1984 DK’Tronics
Platform: ZX Spectrum 48k
Don Priestley created some of the most memorable 8-bit games of all time, thanks to his trademark large cartoon graphics within games. I lost many hours playing the likes of The Trap Door on the C64, which felt like I was controlling an actual cartoon.
One of Don’s early titles was a puzzler called Jumbly, a picture puzzle game, where you had to shuffle blocks into the correct order. It is very similar in many ways to Split Personalities by Domark which came out a little while later.
Within adverts for the game, there is a competition to design a picture for Jumbly 2, which was due out in 1984. Winners would receive over £150 and have their design and name included in the sequel. However, it was never to be – and no such sequel would surface.
Oddly, it doesn’t look like Don had any games released at all during 1984, with his next releases being Minder and Popeye in 1985. Perhaps Don had to take a break away from coding, and by the time he came back – perhaps there were bigger fish to fry.
Hopefully we’ll get to learn more soon, but if you know anything more about a potential sequel – please get in touch.
With thanks to Mark R. Jones for highlighting and archive.org for the scan.
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