''Blagger'' 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 game, action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform game ...

created by

Antony Crowther Antony Crowther is a former designer, programmer, and musician of Commodore 64 games. During the 1980s he worked for Alligata, Gremlin Graphics and later his own company, Wizard Development. Career The first computer game he created was a ver ...

for the Commodore 64 and released by

Alligata Alligata Software Ltd. was a computer games developer and publisher based in Sheffield in the UK in the 1980s. The company was founded by brothers Mike and Tim Mahony and their father J.R. Mahony in 1983. They produced games for a number of hom ...

in 1983. A

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 empha ...

port was released the same year,

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 p ...

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 S ...

(through Amsoft) and

MSX MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by Microsoft and ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, then vice-p ...

in 1984,

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 ...

and

Plus/4 The Commodore Plus/4 is a home computer released by Commodore International in 1984. The "Plus/4" name refers to the four-application ROM resident office suite (word processor, spreadsheet, database, and graphing); it was billed as "the produc ...

in 1985 and

Amstrad PCW The Amstrad PCW series is a range of personal computers produced by United Kingdom, British company Amstrad from 1985 to 1998, and also sold under licence in Europe as the "Joyce" by the German electronics company Schneider Computer Division, Schne ...

in 1987. In some countries this game was released under the name ''Gangster''. '' Son of Blagger'', was released in 1984 with a third and final title ''Blagger Goes to Hollywood'' released in 1985. Another sequel, known as ''New Blagger'' but developed as ''Blagger 2'', being a direct continuation of the original, was produced in 1985 but not released.

Gameplay

The game is divided into a series of single-screen levels. The goal of the player on each screen is to manipulate Blagger, a burglar, to collect the scattered keys and then reach the safe. The keys must be collected and the safe opened in a limited amount of time. Blagger can walk left and right, and jump left, right and up. The jumping action is in a fixed pattern and cannot be altered once initiated. Gameplay involves learning the best order in which to collect the keys, and good timing of movement and jumping. Not all platforms are permanent; some decay once Blagger has stepped on them. Other platforms serve to move Blagger in a particular direction. Blagger will die if he touches cacti, one of the moving enemy obstacles of the level, or if he falls more than a certain distance. The moving enemies vary from level to level, and include cars, aliens, mad hatters, and giant mouths. The movement of the enemies is in a fixed pattern, generally travelling from one point to another and back again. The BBC and Electron versions feature floating "RG"s as hazards (R.G. being the initials of the programmer of those versions, R.S. Goodley).

Reception

References

External links

*{{Lemon64 game, id=294
''A remake of the original Blagger''
at Darn Kitty
''Blagger''
at Plus/4 World
Complete video from the C64 version
at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music ...

1983 video games Amsoft games Amstrad CPC games Amstrad PCW games BBC Micro and Acorn Electron games Commodore 16 and Plus/4 games Commodore 64 games MSX games Platform games Single-player video games Video games about crime Video games developed in the United Kingdom Alligata games