81-year-old developer finishes and releases abandoned Head Over Heels sequel

Thirty-seven years ago Colin Porch began work on a sequel to the computer puzzle Head Over Heels, but the project was shelved as console gaming shifted demand away from early personal computers. Now, at 81, Porch has completed and released that long-dormant follow-up after an old boss pointed out a growing market for retro games.

Return to Blacktooth is available from Thalamus Digital Publishing on Itch.io for both the Atari ST and the Commodore Amiga. As with its predecessor, you control two characters — Head and Heels — who have different abilities to solve puzzles and explore an isometric castle filled with hundreds of rooms.

Porch, who had a minor role on Head Over Heels, started making the sequel under Ocean Software in 1989, but the market shift soon put the project on hold. He only returned to it after attending a company reunion. 'My old boss, a guy called Gary Bracey, he asked me, 'What happened to the sequel you were doing?'' Porch recalls.

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