The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy Picture Disc Review | Record Label - 8-Bit is Enough 🥚💿 #Vinyl #VGMvinyl #Vinyl

The Dizzy series of games are among my earliest gaming memories, I inhaled them on my Amstrad CPC – and later – Commodore 64, not really understanding the difference between budget and full-price titles at the time, as far as I was concerned – the Dizzy series were the best games in my collection!

Along with the inventory-based puzzles, combined with platforming and memorable locations and sprites, the music – of course – was an integral part of the experience, giving bouncy life to the many screens traversed in your quest. Here, Matt Gray and Gavin Raeburn’s work on the NES is captured in picture disc form, and it makes a heck of a first impression!

Ensconced in a thick transparent sleeve, the front cover of the vinyl features our intrepid adventurer front and centre, sporting the classic combination of safari hat, boots, and boxing gloves whilst holding a spyglass and golden staff - with that familiar 3D logo below, it’s an image that conjures up a lot of memories for those of us that remember popping those sweet, sweet cassettes in for some gaming action!

The credits and tracklisting are tastefully included towards the bottom of the picture disc, so as the keep the reverse side free for a huge close-up of Dizzy in the Yolkfolk (I never get bored of this pun) village, just outside the starting point of the game - Dizzy’s house.

The record is a very thick and well-pressed 180g vinyl that played beautifully, with Marek Hradil’s mastering balancing the bubbly NES-style bass and various high-end trills and melodies into a full sound that feels rich and rounded – impressive, especially given the hardware limitations of the time.

The soundtrack itself covers a lot of ground - being over 40 minutes long - which really makes an impact as a lot of the games of the day tended to be tunes repeated on relatively short loops, whereas the tracks hear feel like fully-fleshed songs. The fact that the tracks here are full-length also means that you can really get into the simple beats and melodies, melodies that – as you would expect from Matt Gray – have the ability to not only get wedged firmly in your mind but also have an oddly emotional impact to them, elevating them from simple whistle-able ditties to being quite transportive, at times.

I’m a person that listens to a lot of records, but I know that there are also collectors out there that pick up gaming memorabilia purely for visual purposes, such as for framing them on a wall etc.

I wholeheartedly implore you to pick this up should you be a fan of the Dizzy series, regardless of how you personally enjoy your vinyl. The fact that there are only 250 of these picture discs available means that they won’t be around for long, and it really would be a shame to miss out on such a specific item related to such an iconic series of games from a seminal British company that was such an important part of the ‘80s gaming landscape. 

SUMMARY

This is the first release that we at GF HQ have covered from 8-Bit is Enough, and it’s a hell of an opening statement!

Pick up your Dizzy picture disc here - Purchase Link

Right, I’m off to save the Yolkfolk again!

From the 8-Bit is Enough website:

Original soundtrack from the NES game The Fantastic Adventures of Dizzy. This is the first Dizzy game soundtrack on vinyl with 40 minutes of music by Gavin Raeburn and Matt Gray.

Side A:
01. Title Screen
02. The Forrest 1
03. The Forrest 2
04. The Forrest 3 - Dizzy's House
05. The Mines - Graveyard
06. Castle Area
07. Pirate Ship
08. Underwater

Side B:
01. Mine Cart Ride
02. Zak's Castle
03. Mini-Game - Castle Shooting
04. Mini-Game - Barrel
05. Mini-Game - Bubble Dizzy
06. Sliding Puzzle
07. Castle - Ending

Picture Disc in the plastic sleeve, Limited to 250 copies.

With thanks to the Oliver Twins and Codemasters Limited. Music distributed under license. All rights reserved. “Dizzy” is a trademark of Codemasters. (c) 1986 - 2023