December '92
"The biggest hero of them all returns for high adventure, rich rewards and big trouble! Join superstar Dizzy in his most exciting adventure yet! Four complete worlds of magic and mystery await! Featuring all the brilliant Dizzy characters and more interaction than ever before."
The sun does not always shine in the Yolkfolk village. In fact, this particular day is looking remarkably grim. Stormy clouds thunder across the sky, the rain hammers down, the electricity flickers and,
to top it all, Grand Dizzy is in an awful mood.
The source of Grand Dizzy's bad mood is his egg-ache. The old duffer had been practising his somersaults in the kitchen and slipped on the wet floor. "What do you think you're doing bouncing around like that at your age?!" groaned Dizzy under the strain of picking up the old egg. "You'll give yourself a nasty crack on the head."
"It's the temple in the Crystal Kingdom," spluttered Grand Dizzy, "it's been robbed. Every egg knows that if the crystal sword, chalice and crown are removed from the temple, strange things will happen to the Yolkfolk!"
Dizzy looked outside. Things did look decidedly bad. "It still doesn't explain why you were jumping off the kitchen chair, Grand Dizzy" said Dizzy. "Well, young fella-m'-egg," said Grand Dizzy puffing himself up slightly, "I'm sick and tired of you always sorting things out. I'm going to get into shape, pack my knapsack and save the Yolkfolk myself. I was really heroic in my day, y'know."
A salty tear formed in Dizzy's eye. "I don't know, Grand Dizzy, what are we going to do with you?" gushed Dizzy in his best sympathetic, yet caring, voice.
Grand Dizzy was packed off to bed. But the moment everyone's back was turned, he jumped up and continued to whinge loudly at anything he could find that would listen.
Dizzy decided that he must begin his trek to retrieve the Yolkfolk's treasure. He packed his knapsack and popped on his new safari hat. Dizzy grimaced and, through his gritted teeth, dramatically
declared "Don't fear, Grand Dizzy! The lost treasures of the Yolkfolk will soon be found!". And so Dizzy began a whole new adventure - can our hero succeed again?"
What the press said
The Map (Spectrum)
Whilst we continued to focus on console games, still hoping to crack the American games market, there was still a good opportunity to produce another Dizzy Adventure game for the European computer games market.
Paul Ranson took production lead with Dave Thompson taking lead programmer and designer roles. The seventh and last Dizzy adventure* was initially called Dizzy and the Lost Treasure of the Yolkfolk, but was eventually given the shorter name Crystal Kingdom Dizzy. If the crystal sword, chalice and crown were not returned to their rightful place, then darkness would forever fall upon the land of the Yolkfolk. Dizzy had to travel the various lands solving puzzles, whilst searching for the stolen mystical crystal treasures of the Yolkfolk.
Codemasters decided to sell this at full price, £19.99 for the ST & Amiga versions, and £9.99 for the Spectrum, Amstrad and C64 versions. It came in a large box, with a brilliant illustration and supported by a good marketing campaign. It reviewed far better on the 8-bit computers which by now were 10 years old and this unsurprisingly was to be their last Christmas.
*last until Wonderful Dizzy December 2020 - 28 years later.
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!
