Rolling Ronny

Rolling Ronny, developed by Starbyte Software and published by Virgin Games in 1991.

"Rolling Ronny skates into town! Who says being an errand boy is dull? Take Rolling Ronny - he is the coolest dude in town. Help him roller skate and shoot his way through nine levels of parkland, city streets, office complexes and even the underground sewers to his final destination at the other side of town. Collect cash by running errands for the inhabitants of this weird and wonderful town to earn enough money for a bus ticket to the next part of this barmy game."

Now this is quite the surprise on the C64. It's 1991 and is probably the best showcase of a platform game for the C64 at this time. And it still laughs in the face of later games in 1993 such as McDonaldland. Id say it's a better game than blues brothers as well. The only problem was that back then, there didn't seem to be an easy way to buy it! I had played the demo but I dont recall ever seeing the game in the usual shops at the time and the game was just forgotten about.

Until now that is where I can finally play the game. The artwork in the game is very well done. The scrolling backgrounds, the sprites, it all good making effective use of the C64's limited palette. There is some varied music amongst the levels which to me sounds like they came from Amiga games by core design. (Wonderdog, bubba n stix) The overall presentation is spot on with title screens, interludes and ending.

The object of the game is collect all 25 Jewelry boxes on each level as well as enough coins for the bus ride to the next level. The coins are earned by killing enemies (note that not all can be killed) and by running errands for any folks present in the level. Some will require delivery a parcel further up the level and others require to backtrack. before taking on a job you can haggle a few extra coins, but don't get greedy or they will just cancel the job outright. You have limited pocket space so you have to juggle deliveries with powerups. The Jump powerup is very useful for reaching high places as well as the magnet for grabing any collectable on screen. Once you have enough coins, find the bus and go to the next level.

BUT!!!! make sure you have enough coins before getting on the bus else you get kicked off and its an instant game over. The problem is, the manual isnt clear how many coins you need. I didnt nest much but I believe it is 110 (as I had a fail on 109 and a pass on 111) but I cant be sure if the value is level specific. I'm also not sure if all 25 boxes are needed as they just seem to count towards a bonus score and it did let me pass when I missed one. In the office levels, I managed to kind of climb the walls to get over hurdles. I'm not sure if it was an intended feature or not. The biggest issue for me in the game is the grass. It's not all that clear when it is safe to go on or not. You'll see in the video I can skate on some grassy areas but not most others.

All this is great, on the first level. After that each level is mainly just a background and music change and you go through the process again for nine levels. It doesn't take long to feel repetitive. It shouldn't be a negative as nearly every game follows this formula but in this game I feel like it could have done more. With no timer running which was the norm for this style of game, it all feels a little too easy. If you want a challenge, I guess you can try to find all the hidden coins in the background, but without any way of knowing they are there in the first place that wouldn't be fun for long.

Overall though, its a well made game and worth your usual 9.99/14.99 for a full priced big box c64 game and shows the C64 was still relevant in 1991.

00:00:00 - Titles
00:02:00 - Level 1
00:06:45 - Level 2
00:11:00 - Level 3
00:16:00 - Level 4
00:21:15 - Level 5
00:27:10 - Level 6
00:32:02 - Level 7
00:37:55 - Level 8
00:44:50 - Level 9