Retro Tech Nibble: The British Videogame that was Buried

[@RMCRetro]

Yes! Before you say it there WAS a "British ET" in the game "ETX The Extra Terrestrial Xargon", the comparison is of the fate shared with the 2600 port. Do you have any more examples of treasure hunting video games? I guess Pokemon Go was nearly a real world augmented reality treasure hunt, it was just missing a tangible reward offered by SOTS. Thank you for watching. Neil - RMC If you'd like to see David's Book "Commodore: The Inside Story" you can find it here: goo.gl/HmPxjn For more information on John Worsley you can find his Facebook page here: goo.gl/Va9M4B

[@hedgehog3180]

The people who made Pokemon Go also made another AR game which did include some prices IIRC.

[@mr_barrie]

Call at the end was so funny 😂 shovels at the ready!

[@curiousottman]

RMC never disappoints. This video is absolutely fascinating. As a long time Commodore user back in the day I had no idea something as interesting as this type of interactive software existed. While other retro channels are retrobrighting keyboards RMC is delivering high quality content!

[@RMCRetro]

Thanks man! Glad you enjoyed it

[@mrbouffant]

I got this game back in 1986 and was enthralled by the treasure hunt aspect. The game gave clues to the runic system used and so it was pretty straightforward to be able to decipher the runes in the book after that. However, that was only a small part of the puzzle. We used to holiday on the Wight every summer, so I remember traipsing around looking for talismen that very August. I think the closest I came was above Appuldurcombe House where I came across the runic writing someone had chalked onto a large boulder. Looks like I had arrived too late to nab the treasure. It would be wonderful to find one of the missing talismen today! Thanks for a great video which stirred up a lot of memories.

[@timatkins4754]

As soon as Lee Braine was mentioned, my ears pricked up. I knew that name from my C64 past. Then, when I saw the platformer part of the game, it hit me. The flying water droplets with their odd trajectory, ending in a strange fuzzy shake when they hit the ground. The endlessly repeating classical score. All very similar to a unlikely favourite game of mine - Caverns of Eriban - written by and named for one....Lee Braine!

[@star_man]

As a baldy beardy C64 fan too we must stand tall, we much feel no shame, we must reflect sunlight off our shiny heads into the eyes of our enemies . I remember seeing this on the shelves at my local WHSmith back in the day. I also have a vague recollection of another game that had a real life prize if your solved the game which I think was space or black hole themed, but the details escape me.

[@star_man]

You know after an extensive googling I think I'm getting the box art and title of the Spectrum The Great Space Race, intermixed with Ian Livingstone's Eureka! game which had a real world prize and weird sci-fi-ish cover art that bore no relation to the actual game in the slightest. Oh 1980s you were so long ago...

[@raggersragnarsson6255]

@@star_man My goodness. You have triggered an old memory of mine. I had the boxed version of the Great Space Race for ZX Spectrum I think. It was a terrible game from what I remember and I only played it a few times. I didn't realise its significance at the time. Thanks for bringing back some of those old vague childhood times right there.

[@SeverityOne]

"Maybe treasure hunts will become fashionable again." *cough* Pokémon Go...

[@RMCRetro]

That's a good example, I mention it in my pinned comment at the top of the comments section, the difference there is there's no tangible prize, the Pokemon are virtual... but you're right it's a very small step away from being a treasure hunt.

[@paxhumana2015]

@@RMCRetro , you are aware that Atari had its own real life treasures in a series of games for the Atari 2600, and that the Uncharted series also had you finding treasures, and ditto for the Tomb Raider series and the Pitfall games, right?

[@vix_in_japan]

RMC goes full on Taken by the end haha. I will find them!

[@AWalYT]

It's only a matter of time...We all know what happened after ET's fate...

[@lloydparker]

I'm from Corby originally and had completely forgotten there was a Commodore factory. It closed before I was born but I have vague recollections of people talking about it because it's one of those towns where everyone worked in a factory: the steelworks, Avon, RS Components, Weetabix etc.

[@oncameramastery]

I have to say, the book looks amazing, would have been a lovely package back in the day!

[@thewassock]

I finally acquired Pimania for £2 in a computer shop whilst on holiday in summer 1985. I recall playing it for a few days afterwards when I returned home the following week, and then reading in the press that the game had been solved on the very day I'd purchased the game.

[@RMCRetro]

Oh boy that must have hurt

[@thewassock]

Not really - I bought it as I already owned some other of Automata’s games, which were somewhat silly, and wanted more. As it was reduced from £10 to £2, and I had £50 of holiday money, it wasn’t much of a loss.

[@BobM925]

Did anyone else have to go and watch the opening titles to Treasure Hunt immediately after watching this?

[@dairedarcy1130]

Thank you!!! I saw this on Tomorrow's World at the time and I've always wondered what happened to it! Now, I can rest easy!

[@RMCRetro]

You're welcome, thanks for watching Daire

[@bit-ishbulldog2089]

I Have strong memories of this game in the 80's, my older brother had a Commodore 128 and got this game in the same box and had the book, but he had the cassette version.. It was the music in game and the book that creeped me out (I was probably about 5 or 6 years old) there was a drawing of a creature (hairy troll) thing that I see in your video that floods back them memories.. I have the game on my SD2IEC but no book so when asked page/line (type the word) to start the game "I can't".. I could always look it up on the internet.

[@monolalia]

Who would've thought the plural of talisman was "talismen"...

[@ukmk3supra]

The autogenerated subtitles are hilarious again! Awesome to be able to have David Pleasance as a guest, albeit as a disembodied voice :D

[@peterduyts4443]

Ian Gray also made China Miner, gameplay and graphics look the same :)

[@Kazuo1G]

Sounds a lot like the "_______"quest Series for the Atari 2600. They had real Precious Stone/Metal prizes too, plus puzzles integrated in an included comic book you could solve for a chance at said prizes. It never reached the end, and the late Jack Tramiel (head of Commodore) reportedly kept two of the prizes.

[@FerintoshFarmsPhotography]

There is, its called geocaching and its quite a lot of fun actually

[@RMCRetro]

My niblings love geocaching, I guess it's a video game of sorts!

[@iXien]

A friend of mine find this game in a flea market for little price, complete and box in very good shape, and decided to give it to me for my birthday. What a nice gift 🤩! I didn't know this game at all because the C64 is not a computer that I am very passionate about and it's exclusive to this machine. Moreover, I am French living in France and the game has apparently only been released in England with the book. So I had in my hands a totally unknown game, what was really puzzling me, and the item is so beautiful that I wanted to know more, suspecting there was more behind than just an average game and a mysterious book of clues about a treasure hunt. And making researches on KZbin, I find your video. Weird that I missed it as I'm subscribed to your channel. A second wonderful surprise. And the game kept its promise! What an astonishing story ! Many thanks for this really exciting video, full of incredible informations 👍

[@raggersragnarsson6255]

This has to be one of the most interesting game stories of all time and presented as wonderfully as ever. I would not have known about it otherwise. Thank you.

[@markteague8889]

Hahah! You have ma' joystick. Went through a lot of joysticks in the decade of 8-bit computing. That was definitely the best one. I actually still have it and it still works. Who says you can't build a peripheral device to last?!?

[@trailersic]

I have a sealed copy of this, there seems to be quite a few about, I do wonder if a bunch were buried but a lot others were given away for nothing, so long as they were gone.

[@ireway1988]

Sony Playstation 3 had a sort of treasure hunt on its Sony Home game called Xi. Clues were dotted in the game to real life locations around the world.

[@RacerX-]

Classic. As a USA C64 user I never heard of this game back then so thanks for sharing such a great story!

[@EndymionMkII]

While as not as a crazy disaster like Hareraiser (thanks to Ashens' video/panel I learned about it) this one is still as fascinating to learn about, and also really curious how there were treasure hunt crazes on the UK for quite a while. Though I don't think nowadays making a virtual treasure hunt contest would be viable given how games are much more tied to sales and profits... Anyways, this was a really great video, the amount of care and research you put into your videos really makes them so nice to watch!

[@RMCRetro]

Thank you Soma for the kind words

[@jaxmk1]

Amazing dedication for this video what a story. Excellent presentation!!! 👍

[@speedbird737]

ok I found out where David put them - they're in his back garden!

[@RMCRetro]

Damn! They have been fuelling his chimnea for 30 years

[@loganjorgensen]

Good job tourist board, you won. 9_9

[@matthewburroughs9597]

Liking the Police Squad Laserdisc in the background. ☺

[@alaricsmith5558]

Great episode! Brilliant.

[@6581punk]

Ian Gray did loads of games for Interceptor Micros. Tales of the Arabian Nights, China Miner, Trollie Wallie etc.

[@Petertronic]

Amazing story well told. I'm reminded of a mammoth multi-part text adventure game called Eureka! where there was a cash prize for the first to finish it, have you heard of that?

[@RMCRetro]

I hadn't, thank you for making me aware of it I'll check that out. I remember quite a few cash prize promises on 8bit games. It might be fun to see if anyone ever won them

[@Petertronic]

I played Eureka with my dad & some other family members, we had a good go at completing it but I think we hit a brick wall and got stuck. We were veteran adventure game players and the quality of this one was a bit sub-par, but quite fun. I might still have it in a box somewhere :)

[@thewassock]

If I remember correctly, it comprised of five two-part games, each set in a different era. The first part of each was a difficult arcade game, success in which would increase your initial health score in the text adventure. As some parts of the adventure used timing critical sections, more health meant a greater chance of success. I got nowhere in any of the adventures as they weren't that logical (and the last game may have needed the completion of the other four to progress). Anyway, as there were 10 games on the cassette, necessitating the use of thin tape, my cassette got damaged on one play through and I gave up.

[@trickey30]

That's the game I was trying to think of whilst watching this - Written by Ian Livingstone, who authored the Fighting Fantasy books with Steve Jackson - I never got past the first part of the game! :-)

[@trickey30]

and according to this - someone got the cheque for Eureka! :-) www.retrogamer.net/profiles/developer/ian-livingstone/

[@dangerotterisrea]

These are so cool, somebody should revive this idea.

[@ajgelado]

I don't think the "Treasure Hunt" TV show is related to the British obsession with treasure hunts in the 80s. It's just the English adaptation of France's "La chasse au trésor", which also had versions in many countries all around Europe.

[@hammersti3n540]

Remember it well dad had the book .. live on the island and yep as a youngster me and my mates did do runick graffiti around parkhurst and cowes area 😀

[@RMCRetro]

Awesome thank you for confirming that was a real thing!

[@johnathin0061892]

Though not game related per se, this was much closer to "Treasure - In Search of the Golden Horse", which was a book and movie made in the USA where clues were given to a location where there was a real life treasure was buried on public land (it was inspired by the "Masquerade" book that preceded it.) The only thing Spirit of the Stones and ET have in common is that they were buried in a hole, the backstories for each and different and interesting for different reasons. There was also Treasure Master for the NES, sort of, but that wasn't a physical treasure hunt.

[@ctrlaltrees]

I'm surprised those two game developers didn't go and dig up the treasure themselves, I know I'd be tempted!

[@AlistairMaxwell77]

David Pleasance seems like a nice guy and genuinely fond of what he did at Commodore UK

[@stamfordly6463]

I forgot that Commodore had a royal warrant back then.

[@namakudamono]

Lovely story, thank you very much Neil.

[@robintst]

The whole concept reminds me Atari's ill-fated Sword Quest contest from around the same time.

[@Archer-qv4sk]

That was interesting! I still pick the book up from time to time. Met John W years ago in the town. (He used to sell his paintings in a shop) I have a part solution sheet. (It starts you off with the codes in the book, but you have to work to solve it, as mentioned).

[@markyturner]

Love it. I played this game as a kid, and always wondered what happened to the treasure!

[@LastofAvari]

10:16 An unexpected cryptic The Shadow's Nose tune

[@doalwa]

Great video, very interesting story, never heard of this before! And man, I feel your pain, I just moved in as a permanent resident of bald mountain myself...I guess I should quit the charade and finally update my profile picture 😁

[@xeroniris]

David should release a new C64 game today with puzzles and riddles that lead to the burial site.

[@webchimp]

Ashens did a good video on Hare Raiser.

[@st3ddyman]

You’ve got to love David

[@erwindewit4073]

I like treasure hunts! And this does look like fun! Liked dwelling this cave 🙂

[@RMCRetro]

Come back and dwell anytime

[@erwindewit4073]

Hahaha, I do every time! Love dwelling retro style

[@kyotokid]

Enjoyable story, thanks for this video!

[@RMCRetro]

Thanks Ivan

[@Charlie-Cat.]

Never heard of this one before bro. But I do have to admit it looks really cool. I have to look into this one more now. Nice work Neil. I learn something new from you today. 8^) Anthony..

[@RMCRetro]

You're welcome Anthony 🤘

[@BertGrink]

Quite an interesting story, thanks for sharing.

[@john020869]

I am one of the people who completed this game and treasure hunt and still have the diamond talisman to this day.

[@RMCRetro]

I'd love to see that John if you happen to be on twitter please share a photo

[@Lorfarius]

After that ending.. will we ever hear from RMC again :|

[@smayds]

Jeez, I had this thing as a kid, in its vast box. I never understood what the heck I was supposed to do because it didn't come with the book, and we'd never heard of this treasure-hunt craze down here. Did I see you typing in a copy-protection code, Neil? I don't remember that, it was on the official Commodore waxy-sleve diskette but it just loaded to the title screen. I just remember that it was absolute arse with no context. Now I learn that it was absolute arse even IN context!

[@iXien]

The password had to be picked in the book. As the second release didn't include the book, we can suppose that they had to remove it.

[@christophercox6092]

Apparently I wrote the music for this :)

[@RMCRetro]

You did!? Or your namesake did? Are you THE Chris Cox?

[@christophercox6092]

@@RMCRetro Sadly no, nor am I the one that appeared in the Credits to Photoshop :)

[@allan.n.7227]

Go treasure huntin', Pokémon!

[@smiljanicn]

Where to get that acrylic stand, its gorgeous!

[@aspie182]

Played it for about half an hour, decided I did not want to play it anymore, rarely thought of it again. Quite clearly, the book was the better proposition.

[@FlashGordonMurr]

Very cool was this game ever released in the US?

[@infinitecanadian]

They had a similar treasure winning contest for the Nintendo Entertainment System. One of the winners got greedy and melted down his prize for the gold; it would have been a fortune today. What arcade parts are those that you always mention at the start of the video? 'Sanoir'?

[@RMCRetro]

Hah can you remember the name of the NES game? Sanwa parts 🕹

[@infinitecanadian]

@@RMCRetro Well it does sound French, like 'Renoir'! Must have been that trans-Atlantic trait of putting an 'r' at the end of an 'a' and before another 'a'.

[@darthnagus5457]

Love the ending he he he

[@herbiehusker1889]

It's ok to be bald Neil.

[@Lucasrainford]

I got this game in my C64 pack. The box was standard size with no book, it was the cassette version. I found the game too tough to enjoy and overall mediocre. Loved the vid m8, very well researched and interesting. :)

[@electron-1979]

Fascinating!

[@enricovanderswanlake9454]

Great story

[@lordmuaddib]

and they say Cicada 3301 cyphers are hard :D. great video

[@gregster29]

I'm sure there was something very similar on the spectrum at around the same time. It's a really interesting story, and I wonder if any of the remaining talismans will ever be found, and if they will be worth anything. One will probably be found under a carpark 100 years from now.

[@RMCRetro]

"Pi Man" was on the Spectrum which appears briefly in the video. I think that was perhaps the first ever game of this type. Hare Raise was also on the Speccy

[@gregster29]

@@RMCRetro It probably would have been one of them. I just remember my mate Richard and his brothers spending hours on it, and getting nowhere.

[@TheTurnipKing]

British ET would probably be closer to Shadow of the Unicorn. It didn't sink the entire industry, but it was enough to end Mikro-gen. There were many games with a cash prize, though. Eureka springs to mind.

[@TheTurnipKing]

Oh, the Swordquest thing, that's right

[@smittenthekitteninmittens2679]

Aniker Rice was a stone cold fox in the 90's...

[@104d_3rr0r_vince]

10:16 Theshadownooooosee

[@Dr.Dawson]

"et" game or not what a great collectible it is. That book looks very cool indeed. Great vid and Id have to guess that was a scam ending for the game for sure, secret was shared. You mentioned AR, ID say pokemon and what not are the beginning of that and soon advertising will jump in to start offering the rewards. When AR get big enough that is.

[@natsume-hime2473]

Instead of comparing this to E.T. on the Atari VCS(2600), you should have compared it to Swordquest on the same system. Since Swordquest did a similar thing with cash prizes and fancy expensive knickknacks. All of which failed spectacularly.

[@cbmeeks]

Didn't Atari have a similar contest? It wasn't a treasure hunt in the real world but in game format. I think there were 4 carts. I have two of them. Can't remember the name.

[@cleverlyblonde]

Are you thinking of ATARI Swordquest? AVGN did an episode on that kzbin.info/www/bejne/gojPpYRvirNorKc

[@natsume-hime2473]

You're thinking of Swordquest, the other two games released, but not their contests. The treasure hunting part IIRC was in an included comic book though, not the games themselves.

[@somethingsmells5387]

Who knows. The shadows nose.

[@randywatson8347]

Nice story.

[@UberNeuman]

I thought Dr. Who was the British E.T.

[@B3tanTyronne]

How about a quick follow up about pi-mania?

[@RMCRetro]

That could well be worth a visit, it did look pretty crazy

[@jmp01a24]

Eureka.

[@kristianTV1974]

Bigger than... heh heh heh... my not insubstantial head!

[@peterdoa1]

Bald is beautiful

[@kimlebrocqu692]

What a great story pitty that it was yet another flop for commodore. I'm sure with the correct pursuasive methods David pleasence would tell us Neil😁😁😁 Kim 😁😁😁

[@WiggysanWiggysan]

I guess in a very junior form, that fad that lasted 3 minutes called Pokeman Go was a little bit of a VR treasure hunt project. If a grown up was to take that kind of 'engine' but make it a technical challenge with a modern VR (ish) version, then the game could work.

[@RMCRetro]

Yes all Pokemon Go was missing was the physical treasure. Imagine that but with real caches to be found. It would cause mayhem

[@WiggysanWiggysan]

@@RMCRetro Approx 100,000 accidents. Crazy : gizmodo.com/study-estimates-that-pokemon-go-has-caused-more-than-10-1820776908

[@ChicagoMel23]

It was a lot more than 3 minutes. It’s still going strong

[@GloriaBrown-b8c]

Perez Cynthia Miller Brenda Lee Brenda

[@greggrsham-ri8sh]

The isles of white was a RACING.Course ???