B.C. II: Grog's Revenge

Lore & Background

The game follows Thor, a caveman riding a stone unicycle, as he searches for the 'meaning of life' within several mountains. The player navigates Thor through mountainsides and caves, collecting clams which serve as currency, as in the comic strip. The goal is to collect enough clams to pay a toll to another caveman named Peter, allowing access to the next mountain. On the mountainside, Thor can move in all four directions but must avoid falling off cliffs, slamming into walls, or hitting rocks and holes. In caves, the screen is dark except for a beam of light from Thor's position, and he must avoid stalagmites while moving side to side.

Reader's Guide

B.C. II: Grog's Revenge is notable as a licensed tie-in to a popular newspaper comic strip, reflecting the 1980s trend of adapting comics into video games. Its gameplay combines platforming and resource collection, with the unique mechanic of using clams as currency to progress. The game received positive contemporary reviews, with Zzap!64 rating it 91% in 1985 and Computer and Video Games giving the ColecoVision version 87% in 1989, praising its graphical touches and gameplay. A 1994 retrospective in Commodore Format rated it 70%, calling it 'a fun little diversion' and 'definitely a game of the old school.' The game's legacy is partly defined by its infamous programming bugs that rendered some versions uncompletable until a 2019 fan fix. It remains a curiosity for collectors and retro gaming enthusiasts, particularly for its unreleased ports and the contrast between its advertised and actual platform availability.

Did You Know?

• The game was advertised for Atari 8-bit computers, ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, and Amstrad CPC, but those ports were never released.
• Due to a programming error, none of the MSX releases can be completed; the same bug affected the ColecoVision version, though it was fixed for the Coleco Canada release.
• The bug in the ColecoVision version was fixed in 2019 by Félix Espina, a programmer from Spain.
• The Commodore 64 and Coleco ADAM versions have 15 stages, while the MSX and ColecoVision versions have only 5 stages.

Origins & the Promise of Wider Reach

B.C. II: Grog's Revenge arrived in 1984 as a product of Sydney Development, a title that carried the spirit of Johnny Hart's beloved B.C. newspaper comic strip into the world of home computing. As the direct sequel to B.C.'s Quest For Tires, it extended the prehistoric adventure into new territory, bringing Thor and his caveman companions to life on screen. The game shipped for four platforms: the Commodore 64, ColecoVision, Coleco ADAM, and MSX, giving players across different hardware ecosystems a chance to experience the humor and challenge of the strip translated into interactive form. Interestingly, marketing materials at the time also teased versions for Atari 8-bit computers, the ZX Spectrum, the BBC Micro, and the Amstrad CPC, yet none of those promised ports ever materialized. The gap between advertisement and delivery left a small but notable footnote in the game's history, a reminder of how the 1980s home computer market was full of ambitious announcements that never crossed the finish line. For the platforms that did receive the game, however, the result was a faithful and entertaining adaptation of Hart's caveman world.

Thor's Unicycle Quest Through Mountain and Cave

At its heart, the game follows Thor, a caveman who pedals a stone unicycle through a series of mountain landscapes while searching for the meaning of life. The core loop is deceptively simple: gather clams, which serve as currency in the same way they do in Hart's comic strip, and use them to pay a toll to a fellow caveman named Peter so that Thor can progress to the next mountain. On the exposed mountainside, players guide Thor in all four directions while dodging cliffs, walls, rocks, and holes. Descending into caves shifts the experience dramatically; the screen goes dark except for a small beam of light radiating from Thor's position, and movement becomes restricted to side-to-side navigation past stalagmites. Two enemies lurk in the world. The Tiredactyl spots Thor and gives chase, intent on devouring his tire, and a collision costs a life. Grog is far more dangerous: when he shares Thor's level, an alarm melody blares, and if he catches up, he bellows his own name, launching Thor skyward and ending the run entirely. Players who fall short on clams must backtrack to collect more before the trail's end.

Uneven Ports and a Bug That Outlived Its Era

One of the most intriguing aspects of the game's history is the uneven treatment across its platforms. The Commodore 64 and Coleco ADAM editions each contain fifteen stages, organized into three sets of five, offering a fuller experience. The MSX and ColecoVision versions, by contrast, were trimmed down to just five stages. Beyond the reduced content, both the MSX and ColecoVision releases suffered from a programming error that made them impossible to complete. The ColecoVision bug was eventually patched for the Canadian release under the Coleco Canada label, but the standard international version remained broken. For decades, this flaw went unaddressed until 2019, when Félix Espina, a programmer based in Spain, identified and corrected the error, finally allowing the affected versions to be played through to their conclusion. This late fix is a small but telling example of how the retro gaming community continues to uncover and resolve long-buried technical issues, preserving the integrity of games that were once considered permanently flawed.

A Charm That Outlasted the 1980s

Critical response to the game was overwhelmingly positive, particularly in its early years. Zzap!64, in a June 1985 review, awarded it a 91 percent score and described it as a program of stunning impressiveness, a high mark that placed it among the top titles on the Commodore 64. The ColecoVision version received its own praise years later when Computer and Video Games gave it 87 percent in 1989, singling out the game's hilarious graphical touches and jolly gameplay, and describing the overall experience as both addictive and highly amusing. By the mid-1990s, the tone of criticism had shifted slightly toward nostalgia. A 1994 retrospective in Commodore Format acknowledged that Grog's Revenge was definitely a game of the old school, yet still recommended it as a fun little diversion, settling on a 70 percent rating. Taken together, these reviews paint a picture of a title celebrated at launch for its charm and humor, and remembered fondly in later years as a delightful relic of early 1980s design, one that never lost its appeal even as the industry raced toward more complex and ambitious projects.