''Auf Wiedersehen Monty'' (German for "Goodbye Monty") is a

computer game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

for the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sin ...

, MSX and

Commodore 16 The Commodore 16 is a home computer made by Commodore International with a 6502-compatible 7501 or 8501 CPU, released in 1984 and intended to be an entry-level computer to replace the VIC-20. A cost-reduced version, the Commodore 116, was ...

. Released in 1987, it is the fourth game in the ''

Monty Mole ''Wanted: Monty Mole'' is a platform video game published in July 1984 for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 home computers. It is the first game released by Gremlin Graphics and the first game in the ''Monty Mole'' series. Monty Mole is a fic ...

'' series. It was written by Peter Harrap and Shaun Hollingworth with music by

Rob Hubbard Rob Hubbard (born 1955 in Kingston upon Hull, England) is a British composer best known for his musical and programming work for microcomputers of the 1980s, such as the Commodore 64. Early life Hubbard first started playing music at age seve ...

and Ben Daglish.

Gameplay

The player controls Monty as he travels around Europe collecting money in order to buy a Greek island - Montos, where he can safely retire. Gameplay is in the style of a

flick-screen This list includes terms used in video games and the video game industry, as well as slang used by players. 0–9 A ...

platform game, similar to many such games of the 1980s such as ''

Technician Ted ''Technician Ted'' (also known as ''The Chip Factory: Featuring Technician Ted'') is a platform game for the Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum home computers that was written by Steve Marsden and David Cooke and published in 1984 by Hewson Consultants ...

'' and ''

Jet Set Willy ''Jet Set Willy'' is a platform video game originally written by Matthew Smith for the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was published in 1984 by Software Projects and ported to most home computers of the time. The game is a sequel to ''Manic ...

''. Some screens (such as those representing the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed "'' ...

and the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to C ...

) bear some relation to their real-life counterparts but most are just typical platform game screens. ''Auf Wiedersehen Monty'' contains many features and peculiarities for the player to discover. Examples include being suddenly attacked by a bull's head in Spain after collecting a red cape (presumably a reference to bullfighting), a car being dropped in one of two places on entering a screen representing

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

in West Germany, a chef's hat found in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

(a reference to the

Swedish Chef The Swedish Chef is a Muppet character that appeared on ''The Muppet Show''. He was originally performed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz simultaneously, with Henson performing the head and voice and Oz performing the character with real hands. The S ...

of Muppets fame; also, the two rooms representing Sweden are subtitled Bjorn and Borg), and a record in Luxembourg that when collected makes Monty breakdance to the game's title music (this may be a reference to

Radio Luxembourg Radio Luxembourg was a multilingual commercial broadcaster in Luxembourg. It is known in most non-English languages as RTL (for Radio Television Luxembourg). The English-language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earlies ...

). It is possible to get to areas of the game more quickly by flying from an airport using air tickets which can be collected throughout the game. Some parts of the game can only be reached in this manner. As well as money, there are other miscellaneous objects to collect in the game for points. This was important as the player needs a certain number of points to get to Montos. These are often particular to the country Monty is visiting (such as berets in France). Bottles of wine or a glass of beer in West Germany cause Monty to briefly become drunk and his control to become slightly erratic leading to a reversal of controls, repeated jumping or Monty climbing any ladders or drainpipes he encounters.

Trivia

*The games screens are laid out geographically, the complete map of the game corresponds with a map of Europe. *The money that Monty collects are labeled "EC", the

European Currency Unit The European Currency Unit (, ; , ECU, or XEU) was a unit of account used by the European Economic Community and composed of a basket of member country currencies. The ECU came in to operation on 13 March 1979 and was assigned the ISO 421 ...

, one decade before the

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

was introduced. *The title was inspired by the then-popular television series, ''

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet ''Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'' () is a British comedy-drama television programme about seven British construction workers who leave the United Kingdom to search for employment overseas. In the first series, the men live and work on a building site in ...

''. *The game won the award for best platform game of the year according to the readers of

Crash magazine ''Crash Magazine'' is a French independent magazine published biannually that features articles on women's fashion and cinema. History and profile ''Crash Magazine'' was founded in 1998 by Frank Perrin and Armelle Leturcq; art critics before p ...

. *The game was voted number 57 in the ''

Your Sinclair ''Your Sinclair'', or ''YS'' as it was commonly abbreviated, was a commercially published and printed British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum. It was in circulation between 1984 and 1993. History The ...

Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time''.

Sequels

Moley Christmas ''Moley Christmas'' is a video game released in 1987 for the Sinclair Spectrum. It is the fifth game in the ''Monty Mole'' series and a sequel to the 1987 video game ''Auf Wiedersehen Monty''. It was available exclusively on the cover of ''Your ...

'' was released later in the same year. A further Monty Mole game, called ''

Impossamole ''Impossamole'' is a platform game developed by Core Design for the Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum. It was released in 1990 and published by Gremlin Graphics. NEC Technologies published it on TurboGrafx-16 the followi ...

'' was released in 1990. It took a different form to the previous games being more of a "console-style" arcade game.

References

External links

''Auf Wiedersehen Monty''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

* {{Monty Mole 1987 video games Amstrad CPC games Commodore 16 and Plus/4 games Commodore 64 games Gremlin Interactive games Monty Mole MSX games Platform games Video game sequels Video games scored by Ben Daglish Video games scored by Rob Hubbard ZX Spectrum games Video games developed in the United Kingdom