Brilliant retro episode, and you are not the only one who thought it was an arm. Brilliant end song, btw, so thanks to whoever arranged and sung that. As I recall, I hade all 3 Horace Games and my fave was Skiing no doubts. Love that the character has gone on to inspire more games though. That is the legend only Jet Set Willy could muster. Thanks for sharing. Awesome as always.
Thanks mate! Appreciate it. Lyrics were mine but the music is done by the fantastic www.udio.com/. Try it, it's so much fun and the results are so good for computer generated mucking about.
While not exactly a "rat-tail" I had always assumed Horace had a head appendage of some sort, a bit like the Twi'Lek from _Star Wars._ And arms that, like many contemporary 8-bit characters, were hidden against his body until needed. And I'm grateful for that. I have enough four-decade long psychic traumas railing in my head without adding another one. You have my sympathies.
Manic Miner with a quiff haha brilliant. I always thought it was an arm. Looking swarve in them shades. Misprinted spines and "Horace and the Spider" on the title screen, too!!! They were all on something.
Same here. One of the earliest games I played on the Speccy was Horace Goes Skiing and to my eyes it was an arm. Now though, I understand why he wasn’t holding any ski poles in that game. Cause he didn’t have any arms!😮
As a Spaniard living on the east coast of the country, I can't even imagine my disbelief if I were to casually come across the owner of one of my favorite channels lying on the beach. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the channel, and I hope you have a fantastic holiday. And no, please, Horace definitely never had a rattail. I refuse to believe it.
Trip down memory lane. Hungry Horace! I can remember computer magazines with code in and it being down in school (probably what killed it off!). It was a bit of a wild frontier with companies stringing up and then disappearing. Then the big companies came along. Best wishes.
wow very interesting. being from germany, we rather had amstrads than sinclairs, but horace nevertheless rings a bell. as an ai aficionado i was especially thrilled by the outro. nice track :-D
Make a review of Cousin Horace. Great game and explains why US Horace looks so different to UK Horace. The coverage here was slight and a full recap of the storyline and showing the animated intro and all the different games included within the full game, including where you play as both Horaces at once would be great 👍 ❤
I always assumed it was an arm, and therefore Horace was probably one of those mythical creatures (looks it up) called a "Blemmye" (a.k.a. Headless Men) who are described in ancient myths as having "no heads, their mouths and eyes being seated in their breasts." Can't say I questioned it. Those were abstract times when videogame characters were whatever you could draw.
Sometimes the misconception just makes more sense. I will never accept that Mario punches Yoshi in SMW for example. And “Horace Had Arms” is a deep cut, really underrated soul gem of the late ‘60s. The price of the original single will probably skyrocket now that this video has made it popular. I will never sell my original ‘45 though, was so lucky to find it at a flea market a decade or so ago…
😂😂😂 a deep cut indeed and the Mario reference is a great shout. I had forgotten about that.. pointing or smacking him in the head 😁 cheers, made me smile.
I see your Evel Knievel and i also had that Zorro Mask and Sword. I remember my Nana buying it for me on a trip down to the chiropodist in Rawtenstall . I remember drawing a big Z on the wall with the chalk. Also a 12 mile Bus Ride at that age was not fun at all.
Love it! I love how you remember the random details..funny how your brain can store such random information but not what you had for dinner last night 😁and 12 miles on a bus! Must of taken awhile! My dad broke mine trying to chalk my mum on the stairs. The sword snapped in half.... I was not happy!
Yeah, I read that and I was intrigued - but it does make a certain sense to me that it's the hair hanging off his head rather than an arm on the side. And don't forget, Alfred Milgrom is Australian and so has different cultural references...
@@SebsPlaceYT I think it was only released for the Psion portable computer at the time, which is why it has such a strange aspect ratio. There was a later Spectrum port (the 2010 one)
@@gdclemo yeah, MAME recently emulated the Psion portable it runs on and the Horace game is one of the ones you can play (bit of a ballache to get working, but I played it on a stream once or twice) It's probably more forgettable than any of the other Horace games though.
As my name suggests - am a fan. Without doubt for me he has arms…. He has to - otherwise the fan-made Horace Boxing I started wouldn’t work 😂 I like your evidence around holding the skis and rope in particular and I will cling to that!
Psion should have been done under the trades description act. That game should have been called "Horace crosses the EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND DIFFICULT ROAD. Then he might go skiing later on, if he survives." Where the hell was this ski resort anyway? Everything about the Spectrum seemed weird and creepy to me as a kid - Jet Set Willy, Atic Atac, Knight Lore, Sabre Wulfe every game seemed to be the product of a deranged mind.
You know what this means! Horace is probably based on Rick from the Young Ones! Because that's the only Rat Tail on prominent display I recall from back then!
Can't help regarding how horace plays on an actual speccy, haven't played it in years. My minds been blown, would've sworn they were arms, in fact I Don't care what anyone says THEY ARE ARMS.
I'm pretty sure the controls were nowhere near as bad as they seem here. I used to have no trouble digging holes and crushing spiders. The first two stages were slow and unresponsive, especially the bridge, but the third was playable, if not good. Maybe a bad snapshot or emulator problem?
Definitely looks like a modern keyboard issue. Used to play Horace and the Spiders obsessively as a kid and never had the much trouble making him jump on the spot to break through the floor. Also, why do so many people on playthroughs of Skiing not realise you can just press up (or down when at the Ski Shop) to make Horace stand still???
@@SebsPlaceYT Yeah, it's been a looong time since I played Horace and the Spiders on a rubber keyed Specie, but I don't recall any trouble jumping on the spot.
I'm the same with retro gamer. I must be 5 or 6 issues behind on reading them. I've only ever played Horace goes Skiing which came in a pack with my speccy. I think there were so many excellent titles out by the time I got mine the others just passed me by so I don't have any nostalgia for the rat tailed one.
Let's be honest Seb. Now the rat-tail has been established it actually doesn't look like an arm, does it? Who has an arm growing out the back of his head? I am with you in the fact I always thought he was a one-armed freaky looking blue ghoul but this does explain things. Perhaps he took the skis to the piste by sticiking them up his blue arse, that would explain why he walks so funny?
Blue arse 🤣🤣 agreed about his appearance after knowing it's hair. It kinda looks right now..... I'm still smiling whilst writing this about skis up his blue arse. Cheers mate.
Besides the plain and obvious, I have no idea why whenever I hear or see anything remotely related to Horace, then Electric Light Orchestra's song; "The Diary of Horace Wimp" starts resonating within my cranium. - Apparently according to ELO, Mr. big pupil less gloomy eyes, with no mouth, no arms, and now a rats tail I guess, is completely up to his same old eerie shenanigans. This time being hungry for, and highly determined on wooing this girl, "settling down" and getting married. It is not that hard to imagine how that would be challenging especially for him. But he is in fact so determined, that he has planned for all of this to happen within only one week. And I guess what he's got planned for Saturday is top secret and strictly on a need to know basis. So much so, that this day that shall not be mentioned, in the best of Harry Potter styles, is successfully left out of the entire story... likely in the hope that we wouldn't even notice... I can only think; poor girl! - That is of course, unless she just happens to be of the same species as him, and this is the cultural norm in those circles... if so then, the best of luck to them both I guess. 🥸🤣
It's AI believe it or not. I'll pin a link to it but also add it here for you. Try the website, its great fun for silly little things like this. www.udio.com/songs/3DcvNHiUouakc15S9z9jeU
I loved Horace and the Spiders and Horace goes skiing. I remember the jumping issue on the platform game level too...I loved those 'spidery' graphics. Hungry Horace was a dissapointment when I eventually played it though. I'm guessing that song was AI generated...damn, that stuff is scary - completely obliterated music.
It's too smooth to be running in BASIC. If any games were written in it, they were compiled, but the BASIC compilers weren't around in the early years. The games were definitely written in machine code/assembler.
@AndrewHalliwell the version I remember as a kid I could stop the program and list it (horace goes skiing), and change certain attributes like lives . Also, don't this with football manager
@mehere3013 It’s likely hybrid, then. Maybe the opening screen and game setup was in basic before rand usr into the game itself. Did the lives involve pokes?
For anyone who can't get enough of the AI soul ballad 😃😃 Here is a link to it: www.udio.com/songs/3DcvNHiUouakc15S9z9jeU
I've had that in my head for a day now ...😳
A fascinating peak down the Horace rabbit hole.
He will always have arms to me.
Me too, although I'm struggling to unsee it now as hair!! 😪
wait what? wtf I shouldn't have gone straight to the comments!
😂
Brilliant retro episode, and you are not the only one who thought it was an arm. Brilliant end song, btw, so thanks to whoever arranged and sung that.
As I recall, I hade all 3 Horace Games and my fave was Skiing no doubts. Love that the character has gone on to inspire more games though. That is the legend only Jet Set Willy could muster.
Thanks for sharing. Awesome as always.
Thanks mate! Appreciate it. Lyrics were mine but the music is done by the fantastic www.udio.com/. Try it, it's so much fun and the results are so good for computer generated mucking about.
I had a Commodore but Hungry Horace was one of the first games I got on tape along with Cavelon. Loved it!
When I saw the title I thought it might be about his Dreadlock. LOL.
Great song BTW.
😂😂 you were right!!
Rat's tails were quite de rigueur during that era, think I tried to grow one myself.
@@MrLondonGo I saw them everywhere in the 80's.
While not exactly a "rat-tail" I had always assumed Horace had a head appendage of some sort, a bit like the Twi'Lek from _Star Wars._ And arms that, like many contemporary 8-bit characters, were hidden against his body until needed. And I'm grateful for that. I have enough four-decade long psychic traumas railing in my head without adding another one. You have my sympathies.
😂😂 thanks mate
Another great video. I had all 3 Horace games and just assumed it was his arm? Horace and the spiders was the one I I played most.
Me too! Cheers mate!
Mandela effect!!! I was sure he used ski polls in Horace Goes Skiing.
Manic Miner with a quiff haha brilliant. I always thought it was an arm. Looking swarve in them shades. Misprinted spines and "Horace and the Spider" on the title screen, too!!! They were all on something.
😂😂 they certainly were!
Things just get weirder. I'm so going to be trying out those modern Horace games. Excellent song.
Yeah the more recent stuff is decent. Cheers!
Its all i can think about everytime i see horace now. Hes not changed in decades but after learning that he somehow looks different
Yeah, same! Sorry!
Same here. One of the earliest games I played on the Speccy was Horace Goes Skiing and to my eyes it was an arm. Now though, I understand why he wasn’t holding any ski poles in that game. Cause he didn’t have any arms!😮
😁😁😁 ha yes! It all makes sense!
As a Spaniard living on the east coast of the country, I can't even imagine my disbelief if I were to casually come across the owner of one of my favorite channels lying on the beach. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the channel, and I hope you have a fantastic holiday.
And no, please, Horace definitely never had a rattail. I refuse to believe it.
Haha thank you! I'd definitely buy you a cold beer if I bumped into you in Cabo Roig 😁
@@SebsPlaceYT That's my usual holiday spot too! (Punta Prima, to be exact, about 5 km away). I'll keep an eye out in the local supermarkets. 😂
Trip down memory lane. Hungry Horace! I can remember computer magazines with code in and it being down in school (probably what killed it off!). It was a bit of a wild frontier with companies stringing up and then disappearing. Then the big companies came along. Best wishes.
Great video, thanks. :) Love the song!
Thank you 😊
wow very interesting. being from germany, we rather had amstrads than sinclairs, but horace nevertheless rings a bell. as an ai aficionado i was especially thrilled by the outro. nice track :-D
Haha thank you 😊
Make a review of Cousin Horace. Great game and explains why US Horace looks so different to UK Horace. The coverage here was slight and a full recap of the storyline and showing the animated intro and all the different games included within the full game, including where you play as both Horaces at once would be great 👍 ❤
Yeah! Good shout. I only played it for half an hour for some game footage but it played really nice.
An Arm? what were you thinking?... its clearly a night cap! or at least thars what i thought it was all these years!
😆 Yeah I have heard the nightcap theory, which although I never considered, is at least closer to the rat tail truth!
I always assumed it was an arm, and therefore Horace was probably one of those mythical creatures (looks it up) called a "Blemmye" (a.k.a. Headless Men) who are described in ancient myths as having "no heads, their mouths and eyes being seated in their breasts." Can't say I questioned it. Those were abstract times when videogame characters were whatever you could draw.
Very true and thanks for teaching me a new word!!
Sometimes the misconception just makes more sense. I will never accept that Mario punches Yoshi in SMW for example.
And “Horace Had Arms” is a deep cut, really underrated soul gem of the late ‘60s. The price of the original single will probably skyrocket now that this video has made it popular. I will never sell my original ‘45 though, was so lucky to find it at a flea market a decade or so ago…
😂😂😂 a deep cut indeed and the Mario reference is a great shout. I had forgotten about that.. pointing or smacking him in the head 😁 cheers, made me smile.
The images at the end where he has arms is how i always thought he looked with more pixels. Im genuinely disturbed now 😂
🤣🤣 sorry!
What an impressive ending!
Thank you sir!
Great video, enjoyed this reflection about Horace. A rats tail? Nah can't carry things with that hehe
Exactly! Cheers!
"I have no mouth, and I must eat"
😁😁
This was brilliant! ❤️
Cheers!
I see your Evel Knievel and i also had that Zorro Mask and Sword. I remember my Nana buying it for me on a trip down to the chiropodist in Rawtenstall . I remember drawing a big Z on the wall with the chalk. Also a 12 mile Bus Ride at that age was not fun at all.
Love it! I love how you remember the random details..funny how your brain can store such random information but not what you had for dinner last night 😁and 12 miles on a bus! Must of taken awhile! My dad broke mine trying to chalk my mum on the stairs. The sword snapped in half.... I was not happy!
Childhood destroyed!
Actually I always thought Horace was just permanently bent over and those weren't his eyes. 😮
😂 Another new theory!
The ski one was the only one I had - came with the speccy. I still think I had the best Horace game :)
Ski one is the best I reckon of the original 3
Yeah, I read that and I was intrigued - but it does make a certain sense to me that it's the hair hanging off his head rather than an arm on the side. And don't forget, Alfred Milgrom is Australian and so has different cultural references...
Yep, totally agree.
There is a 4th game - Horace in the Mystic Woods, 1995.
Hi! Spectrum Computing only have a 2010 version showing? That's the one at the end of the video. Is there a MIA one?
@@SebsPlaceYT I think it was only released for the Psion portable computer at the time, which is why it has such a strange aspect ratio. There was a later Spectrum port (the 2010 one)
Ah, yes, you are right!
@@gdclemo yeah, MAME recently emulated the Psion portable it runs on and the Horace game is one of the ones you can play (bit of a ballache to get working, but I played it on a stream once or twice) It's probably more forgettable than any of the other Horace games though.
The fact it was only on the Psion originally is so obscure but apt somehow.
I assumed that Horace had one unkempt dreadlock - maybe that's a rat's tail
Yep, same thing really!
As my name suggests - am a fan.
Without doubt for me he has arms…. He has to - otherwise the fan-made Horace Boxing I started wouldn’t work 😂
I like your evidence around holding the skis and rope in particular and I will cling to that!
😂😂 glad to help! Looking forward to seeing Horace boxing! Let me know when it's playable! Cheers
Psion should have been done under the trades description act. That game should have been called "Horace crosses the EXTREMELY DANGEROUS AND DIFFICULT ROAD. Then he might go skiing later on, if he survives." Where the hell was this ski resort anyway? Everything about the Spectrum seemed weird and creepy to me as a kid - Jet Set Willy, Atic Atac, Knight Lore, Sabre Wulfe every game seemed to be the product of a deranged mind.
😁😁 this is very true! It was all a bit bonkers wasn't it! To be honest, makes me love that time in gaming a little bit more!
You know what this means! Horace is probably based on Rick from the Young Ones! Because that's the only Rat Tail on prominent display I recall from back then!
Oooh yes! I was trying to think of anyone having one back in the day!
@@SebsPlaceYT well, I'm glad I could rekindle that memory 🤣
Love the song.
😁
I hate that when I look forward to a new game with a beloved character, the programmer has a collapsed lung
🤣🤣 how inconsiderate eh!
I always thought Manic Miner had a quiff and the one in the Daley Thompsons Decathlon crowd.
😂😂 ah yes! I had to check some footage but you are right! He's definitely cheering on Daley! Brilliant!
Can't help regarding how horace plays on an actual speccy, haven't played it in years.
My minds been blown, would've sworn they were arms, in fact I Don't care what anyone says THEY ARE ARMS.
😂😂😂 sorry mate!
I'm pretty sure the controls were nowhere near as bad as they seem here. I used to have no trouble digging holes and crushing spiders. The first two stages were slow and unresponsive, especially the bridge, but the third was playable, if not good. Maybe a bad snapshot or emulator problem?
Yeah must be!
That will always be an arm to me regardless of original intent and Minor Willy does have an elvis hairdo.
😂 agreed! Although I'm struggling to not see it as a rat tail now!
Great video! Loved the pace! The rat tail has definitely ruined it for me
Thank you! You and me both!
Checks date. Not April 1st.
😮
Sorry x
4:31 - I always assumed that was Miner Willie's hair ... Until now!
Haha! So a double whammy in one video for you!
His arms are small and blue, so you just can't see them against his body. Also he had like 6.
😂 I like this theory
That song, haha
I had no idea that's what it was supposed to be but I knew what a rat tail was. I don't know why and I'm not happy about it.
😂
Steve Wilhite died 2 years ago. So anything he said is moot now. It's GIF, not JIF.
I've always said GIF. JIF just sounds weird 😁
@@SebsPlaceYT
Plus, it was a kitchen cleaner.
🤣🤣 of course!
@@SebsPlaceYT it's G for graphics. Not giraffeics!
😂 YES!
Definitely looks like a modern keyboard issue. Used to play Horace and the Spiders obsessively as a kid and never had the much trouble making him jump on the spot to break through the floor.
Also, why do so many people on playthroughs of Skiing not realise you can just press up (or down when at the Ski Shop) to make Horace stand still???
Yeah I think you might be right. It seemed too twitchy. Cheers.
@@SebsPlaceYT Yeah, it's been a looong time since I played Horace and the Spiders on a rubber keyed Specie, but I don't recall any trouble jumping on the spot.
Horace spiders is fine . Won a comp playing it . If playing while recording in emulator I found it problematic
Yeah - I firmly believe it was an emulation issue I was having. Cheers.
Good old William "Horace" Tang!
Do you know what happened to him? My research drew a blank!
@@SebsPlaceYT I think after his lung got punctured he just quit. In my head he's just like Paul Hogan though, out in the OutBack, hunting Horaces...
@@SebsPlaceYT He's busy copyright claiming small youtubers
Horace must've had......... REALLY SMALL ARMS!!!
(either that or he's really sticky?)
😂😂 I like the sticky theory. That's plausible!
I was disappointed when I read that in retro gamer. Always thought of it as an arm too.
The attract screen does witterly say spider in singular and not plural?
Yeah I only noticed that when I had uploaded the video! Ran out of room lol
I was a part of the society of weirdos who believed it was a pointy hood (like one of the forum dudes illustratively suggested).
You are the 2nd person so far to go on the nightcap theory, so you are not alone! It's also a closer assumption to the rattail reality than an arm 😁
I'm the same with retro gamer. I must be 5 or 6 issues behind on reading them. I've only ever played Horace goes Skiing which came in a pack with my speccy. I think there were so many excellent titles out by the time I got mine the others just passed me by so I don't have any nostalgia for the rat tailed one.
Ha! I'm glad I'm not the only one, I'm always behind!
Rat, not as in rat, rat's tail as in hair. See Anakin in Ep II.
... but space panic is obviously Loadrunner LOL. I think Horace is mostly armless.
I see what you did there ....😂😂 Space Panic came before Lode Runner but you could say Horace copied Lode that copied Space 😁
Let's be honest Seb. Now the rat-tail has been established it actually doesn't look like an arm, does it? Who has an arm growing out the back of his head? I am with you in the fact I always thought he was a one-armed freaky looking blue ghoul but this does explain things. Perhaps he took the skis to the piste by sticiking them up his blue arse, that would explain why he walks so funny?
Blue arse 🤣🤣 agreed about his appearance after knowing it's hair. It kinda looks right now..... I'm still smiling whilst writing this about skis up his blue arse. Cheers mate.
I always thought it was a comb over or quiff
Ha! Maybe it is!!
Besides the plain and obvious, I have no idea why whenever I hear or see anything remotely related to Horace, then Electric Light Orchestra's song; "The Diary of Horace Wimp" starts resonating within my cranium.
- Apparently according to ELO, Mr. big pupil less gloomy eyes, with no mouth, no arms, and now a rats tail I guess, is completely up to his same old eerie shenanigans. This time being hungry for, and highly determined on wooing this girl, "settling down" and getting married. It is not that hard to imagine how that would be challenging especially for him. But he is in fact so determined, that he has planned for all of this to happen within only one week. And I guess what he's got planned for Saturday is top secret and strictly on a need to know basis. So much so, that this day that shall not be mentioned, in the best of Harry Potter styles, is successfully left out of the entire story... likely in the hope that we wouldn't even notice... I can only think; poor girl!
- That is of course, unless she just happens to be of the same species as him, and this is the cultural norm in those circles... if so then, the best of luck to them both I guess. 🥸🤣
....and now I'm off to listen to some ELO. Cheers mate.
What is that song title and artist? 🎶
It's AI believe it or not. I'll pin a link to it but also add it here for you. Try the website, its great fun for silly little things like this. www.udio.com/songs/3DcvNHiUouakc15S9z9jeU
I loved Horace and the Spiders and Horace goes skiing. I remember the jumping issue on the platform game level too...I loved those 'spidery' graphics. Hungry Horace was a dissapointment when I eventually played it though.
I'm guessing that song was AI generated...damn, that stuff is scary - completely obliterated music.
Yeah. It's crazy what you can do with it now. I'm all for it for silly fun stuff like this where it's obvious but scares me where it is going......
I always thought he was a big nose with legs.
Haha, that is a new one! Cheers!
Horace has an oily rattail skullet. He smells like sweat, meat and potpourri.
Hippy!
Someone else suggested he was sticky, which is how he clings to everything 😁😁
Was there not a game called horace to the rescue
Only fan remakes. There was supposed to be but the creator had a collapsed lung, so it never got made!
@@SebsPlaceYT thanks for the info
Was the ending song an AI jobbie?
Yes, great fun and surprisingly good results from www.udio.com/home
Gif guy is just being cantankerous. if is Guh If
How can you eat when you have no mouth?
I think he inserts food into his eyes.....
@@SebsPlaceYT seafood diet
😂😂
Nah, it’s am arm.
😂
I always thought horace was a ripoff of the monster from bugs bunny cartoon. ?
Googles monster from bugs bunny......yeah, good shout! 😁
No way, that's a rat's tail? The worst hairstyle ever (sorry Midge Ure). But, yes, I can see it now. That IS a rat's tail 🤣🤣🤣
Yep......😂
the games were all written in basic
They all move pretty quick! Even now!
It's too smooth to be running in BASIC.
If any games were written in it, they were compiled, but the BASIC compilers weren't around in the early years. The games were definitely written in machine code/assembler.
@AndrewHalliwell the version I remember as a kid I could stop the program and list it (horace goes skiing), and change certain attributes like lives . Also, don't this with football manager
@mehere3013 It’s likely hybrid, then. Maybe the opening screen and game setup was in basic before rand usr into the game itself. Did the lives involve pokes?