''Thing on a Spring'' is a side-scrolling

puzzle-platform game A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...

released in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

for the

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 ...

and

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 ...

Gremlin Graphics Gremlin Graphics Software Limited, later Gremlin Interactive Limited and ultimately Infogrames Studios Limited was a British software house based in Sheffield, working mostly in the home computer market. Like many software houses established in ...

. The player controls a character resembling Zebedee from ''

The Magic Roundabout ''The Magic Roundabout'' is an English-language children's television programme that ran from 1965 to 1977. It used the footage of the French stop motion animation show ''Le Manège enchanté'' but with completely different scripts and characte ...

'' through a toy factory while avoiding evil toys. The game was written by Jason Perkins and Anthony Clarke with graphics by Mark Rogers. The musical score was composed 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 ...

Reception

''Thing on a Spring'' was given an overall rating of 93% in issue 4 of ''

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, earning it a "Sizzler" rating.

Julian Rignall Julian "Jaz" Rignall (born 6 March 1965, London, England) is a writer and editor. He has also produced content for corporate websites such as GamePro Media, publisher of ''GamePro'' magazine and ''GamePro.com'', marketing collateral and adverti ...

wrote, "The sound is unbelievable, I won't describe it but just wait until you hear it; words fail." Your Commodore said the game "isn't your run of the mill platform game, it's far superior to most that have been launched recently." They also said it had "some superb graphics and sound" and recommended a purchase. It was given a 4 out of 5 star rating. Your 64 found the game's screens to be "very basic" but it was still "great fun". They praised the music which "helped make this game a frenetic experience" and said the game was "in the inimitable Gremlin style." It was rated 3 stars out of 5.

Legacy

Along with Rockford from ''

Boulder Dash ''Boulder Dash'' is a 2D maze-puzzle video game released in 1984 by First Star Software for Atari 8-bit computers. It was created by Canadian developers Peter Liepa and Chris Gray. The player controls Rockford, who collects treasures while ...

'', the ''Thing on a Spring'' character became a regular graphic element printed in the margins of ''Zzap!64''. ''Thing Bounces Back'' was released as a sequel in 1987, also by Gremlin.https://ia600604.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/1/items/World_of_Spectrum_June_2017_Mirror/World%20of%20Spectrum%20June%202017%20Mirror.zip&file=World%20of%20Spectrum%20June%202017%20Mirror/sinclair/games-info/t/ThingBouncesBack.txt

References

External links

''Thing on a Spring''
at Gamebase 64 *{{lemon64 game, id=2636, name=Thing on a Spring 1985 video games Puzzle-platform games Amstrad CPC games Commodore 64 games Gremlin Interactive games Video games scored by Ben Daglish Video games scored by Rob Hubbard Video games developed in the United Kingdom