You may be screaming at me for putting this game in the archives, but this is no normal version of Chiller.
The game basically was originally withdrawn due to the connection to Michael Jackson’s Thriller music video at the time of the game’s release.
The game originally featured a neat rendition of Thriller by David Dunn, but Mastertronic decided that they could face possible legal action because of the music and asked for the music to be changed immediately.
The problem was, that a few copies of the game sneaked out with the original music, before Mastertronic canned the first version, which are extremely hard to find. You basically will have to buy every copy of Chiller to ever find an original with the original Thriller music… I have now 8 copies of the game, and originally had no luck.
However, recently Gareth Dolloway noticed this review and offered his own copy of Chiller, which is infact Version 1. So now thanks to Gareth, GTW can now bring you a .TAP image of the original version 1.
The game itself is familiar to all, created by the Darling brothers before they established Codemasters. The new music made and put in the game they eventually sold on large scale, never suited the game properly.
Site vistor, Carl Speed, had the following to say about the game:
“I just wanted to say that there is a difference on the front covers that I’ve noticed. The V1 seems to have no mention of Burner Loading System on the top right red triangle section. Only the newer version does. I’m not sure if this is absolute, but I’m sure it probably is. Thought I’d pass on the discovery, in case people are looking for the version.”
Well, I checked and I think he’s right!…. Basically it seems that if you have a copy which doesn’t have the “Burner Loading System” mentioned, you could have an earlier edition with the original music in. Time to start checking!
Additionally we found this early screenshot in an early issue of Your Commodore – which must have been dropped from the final game… what was it to be used for?…
Thanks to someone who got hold of a copy of version 1, you can now download the game how it should have been… or sounded at least!
Oowwwwwwwwwww!…
Contributions: Warren Pilkington, Gareth Dolloway, Carl Speed
Supporting content
Available downloads
- Game_Chillertape.zip (zip)
- Game_ChillerV1.zip (zip)
Gallery
Update history
18/02/16 – Added unknown screenshot thanks to ebay auction of Jerellis1
Alright. I have four copies of this game, all without the “fastload” print in the upper right corner of the inlay front. Two of the cassettes have a black Mastertronic Chiller paper lable glued onto one side of the cassette. Both these have the altered in-game music, i.e. version 2. The other two cassettes are white with no glued-on paper lable. Instead Mastertronic Chiller is printed in black letters directly onto the plastic cassette, on both sides. Both these cassettes have the original “Thriller”-inspired in-game music, i.e. version 1.
That’s really interesting! Makes sense that you’ll get some copies with the original music without the “Fastloader” label, especially if they had old tapes already mastered and just bundled them together. Would be good to find a “Fastloader” tagged one with the second music :)
Wow cool. I just found out I have the v1 version, at least from the cover where doesn’t mention fastload.
I thought this was as well known as the who dares wins/who dares wins 2 and denaris/katakis.
It’s also mentioned on world of spectrum site, so may have affected the spectrum version too http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0000930
Okay – here’s what I think…
The screenshot looks like a Game Maker game by the Darling brothers, which doesn’t seem to have gone down well. Maybe that’s why they recoded it to be a ‘proper’ game and not a rehash of their early Mastertronic games.
With regards to different front covers… I have different versions that have about 3-4 different covers and also different tapes and tape labels/print. Never thought of checking the games on the tape.
I think Chiller was always based on the Game Maker engine, but just heavily enhanced so it could have multiple screens and those extra gameplay elements. That screenshot though does look like a bitmap, so i’m not sure where it’s come from. Also, on the disk version inlay screenshot of the loading screen, its also got a blue background. Really odd! :)
I bought the original of this game in 1983 and it has the original Thriller music in it. In fact i never thought there could have been another soundtrack to this game and now i am finding out the copy i have is in fact very rare… I am pretty sure i still have it somewhere at my mother’s place as i have never got rid of any of my C64 disks yet.
Rich/Empire
I don’t think whoever wrote that news note was necessarily on the game’s side…