Wizball

1001 Video Games

Wizball appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Andreas Axelsson

Andreas Axelsson, founder of and programmer at Digital Illusions (Pinball Dreams, Motorhead, Battlefield 1942 etc), said in an interview that Wizball was his all time favourite game.:

I always think about this game and how to recreate it.

Releases

About the platforms and publishers: Originally released as a booting game in Europe, Mindscape had the developers recompile to a DOS version to market in the US. Later, Mindscape's Thunder Mountain title remarketed it at bargain-bin prices.

Spectrum Version

The Spectrum version had a change of programmer midway through, Steven Watson left the company abruptly forcing Paul Owens to take over. This probably explains why the Bonus stage and Cop sprite were never added. Peter Clarke did write tunes for them, and had a couple of other unused sound effects. In 2017 Adrian Singh released a hack which made these sounds available from the main menu (and also changed the text over to the C64 version's custom font)

Awards

• ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment)
  • March 1991 (issue #42) - Included in the list Greatest Games of all Time in category Shoot-'em-ups (editorial staff choice)
• Commodore Format
  • July 1991 (Issue 10) - listed in the A to Z of Classic Games article (Great)
  • March 1994 (Issue 42) Heaven – The Path to Righteousness: 20 Essential Games
  • March 1994 (Issue 42) – Heaven: Music of the Gods
  • November 1994 (Issue 50) – #8 The All-Time Top 50 C64 Games
• Computer and Video Games
  • May 1988 (Issue #79) - Golden Joystick 1988 Award: Runner up in category Best Original Game of the Year
• Happy Computer
  • Issue 01/1988 - Best Action Game in 1987
• Power Play
  • 1987 - Best C64 Game '87
  • 1987 - Best Music Track '87 (High score music)
• Retro Gamer
  • October 2004 (Issue #9) – #25 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)
• Zzap!
  • Newsfield Reader's Awards 1987 - Best Shoot-'em-up (readers choice)
  • Newsfield Reader's Awards 1987 - Best Sound Effects (readers choice)
  • January 1990 (Issue 57) – 'The Best Games of the 80's Decade' (Stuart Wynne)

Information also contributed by Grov