Dizzy Down the Rapids
Dizzy rides a barrel down dangerous rivers, dodging enemies and waterfalls in a home-computer arcade spin-off.
Image credits and source
Original cover / promotional artwork
Credit: Codemasters — artwork belongs to its respective rights holders
Game at a glance
- Status
- Classic
- Released
- 1991
- Platforms
- Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64
- Genres
- Action
- Developer
- Big Red Software; Paul Black (C64); The Oliver Twins (concept)
- Publisher
- Codemasters
Development and publication
Development: Big Red Software; Paul Black (C64); The Oliver Twins (concept). Publication: Codemasters.
The Oliver Twins created Dizzy and contributed the concept, design or oversight identified above. Programming and conversions are credited separately.
Making the game
This has a very similar story behind it to Bubble Dizzy. Whilst working on Fantastic Dizzy on the NES we created a few mini-games.
We thought it would be fun if Dizzy navigated down a river, and immediately Toobin (a classic arcade game) came to mind. So we decided that Dizzy should jump in a barrel to ride down the river, but the trolls spot him and take chase. To make matters worse there are crocodiles in the river and trolls throwing rocks from the banks.
It makes a fun game and we decided this would be a fun budget game for the home computers with additional features and levels obviously.
The C64 version was originally developed by Paul Black. The C64 version was originally a clone of Toobin called 'Toobin Turtles'. When the game was sent to Codemasters for consideration, it was rebranded to take advantage of Dizzy's popularity.
Original documents
Archived Dizzy Down the Rapids document (PDF)