Jumping Jack

Jumping Jack was published in 1983 by the British company Imagine Software, a simple jumping game confined to a single screen. Your character moves along horizontal floors that contain gaps, and the goal is to jump upward through them until you reach the top. The gaps drift sideways, however, so you have to judge both the moment of the jump and where the opening will be by the time you arrive.

The entire difficulty grows from that one idea. A mistimed jump drops you back down or costs a life, and with every screen cleared the movement speeds up and further hazards appear. The game belongs to the category you can learn in a minute and master only after dozens of attempts, which was typical for 1983: memory constraints pushed authors to build a whole game on a single mechanic that worked well.

Imagine was among the most prominent British publishers of the early eighties, selling in large numbers before the company collapsed. The ZX Spectrum offered eight colours and an attribute grid, so the graphics are deliberately plain and readable, which suits this style of game perfectly. The record notes support for more than one player, most likely alternating turns and competing for score. Here it runs straight in your browser, so you can try it in moments and quickly discover whether this kind of precision jumping appeals to you.