''Confuzion'' is a

puzzle game A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at the correct or fun solution of the puzzl ...

developed and published by

Incentive Software Incentive Software Ltd. was a British video game developer and publisher founded by Ian Andrew in 1983. Programmers included Sean Ellis, Stephen Northcott and Ian's brother Chris Andrew. Later games were based on the company's Freescape rende ...

for the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 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 the ''ZX81 Colou ...

, Commodore 64,

BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...

, and

Acorn Electron The Acorn Electron (nicknamed the Elk inside Acorn and beyond) was a lower-cost alternative to the BBC Micro educational/ home computer, also developed by Acorn Computers Ltd, to provide many of the features of that more expensive machine at a ...

. The object is to guide a spark along a fuse wire. It is similar to the 1982 arcade game '' Loco-Motion.'' ''Confuzion'' was written by Paul Shirley who later wrote ''

Spindizzy ''Cities in Flight'' is a four-volume series of science fiction novels and short stories by American writer James Blish, originally published between 1950 and 1962, which were first known collectively as the "Okie" novels. The series features ent ...

''. ''

Zzap!64 ''Zzap!64'' was a computer games magazine covering games on the Commodore International series of computers, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact. The magazine ...

'' magazine considered ''Confuzion'' to be the best arcade-puzzle game available at the time for the Commodore 64.

Audio track

The cassette tape on which the game was supplied also contained an audio track also titled "Confusion", which was composed by the Band Private Property (Matt Smith Lyrics, Joanne Holt/Steve Salt Music) and performed by Joanne Holt, Matt Smith, Steve Salt, Chris Weller and Gary Seaward.

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 ...

translated the original track into the game's soundtrack. Rob Hubbard's version of the music is mentioned in the book Bits and pieces: a history of chiptunes by Kenneth B. McAlpineKenneth B. McAlpine (2018
"Bits and pieces: a history of chiptunes"
''

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

'', Oxford. UK. The band persuaded

to change their audio cassette duplication process from

monophonic Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction (often shortened to mono) is sound intended to be heard as if it were emanating from one position. This contrasts with stereophonic sound or ''stereo'', which uses two separate audio channels to reproduc ...

stereophonic Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

, so that the music could be better appreciated (mono was fine for the computer program data which was distributed on cassette tapes in the 80s).
Matt Smith
Ph.D. has now switched from playing music on computer games to teaching and writing books about computer games. He is senior lecturer in computing at th
TUDublin, Blanchardstown Campus, Dublin, Ireland

Joanne
married Steve, and is a teacher

is a cabinet maker in Oxfordshire. The graphic design for the cover of the cassette was created by Matthew Tidbury.

References

External links

*

includes a link to an MP3 file of the Confuzion theme song 1985 video games Amstrad CPC games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron games Commodore 64 games Incentive Software games Single-player video games Video game clones Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games scored by Rob Hubbard ZX Spectrum games {{puzzle-videogame-stub