Developed by David Hanney and Nick Frampton and published by Global Software in 1992

If there’s one game certain to obliterate your blitter and crush your copper, it’s Tearaway Thomas.

Often touted as the Amiga’s answer to Sonic by gaming magazines at the time, this hypersonic parkour-styled collect ’em came pretty much out of left field, and remains the only game (to my knowledge) that Nick Frampton and David Hanney produced.

Each of the game’s levels is essentially an obstacle course of platforms, ropes and moving platforms, covered with a liberal scattering of gems – which you must collect before time runs out – and baddies determined on obstructing progress. Enemies don’t hurt you as such, but stun Thomas when collided with, robbing the player of precious seconds.

Magazine reviews rightly praised the blistering speed and smoothness of the scrolling when this was released, a showcase for the aging OCS/ECS Amiga chipset. The artwork and animation (Laura Graves) are to a high standard, and the multi-coloured gradients (something of an Amiga stable) and background scenery are easy on the eyes.

While the quest the for raw speed was undoubtedly a success, the pace is so intense it makes controlling the Thomas incredibly difficult. Executing the kind of precision jumps and fine control needed to get through the levels becomes virtually impossible, especially in the later stages. It was hard enough tackling this in the prime of youth, let alone now, when old age and decrepitation has started to take their toll on the reflexes.

I tackled the game once before back in 2014, but I barely managed to scrape through most of the levels on that attempt. This time, I decided to aim to collect all gems and earn a ‘Perfect’ bonus on each of the game’s standard levels: no star skips, no excuses – an impossible feat?

Credits
Coding: David Hanney, Nick Frampton
Graphics: Laura Graves
Music: David Hanney

#amiga
#retrogaming
#commodore

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