Closer Look: Fantasy World Dizzy

An eggselent conversion of Codemaster's 1989 puzzle platformer

Authored By: Dr. Dos
Published: Aug 18, 2017
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Free from the castle, Dizzy is back in his village and the player is basically given a new clean slate to work with. Some of the treetop homes are visible and there's a big well on the bottom of the screen.

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The well is blocked off for now with a lid. I really like the brick pattern on the well, and the one blank tile heavily implies that it's a passage element and that at some point the player will get to go inside.

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Next is a vine covered building which controls the village's gate.

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Dizzy still has some leftover keys from earlier which can be used on the machinery here. The machines have no indication which key is the correct one though resulting in having to do some trial and error. Only one of the keys can be used right now, as two of the machines are behind a door which refuses to open.

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On the eastern end of the village is the ramp to the trees which contain the homes, plus another gem. For now I decide to keep moving east and see what else there is nearby.

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Another friend of ours, Dylan is here, but there's a bit more to explore first. Wandering around the board is a small purple critter which is in fact a pygmy cow.

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Okay now that we have a cow and observed some lettuce it's time to talk to Dylan.

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Conversation
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DYLAN: Hey maaaan, like what's happenin'?

DIZZY: Please help me Dylan, I'm trying to

DIZZY: save Daisy but I can't find the

DIZZY: castle.

DYLAN: It's quite easy man. Just remember

DYLAN: how Jack found the castle.
  •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •

Dylan's conversation is brief, but he hints at how to get to the castle where Daisy is being held prisoner. The intro did describe it as a sky castle, so a little beanstalk climbing will likely be in order.

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East of the farmland is the opposite end of the fantasy world Dizzy can explore. It consists of a volcano, a hot spring, a key, and a gem. The gem and key can be collected without issue.

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Trying to explore the volcano reveals a hidden gem. You can keep trying to check it out however...

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I'm glad it let me. The volcano here seems like an odd way to end the map since it has no actual purpose here. It makes a little more sense in the original version of the game where the far right screen is a lake of lava as you climb up a volcano instead.

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Picking up the key by the volcano does allow the second machine to be activated back in the village area, providing access to the final two machines (one of which the player will already have), along with another gem.

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South of the gate control building is a small cave with the gate that these machines are keeping shut. On the other side there's a second dragon, but this one doesn't seem to be hostile. At the very least it's not breathing fire.

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The only area yet to be explored is the treetop village itself. The buildings all use objects to fake the appearance of passages. In reality the player can't enter any of the homes.

I do like the detail of the little supports for the walkways that can be seen coming out of the trees.

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A gate in the upper area opened as soon as I entered the board. Most likely from activating the first two machines. It's never really clear what those machines do until you stumble across something now opened.

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The final board of the village has a decent amount going on. There's another open gate, a gem, two items in the corner, and another villager to speak with!

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Conversation
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GRANDDIZZY: Afternoon young Dizzy, you

GRANDDIZZY: look frantic, anythin' your

GRANDDIZZY: old GrandDizzy can do to help?

DIZZY: Haven't you heard? Daisy's being

DIZZY: held in the cloud castle and I'm

DIZZY: trying to save her!

GRANDDIZZY: Just wait here an' I'll get my

GRANDIZZY: hat.

DIZZY: What?! Thanks for offering to help,

DIZZY: but I think you should stay.

GRANDDIZZY: Well, if you think it's best,

GRANDDIZZY: but take this crowbar. I

GRANDDIZZY: remember when. . .
  •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •    •

Dizzy finally find somebody who will actually help, but it's just grandpa. He does get a crowbar out of it!

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And he doesn't respect his elders either.

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But a crowbar is just the beginning here. There's a pickaxe and a door knocker here. Dizzy just got a lot of items suddenly.

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But then again now would be a good time to get some since his inventory was down to a pygmy cow just moments ago.

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The crowbar has the obvious use of popping the lid off of the village well. It conveniently breaks in the process.

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A really cute scene of Dizzy falling down the well plays!

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And brings dizzy to the opposite end of the Earth!

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The land down under as it's called is displayed upsidedown and is very disorienting! There isn't a whole lot here. There's a trader, a gem, and the final key, all of which can be accessed immediately.

It didn't occur to me at the time to try and actually barter with the trader, so there will be another trip here.

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Falling up the well produces the animation in reverse, this time with Dizzy commenting on being upside down with some very creative use of lettering!

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The first thing to do is obviously use that last key to open the gate to the green dragon's cavern.

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When Dizzy enters the chamber we get another example of Nadir's interjections via an existing character with momma hoss.

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What I first thought to be a fireball or something is in fact a nest with a single egg in it, and room for a second. Examining the rest of the nest reveals that it looks like there's a missing second egg.

The green dragon meanwhile is friendly about all this and just happily wags their tail.

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By this point I was kind of out of ideas on where to go. Fortunately, the Dizzy games are covered with walkthroughs by Foxman, though in the case of the Dizzy games it would probably work just as well to look up a walkthrough of the original.

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Back down under, Dizzy makes a trade, a pygmy cow for a bean. Likely to be true to the original, the bean isn't added to Dizzy's inventory, but is instead placed on a nearby crate to be picked up.

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Back on the farm there's this brown splotch I also missed since it didn't quite stand out against the brown ground. It's a pile of manure and Dizzy will not be picking it up, thank you.

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Oh yeah! I forgot about this! There's a very very long backtrack to and through the starting castle to get to this one room that couldn't be accessed.

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By attaching the door knocker Dizzy can fulfill the request and get the door to open. Inside is another gem and a bucket to collect.

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I also snag this gem I missed that's only available when you examine the painting several times. With that, it's time to turn around again, past the gator, beyond the dragon, keep going after the well, after the gate control building, continue on from the village entrance, and back to the field.

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That's where you plant your bean. It won't grow without water, but that's an easy one.

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As right next door is a spring.

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The bean grows immediately! Bursting into the clouds and offering Dizzy a new exit.

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