Head Over Heels Remake (by RETROSPEC group) - Le Bottin des Jeux Linux

Head Over Heels Remake (by RETROSPEC group)

🗃️ Specifications

📰 Title: Head Over Heels Remake (by RETROSPEC group) 🕹️ / 🛠️ Type: Game
🗃️ Genre: Adventure & Action 👁️ Visual: 2.5D
🏷️ Category: Adventure & Action ➤ Puzzle ➤ Puzzle Platformer 🏝️ Perspective: Third person
🔖 Tags: Puzzle Platformer; Action; Adventure; Puzzle; Jump; Allegro; Sci-fi; Surreal; Remake; Classic; Cartoon; Cute; Open World; Controller ⏱️ Pacing: Real Time
🐣️ Approx. start: 👫️ Played: Single
🐓️ Latest: 2004-01-05 🚦 Status: 05. Tested & Working (status)
📍️ Version: 1.01 ❤️ Like it: 9. ⏳️
🏛️ License type: 🎁 Free of charge 🎀️ Quality: 2. 🏅️⭐⭐⭐⭐ (it works)
🏛️ License: Free ✨️ (temporary): 5 stars
🐛️ Created: 2010-08-20 🐜️ Updated: 2024-06-22

📦️ Deliverables

📦️ Package name: ..... 📦️ Arch:
📄️ Source: ..... 📦️ RPM:
⚙️ Generic binary: ✓ ..... 📦️ Deb:
🌍️ Browser version: ..... 📦️ AppImage:
📱️ PDA support: ..... 📦️ Flatpak:
✨️ Not use: ..... 📦️ Snap:

🚦 Entry status

📰 What's new?: 👔️ Already shown:
💡 Lights on: 💭️ New version published (to be updated):
🎨️ Significant improvement: 🦺️ Work in progress:
🎖️ This work: 4 stars 🚧️ Some work remains to be done:
👫️ Contrib.: goupildb & Louis 👻️ Temporary:
🎰️ ID: 11386

📖️ Summary

📜️[en]: An arcade adventure and puzzle game. Head & Heels are 2 spies from the planet Freedom. They are sent to Blacktooth to liberate the enslaved planets, and then to defeat the Emperor. Captured and separated, they are placed in the prison headquarters of Castle Blacktooth. The player controls 2 characters, each with different abilities which become complementary. Compared to its predecessors, the game offers unique and revolutionary gameplay, complex puzzles, and more than 300 rooms to explore. 📜️[fr]: Un remake amélioré du jeu éponyme, un puzzle plateformer en 2.5D très élaboré et très soigné dans lequel le joueur dirige alternativement "Head" et "Heels" (l'un peut porter l'autre pour franchir les difficultés) - 2 espions envoyés pour tenter de renverser l'empire dictatorial de Blacktooth, faits prisonniers et enfermés dans un château. Le joueur devra tenter de les faire évader, de délivrer les 4 planètes prisonnières de Blacktooth, d'éliminer ce dernier et enfin de rentrer chez eux, sur la planète Freedom.

🎥️ Videos


🎲️ Gameplay: (202xxx♺), (202xxx♺), (202xxx♺),


🎲️ Gameplay [en] (original version), on ZX Spectrum :

🕸️ Links

🏡️ Website & videos
[Homepage] [Dev site] [Features/About] [Screenshots] [Videos t(202xxx) gd(202xxx) gu(202xxx♺) r(202xxx♺) lp(202xxx) g(202xxx♺) g(202xxx♺) g(202xxx♺) g(202xxx♺) g(202xxx♺) g(202xxx♺) g(202xxx♺) g(202xxx♺) g(202xxx♺) g(o)(202xxx♺) g(o) [fr] g[de](202xxx) g[ru](202xxx) g[pl](202xxx) g[cz](202xxx) g[sp](202xxx) g[pt](202xxx) g[it](202xxx) g[tr](202xxx)] [WIKI] [FAQ] [RSS] [Changelog 1 2]

💰 Commercial
• (empty)

🍩️ Resources
(empty, license): [Homepage] [Dev site] 🎬️ g(202xxx)

🛠️ Technical informations
[PCGamingWiki] [MobyGames]

🦣️ Social
Devs (RETROSPEC group 1 2 [fr] [en]): [Site 1 2] [Chat] [mastodon] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [Interview 1(202xxx) 2(202xxx)]
Devs (Ocean Software [fr] [en]): [Site 1 2] [Chat] [mastodon] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [Interview 1(202xxx) 2(202xxx)]
The Project: [Blog] [Chat] [Forums] [mastodon] [PeerTube] [YouTube] [PressKit] [reddit] [Discord]

🐝️ Related
[Wikipedia (Head over Heels) [fr] [en] [de]]
[The Linux Game Tome]

📦️ Misc. repositories [Repology] [pkgs.org] [Generic binary] [Arch Linux / AUR] [openSUSE] [Debian/Ubuntu] [Flatpak] [AppImage(author's repo)] [Snap] [PortableLinuxGames]

🕵️ Reviews
[HowLongToBeat] [metacritic] [OpenCritic] [iGDB]

📰 News / Source of this Entry (SotE) / News (SotN)


🕊️ Source of this Entry: [Site (date)]

🦣️ Social Networking Update (on mastodon)

🕹️ Title:
🦊️ What's:
🏡️
🐣️
🔖
📦️
📖 Our entry: https://www.lebottindesjeuxlinux.tuxfamily.org/en/online/lights-on/

🥁️ Update:
⚗️
📌️ Changes:
🦣️ From: 🛜️

🏝️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/
🦉️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/
🦝️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/
🦝️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/
🕵️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/
🕯️https://www.youtube.com/embed/
🕯️https://www.youtube.com/embed/
🎲️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/
🎲️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/
🎲️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/
🎲️[fr] https://www.youtube.com/embed/
🎮️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/
🎮️ https://www.youtube.com/embed/
🐧https://www.youtube.com/embed/
🐧https://www.youtube.com/embed/

🕶️

📚️ Name is a

📕 Description [en]

📜️ "blabla" 📜️


Now, most of you are probably familiar with the game as it's regarded by most people as one of the single finest games ever to appear on the Spectrum. It combined everything that was lovely about Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond's last game (Batman) with a much bigger map and an incredibly innovative two-protagonist approach which allows for many more puzzles. If you're not familiar with it, then I'm somewhat curious how you stumbled into this webpage, but seeing as you're here I'll give you a history lesson...


Head Over Heels was released, um, a while ago. Around about 1987 if I recall correctly and it was immediately praised in the press as being quite the bestest thing ever. Not only was it a huge game for it's time, it also had great graphics and was very addictive - if somewhat punishing in its difficulty level. The variety in the locations was amazing and the challenges brilliantly designed. Quite rightly it was awarded with pretty much every accolade that could be bestowed upon it by the various magazines. Even today it still stands as a brilliantly designed title and has never really been bettered in the isometric adventure genre.


This version is a pretty darn faithful remake of the Speccy original except with a few spanking extra bits grafted on like a save system and subliminal flashes of erotic art (if I have my way!). I should perhaps tell you a bit about the team who's making the game. I'm the one responsible for the graphics (apart from the lovely logo which you see adorning the site) and I'm Graham Goring.

The programming is by the very talented Tomaz Kac (who only wrote this game because of a hastily scrawled diagram posted on the Retrospec mailing list about how you can't properly sort isometric games without complex masking), the excellent music is by Dorian Black (who I understand has a picture of an old man in his loft - ha ha ha!) and this website and the games' logo is by Pierre Jovanovic.

Other contributors are James Curry, Kakarot, Milos Babovic, Metka Jostl and Sir Dave-O whose beta testing has been invaluable in both ironing out the programming bugs and also refining the layout of some of the rooms due to the handling being ever so slightly different to the Spectrum version.

On a personal note I've also been encouraged by all the lovely people at the pixelation forum (pixelation.swoo.net) and of course the other members of Retrospec who have now grudgingly accepted that I can actually draw fairly good graphics".

Graham Goring


The Game

Head and Heels have been captured, separated and imprisoned in the castle headquaters of Blacktooth. Their cells contain 'keep fit' equipment, including a wall ladder that Head really must learn to climb. Your job is to get them both out of the castle and into the market place so they can join up again. From there, the journey leads to Moonbase Headquaters, where you will have to decide either to try to escape back to Freedom or to be a true hero and teleport to one of the slave planets to search for its lost crown! To overthrow the dictatorship on any of the slave planets would be a major blow to Blacktooth and you could return to Freedom in glory. Of course Blacktooth would probably enslave them again eventually but it would slow down any expansion plans for now. The populace of Blacktooth are so heavily oppressed that they would have to see all four of the slave planets revolt before the Blacktooth crown could cause an uprising. This of course would be the ultimate accolade, and unfortunately, almost certain suicide.

Egyptus

Once, a long time ago, a craft from Blacktooth got a bit lost while doing a hyperspace jump and landed on an unknown planet. Here the crew found a primative animal forming a sort of civilisation that appeared to revolve around wrapping corpses in lots of bandages and putting them into huge stone pyramids. When they returned to Blacktooth their emperor liked the sound of it so much that he rebuilt the capital city of one of the slave planets to resemble the story.

Penitentiary - The empire's prison planet

Millions are imprisoned here. A harsh planet, very mountainous, much climbing, skill required. The worst place is The Pit, try not to fall into it!

Safari

A densely vegitated planet, mainly used for hunting. The natives live in wooden forts in the junge, beware traps!

Book World

The emperor is very keen on cowboy books, and has devoted an entire world to a western library. Only the emperor's minions are permitted to read them. Information is rigotously suppressed in the empire.

Blacktooth

This planet has a large moon with three lunar space stations on it, the larger of these, Moon station HQ, is the main teleport centre for the empire, with a direction teleport to all the slave planets. Sometime after the Egyptus episode, the latest Emperor sent out a craft to find that same strange planet, and after much exploration it was finally located and the craft landed. However the crew found the people had changed: instead of pyramids they used castles and houses, instead of wrapping corpses up in cloth, they wrapped living men in metal and then tried to turn them into corpses with sharp metal sticks. The Emperor, not to be outdone by his ancestor, built a huge resplendant stately home on Blacktooth and used it as his headquaters. This home is surrounded by a small market, and then a range of impassable mountains. The only way to leave is via teleport to one of the three lunar space stations.

Head (Headus Mouthion)

This creature is a symbiotic partner to Heels and will normally be found sitting on top of one. Head is descended from a breed of flying reptile and still has rudimentary wings that allow Head up to twice his own height and to guide himself though the air.

Heels (Footus Underium)

During Heels's evolution the arms have totally disappeared while the legs have become very powerful. Heels can jump his own height and can also run very fast.

Reincarnation Fish

The strangest animal in the known universe! This fish likes to be eaten! There have been cases of it jumping onto plates! But there is more: when you eat one, its prodigious memory remembers everything about you. Its memory is so good that if you die at some later date, you will be reincarnated at the very place you ate the fish, and you will even have the taste still in your mouth! How a fish can remember anything when its been eaten has never been successfully explained. You must be very careful to check that the fish is alive and wriggling as dead fish decompose very quickly and it rapidly turns so poisonous that a single lick can kill.
WARNING: Even living reincarnation fish taste horrible!
Head and Heels can share the fish they pick up. They can store them for indefinite periods of time for them to be used when you are in a real jam! Check the SAVE GAME menu to see how many Fish you have left to be used.

Cuddly Stuffed White Rabbits

The cute toy bunnies magically enhance your powers. The status display at the bottom of the screen will keep you informed as to which powers are temporarily enhanced. If Head and Heels are connected when they pick up a Life or Iron pill they will both get the enhanced power. There are four types:

• Two extra lives

• Iron Pills (to make you invulnerable)

• Jump higher bunny. This only works on Heels

• Go faster bunny. This only works on slow moving Head.

If Heels pick up a go faster bunny or Head picks up a jump bunny the bunnies power is wasted!
The bunnies are coloured differently... you must learn which bunny gives which extra attributes !

Hooter

The hooter may be used by Head to fire doughnuts at attacking mosters. This will freeze them in place as they lick the doughnuts off their faces. The hooter may only be used by Head and requires a tray of doughnuts to be of any use.

Doughnuts

Tray of six doughnuts are few and far between so don't waste shots. Only Head may pick up doughnuts. The number of remaining doughnuts will be displayed above the doughnut icon at the bottom left of the screen.

Bag

The bag may be used to carry small objects around a room. It is essential for Heels to find and get the bag as it is impossible to get far without it. The object in the bag will be displayed immediately above the bag's icon at the bottom right of the screen. To pick up an object just stand on top of it and press the CARRY key. It is not possible to drop an object in a doorway.

Crowns

Find a crown and start a revolution. At the beginning of each game a screen showing all five crowns will be displayed. As each crown is collected this screen will be shown again with the appropriate crowns in bright colour.

Teleports

Standing on a teleport will activate its machanism, this will sound a warning siren. Pressing the jump key will cause you to teleport. Not all teleports are two way, some are linked in a chain.

Springs

Jumping from a spring will give extra height to your jump.

Switches

Simply push the switch to switch things off and on! WARNING: Switching a deadly monster off will stop him moving but he will still be deadly to touch.

Conveyor Belts


The rollers on the conveyor simply push you along it. If you wish to go the opposite direction you have to jump along (if you are Head). They will just make Heels go slower!

Hush Puppies

These are a very strange type of beast, they are increadibly sleepy, in fact they never wake up and it is quite normal for them to sleep for their entire lives. They are often used as tables and even used as building bricks. They are a native of Freedom and for many thousands of years Head and his ancestors have been mistaking them for Heels and causing so much trouble to the poor old hush puppies they they evolved a defence mechanism, they somehow learned to teleport themselves away. Nobody knows where they go but the instant they see any of Head's race they disappear and won't return until thay are sure the coast is clear.

The Emperor's Guardian

The guardian blocks the door to the throne room in Blacktooth castle, he is very dangerous and he doesn't like doughnuts. Only a true hero may pass the guardian.


Swop Key

If Head is sitting on Heels the swop key will, on each push, give you control of:

• (1) Heels. (2) Head & Heels. (3) Head. (4) Head & Heels.

If Head is not on Heels the swop key will, on each push, give you control of:

• (1) Head. (2) Heels.

At all times the character(s) whose icon is lit is under player control.
When Head and Heels are joined together all their abilities are combined.

Life Transfer

When one of the creatures looses all lives and the other has still plenty an autmatic life transfer will be done. If they are separated when the tragic event happens then 2 lives will be transferred from the other creature, otherwise (if they are joined) only 1 life will be transferred !

Online High Scores

When you run out of lives or complete the game the computer will show you "Retrospec High Score Code". You can use this code to enter your score into an online High Score Table on the retrospec web server. If you press 'S' when the code is shown then you can directly upload this code to the server without having to open a browser. Just enter your name and your score will be added to the online database. After that your position in the online High Scores Table will be shown. However if you are not connected to the net then you can just write this code down on paper and go to https://retrospec.sgn.net/games/hoh/ and click on the "HIGH SCORES" link on the left side. follow the instructions there to enter the high score into online database ! If you want to just copy/paste the code to the browser then you can do that since when the code is displayed on the screen it is also AUTOMATICALLY copied to the clipboard. The last code that was shown is also stored in the file HighScoreCode.txt which is put in the same directory to which you installed the game.



Hints and Tips

• Beginners should aim to escape from Blacktooth and get back to Freedom initially. Only the very skilled can hope to liberate a planet or two.

• When you first get Head and Heels in the same location, practice placing Head on top of Heels and joining them together accurately with the swop key.
• Both of their icons will light up when they are successfully joined.

• Remember Head and Heels are a team. Just because both are in the same room does not mean you have to join them together, and in fact some problems may only be solved by separating Head and Heels.

• Make sure Head learns to climb ladders, this is an essential skill.

• Both Heels's bag and Head's hooter must be collected at the initial stages for there to be any chance of completing the game.

• Find a safe spot and get used to how far Head and Heels may move over the edge of a brick before they fall, this will enable you to make the longest jumps.

• Learn the difference in distance and control betwen Head's jumps and Heels's jumps.

• Make a map.

• Do not waste doughnuts, they are not easy to find.

• Display screens such as the Five planets or the Final score may be aborted by pressing any key.

• Do not get confused, only Heels may carry anything and only Head may fire.

• To discover if there is a room above, pile objects high as possible and jump from the top. If there is a spring in the room, put it on the top for extra jumping height.

• If you can't understand a room, try exiting and entering again, watching carefully for any movement in the room as you enter.


Credits

Original game written by Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond.

This game is produced by RETROSPEC group. Check out our homepage at :

• https://retrospec.sgn.net/

The remake was done by mainly these two people in their spare time :

• Tomaz Kac - TomCat@sgn.net

⚬ All Programing (with the aid of Allegro programing library)

⚬ New Room Design

• Graham Goring - GrahamG@Zedtwo.com

⚬ All Graphics (pixelated by hand)

Additional work for this remake was done by :

• Dorian Black - Mezkal@Mezkal.com

⚬ Both Musical Scores and main part of Sound Effects

• Peter Jovanovic - Pierre@datagate.co.uk

⚬ Title Picture and Logo

⚬ Web Site Design

⚬ PDF Booklet and HTML design

• Ignacio Perez Gil - https://retrospec.sgn.net/users/ignacio/index.html

⚬ Additional Sound Effects

The game would not be so good without a plethora of beta testers :

• Metka Jostl

• James R Curry

• Kakarot

• Milos Babovic

• Russell Hoy

• Sir Dave-O

Also big thanks go out to all members of RETROSPEC. Check the messages in the game for other important notes and additional thanx.

For more information and updates, etc. visit our official homepage at :

https://retrospec.sgn.net/games/hoh/about.html



🌍️ Wikipedia:

Head Over Heels is an arcade adventure video game, released in 1987 for several 8-bit home computers, and subsequently ported to a wide range of formats. The working title for the game was Foot and Mouth. Visually, Head Over Heels bears a number of similarities to Ultimate Play The Game's Knight Lore and Alien 8. It uses an isometric engine that is similar to the Filmation technique first developed by Ultimate.

Head Over Heels is the second isometric game by Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond, after their earlier Batman computer game released in 1986. In 1994 another isometric video game by Ritman and Drummond, Monster Max, was released for the Nintendo Game Boy.

Gameplay

The player controls two characters instead of just one, each with different abilities. Head can jump higher than Heels, control himself in the air, and fire doughnuts from a hooter to paralyze enemies; while Heels can run twice as fast as Head, climb certain staircases that Head cannot, and carry objects around a room in a bag. These abilities become complementary when the player combines them together after completing roughly a sixth of the game. Compared to its predecessors, the game offers unique and revolutionary gameplay, complex puzzles, and more than 300 rooms to explore.

Drummond contributed some famously surreal touches, including robots (controlled by push switches) that bore a remarkable resemblance to the head of Prince Charles on the body of a Dalek. Other surreal touches include enemies with the heads of elephants and staircases made of dogs that teleport themselves away as soon as Head enters the room.

Plot

Headus Mouthion (Head) and Footus Underium (Heels) are two spies from the planet Freedom. They are sent to Blacktooth to liberate the enslaved planets of Penitentiary, Safari, Book World and Egyptus, and then to defeat the Emperor to prevent further planets falling under his rule. Captured and separated, the spies are placed in the prison headquarters of Castle Blacktooth and must first escape, then break through the market to the orbiting Moonbase where they can teleport down to the planets to locate and reobtain the stolen crowns. Liberation of the planets and defeat of the Emperor will allow Head and Heels to return to Freedom as heroes.

Ritman admits that the storyline lacked real connection to the gameplay. In an interview for Edge, he stated that he "made the whole game up and then added the bullshit in the last ten minutes."

Critical reaction

• Your Sinclair awarded Head over Heels 9/10 in the June 1987 issue and the game was placed at number 5 in the Your Sinclair official top 100. Sinclair User also awarded 9/10.[4]
• Crash magazine gave Head over Heels 97% and called the game "The best fun you're likely to have with a Spectrum for quite some time".[5]
• Zzap!64 gave the Commodore 64 conversion of the game 98%: enough for its coveted Gold Medal Award; the joint highest score in the magazine's history; and the first Gold Medal of the year - in its August 1987 issue. It was described as "An all time classic - not to be missed for any reason"

📕 Description [fr]

Un remake du jeu éponyme sur ZX Spectrum, par le RETROSPEC group.
Il utilise le framework Allegro.

Head Over Heels est un remake amélioré du jeu éponyme sur ZX Spectrum (développé par Ocean Software en 1987), un puzzle plateformer en 2.5D très élaboré (des puzzles complexes et plus de 300 salles à explorer) dans lequel le joueur dirige alternativement 2 personnages - Headus Mouthion ("Head", tête, le chien jaune) et Footus Underium ("Heels", talons, le chien brun), dont l'un peut porter l'autre (d'où le nom, littéralement la tête sur les talons, correspondant aussi à leur aspect physique) pour franchir certaines difficultés. Head et Heels sont deux espions envoyés pour tenter de renverser l'empire dictatorial de Blacktooth, mais ils ont été faits prisonniers et enfermés dans un château. Le joueur devra tenter de les faire évader, de délivrer les 4 planètes prisonnières de Blacktooth, d'éliminer Blacktooth et enfin de rentrer chez eux, sur la planète Freedom.
La réalisation de ce remake est très soignée avec des graphismes (ombres portées, triple buffering, plein écran/fenêtré) et sons (effets sonores et bande son) aux goûts du jour, la sauvegarde de parties, le score en ligne, et même un manuel de qualité au format PDF.
A noter que seul Heels est en mesure de transporter quelque-chose, et que seul Head peut faire feu.

Voir aussi / See also: Alien 8, Head over Heels Remake (by Jorge Rodríguez Santos & Douglas Mencken), Head Over Heels Remake (by RETROSPEC group), Lumo,


L' histoire de l'Empire Blacktooth

Loin, très loin de notre étoile Sol, se trouve l'empire Blacktooth, un empire du mal, comportant quatre mondes asservis par la planète Blacktooth. Tout ces mondes esclaves bouillonnent de troubles, mais en raison de la nature oppressive de leurs dirigeants, ils ne parviennent jamais au point d'ébullition, manquant tous d'un chef de file dressant les masses de populations ensemble.
Blacktooth lui-même ne fait pas mieux, un monde strictement contrôlée par ses dirigeants dynastiques depuis si longtemps que la population ne pense même pas à la révolution. Les peuples de leurs étoiles voisines deviennent très inquiets au sujet des signes d'expansion militaire de Blacktooth et ont envoyé un espion de la planète Freedom pour voir s'il peut pousser les planètes esclaves à la rébellion en trouvant les couronnes perdues dont s'est emparé Blacktooth. Les créatures de Freedom sont très étranges en cela qu'ils sont formés d'une paire d'animaux symboliques qui se sont adaptés pour fonctionner soit de façon autonome ou, à leur avantage mutuel, en se joignant ensemble pour n'en former qu'une seule - Head lié à Heels (NdT : l'un s'appelle Head, l'autre Heels, signifiant la tête sur les talons, et c'est aussi leur apparence), et effectivement c'est leurs noms et les deux sont hautement formés à l'espionnage.

Le jeu

Head et Heels ont été capturés, séparés et emprisonnés dans les quartiers généraux du château de Blacktooth. Leurs cellules contiennent des équipements de mise en forme, tel qu'une échelle de mur qu'Head doit vraiment apprendre à grimper. Votre job consiste à les faire sortir tous deux du château et de les faire pénétrer sur la place du marché afin qu'ils puissent à nouveau se joindre. De là, le voyage mène aux quartiers généraux de la base lunaire, où vous aurez à décider si vous vous échappez et retournez sur Freedom ou devenez un vrai héros et vous téléportez sur l'une des planètes esclaves à la recherche de la couronne perdue !
Renverser la dictature de n'importe quelle planète esclave serait un coup majeur porté à Blacktooth et vous pourrez recouvrir la liberté dans la gloire. Bien entendu, Blacktooth saura probablement les asservir à nouveau par la suite, mais au moins cela ralentira ses plans d'expansion dans l'immédiat. La populace de Blacktooth est si lourdement opprimée qu'elle voudrait voir les quatre planètes esclaves se révolter avant que la couronne de Blacktooth ne provoque un soulèvement. Ce serait bien sûr la consécration ultime, et malheureusement, presque certainement un suicide.



🌍️ Wikipedia:

Head over Heels (litt. La tête sur les talons) est un jeu vidéo d'action/aventure en 3D isométrique développé et édité par Ocean Software en 1987. Le joueur contrôle deux personnages, Head et Heels, dont les possibilités différentes permettent d'abord de s'enfuir de prison, puis délivrer les 4 planètes retenues prisonnières par l'empire de Blacktooth, venir à bout de Blacktooth et enfin rejoindre la planète Freedom.

Le jeu est parsemé de touches surréalistes : un lanceur de donuts, des robots à l'effigie du prince Charles sur le corps d'un Dalek, des marches en forme de chien qui disparaissent en présence de Head, etc.

Historique

Head over Heels ressemble à d'autres jeux comme Knight Lore, Alien 8 ou encore Batman, pour sa vue en perspective isométrique et son découpage en pièces. Beaucoup de mécanismes reprennent ceux du jeu Batman, développé par les mêmes auteurs au cours de l'année précédente.

Il fut d'abord restreint au systèmes Z80 comme MSX, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC. Puis, devant le succès, il fut porté dans les années suivantes à d'autres systèmes.

Les auteurs écrivirent plus tard Monster Max.

Description

L'univers est découpé en plus de 300 pièces, et le but dans chacune est de parvenir à la suivante par une porte ou un téléporteur, ou bien de récupérer une des couronnes qui libèrent une planète du joug de Blacktooth.

Les deux personnages commencent le jeu dans des pièces différentes et ne peuvent se rejoindre qu'après de nombreuses péripéties.

• Head (Headus Mouthion) ressemble plutôt à un chien, de couleur jaune. Dès qu'il est en possession du lanceur de donuts, il peut immobiliser les ennemis qu'il rencontre. Il peut se diriger quand il tombe.
• Heels (Footus Underium) est plutôt un chat de couleur brune. Il va deux fois plus vite que Head, mais ne contrôle pas ses sauts ni ses chutes. Une sacoche trouvée au début du jeu lui permet de prendre des objets dans la pièce.
• Lorsque Head et Heels se rencontrent, ils peuvent devenir Head over Heels, qui cumule les possibilités des deux personnages.

À part le lanceur de beignets (donuts), les donuts et la sacoche, d'autres objets peuvent être ramassés :

• le poisson de réincarnation donne la possibilité de sauvegarder, sauf s'il n'est plus frais ;
• le lapin blanc donne une vie, ou deux si c'est Head over Heels qui le ramasse ;
• le lapin bleu apporte temporairement des possibilités de l'autre personnage (Heels saute plus loin, Head va plus vite) ;
• le lapin rose rend invincible.

Les mondes rencontrés sont la Prison (les deux pièces du départ), Blacktooth, le Marché, la Base lunaire, plus les quatre planètes à délivrer : le Pénitencier, Safari, Egyptus et Bookworld. La dernière image montre la planète Freedom.

🚧️ Installation ➜ 🚀️ Launching [fr]

En console et en root dans le répertoire du jeu lancez : # ./install.sh

Utilisez les droits root pour l'installation sinon le jeu ne fonctionnera pas correctement par la suite (j'ai testé sans le faire exprès en utilisateur normal : l'installation affiche des messages d'erreur mais le jeu semble fonctionner, sauf que [CTRL] droit utilisée pour changer de personnage ne fonctionne plus).

💡 Nota :
Le binaire sera installé dans /usr/local/bin,
les données dans /usr/local/share/games/HoH,
la documentation dans /usr/local/share/doc/HoH.

Pour désinstaller le jeu (testé), lancez en console : $ hoh-uninstall


🚀️ LANCEMENT DU JEU

En console lancez : $ hoh


⌨️🖱️🎮️ CONTRÔLES:

Les touches sont modifiables.

Touches par défaut (extrait du site) :
(...)
Up/Down/Left/Right: Move through the room
Space: Jump/Teleport
Enter: Pickup/Drop Objects
M: Jump & Pickup/Drop simultaneously
LEFT CTRL: Fire Doughnut
RGHT CTRL: Swap Head/Heels or Join Them Together
ESC: Quit
(...)

🕵️ Test [fr]

🕵️ Test (1.01) (testé en 2010 ?):
De très jolis graphismes, une belle bande son, une réalisation soignée et un bon gameplay (vous devez résoudre de petites énigmes pour la poursuite du jeu). Le plein écran fait planter le jeu en Dual Screen.
Très bien.


🕵️ Test (1.01) (testé en août 2016):
J'avais oublié ce jeu. En rafraîchissant cette fiche j'ai eut l'envie de le tester à nouveau.
En Dual Screen le jeu ne plante plus sous MATE : il s'agissait vraisemblablement d'un problème lié à ma configuration lors de mon précédent test (en 2010 : Xorg ou KDE n'était vraisemblablement pas encore au point à cette date).
j'ai fait quelques tableaux avec Head via le téléporteur de la 1ere salle, puis avec Heels : tout semble fonctionner correctement, sauf la redéfinition des touches, néanmoins les touches par défaut fonctionnent bien.
Le gameplay est très bon et relativement difficile (pour mon niveau).
Une très très belle réalisation.
👏️ ❤️ Un grand bravo et merci à toute l'équipe des développeurs !