Cauldron II: The Pumpkin Strikes Back

Lore & Background

Players control a bouncing pumpkin on a quest of vengeance against the 'Witch Queen'. The roles of the two were reversed from the first game, in which the witch defeated a monstrous pumpkin. The game takes place in the witch's castle, and the pumpkin must collect six magical items to access the witch's chambers and cut a lock of her hair to defeat her.

Reader's Guide

Players control the pumpkin by manipulating the direction and height of its bounce. Contact with enemies drains the pumpkin's magic meter, which also fuels offensive projectiles. The character dies once the meter is depleted. The pumpkin has a limited number of lives; the game ends when all lives are expended. On continuing, the pumpkin reappears with a refilled meter.

Did You Know?

• The bouncing mechanic was inspired by the final scene of the first Cauldron game, where the Pumpking bounced around a room.
• The programmers had difficulty implementing the bouncing mechanic, including problems with collision detection and unpredictable movements.
• Technical limitations prevented the developers from implementing an animation of turning pages of a book for the game's narration.
• The game was first released on the Commodore 64, then on the Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum.
• The game's difficulty was reduced after testing because the team deemed it too challenging.

The Vengeance Narrative & Role Reversal

In the original 1985 Cauldron, a witch rose to become the Witch Queen by defeating a monstrous pumpkin known as the Pumpking. The sequel inverts this dynamic entirely: the pumpkin, having survived the witch's ascent to power, now sets out on a quest of vengeance to overthrow her. The entire adventure unfolds within the witch's castle, a 2D side-view world the pumpkin must navigate. Scattered throughout the castle are six magical items—a Goblet, Axe, Shield, Crown, Scissors, and Book of Spells—each granting the pumpkin new offensive or defensive capabilities. Collecting all six is essential, as it unlocks access to the witch's private chambers, where the player must cut a lock of her hair to deliver the final blow and end the game. This narrative structure transforms the pumpkin from a defeated monster into a determined hero, giving the sequel a clear emotional arc that the first title lacked.

The Bouncing Mechanic & Development Challenges

Following the commercial success of the 1985 original, Palace Software greenlit a sequel. Designer Steve Brown drew his central inspiration from the final scene of Cauldron, where the Pumpking bounced around a room during its duel with the witch. He found the visual striking and decided to build the entire sequel around that movement. The team—Brown as designer, Richard Leinfellner as programmer, Richard Joseph on audio, and Stan Schembri handling the Commodore 64 port—set out to make the pumpkin behave like a bouncing ball. The catch: the character could only change direction when in contact with a friction-bearing surface, meaning no mid-air corrections were possible. This constraint created persistent headaches. Collision detection proved unreliable, the pumpkin occasionally glitched into unpredictable trajectories, and the projectile-firing system inadvertently imparted a force that altered the pumpkin's path. Despite repeated attempts, the programmers never achieved a fully polished implementation, a difficulty that would later draw player criticism.

Castle Progression & Combat Systems

The pumpkin navigates the witch's castle by bouncing, with the player controlling the direction and height of each rebound. The world is presented in side-view 2D, using a flick-screening approach where one section of the castle is displayed at a time rather than a seamless scroll—a compromise born from the technical constraints of the era. Halloween-themed adversaries, including ghosts, monsters, and skeletons, patrol the corridors. Touching an enemy drains the pumpkin's magic meter, the same resource that powers its offensive projectiles. When the meter empties, the pumpkin perishes, and the player loses one of a limited set of lives. Upon respawning, the meter refills. The castle's layout was deliberately designed to trace the shape of Palace Software's own logo, a clever advertising touch. Brown even photographed individual screens and assembled them into a full map for magazine features. Enemy designs carried over the Halloween aesthetic from the first game, maintaining visual continuity across the series.

Critical Reception & Long-Term Availability

Upon release, Cauldron II earned strong praise from the British video game press. Crash magazine awarded it the "Crash Smash" distinction, while ZX Computing Monthly gave it their "Monster Hit" accolade. Reviewers consistently highlighted the game's audio-visual presentation as a standout strength. The most frequent criticism centered on the handling of the bouncing pumpkin, which many found awkward and punishing to master. Even so, most critics concluded the overall package offered solid value for the price. The game first appeared on the Commodore 64 in 1986, followed by ports for the Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum. A 1989 budget re-release came through Telecomsoft's Silverbird label for the Spectrum, and a later compilation paired both Cauldron titles for the CPC and Spectrum. Decades after its initial run, the game found a new audience on the Antstream Arcade platform, with the Commodore 64 version arriving in December 2020 and the ZX Spectrum edition following shortly after.