''Whirlinurd'' is a

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 ...

U.S. Gold U.S. Gold Limited was a British video game publisher based in Witton, Birmingham, England. The company was founded in 1984 by Anne and Geoff Brown in parallel to their distributor firm, CentreSoft, both of which became part of Woodward Brown Ho ...

in 1985 for the

Atari 8-bit The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

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 ...

home computers. The previous game co-designed by Chris Gray was the 8-bit hit

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 ...

Gameplay

The player controls one of the four Nurds and must complete 50 rooms filled with obstacles, collecting food along the way. Each level has different obstacles (such as snakes, bugs, or bouncing balls) that must be avoided, or the player will lose one of three lives. The player-controlled Nurd can fly using the propellers on its head, but if the Nurd touches a wall or platform, it floats back to the ground and cannot fly until it touches solid land. In each room, the player must collect four pieces of food before he can proceed to the next level.

Reception

''Whirlinurd'' received mixed reviews, many of which highlighted the game's derivativeness. ''

Your Commodore ''Your Commodore'' was a magazine for Commodore International, Commodore computers, including the Commodore 64, Amiga, and the Commodore Personal computer, PC range. It was published in the UK from October 1984 until late 1989 when the name was s ...

'' reviewer concluded: "I found this game quite challenging to play, but I can't say that it was more exciting than the host of other games in the same vein." A ''

Commodore User ''Commodore User'', known to the readers as the abbreviated ''CU'', was one of the oldest British Commodore magazines. With a publishing history spanning over 15 years, it mixed content with technical and video game features. Incorporating ''Vic ...

'' reviewer agreed: "Whirlinurd is pretty standard stuff really and very similar in concept, though not detail, to umpteen other obstacle games".

References

External links

*{{MobyGames, id=/whirlinurd
''Whirlinurd''
at Atari Mania 1985 video games Atari 8-bit family games Commodore 64 games Platform games Video games developed in Canada U.S. Gold games