B.C. Bill (C64/Spectrum)

A relative had this caveman-themed arcade-style game for their Commodore 64 when we were youngsters, but I was never able to find a copy of my own - so, even though I could always remember the game clearly, I spent decades trying to remember the name. Imagine my surprise when, whilst browsing for retro re-releases recently, I found that B.C. Bill had been brought to Steam! Even better, it's exactly as I remembered it, and it's held up very well considering that it's now almost 40 years old. (I haven't played the included ZX Spectrum version though, as I don't know it from back in the day - I bought this re-release for the C64 version.) B.C. Bill is a simple game from a more innocent time, where high-score-chasing is what it's all about. It takes place in a clearing where B.C. Bill has made his home, where prey animals, dinosaurs, and the occasional cavewoman will wander by. Bill deals with all three of these with his wooden club, as cartoony cavemen do - prey animals are clubbed and spit-roasted in the lower-right of the screen and then taken to the cave at the top-left, dinosaurs are clubbed to get rid of them, and cavewomen are clubbed and then dropped off in the cave to be Bill's wives. You must gather wives to have kids, stockpile enough food to keep the whole family alive throughout the seasons, and deal with deadly dinos, and this goes on across as many seasons as you can manage. The presentation is really nice for a 1984 title, and everything looks suitably cartoonish - Bill is a hairball caveman of the sort that you used to see in cartoons, prey animals are amusingly modelled after fast-food items (there's a great depiction of this on the original 1984 cover-art), the changing seasons look lovely, losing a life sees a couple of other hairy cavemen show up to carry the protagonist away on a stretcher, and, upon getting a Game Over, large sprites of B.C. Bill, a cavewoman, and a cavebaby appear and give a bow, as if having stepped out to address the audience after a stage show. The music is incredibly catchy, too. I've been playing on a Steam Deck, where it works perfectly out-of-the-box - it's ideal for a handheld, as you would expect from a game of this sort. If you have fond memories of this game, then this reissue is well worth picking up. I hope to see more releases like this in the future!

You are a caveman who has to protect his wives and children from the dangers of prehistory. You can choose between the C64 or ZX Spectrum version. The game had a keyboard bug, I reported this bug to Pixel Games UK, and today they released an update patch. [old review] The c64 version is broken, not being able to walk vertically. (The problem only occurs on the keyboard).

a classic that came with the zx spectrum + 48k