Pixelville Pensioners

By Gavin Davies 7 April 2004

In Pixelville Pensioners, you play as an 8-bit sprite trying to build a home for your friends… Playable in-browser.

Here is the game running under the Ruffle Flash player (or OG Flash if you’ve got it!):

This took many months of hard work! Thanks to all testers. Thanks to your input, we have the map, enhanced conversations, a better ending, and the game has fewer bugs!

Thanks to Samba Lucas for contributing the music for the game.

Pixelville Pensioners is still playable online at newgrounds.com via Ruffle!

Known bugs

The character’s walk-to animation sometimes gets stuck and fails to transfer to another screen. I think it’s where the character walks and the threshold to change screens is never reached. I don’t consider this a severe bug, in fact it’s kind of cute. If it happens, just click to walk to somewhere else and try again.

About this game

In Pixelville Pensioners, you play as an 8-bit sprite trying to build a home for your friends. Characters from classic ZX Spectrum games like Manic Miner, Chuckie Egg, New Zealand Story, Skool Daze and Sabrewulf help you on your quest.

I wanted to make a retro game, but didn’t want to make a remake. I admire people who remake games, but I don’t think that I could do it – I’d get bored quite quickly! In fact, boredom was the biggest challenge in writing this game – as soon as I had solved the technical problems (how to make Sabreman follow the cursor, implementing tree-based conversations, scripted events, et cetera) I found it hard to remain interested at times!

I always wanted to make a graphic adventure – my teenage years are littered with such games written in QBasic. I decided to make a point-and-click adventure, influenced by Monkey Island and the Sierra adventure games. I started this game soon after completing Inverse Shooter, and it grew and grew.

The engine allows an avatar to move around multiple screens peopled with characters and littered with objects, all of which can be interacted with. The engine is therefore infinitely expansible.

I sincerely hope that you enjoy the game.

About the Music

Most of the tracks were by Samba Lucas, but one of them was mine, which I think I made on a ZX Spectrum tracker? I remember being very keen to make it era-accurate!

Download gavd-equilibrium-shock.mp3

Pixelville Pensioners Hints and Tips

Click on the tips to reveal the hints! This means that you don’t get spoilers unless you want them.

How do I get the donkeys?

“Stick” around in the woods and look carefully at the trees…

What is the map for?

Some exits are hard to see; check the map to make sure you’ve been everywhere.

What is the drill for?

Drilling for oil to help Optimus… Of course, you can’t drill in GROUND you don’t OWN…

Why can’t I get to the prof’s house?

You keep on knockin’ but you can’t come in… Only the LEARNED may enter… Try reading up thoroughly on the prof…

How do I win the beauty contest?

You need a makeover, but there are no beauticians in Pixelville… You need someone outside the “2 colours to a sprite”… You need someone with a machine…

How do I recruit help?

Just ask around. Some people won’t help you until certain criteria have been met…

How do catch the oil?

There is a jar in the professor’s house. It’s really hard to see.

Why are the graphics so bad?

It’s meant to look like a ZX Spectrum game! This was a classic computer from the 1980’s.

How do I acquire the wasteland? - for DarkPixie

Town hall!

How do I get the stick? - for Squeeb

It’s on a tree in the top-left of the map! You can go north and south, don’t forget!