Gribbly's Day Out

Gribbly's Day Out

Game No.	65
Voting	7.47 points, 17 votes
Developer	Coding: Andrew Braybrook Graphics: Stephen Robertson
Company	Graftgold L td.
Publisher	Hewson Consultants Ltd.
Musician	Steve Turner
HVSC-File	MUSICIANS/T/Turner_Steve/Gribblys_Day_Out.sid
Release	1985
Platform	C64, Antstream
Genre	Arcade, Collect'em Up
Gamemode	Single player
Operation
Media
Language
Information	was released under the label Rack It

Description[edit | edit source]

Story[edit | edit source]

Welcome to the planet Blagbor, the home of the Gribblets! The surrounding hills are inhabited by primitive creatures, whose only aim is to kidnap the Gribblets, and Seon, a dangerous Blagborian, lurks behind the psi net in the sky. Can you round up all the Gribblets that are hidden behind rocks, over lakes and on mysteriously floating islands on time and bring them to safety?

Mission[edit | edit source]

As „Gribbly Grobbly“ you need to collect in 16 different levels each eight Gribblets before the creatures get them and take them to the safe cave. These creatures go through several metamorphoses. First they fall from the sky like seeds, land and then turn to green worms. If they tread on a Gribblet it will turn on its back, but it can be turned again by a jump from Gribbly Grobbly. After a while the green worms pupate and a bit later they eclose as skull worms. When they meet a turned Gribblet, they catch it and fly around with it. Gribbly Grobbly can bubble away the creatures in all stages except as walking skull worms. If a Gribblet is kidnapped by a skull worm, you should try to free the Gribblet over clear ground, otherwise it will fall into death. The psi net constrains Gribbly Grobbly in his mission, but it can be switched on and off at the points. At the same time, the psi net protects from Seon the black beast.

Design[edit | edit source]

... the intro ...

... an animation from the game ...

The sprites are lovingly animated. According to the spirit of that time (and especially according to the technical possibilities of the C64) the graphics are differently coloured in each level, but designed nicely. Everything is somehow animated, the enemy animations are detailed and partially very funny. You can even switch back and forth between 50 and 60 hz depiction, which argues for Andrew Braybrook's programming skills.

The soundtrack is a bit minimalistic, in exchange, the sound effects fit well to the happening.

Hints[edit | edit source]

Controls[edit | edit source]

During the Intro

F1 - set clock

F3/F4 - hours +/-

F5/F6 - minutes +/-

F7/F8 - 50Hz/60Hz

F2 - start clock
F5 - raise volume
F6 - lower volume
F7 - graphics in colour
F8 - graphics in black/white

During the game on the floor

/ - jump left/right
- float
- pick up, put down Gribblets/bubble bubbles

During the game in the air

- floating left/right/up/down
- bubbling bubbles/switching PSI net

Creatures & stages[edit | edit source]

Creatures
	Gribbly Grobbly the hero of the game	Gribblet Gribbly Grobbly needs to collect them
	Energy Grub gives Gribbly Grobbly energy	Seon the most dangerous enemy in the game
Stages
	1. Seed Pod fall from the sky to become Topsies.	2. Topsie flips Gribblets onto their backs.
	3. Chrysalis A Topsie mutating into a Stomper.	4. Stomper Absorbs flipped Gribblets and then mutates into a Flyer.
	5. Flyer Carries Gribblets off.

Solution[edit | edit source]

Level maps

Can be found here: Gribbly's Day Out - level maps

Cheats[edit | edit source]

The version by "Sharks" offers unlimited energy as cheat mode.

Voting[edit | edit source]

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
7.47 points at 17 votes (rank 276). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64Games	7	13th December 2006 - "very good" - 1285 downs
Lemon64	7.91	13th December 2006 - 34 votes
Kultboy.com	8	28th July 2008 - 1 votes
ZZap64	90%	Edition 7/85

Reviews[edit | edit source]

Logan: "Gribbly’s Special Day Out was one of my first C64 games and captivated me for many hours in front of the monitor. I never could play it to the end, because at some point the levels got to hard for me (e.g. The Tunnel)."

Borna: "This game marks as a highlight of the C64 time. The graphics were a finery, the game principle was unbelievably creative and well playable. The level of difficulty was okay at the beginning, later it was extremly high. I never made it through, what a pity. However, 10 points from me for an absolute pearl by the grandmaster Andrew Braybrook."

Robotron2084: "Unnerving searching and manoeuvring around on sometimes very narrow room and difficult controls (gravity and inertia) make the game unnecessarily straining. Fun in its original sense doesn't really come up despite the good presentation. Furthermore is the choice of colours in some levels x-double minus. 5 out of 10 points."

Miscellaneous[edit | edit source]

Gribbly’s Special Day Out[edit | edit source]

In 1986 "Gribbly’s Special Day Out" was published. A few bugs had been removed. In the first edition there was a flickering on the lower right edge of the game. This was removed. The level construction was the same, only some small details were changed and the colours were a bit different. Also the type face was changed.