Description

The Horace character is copyright © Subvert Ltd and used under limited license. Any income due to Subvert for its use will be donated to the MS Society Charity by Bitmap Soft.

This is a slightly modified version exclusive to Bitmap Soft of the freely available game from Allesandro Grussu’s Website Bitmap Soft Version Digital Download available after purchase.

Compilation Game

Cousin Horace is essentially a compilation of 5 games split out across five separate chapters, each of which offers a different style of gameplay. Each game is accessed the old school way by playing them in order and stopping the tape after each chapter loads, meaning you are at the correct point on the tape for the next chapter, each one being loaded the traditional way, or you can simply fast forward to the set point on the tape to load that chapter directly.

Loading Instructions

Load “” and play tape after any of the below.

Side A

Load the Intro, at 1m 27s you can stop the tape, watch the intro, you will be giving a choice of watching it again or to play chapter 1.

To play chapter 1 after you have selected that option just press play on the tape, alternatively, you can fast-forward the tape to any of the start times given.

Chapter 1 data ends 3m 46s, Chapter 2 starts at 3m 49s

Side B

Chapter 3 beginning of the tape, ends 3m 12s, Chapter 4 starts 3m 14s, chapter ends 5m 53s, Chapter 5 starts 5m 55s

The Game

But who is Cousin Horace, actually?

Alessandro Grussu came up with the initial game design when he was looking at cassette inlays of the versions of Horace games made for the Timex Sinclair 2068, the American clone of the Spectrum. The character portrayed on them bears very little resemblance to the one we all know and love, although the games themselves are indistinguishable from their Spectrum counterparts.

He then imagined a character not to be the British Horace, but his American cousin –incidentally going by the name of Horace as well –living his same adventures, or a sort of parallel life if you prefer, on the other side of ‘The Pond’.

Hence COUSIN HORACE.

THE STORY

The two Horaces are currently helping local authorities in their respective countries into investigating an underground network formed by their ancient enemies, the Guardians –an evil secret society bent on world domination –and the Spiders, together with their new allies, the Flying Demons. One day US-Horace (from now on simply Horace) invites his cousin for a holiday in the States and the two arrange a meeting at the airport. However, the plane from the United Kingdom Horace was waiting for has arrived, but there is no sign of his relative. All of a sudden, Horace receives a phone call on his mobile. “They got me, cousin! Help!” It is UK-Horace’s voice. Another voice – an unknown, eerie one – intimates Horace to head immediately for a place at the edge of the city, otherwise, his cousin won’t survive the day. Of course, he must go alone and not tell anyone about this. Horace, although being certain he is walking straight into the lion’s den, complies with the request and stops his car in front of a tall, ominous building. He steps in..

The character portrayed on them bears very little resemblance to the one we all know and love, although the games themselves are indistinguishable from their Spectrum counterparts.

Code, audio & visual 2014, 2019 by Alessandro Grussu. All rights reserved.

Reviewed by RetroGamerNation on RetroVideoGamer