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"Fanmade remakes of a classic: Head Over Heels" , posted Sun 16 Nov 20:55:

[This game is featured in Home of the Underdogs' Hall of Belated Fame.]

Head Over Heels is an isometric adventure puzzler from 1987, created by John Ritman and Bernie Drummond and released by Ocean Software Ltd, that appeared on several computers of that era. It was a success, touted for its unusual atmosphere and its unique puzzles brought about by controlling two characters. The game isn't without its flaws -- but, after you get a hang of the game, it should be an overall enjoyable experience.

What are featured here are two freeware fanmade remakes of the game (think of Tierra's King Quest remakes) -- one from Syoxy, the other from Retrospec. Syoxy's remake gives a slight visual and aural update to the game and preserves the gameplay of the originals (though, even the originals had a few map differences). Retrospec's remake heavily updates the graphics (even slightly changing some character looks) and adds nifty visual effects, overhauls the aural aspect, and modifies some of the gameplay to make the game, overall, slightly easier. I'd recommend you at least fool around with Syoxy's remake a bit first, then move on to Retrospec's remake.

Syoxy Head Over Heels Download (Windows -- 1.3 MB)
Retrospec's Head Over Heels Page (Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS r5 i86 -- ~15 MB)

If you've played Solstice (1990) on the NES, you have an idea of what the gameplay is like -- manipulate a room's features to get to an exit or an important item. Here, though, you will take control of two characters, Head and Heels, each of whom have different abilities: Head can jump high and control himself in the air, and he gains the ability to shoot donuts to stun enemies. Heels moves fast and gains the ability to pick up certain objects. Whenever the two characters are joined, both sets of abilities are available.

You may find both versions of the game to be difficult, sometimes frustratingly so. Both will require you to manage almost-coordinate-perfect jumps over (and motions between) deadly platforms, and both have rooms where, if you screw up with one character, you'll need to backtrack with both characters to get yourself correctly set up again. Syoxy's version seems to be more forgiving with the tight passageways, but Retrospec's version has slight changes to some (though not all) tricky rooms so that backtracking is potentially minimized.

There is another qualm I have with the game -- there are certain sections of the game where, if Heels falls into a certain position or area of certain rooms, he will always land on an enemy. It is inescapable, and it will deplete life reserves completely. There is at least another section in Syoxy's remake where entering back into a room through a doorway will instantly make one of the characters repeatedly and unavoidably touch and enemy, also depleting life reserves. Thankfully, there aren't too many of these sections.

If you can forgive the sections of coordinate perfection, the backtracking, and the aforementioned enemy contact flaws, you'll come across rooms that have some pretty creative solutions, with a couple that have more than one solution. Only one room requires a power-up to get to an exit -- and you should have enough of the power-up to be able to try the room a few times, should you mess up. Should you find yourself without any more of the power-up left, though, there's another way to get to where you're supposed to go. It is possible to get all items, reach all doorways, and visit almost all rooms at all times (with the exception of the rooms at the beginning of the game -- once you fall into the marketplace, there's not a way back).

Continuing a game comes in the form of reincarnation fish, which are used differently in the two versions. In Syoxy's version, fish are immediately consumed, saving the exact positions of each character and the items collected. Once a fish is loaded once, it can't be loaded again at a later time -- though, a fish in one room can be picked up again if you hadn't picked it up before the load point. Quitting the program wipes all fish. In Retrospec's version, fish are saved until you choose to eat them, so you can save anywhere you want -- albeit a limited number of times. You have six save slots available, and you can load from those slots as many times as you want whenever you want. Loading from those points will start each character from the doorway they entered the room, with the room in its original state minus collected items.

I could go on explaining about the game, but I suppose I should keep this BBS post from getting any longer, and perhaps the rest would be better left to the included game manuals and your own discovery. Try out the remakes -- hope you enjoy them!

[EDIT: Changed the thread title a bit.]

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[this message was edited by OmegaDog on Sun 16 Nov 23:27]