Cheesy Trials (Vic 20)
A downloadable game
A devilish platform game for the 24K expanded Vic 20.
Experiment
Question
Can Mousekind demonstrate cognition?
Materials
1. Mad scientist
2. Mouse D.N.A.
3. 1.21 gigawatts
Method
1. Clone subject
2. Place subject in room
3. If success iterate with next room
Instructions
There are three experiments to complete, select one to play using the function keys (F1, F3, F5) or the action buttons on TheVic20's 'TheJoystick'. Can press these keys / buttons at any time to switch experiments without losing your progress.
The experiment main rooms reveal doorways to the trial rooms. Initially in each experiment you will see just the first trial room. Complete it to reveal more,
Control Echo the Mouse with a joystick and learn his abilities as you go. Hint, it is best to start with Experiment 1.
To beat a trial room collect a piece of cheese before the time runs out. You only have 5 seconds to do this between each cheese and more of the room is revealed. Sometimes there will be more than one cheese and your choice can drastically affect the room.
You have infinite clones but must be successful to proceed. If a trial room in one experiment is proving to be too challenging, jump over to one of the other experiments instead.
Complete the trials in all three experiments to win Echo's freedom.
- Learn each room
- Don't hesitate
- Be precise
- Experiment!
Credits
- Game design, code and graphics - Andy Hewitt
- Devilish level designs - Ross Hewitt
Created using Turbo Rascal. The full source code for this game is included. Turbo Rascal is a very easy way to make assembler-fast 8-bit and 16-bit games using a Pascal-like language.
(C) 2020 HEWCO
Competition Winning Game
Cheesy Trials was a winner in the TheC64 Winter Game Development 2020 competition held by Retro Games Ltd, coming in joint first place with a Commodore 64 game. The competition was held to celebrate new games for their flagship devices; TheC64 and TheVic20. Cheesy Trials runs fine on the original Vic 20 computer of course, but there is some additional support for TheJoystick on these new devices.
Buy the game on Tape
Want the full retro experience? The Future Was 8Bit have kindly bundled on to a real cassette tape with inlay as you might have seen it back in the day.
Or download the full game for free, no donation necessary.
Download
Install instructions
There are several versions of the game included in the ZIP file. They all play the same and you can choose which you would prefer to play.
You need either a Vic 20 with a modern memory expansion (The Future Was 8Bit do a great value Penultimate+ cartridge), a Vic 20 emulator for your computer, Retro Games Ltd's TheVic20 or TheC64, or a suitable FPGA device.
Ensure you configure your Vic to provide 24K RAM or more to play.
- cheesy.prg - This is the original competition entry, use on a Vic 20 emulator or on TheC64 or TheVic20 with the cheesy.cjm file.
- cheesy-tfw8b,prg - This is the version you can buy on a real cassette tape from The Future Was 8Bit.
- cheesy_trails.d64 - This is a disk image* of the game that includes a loading screen.
* compression and title screen loader: Michael Kircher.
Comments
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This game came with my Penultimate cartridge I am loving it (and sometimes hating it which is the sign of a perfect game IMO :-) )!
Recently purchased a VIC-20 to relive some childhood experiences and had no idea new content was still being created. What a treat.
Thanks so much for this game!
Awesome game !!!
Thank you, and thanks for posting it on YouTube!
If you are stuck on any of the rooms in the first experiment, I have the solutions playing out on this page: https://www.hewco.uk/games/cheesytrials
Couldn’t include that 12th level eh? I’ll get it sooner or later. Haha.
A platform game with a really original theme. The Vic 20 is superbly exploited, the game is fun and full of humor because of its theme and graphics. Very good game ^^ ! Thank you !
Thank you so much, very kind and glad you are enjoying the game.
very good
Thank you Marco.