter the final one, and each sign will tell you which one you are approaching. Just keep going in the direction of the sign, and you'll eventually enter that stage.

You'll also see some NPC's that you can talk to just by approaching them like you did with the signs. If you talk to them, they will ask you if you have seen a specific item. You'll need to play through the first four stages and find the items within in order to help these people recover their lost items. Thankfully, the NPC's do mention where they last had their missing item.

The rose will mention that she left her conducting wand with the Tweedles.

The man near the Tweedles' stage is missing his hammer, and you will find it in the Caterpillar Woods.

The Dodo near the Rabbit's house has lost his handkerchief, and you will find it at the tea party.

The Walrus has lost his cane, and you will find it at the Rabbit's house.

Since I have nothing better to do, I head to the Tea Party first.

Tea Party

At the start, go left, and watch out for enemies. You'll meet a new enemy in the spider, which will drop down when you get close enough. Watch the top of the screen for spiders, and jump on them after they drop all the way down. This area is a great place to stock up on stars for all of the bonus areas, and I take advantage of that for the later videos in this Let's Play.

When you go all the way to the left, you'll end up at the tea party. The Mad Hatter will be close to where you enter from, and he will tell you that you'll need biscuits in order for the dormouse to come to the party; without the biscuits, you won't be able to do anything here. Nevertheless, I do look around for more stars, and I run into other characters from the movie such as the Marsh Hare.

Since you don't have any biscuits, you won't be able to do much here besides collect all of the stars in the area and then leave. The gates here will automatically be open, and on your way out, you'll find the Dodo's handkerchief.

Back at the overworld, hand the handkerchief over to the Dodo to get the Tweedles' hats. With these hats in your inventory, you'll be able to complete the Tweedles' stage.

The Tweedles

The entrance to the Tweedles' stage is south of where you met the Dodo.

When you see a group of stars at the start, there will be an enemy shortly after it. Also, the last foreground tree before the exit into the overhead section will also hide an enemy.

The overhead section is a maze. You need to make it all the way to the north, but you also need to avoid the Tweedles and their many clones along the way. Watch where the Tweedles are going, and be sure to avoid them.

The big hopping pairs of glasses are also enemies, and much like the pencil birds, you can also jump on them to defeat them.

Along the way, you'll find a dead end near the end that leads to the conducting wand. By handing this to the rose, you'll get the Rabbit Key, which you'll need to unlock the Rabbit's house.

At the end of the maze, go right before going up for the last star in the maze so you can get all your health back.

You'll then face the Tweedles in a boss fight. Wait for the Tweedles to land on the ground before jumping on them. The power-ups that you got in the battle against the clock on the way to Wonderland will also show up here, and you can use them against the Tweedles. When you jump on the Tweedles' heads enough times, you'll get the Heart Medal. You'll need the four medals to enter the final stage and return home to beat the game.

Bonus Level 1

After completing this level with 100 stars, we end up doing the bonus area as soon as we leave.

For the Rabbit Maze, go through the middle first. Cut left, then go all the way to the right and follow the path. At the fork in the road, take the left path and keep going. Stay to the left as you keep going north, and the path will soon be easier to follow. Take the center or right paths at the end to reach the finish line. The White Rabbit is fast, but he will continually follow the wall at times, which gives you a chance to get ahead of him as long as you keep moving and always hold the B button.

When you reach the finish line first, talk to the Broom Dog back in the overworld. The Broom Dog will take you to a secret area. The duck-like creatures with the horn-like faces will act as trampolines when you jump on them while you are big. You'll need to touch the mushrooms to change your size and get some of the stars, as some of them can only be collected when you're small.

Near the end, there is another teapot that you need to collect. Thankfully, it is very easy to get to, and even if you're small when you're at the end, you're not kept from getting it before you leave.

If you pause with the Start button, you'll see how many stars you have, what medals you have and what items you have.

PrinceWatercress plays Alice in Wonderland (GBC) - Part 1 of 6

This is probably one of the last things I would expect to be turned from an animated Disney movie into a full-fledged video game, but somehow Digital Eclipse made it work, and on the Game Boy Color, at that. The result is something that is surprisingly solid but is also relatively obscure due to everything else that was coming out on the Game Boy Color and other consoles at the same time. At least it reviewed alright.

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I barely remember the Game Boy Color "Get Into It" commercial for this game. I may have seen it; I may have not. Nevertheless, there was one. The game itself? After playing it, it's...strangely good?

You have up to three save files to work with in this game. If you need to delete one, press the Select button. When starting a new game, you must input your initials with the D-Pad and confirm with A.

The game begins with Alice sitting in the tree daydreaming as her teacher reads from a history book. All of a sudden, a white rabbit carrying a pocket watch runs into a burrow, looking extremely late for something. Press A to get through the text prompts, which come with the animation of falling cards revealing the text from left to right.)

From here, you'll take control of Alice. Left and Right on the D-Pad move left and right, Down ducks, and A jumps. You can run by holding the B button. This first part is simple; just head to the right and jump from rock to rock once you make it to the river. After going far enough, you'll catch up with the white rabbit - known as The White Rabbit - and from here, you'll go down the rabbit hole. At this point, you'll start getting hints on what to do from the Cheshire Cat.

While falling down the rabbit hole, you can move around with the D-Pad, and you can also use Up to slow your rate of descent. The A button lets you descend faster when held down, but you'll want to go down to the end while hitting as few random objects that aren't gold stars as possible. The gold stars allow you to enter bonus areas when you collect 100 of them, although that won't become much of a priority until you reach Wonderland.

You have five hit points, and you can collect papers with "1/5" on them to refill them. If you lose all of your hit points, you'll end up at the game over screen, but thankfully, you have infinite continues. The game is meant for a general audience, after all.

You'll eventually reach the bottom, and when you do, you'll enter the hallway leading towards Wonderland. You'll run into the Cheshire Cat, who will cryptically explain that the mushrooms will change you from big to small to big again, and when you change size, the pitch of the music gets higher and lower depending on your size (and it definitely gets higher when you're small to the point where it can be a bit grating). You'll also see a lot of platforms moving either vertically or horizontally; be ready to jump onto them and take a ride to wherever they go.

If you see any enemies such as the frogs, you can jump on them when they are on the ground to defeat them. You also must be big in order to defeat them; if you're small, you'll simply bounce off the top of them.

The cyan and white sections of the floors are trap doors that drop you down a level if you stand on them for a second. 

The paintings of the soldiers will carry spears that move up and down. If the tips of the spears touch you in any way, you will lose a hit point. Halfway across the spears section, the Cheshire Cat will tell you that you can perform running jumps to jump further by jumping as you run.

The key allows you to open the brown wooden door with the doorknob at the end of the current section. If you reach a wooden door without a key, you'll have to backtrack and find the key.

Further down the hallway section, you'll see tea cups and tea kettles spinning around as they fly in a certain direction. You can jump on the tea kettles to defeat them, and while you can also destroy the tea cups in the same fashion, they are a little harder to hit due to their size. 

The running pocket watch enemy can be jumped on, but this enemy is rather fast, so be ready to jump on it when it suddenly shows up.

If you collect all of the stars in an area, the Cheshire Cat will tell you when you collect the last one. You'll also get a full heal and have five hit points again, which is pretty nice.

The hallway has multiple sections, and while you won't see much new in the second section, you will see plenty of mushrooms and plenty of running pocket watches. There are also multiple keys, and you'll need to collect them all to get through each section one at a time.

The macaron enemies act much like the frog enemies from earlier; jump on them when they are on the ground to defeat them.

The third hallway section starts with the Cheshire Cat warning you about the tricky floors, even though you've probably found out about them the hard way two sections ago. You'll also be jumping from platform to platform a lot at the beginning, too.

The spinning yellow thing near where the tea cups and tea kettles are actually spinning pocket watches, although I had no idea what they were while playing this game.

There is a wall that you can get through while you are small when you reach the area above the start. If you go into that area, you'll find a teapot. The teapot allows you to unlock things for the photo album mode that can be used with the Game Boy Printer, and there are eight teapots in in all. Don't forget to grab it!

After you get through the third section, you'll face an angry, running pocket watch that is larger than the ones you've previously faced. While you can jump on him to damage him, there are birds that will fly out from the side and give you one of two icons: an "I" icon that gives you temporary invincibility and an icon with a down arrow on it that does damage to the boss. I ended up grabbing a ton of these and destroying the boss in about a minute.

From here, Alice starts crying because she cannot catch the White Rabbit, and this leads to her flooding the room and travelling across the river she has just made in a bottle. Your only controls are Left and Right on the D-Pad to steer left and right, respectively. If you run into an octopus tentacle, or if you run into a rock formation at a fast enough speed, you'll get a game over screen and you'll be forced to play this section again from the beginning. Any of the white glowing areas are currents that will push your upwards faster. You'll get a "!" symbol at the top center of the screen if you are approaching a hazard, and this is your only cue to move around to avoid being nabbed. For some reason, staying to the far left for most of this section will make it easier to get to the end. I wish I knew why.

When you finally complete the bottle section, you'll wash ashore in Wonderland and pop out of the bottle. From here, you've reached the meat of the game...