Acorn’s BBC Micro was considered by most to be one of the ‘also rans’ of the 8-bit home computers, the Spectrum, C64 and Amstrad being the favourites. In particular the Beeb as it was affectionately known had the reputation of being an educational platform due to being the system of choice in most schools at the time.
However as a Beeb user since 1982, I can assure you that there were many great games produced for the system and this article aims to highlight some of the best games that originated on the BBC Micro, many of which were never released on another platform.
First off, I’m not going to cover Elite because most gamers know all about it and, to be honest, I never got into the game when I was a kid so have never seen what all the fuss was about!
The Repton Series
Superior Software, 1985-1988
After Elite, probably the most well known game on the Beeb is Tim Tyler’s Repton and it’s many sequels. The object and style of the game is very similar to Boulder Dash – dig through the earth, collect the diamonds and avoid the falling rocks – but the original game was released at virtually the same time so shouldn’t be considered a clone. And while Boulder Dash has a certain charm, Repton has a lot more style with larger, more colourful sprites and the added distraction of eggs that hatch into big green monsters! Also useful was the map screen that allowed you to view the entire playing field to work out your strategy for collecting all the diamonds.
Repton 2 was a completely different matter, with the distinct levels of the original being replaced with one giant, sprawling level where you had to collect every diamond, puzzle piece and piece of earth to complete the game, with only three lives to do it! The game included new aspects such as transporters that moved you to different parts of the level, but with virtually no margin for error and no way to save your progress, it was just too arduous a task for most gamers.
Repton 3 was a welcome return to form, taking the more compact level-by-level approach of the original and adding more features such as safes that needed a key to unlock the diamonds within, lethal ‘spirits’ that patrolled the edges of the maze, and the irritating fungus which expanded into any empty spaces it could find! Most significantly the game came with its own construction kit that allowed you not only to create new levels but also modify most of the sprites, a great attraction to any budding game designer. This was not only used by the game-buying public but also by Superior themselves who milked the franchise with a series of themed add-on packs such as Repton Thru Time and Around the World in 40 Screens. The customisability of the game was a big hit with fans of the game and the final release Repton Infinity improved on this further by allowing the user to create their own mini programming routines to dictate the behaviour of the game, as well as including four complete examples.
Repton was arguably the flagship character on the BBC Micro, just as Superior Software was the flagship games company, and while some of the games were ported to platforms such as the Spectrum and C64, there is no doubt that Repton was and always will be a Beeb original. The legacy lives on to this day with PC remakes of the games available from Superior Interactive.
Tetrapod
Acornsoft, 1984
Acornsoft was legendary for a collection of near-perfect unofficial arcade conversions, but the company also released some interesting original arcade-style games, of which Tetrapod was one of the best. Upon starting the game you are presented with a single-screen playfield populated with a couple of enemy ships and - quite literally - a load of balls! Your ship is controlled Asteroids-style with left/right rotation, thrust and fire, and each level is completed by eliminating all the enemies. The balls can be bounced around the screen by both your ship and the enemies, and if shot by one of your bullets they hatch into fast moving lizard-like creatures (presumably the titular tetrapods) that chase the nearest ship to them. Shooting them turns them back into the balls.
So to clear a level you can either shoot the enemies, or try and unleash a tetrapod near to them to kill them. The complexity is added to because any bullets you fire continue to bounce around the screen until they hit something, including you! So not only must you avoid enemy fire and rampaging tetrapods, but also you must be careful not to shoot yourself. Needless to say, on later levels where certain enemies can only be dispatched in certain ways, the action reaches a manic level that rivals the mighty Robotron! Tetrapod is far from being the most well known game on the Beeb, but there’s no doubt it is one of the most challenging and original shooters on the system.
Citadel
Superior Software, 1985
Another classic from Superior, Citadel is an arcade adventure game spanning over 100 screens filled with items to collect, puzzles to solve and enemies to avoid. The aim of the game is rather convoluted – aliens are about to invade Earth via a teleporter in the citadel. You have collect five crystals and place them in a starport, allowing you to teleport to the alien planet and destroy the teleporter, thus stopping the invasion. If this wasn’t tricky enough, you also have to find three crowns and place them in specific locations in order to become ruler of the citadel!
Citadel perfectly mixed arcade-style platforming with more cerebral problem solving. Some of the puzzles were truly inspired. For example, the guard of one room has to be fed a roast chicken to allow you to pass, but you only have an uncooked chicken. The solution? Take the chicken to a fireplace in another room, cook it and then take it to the guard. That’s one of the easier ones by the way! 
The graphics were excellent for the time, especially the ghoulish cloaked characters that inhabited some rooms that could be dispatched with a well-placed ‘spell’ (a projectile launched from your player’s mouth) only to re-appear when you re-entered the room. Sound was also great and included use of Superior’s speech synthesiser. Overall Citadel is a very polished game containing many hours of head-scratching gameplay. It was followed by a sequel, and has also been remade as a reasonably faithful online Flash game.
Thanks for sharing Witchfinder, I really enjoyed reading this piece. Funnily enough, I had nearly all of these games back in the day, though I was the owner of a lowly Electron rather than a Beeb.
The games all look pretty much identicle with the exception of Boffin (I don't think the Elk had this gfx mode, so we got a different version). Repton was my favourite and I still haven't completed it to this day.
Are you aware of Danger UXB? I think this was a Beeb original, and very addictive (and difficult, too).