Gilligan's Gold

"Gold - It gives you fever! ... and Gilligan's Gold will send your temperature soaring. Collect the gold bags and dodge the bandits. Hang on the trucks, run down the ladders and jump into the lifts but watch out for the mine shafts ... aghh!"

The UK home conversion of the arcade game Bagman. This seems like it was based on the Spectrum conversion where as the Amstrad game looks like it was based on the US C64 release Bagitman. How bonkers is that.

While Bagitman has it's fair share of glitches and bugs, Giligan's Gold takes them to another level. The two guards wandering about look like idiots but when they want you they seem to speed up and get you in a pincer movement. Gilligan moves too slowly when holding the gold and moves at the same speed as the wagon when not holding gold. When the guards are not on screen they can move as light speed to get to your position so waiting for the lift is going to cost lives! If possible simply flipping between two screens will keep them in check. In this version you can not pickup and drop the axe. If you pick it up, you are committed to holding it until it runs out and cannot pickup gold during this time.

Overall, this game is better presented than the US conversion Bagitman with more music but the gameplay isn't as enjoyable as the guards are much more unfair here. In Bagitman I complained the lift is too slow but in Gilligans while it moves faster, all its doing is helping the guards reach me faster.