Video game tie-in Frankie Goes To Hollywood was one of the most bizarre games of the 1980s.
Imagine this scenario: its the mid 1980s, and your massive, chunky BT telephone suddenly rings.
What sort of game would you come up with?
A platform game, perhaps?
ASpace Invadersshooter with a bleepy, 8-bit rendition of Relax playing in the background?
Instead, Denton Designs made one of the most unusual and innovative games of the 8-bit era.
The deal would see all three parties take a share of the games profits.
At the time, there was some curiosity as to what the game would be like.
Some also wondered whether Frankie: the game would be as controversial as the band itself.
Oh no, someone from Oceans PR team told Personal Computer Games, it wont be rude.
We have to sell the game through WHSmith.
Studio co-founder Steve Cain recalled the moment when Oceans David Ward told him about the Frankie deal.
David walked in and said he wanted a game with no Frankies walking about in it, Cain said.
And with that, Denton Designs got to work.
Ocean spared little expense on the games presentation.
I still remember the first time I played theFrankiegame.
), I loaded the game up.
It was the first time Id been genuinely taken aback and surprised by a games design and atmosphere.
The games a detective story of sorts, with two separate goals.
One house has the murder victim lying awkwardly on the floor.
You could reach up and open kitchen cupboards, or crouch down and fraternise with a dog bowl.
Occasionally, cryptic clues would flash up on the screen.
The killer is an early riser.
Mr Average likes to sleep in till noon.
The mini-games are pretty strange in themselves.
DescribingFrankies goals and mechanics doesnt really get across just how unusual it is.
The eerie emptiness of its houses also made Frankie feel like an interactive Magritte painting.
Some of the games more outlandish concepts appeared to come from the mind of Paul Morley.
Unfortunately, I never managed to make it to the Pleasuredome for myself.
This frustrated me, because for months, Id wondered what lay within the Pleasuredrome.
Had the games programmers hidden something fittingly headline-grabbing at the adventures end?
