All the Dizzy games were published by Codemasters. Codemasters was
formed by Richard and David Darling in October 1986. The Darlings got started in the
computer games business by producing and selling their own games by mail order, they later
worked for Masteronic before forming Codemasters. Codemasters’ goal was to sell only
the best possible games at budget prices.
The first Dizzy games were created by the Oliver Twins. Philip and Andrew Oliver began
creating board games in 1981 while they were still at school. In 1982 they won a national
TV competition for writing a computer game. It was here that they made their first break,
and their first computer game. Cavey for the BBC was published in 1984. By 1986 it was
estimated that 7% of all UK game sales were attributed to The Oliver Twins.
It was in 1987, whilst working for Codemasters, that the Olivers created Dizzy. The
first game was Dizzy: The Ultimate Cartoon Adventure. At first, the Darling brothers were
unconvinced by the idea and so the Olivers created Dizzy in their free time whilst working
on Pro Ski Simulator. As a reward for their hard work, the Darlings agreed to publish
Dizzy. At first Dizzy didn’t sell very well but just as things were looking gloomy,
it started selling well and became a best-seller, proving very popular with Spectrum and
C64 magazines.
The Oliver’s second Dizzy game was Treasure Island Dizzy (which sold over 250,000
copies in the UK and remained in the charts for over 2 years). This was followed by
Fantasy World Dizzy and Fast Food. After the creation of these games their production team
were known as Dizzy Enterprises.
The remaining Dizzy games were made by other programmers. These included Magicland
Dizzy in late 1989, Dizzy Prince of the Yolkfolk and Kwik Snax in 1990. Dizzy and Big Red
software produced a number of Dizzy games together from 1991 onwards (including Spellbound
Dizzy, Dizzy Down the Rapids, Dizzy Panic, Crystal Kingdom Dizzy and Bubble Dizzy.)
The Oliver Twins now run their own company Blitz Games (formerly Interactive Studios)
in Leamington Spa. The twins established their company in 1991.
Dizzy games were released in the USA by Camerica (who also produced the Aladdin Deck Enhancer). In 1993 Camerica went out of
business and Codemasters took over the business.
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