Throbbing Headache

The past couple of days I've caught one of the flu bugs that's been going around. This has inspired me, and given me something different to work on other than my other "work in progress titles" and what started as a quick proof of concept evolved very quickly into a full game.

(Note: Immediate bug fix 2025-01-19. Before uploading I corrected a bug relating to "falling". Unfortunately, this fix stopped a couple of screens from working. The corrected version ThrobbingHeadache_20250119.tap will allow all screens to be completed).

Instructions

Robby has caught something; probably one of the cold or flu viruses that are prevalent in the winter months. Caught in what feels like a fever dream, he scrambles around collecting paracetamol to help contain the virus, reduces his temperature and make him feel better.

Is it a dream? His house didn't look like this earlier? Where did these death robots come from? And those blood red spikes surely must be decorative, right?

Robby will go from room to room, collecting all the paracetamol he sees; all the while avoiding robots, spikes, and awkward social situations. (I might have made that last one up!) When all the pills are collected, the door will open and Robby can leave. One of these doors must lead out of this nightmare, right?

Robby can jump, but Robby can only jump high or long. He can't jump long and high. To do a long jump (to jump from one platform to another) press JUMP and a DIRECTION and Robby will do a fast, long jump in that direction.

To do a HIGH jump, press JUMP and do not press any DIRECTION.

MAGENTA platforms cannot be jumped through. Blue platforms can be jumped through.

When all the pills are collected, the door will start flashing and sound it's siren. Touching the door will either lead to another room, or complete the game. (Currently 16 screens are available; more may be added in the future).

Do you think you can do it? You have 3 lives to try. Good luck!

Oh. I probably should mention, you won't score anything until you you get to the door. You'll earn points for each pill picked up (and a nice running total is displayed on the screen next to your score), but until you go through that door, those points are just your potential score for the level...

Controls

Usual Joystick controls, but also O = Left, P = Right, M = Jump, H = Pause.

Keyboard controls are redefinable if you prefer AD[Space] Or something similar. 

Loading the game: You will need an emulator, or a way of loading .tap files into your Spectrum. Select the Tape File, if it doesn't automatically load, type LOAD "" ( J and then shift and PP for the quotes ) and hit enter. You might need to start the tape. If in doubt, refer to whichever instructions relate to whatever it is you're using.

Inspiration

This game has been inspired by Manic Miner (Matthew Smith) and other collect-'em up style, single screen, arcade platform games.

The "Tune" at the beginning is based on some music for the recorder written in 1686 by Carr, Robert, fl. 1686-1696; although I feel I massacred it. At least with Tunes like that you can understand why the game is called Throbbing Headache!

The game itself started as a proof of concept called "Throbby" which was really just messing around with jump mechanics (having read a thread on the Spectrum Computing Forums about "programmers hating games" that brought up Butch Hard Guy and his jumping mechanics... Hopefully the jump mechanics in this make sense and are more fun than frustrating once you get used to them).

Credits

I did it all. Sorry! I can't blame anyone else. However, I should thank Jonathan Cauldwell for the Multi Platform Arcade Game Designer (MPAGD), with which, this was created. The music was possible due to Beepola which was created by Chris Cowley, and specifically, the Music Studio Beeper by Saša Pušica.