VLTTP: Granny's Garden

[Irrotational]

Inspired by random threads over time (like "what's the longest time it's taken you to beat a game?") and a throwaway comment/question on the Giant Bombcast I got interested in this old BBC game.

It launched in 1983 and I probably "played" it around then..probably 1984 or something like that. The hallowed computer had it's own special trolley and the whole class played at once, giving suggestions on what we should do. I don't think we ever beat the game, I think we only got a few goes at it and then it disappeared again.

After some googling I discovered that the company that owns the IP still sells it, and the easiest/cheapest way was £3.99 on the iTunes store.

Cut to this weekend and myself and my two kids fired it up, to go through the puzzles. It was good fun, and none of us were expecting the dragons and lost city! Cutting edge graphics in its day!

Granny's Garden - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

And some BBC micros for good measure:-

Anyway - I've now completed a game where it's taken me 36 years to beat it! How about you?

 

[BradleyLove]

I have fond memories of Granny's Garden from my primary school days. I'm sure my mate and I beat it, but given your admission you never did I'm starting to doubt myself now.

 

[Deleted member 442]

I have strong memories of Granny's Garden.

I wouldn't say that they were strong memories of actually playing it. I don't think anyone in my class actually played it but I just remember it being a thing that existed and no one in my year had the first idea what they were doing.

People say kids are smart but the truth is kids don't know shit.

 

[mclem]

One of these days I'll start a run of Let's Plays of BBC Micro-era edutainment, I've got access to a number of titles thanks to my father rescuing a bunch that were being thrown out when schools started moving en masse to PC.

There's some genuinely bizarre stuff in there, and I think it ought to be celebrated!

 

[pswii60]

I posted about this game last year lol:

Any kid in the UK that was at primary school in the 80s will remember the BBC Micro all-time classic.. Granny's Garden.

Click to shrink...

I remember it like it was yesterday, amazing.

Also remember I was the only kid in school who had a BBC Micro at home too. My dad got one with his job to do his expenses or something, but basically just gave it to me. Although I still spent 99% of time on my C64. BBC Micro was way easier to program though thanks to proper BASIC rather than half-assed C64 BASIC which required machine code (POKE!) just to change the damn colour of the screen.

 

[The Spoony Hou]

Well, I still gotta finish boogaboo, from 1986...

 

[Impudent Dog]

I remember it vividly. This was another one we played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byk3ncxqHZc

 

[CognitiveAtrophy]

I certainly remember the evil old bag's hair-trigger animation scaring the living piss out of me. So much as touch her broom and you're subjected to her cacophonous screeching.

 

[pswii60]

I remember it vividly. This was another one we played: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byk3ncxqHZc

Click to shrink...

Holy shit, I remember that! It's been annoying me for years what this game was, only ever remembered the name of Granny's Garden.

Amazing.

 

[Impudent Dog]

Holy shit, I remember that! It's been annoying me for years what this game was, only ever remembered the name of Granny's Garden.

Amazing.

Click to shrink...

Glad I could help. I was in the same boat as you until late last year. I had been trying all manners of search terms in Google with what I could remember. Unfortunately, my recollection was mostly limited to navigating the world by specifying a cardinal direction and the screen transitional theme, which was obviously impossible to input. It might have helped had I realised that the theme was likely based on the main theme to a certain popular film from the early eighties.

 

[ghostcrew]

Big nostalgia for Granny's Garden from Primary School. You used to be able to get it on iOS weirdly... Dunno if it was lost to time when everything had to be upgraded to work on new phones.

 

[basic_text]

I don't think I ever got to play Granny's Garden but I played the hell out of Dread Dragon Droom and Geordie Racer when I was allowed!

 

[Irrotational]

I have strong memories of Granny's Garden.

I wouldn't say that they were strong memories of actually playing it. I don't think anyone in my class actually played it but I just remember it being a thing that existed and no one in my year had the first idea what they were doing.

People say kids are smart but the truth is kids don't know shit.

Click to shrink...

Yeah - I remember it being utterly confusing at the time...plus my classmates would shout/suggest completely nonsensical stuff!

My 8 year old got it straight away though...he was fine up until the "put collars on the 4 baby dragons" where I started making lists of relationships! We were also hampered as i thought you had to get all 4 dragons out at once, which seemed/is impossible! Actually you're meant to get one (and only one) out each time.

I posted about this game last year lol:

I remember it like it was yesterday, amazing.

Click to shrink...

Yeah _ i think I saw your post too - should have credited you in my OP, sorry.

I did a *bit* of BASIC coding, ironically in secondary school by which time it was starting to fade out....we never got to use one of those drawing turtles though.

Big nostalgia for Granny's Garden from Primary School. You used to be able to get it on iOS weirdly... Dunno if it was lost to time when everything had to be upgraded to work on new phones.

Click to shrink...

It's still available on iTunes and worked on my (old) Mac Air. The publisher also sells a PC version but it's £15! I didn't mind paying £3.99 for a nostalgia trip on a wet/windy afternoon.

ITunes Link?

 

[pswii60]

I did a *bit* of BASIC coding, ironically in secondary school by which time it was starting to fade out....we never got to use one of those drawing turtles though.

Click to shrink...

I was at primary school when I was obsessed with typing in game code from the gazillion programming books available at the time for all home computers. It was so damn rewarding when you typed in hundreds of lines of code and then had a game to play at the end, or some fancy graphics demo. Also infuriating when it didn't work and it took hours to find your typo or missing line lol! Yes other kids were playing football.

As for the turtle 🐢, we definitely had that at school. The joys of LOGO!

 

[8bit]

 

[sir_crocodile]

Inspired by random threads over time (like "what's the longest time it's taken you to beat a game?") and a throwaway comment/question on the Giant Bombcast I got interested in this old BBC game.

It launched in 1983 and I probably "played" it around then..probably 1984 or something like that. The hallowed computer had it's own special trolley and the whole class played at once, giving suggestions on what we should do. I don't think we ever beat the game, I think we only got a few goes at it and then it disappeared again.

After some googling I discovered that the company that owns the IP still sells it, and the easiest/cheapest way was £3.99 on the iTunes store.

Cut to this weekend and myself and my two kids fired it up, to go through the puzzles. It was good fun, and none of us were expecting the dragons and lost city! Cutting edge graphics in its day!

Granny's Garden - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

And some BBC micros for good measure:-

Anyway - I've now completed a game where it's taken me 36 years to beat it! How about you?

Click to shrink...

My primary school had this and Dinosaur Discovery back in the day.

I completed Granny's Garden easily but could never crack Dinosaur Discovery. I did go on a nostalgia trip a few years ago and finally completed Dinosaur Discovery. It was tough!