B.C. Bill
| B.C. Bill | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Creative Technology Group |
| Publisher(s) | Imagine Software |
| Designer(s) | Marc Dawson [1] |
| Platform(s) | C64, ZX Spectrum, TRS-80 Color Computer, Dragon 32, BBC Micro |
| Release | 1984 |
| Genre(s) | Action |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
B.C. Bill is a 2D action computer game created by Marc Dawson (AKA Marc Wilding) and published by Imagine Software in 1984.[1] It was released for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, TRS-80 Color Computer, Dragon 32, and BBC Micro.
Gameplay
The player controls the eponymous B.C. Bill, a caveman, and must gather wives and enough food to feed his growing family, while avoiding predatory dinosaurs. Bill is armed with a club, which he uses to stun cavewomen and to kill a variety of roaming creatures. Smaller creatures may be dragged back to the cave as food, whereas larger dinosaurs will eat potential wives and food, and will kill Bill on contact. Bill can die from a broken heart if too many wives leave the cave, and from starvation if he is unable to provide enough food to feed himself and his family.[2][3]
The game features changing seasons, which affect the number and variety of food animals and also act as an internal gamplay timer: in spring, every wife who has food will produce a child, while in autumn any wife with no food will die and any child with no food will leave home.
Reception
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Crash | 73% [4] |
| Computer and Video Games | 8/10 [5] |
| Your Sinclair | 3/5 [2] |
While reviewers praised the gameplay, the game was criticised by some reviewers for its sexist subject matter, as a core element of gameplay involves the protagonist clubbing women and then dragging them by the hair into his cave to become his wife.[4][2] Your Sinclair's (then Your Spectrum) Ron Smith speculated that this might have been deliberate on the part of Imagine, and Imagine's Tim Best appeared to confirm this, saying that he expected the "Greenham Common women" to take up residence outside Imagine's Liverpool offices.[6]
References
- ^ a b "The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers". dadgum.com.
- ^ a b c Willis, Roger (November 1984). "B.C. Bill". Your Sinclair (9): 60.
- ^ "B.C. Bill". Retro Gamer. Future Publishing. 23 October 2010. Archived from the original on 13 September 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
- ^ a b "B.C. Bill". Crash (10): 12. October 1984.
- ^ "B.C. Bill". CVG (32): 29. June 1984.
- ^ Smith, Ron (July 1984). "Rumbles: Imagine gets chauvinist". Your Sinclair (5): 56.
External links
 | This action game–related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |