Written by It’s back to the source for this post or at least back to 1983 and an era when it was still 
possible to develop game software sitting in your bedroom then try and flog it to one of the publishers. The developer in this case is generally regarded to be Nigel Alderton, a young man who may or may not have written the software in his bedroom but who did sell the finished product to Mike Fitzgerald and Doug Anderon’s A & F.
Chuckie Egg is certainly one of the original platform games and one which used its playability to popularise the genre. It was originally developed for the BBC Micro, the ZX Spectrum and the Dragon home computer although it’s success on those platforms led to ports for the Acorn Electron, the Commodore 64, Tatung Einstein, Amstrad CPC, early Ataris and the MSX. Supposedly the inclusion of the BBC Micro in many schools at the time helped Chuckie Egg’s popularity with children.
So for those not old enough, what’s the appeal of this game then? Well it’s a basic platformer in which the protagonist, Hen House Harry, must complete each level by collecting all the eggs on each level. There’s a pretty generous countdown timer which can be paused by picking up the hen seed distributed around the level but don’t let the hens touch you or you’re dead. There is also a giant duck in a cage at the top of the screen.
There are eight levels in total but if you complete them all you get to start again – but this time with the duck flying after you (but no hens). Complete another eight levels and you are pursued by hens and the duck and so forth.
Chuckie Egg sold more than a million copies and for me its biggest draw was its playability. The character could leap insanely around the screen without harm (unless you fell through a gap in the bottom level) ad it also featured a turn-based multiplayer game so you could play with your friends without arguments. Check it out below: