After 37 years, 1987’s Head Over Heels has finally had its long-awaited sequel released. Return to Blacktooth: A Head Over Heels Adventure was released in May, 37 years after it first went into production.
So, why the long wait?
Well, the late 80s saw the rise of the console and the slow demise of the home computer. The days of the Amstrad CPC, Spectrum and Commodore 64 were numbered and, according to the 81-year-old solo dev Colin Porch, he was called up and told to stop working on it due to the decline of the home computer gaming market.
And so he did, and that was it for almost four decades.
Originally released in 1987, Head Over Heels is widely regarded as one of the finest isometric adventures of the 8-bit era, receiving acclaim on the Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64.
According to Porch, he was inspired to go back and finish the game after attending a work reunion. His former manager asked him what happened to the sequel and, when he told him that he had scrapped it, he was encouraged to go back and finish it as retro gaming had become big business.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing, as in the almost 40 years since the game first came out it had become a little murky as to who owned the rights to the IP. Eventually it was tracked down to Atari, and since they’re not doing much else lately they seemed to be happy for Porch to continue and create 300 rooms over the course of five worlds.
This also isn’t a modern sequel to a classic game; Return to Blacktooth is made in exactly the same way as the original.
There are few developers that ever get the chance to go back and continue a cancelled project, let alone one abandoned almost 40 years ago. Return to Blacktooth goes beyond “old game gets sequel”; it’s a follow-up to a beloved classic from the age of the UK home computer that all too often gets forgotten about by various sections of the retro gaming crowd, and I for one am delighted to see it.
Return to Blacktooth: A Head Over Heels Adventure is out now on itch.io.
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