A Christmas Game :
Fusion Retro Magazine : Issue 9
December ‘19
Our fun take on Retro games that tried to cash in on Christmas. Spoiler alert - they are pretty much all turkeys.
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Andrew Oliver becomes Visiting Professor at BCU (Birmingham City University)
December ‘19
Following the recommendation of Senior Games Lecturer Carlo Harvey. Andrew was invited to become a Visiting Professor at Birmingham City University. by EPA Rachel Warr on behalf of the Pro Vice Chancellor & Exective Dean Professor Hanifa Shah.
Story Behind Dizzy - The Ultimate Cartoon Adventure
Fusion Retro : 2020 Annual
December '19
In this 6 page article, we explain to Chris Wilkins the story behind creating our most successful character - Dizzy, back in 1987 when we were aged 19, having just left school.
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Buy Fusion Retro Game Magazine here
The Retro Fusion 2020 Annual Here
Story Behind Fast Food Dizzy Fusion Retro : Issue ZX
November ‘19
In this 5 page article, we explain to Chris Wilkins the story behind creating Fast Food, Dizzy’s first non-adventure game.
Story Behind Fantastic Dizzy Fusion Retro : Issue 7
Sept ‘19
In this 5 page article, we tell Chris Wilkins how our trip to Las Vegas inspired us to create our first NES game, The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy.
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Buy Fusion Retro Game Magazine here
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The History of British Video Games Video by Giff Gaff
August 2019
Looking back on 2019 - a high point was filming with Aoife Wilson, YrsTruly, & GiffGaff at the NVM in Sheffield.
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The History Of British Video Games Part 1 | #giffgaffgaming
Squeezing the Spectrum : Wireframe Article Issue 19
August 2019
We wrote a technical article on how we managed to squeeze Fantasy World Dizzy into the 48k Spectrum. The article gets quite technical and even has a link to the source code!
UKie : 30 Years of Play
3rd July '19
"The Oliver Twins, now founders of Game Dragons, are best known for creating legendary video game character Dizzy. But they have a much more varied and interesting history within the UK interactive entertainment business."
Panic Dizzy - NES : Released
July ‘19
Finally the last of our completed and unreleased NES games sees publication!
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Limited to just 400 cartridges with all royalties going to Centre for Computing History - Cambridge.
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Fantasy World Dizzy FINALLY makes it to Atari Jaguar Console
June ‘19
Atari Age produce another great Dizzy game for the classic Jaguar console, this time it’s our favourite Fantasy World Dizzy.
Limited to just 250 copies!
Royalties going to Special Effect & The National Videogame Museum.
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Story Behind FUZE 4 Switch
​Fusion Retro Magazine : Issue 6
May ‘19
In this 8 page article Philip interviews Jon Silvera on the new ‘Game making game’ - Fuze4 Nintendo Switch.
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Buy Fusion Retro Game Magazine here
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Double Dragon : Wireframe Article Issue 10
March ‘19
Wireframe article about our new games consultancy business - Game Dragons.
“We catch up with the Oliver Twins to talk Dizzy, Codemasters and their new venture, Game Dragons.”
"With a dizzying array of games behind them, Codemasters veterans Andrew and Philip Oliver now hope to share their wisdom with other British developers."
Get the full Wireframe Magazine here
Story Behind GhostBusters 2
Fusion Retro Magazine : Issue 5
March ‘19
In this 4 page article we tell Chris Wilkins how we loved the original Ghostbusters movie and how we were fortunate enough to make the Amstrad and Spectrum games for the sequel movie.
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Treasure Island Dizzy FINALLY makes it to Atari Jaguar Console
February ‘19
Atari Age produce a brilliant new version of Treasure Island Dizzy for the Atari Jaguar.
Better late than never! Limited to just 250 copies!
Royalties going to Special Effect & The National Videogame Museum.
Story Behind Pro Ski Simulator
​Fusion Retro Magazine : Issue 4
February ‘19
In this 4 page article we explain to Chris Wilkins how a holiday combined with a classic arcade game inspired our Professional Ski Simulator game.
Buy Fusion Retro Game Magazine here
Panic Dizzy - NES : Kickstarter Launched
8th February ‘19
Back in ‘92, Codemasters suggested they could release our NES games on a Dizzy compilation cartridge. To compliment the adventure games, we decided to add Panic Dizzy, but fully redesigned, from the original 8-bit computer games. We always felt that design didn’t quite work, so with this version we decided to have 5 different puzzle games - hoping that one would find the magic! We feel both Match More and Dizzy Dice worked really well!
Philip Oliver becomes Visiting Professor at Staffordshire University
1st February ‘19
Following the recommendation of Associate Professor Bobbie Fletcher, Philip was invited to become a Visiting Professor at Staffs. Uni. by Professor Liz Barnes, the University’s Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive.
Staying Alive: Wireframe article about the early turbulent years
December ‘18
Wireframe article about The turbulent history of British game development.
“A new frontier opened up as the British games industry exploded in the 1980s. Careers were born and classic games made, but few companies survived that turbulent decade”
It was fun to be part of that era.
Guinness World Records
September '18
Guinness World Records awarded us
"Most Prolific 8-bit videogame developers", adding "The Oliver Twins developed 26 commercially released games for 8-bit computers and consoles from 1984-1992, and they designed 35 overall. Taking into account the many different platforms at that time - notably the Dragon 32, BBC Micro, Amstrad CPC, Spectrum, Commodore 64, NES, Master System and Game Gear - they actively wrote 49 released 8 bit games, they also produced titles that never saw the light of day. During that time they had 14 number one games for the Amstrad CPC series of computers and 12 number ones on the Spectrum.
They also produced Dizzy, one of the most iconic characters on 8-bit computers."
The History of Codemasters Simulators by Retro Gamer
September ‘18
“From a crash course in Formula 1 to a hole-in-one and the rough and tumble of BMX racing and a few rounds in the ring Codemasters’ budget simulators may not have truly mimicked real life but they certainly stormed the charts”
Mystery World Dizzy - NES : Released
June ‘18
Thanks to Chris Wilkins of Fusion Retro Books (Kickstarter campaign), Lukasz Kur (remastering the code), Piotr ‘PIT’ Gratkiewicz (cover illustration), Andrew Joseph (packaging production) and all the Kickstarter backers! Special thanks also to Codemasters for allowing the production of these Dizzy games.
Limited to just 600 cartridges with all royalties going to SpecialEffect.
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Opening Trowbridge Museum’s “Oliver Twins” Exhibit
22nd January ‘18
It was bizarre and fun to visit our home town of Trowbridge (In Wiltshire) to host a special collection of our Retro game memorabilia in the town's museum. We even caught up with a few old friends and teachers at the event.
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8 Bit Annual:
January ‘18
Our Presentation at the Spectrum’s 35th Anniversary at the History of Computing Museum in Cambridge got a great write up.
They also awarded the Spectrum Remake of Crystal Kingdom Dizzy – 98%
Get the full digital annual for free here
Wonderful Dizzy Behind the scenes - Crash Annual 2018
December ‘17
Whilst we have put together the full design of Wonderful Dizzy, we have a very talented team helping turn those ideas into a full game for the Spectrum Next. This article reveals a little of the design and introduces the talented developers we are working with.
Read the Article here [coming soon]
DreamWorld Pogie - NES : Released
November ‘17
We were so pleased to see our 9th NES game, finally released and in the hands of players.
Thanks again to Lukasz Kur for taking the source code and remastering for final production.
Limited to just 600 cartridges with all royalties going to SpecialEffect.
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Mystery World Dizzy - NES : Kickstarter Launched
15 October ‘17
Following the discovery of the source code of both Wonderland Dizzy and Dreamworld Pogie, we also uncovered Mystery World Dizzy - another unreleased NES game written in the early ‘90s and based on Fantasy World Dizzy.
We tend never to throw things away, but the filing has, at times, been poorly organised.
A new Dizzy Game announced
19th May ‘17
After being asked so many times over the years if we’ll make a new Dizzy, we finally give in to help support the Spectrum Next Kickstarter campaign.
This is the funny video we created to reveal the game would be inspired by the classic Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, and would be called Wonderful Dizzy.
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Crystal Kingdom Dizzy Remake on the Spectrum
April ‘17
To our surprise and delight, a band of Dizzy fans from across Eastern Europe decided to remake and improve the original Crystal Kingdom Dizzy and launched it Easter Day 2017. It’s impressive what they were able to achieve given the limitations of the Spectrum!
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Retro Guide to Dizzy by GamesTM / Retro
February ‘17
“We celebrate 30 years of the Oliver Twins most famous creation as we chronicle the legacy of an 8-bit platforming hero.”
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Dara O’Briain’s Go 8 Bit features Kwik Snax
31st January ‘17
We had amazing fun as special guests on on the show. They chose to include Kwik Snax and asked Sara Cox and Daniel Sloss to control Dizzy only using food!
Filming took place at - Elstree Studios in London and the final TV show was aired in July.
‘Notch’ of Minecraft makes our day!
23th December '16
A video shot at the launch of our book entitled Videogame Legends by Computerphile prompted Markus ‘Notch’ Persson, the creator of Minecraft, to tweet that he was one of those inspired by the Oliver Twins games “I grew up loving and being inspired by their work.”
DreamWorld Pogie - NES : Kickstarter Launched
15th December ‘16
Chris Wilkins agrees to do a dedicated Kickstarter campaign for another of our unreleased NES games. Written, and sadly unreleased, back in ‘92 and clearly inspired by an obvious classic platformer.
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Book Launch – Let’s Go Dizzy!
14th December '16
We were proud to launch our book at the National Videogame Arcade in Nottingham. We were also able to show off the final Wonderland Dizzy on NES, complete and ready to go to very limited production. It was great to see and catch up with so many friends from the old days of making those computer games back at Codemasters.
All profits from the book go to Special Effect.
30 Years of Codemasters in Retro Gamer
November '16
A fun article celebrating Codemasters 30 years after their founding, looking back at their early years.
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Guest Speakers and Judges at Amstrad Eterno - Portugal
November '16
We were delighted to be invited to speak at Amstrad Eterno’s annual event in Portugal. We had no idea that the Amstrad CPC was not only big in Spain and Portugal back in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, but that there are very talented developers still making games for it! We were asked to help judge the games and present the awards. It was a fabulous weekend, we really enjoyed it and our hosts were amazing.
Wonderland Dizzy - NES : Released
November ‘16
Kickstarter backers finally got their hands on the unreleased game, and we were happy to sign a bunch. So proud to finally see another of our NES games released over 22 years after we wrote it!
Limited to just 130 cartridges - so VERY rare and collectable. Royalties all went to SpecialEffect.
Retro Gamer : Blitz Games Studios Remembered
March '16
For 23 years, Blitz Games Studios in its various guises was one of the UK’s most important independent developers, selling millions of pounds worth of games. Founded by Philip and Andrew Oliver it was quite a dizzying journey, as David Crookes explains.
The Original Good Egg - GamesTM / Retro article on Dizzy
March ‘16
GamesTM produce a great 6 page feature looking back on the history and legacy of the Dizzy games.
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Sinclair Spectrum in Pixels
December ‘15
Fusion Retro Books releases The story of the ZX Spectrum in pixels_ VOLUME 1 which is a great celebration in 236 full colour pages of classic Spectrum games.
We were pleased to have 2 features included.
Launch of Kickstarter for Oliver Twins Book
24th October '15
We’d known Chris Wilkins of Fusion Retro Books for a few years when, one day, he suggested creating a Dizzy book. We thought it was an interesting idea, but we suggested he produce a book that covered all our retro games with the ‘behind the scenes’ stories.
He did some market research to see the level of interest and followed it with a Kickstarter campaign, which was launched at The History of Computing Museum – Cambridge.
Wonderland Dizzy- NES : Rediscovered
October ‘15
Whilst at Play Blackpool in May, we showed a map of Wonderland Dizzy on NES - whilst on stage talking, we wondered if the game had ever been released back when it was written in early ‘92. We realised it can’t and searched the loft for the source code. We found it and Dizzy fan Lukasz Kur was able to re-compile, tidy up a couple of bits and create a master build.
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Giving a talk at our old school
8th July '15
We visited our old school to give a talk about the games industry and tell them. We even caught up with a couple of our old teachers that were still there, still educating!
​Visting Trowbridge College
2nd June '15
Back in 1984 we attended classes in O’level Computer Studies at Trowbridge College, a short walk from Clarendon School. This was a time when making games was frowned upon, so it was fun to revisit Wiltshire College and give a lecture to the students on the popular Video Games Development course!
60 Minutes with....Podcast
18th May '15
"Myself and Chris are honoured and delighted to be able to spend 60 minutes chatting with video game legends; Philip and Andrew Oliver.
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With such a rich and varied history we could only touch on certain highlights of their great career so far."
Play Blackpool - Retro Event
21st April '15
It was fantastic to see all those people playing games on our stand and see that the love for 8-bit games still lives on.
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Talk at Centre for Computing History Cambridge
26th July '14
We were delighted to be invited to give a talk about our careers in the games industry to a packed room in the museum. They were very kind to set up original computers with all our old games running too!
If you have love retro computers and games, and can get across to Cambridge we highly recommend you visit:
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/
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Dizzy Returns KickStarter Campaign
November ‘12
We decide to launch a Kickstarter campaign to help promote and finance a new Dizzy game. Sadly the campaign failed, for a number of reasons and Dizzy Returns wasn’t made. But there was some lovely designs and artwork created.
Dizzy On Scratch
20 February '12
Andrew has a play around with Scratch, firstly writing a Pac-Man game (just to get up to speed), followed by attempting a scrolling Dizzy mini-game, but finds Scratch was not designed to scroll! Scratch really is a great first programming language and highly recommended for kids. You can reveal the code in these games.
Dizzy Prince of the Yolkfolk Released on IOS & Android
November ‘11
As smart phones take off, Paul Ranson, once owner of Big Red Software, and a programmer and games designer himself decides to convert and update Dizzy Prince of the Yolkfolk for iPhone and Android smart phones. The original artist, Leigh Christen, updates all the graphics!
Honorary Doctorates from Coventry University
21st November ‘08
Having taken a gap year and never attended University we were thrilled to receive honorary doctorates from Coventry University in recognition of our contribution to the growth of the electronic games industry both regionally and internationally. The ceremony took place in Coventry Catherdal and our citation was read by Ian Marshall, who was responsible for the world’s first undergraduate Computing course with a Computer Games option in 1996 at Abertay University in Dundee. Philip received a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA), whilst Andrew received a Doctor of Technology (DTech).
The Oliver Building
9th November '04
It was a massive honour that our old senior school, Clarendon Academy in Trowbridge, dedicated a new building in our name. We hope it will inspire other students to follow their dreams and find success and happiness.
Fantastic Dizzy - Retro Gamer Issue 2
15th March '04
“A scrambled mess or a stroke of genius? David Crookes tells the full story of an egg which revolutionized the video gaming world - and the two guys who helped make it happen”
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