01 On the game’s opening screen, we see both Head
(the dog) and Heels (the cat) – so close, and yet, thanks
to the wall between them, so far away.
02 Head could jump for England (or whatever country it
is he’s from), but he’s far more sluggish than Heels.Yes, that’s a Dalek with the head of Prince
Charles. You control it by pushing those round
bumpers until it’s in the correct position to act
as a platform for crossing the deadly spiked
floor. Head and Heels are working together for
this bit.
CLASSIC WEAPON
Heels prepares to climb one of the dog
staircases. They just vanish if Head enters the
room. Heels will need to carry some bongos
up to the top, though, because his feeble jump
isn’t high enough to reach the doorway. It’s all
perfectly logical.CLASSIC MOMENT
R
eleased in 1987, three years
after the game that inspired
it, Head Over Heels was the
most highly evolved of all the
many Knight Lore-style adventure on
the Spectrum.
With five themed areas it was
many times the size of Knight Lore,
yet somehow it managed to pack in a
graphical density and variety far beyond
that offered by Ultimate’s pioneering
game. Even the floors were intricately
detailed, and as if to prove that it
really did deserve to be regarded as a
different species, Head Over Heels had
two separate characters to play with.
Head could leap high and glide
gracefully though the air, while Heels
could run fast and climb disappearing
staircases made from dogs. Yes. After
a while the two would meet up so you
could stack them together and combine
their abilities, but certain puzzles would
eventually split them up again.
It was a big game, and like most
Spectrum titles it lacked a save feature,
forcing you to complete the entire thing
in one sitting. Still, if ever there was a
game that justified the risk of melting
your Spectrum by leaving it switched on
overnight, it was surely Head Over Heels.