As a commercial product? Absolute pants. As someone's first game to learn development? Actually pretty reasonable.

Turns out, there _is_ actually such a thing as a 'Purple Spider-Eater' - in a manner of speaking. I'm referring, of course, to the carnivorous purple pitcher plant ( _Sarracenia purpurea_ ), which is endemic to parts of the U.S. and Canada, and can also be found in several European countries, including the U.K. Amusingly, the plant is also sometimes referred to by the colloquial name 'Turtle Socks'.

I laughed really hard at the skit where you interact with game characters, I missed that trend from the old days. I love the idea that these things just live in the apartment with the Octavius character and cause intermittent chaos. It's something a fair amount of game reviews have done in some way or other, but you always integrate them very well.

That was a delight! The flashing spider is because he's blanking out the spider whether it moves or not, with some kind of INVERSE and OVER thing. If it only changed when it moved it'd be less flickery. Line 125 looks to see if J=2. But J is set to 2 on the next line, and is then ALWAYS 2. Setting J to 2 if you move, but 1 otherwise, AND removing the OVER from line 165 makes the spider not flicker :)

It looks like a magazine type-in.

Octy, I’m delighted that you’re making more videos recently, but I’m even more delighted that you’re feeling confident enough to keep doing so. As someone with my own mental health problems and who has dealt with a lot of friends who struggle with their own, it makes me so happy that you’ve not only upfront about your struggles but are able to keep working through them. You have strength beyond what you see in yourself, and I think I speak for all of us when I say we love ya, gal.

5:22 Thanks for the jumpscare! Much appreciated. 😛 I remember when you had a go at this quite some time ago, this thing is absolutely clown shoes. The spider *does* indeed look kinda cute though. Also love the baby Pacman cameo. Thanks for your great content as always! ❤

🎵He was a one eyed, no horn, flying purple Spider Eater, and he sure looks like crap to me!🎵

Octavius and the ZX Spectrum… the best combination in a KZfaq video!

I think it's a bad idea going anywhere near that Stuart boy. I had Spotify recommend I listen to a playlist called "This Is Heino" the last time I opened it, thanks to his actions, and now THIS.

Hi, dude. Great to see ya posting again. I remember a ZX Spectrum tape compilation called 'Don't Buy This'; 4 of the worst games ever, supposedly; they were actually quite good fun if you took 'em in a 'so bad it's good' spirit. 👍

That's probably why the spider looks so nervous and worried, because it knows somewhere out there is Pink Pac-Man just lurking about waiting to munch it. 😉😂🤣

Now I know what bobbins are! 😂 top tier content! Thank you!

Given the state of a lot of modern games, I'm not sure QC is a thing now, let alone back then.

Imagine if the game had been called "12 Butterflies A Minute". Yeah...still rubbish. What's never rubbish is getting a new retro video from Octavius. Cheers, mate!

I actually mistook it for a PS5 remaster. I’m glad to say I missed this back in the day.

Yay! New Octavius video! That just brighten my absolutely terrible day by a million and seven! 🤩 You are the coolest!

Gaming history legend, Octavius. You put more effort into a review video than the developer put into the game.

At first I thought it would be something like Qix or Amidar (as that could fit with a web theme), but thinking it would have actual mechanics was obviously my mistake.

One of my favorite new channels I've found recently! Completely made my day seeing a new video is up!

9:08 proper laughed out loud 😂 (also lovely to see my username in the credits for the first time ❤)

Best part in butterfly is when spooder crosses the window pains and the color inversion gives him the troll face

This game needed a timer. A aim...a goal. How many butterflies can you catch in 2 minutes. Maybe get speed ups that last 10 seconds after catching 5 butterflies. Maybe after catching so many, you get a Web spot that slows down butterflies to help you. Maybe get points for different colours colours. Do you go for points or numbers? So many ways to create depth.

Good Vid Thanks for all your hard work, I know it must be hard to do these vidds but your doing an awsome job Keep up the good work:)

Awesome Friday night treat. As a kid i used to play these games not knowing what the hell i was meant to be doing. im really glad that it wasnt because i was a dumb kid but just because they actually made no sense.

Okay, that spider sprite reminds me of "Spider" The CBBC series from the 90's. I'm SO throwing myself down a nostalgia rabbit hole right now. Thanks Octy!

Ahhh your videos make me so happy! Keep doing what your doing octavius❤

two classic ZX Spectrum games: Saboteur2 (one of the best ninja games) and Metabolis (the most LSD game there is), great video!

up, down, left, right, something something... lalala

My reaction to the big monster in this game “Oh, it’s like a lizard, right? That makes sense.” NOPE! That makes TOO much sense! Gotta make it a purple spider eater!

The spiderling looks especially happy when he/she crosses the horizontal bar. I wanna feed them a lacewing treat

Great video. Always love your content. That thing at the beginning is a spider web, though it would be nice, you know if they actually put it in the game part of the game 😂

I once witnessed a spider eat a moth alive on my kitchen window.

"The Purple Spider Eater" is just a proto-Kirby. Change my mind.

Yaaaay. Love when i see a new upload from you 😊

"I'm not for munching" is such a good one-liner for a zombie, or werewolf, or vampire, or cannibal movie. Just either right before killing or while surrounded and using an explosive to take out multiple badies.

The animations are back ! Yay ! 😃😃

Now I have the Duckula theme stuck in my head. Nice.

Nice backdrop. Love it. Love the nostalgia.

In 1984 the only gaming I did was probably ASCII snake or something like that. Maybe Rogue.

Always happy when a new video comes. Cute little spider. :)

The wire is a shoddy, DIY window defroster!

Maybe The Purple mutant is actually meant to be a bird or something.

💙Always love seeing you post a new video!

"...my bizarre method of self-harm..." Am...am I enabling this? *( bluescreens )* *( windows nt4 reboot noise )* Ooooo, new video!

"Who leaves live wires on a windowsill" I did at one point because I was tired of my apartment being broken into. So Yes, anti burglary.

🎶It was a one-eyed, Pac-Man-shaped, Purple Spider-Eater 🎶And it looked cracked up to me~

Yay !!!... It’s always a lovely surprise when Octavious uploads something. Nice !!!... 👍😉

A refreshing video, in a sea of bobbins. Thx king!

Wow, the spider is weapons-grade adorable.

Oh wow. Was looking for a new vid to watch about a Speccy game or something. Thanks for this…

Ooh! I remember Ashens trying this on his second Stand Up to Cancer Ashenscast!

7:11 It’s Spiders Georg. The legends are true.

Pulsonic games were sold in Woolworths circa 1983/84, for £2.99, as I remember buying their cricket game. They were owned by Warwick Leisure whose main business consisted of selling budget records and tapes through Woolworths, featuring artists such as Des O'Connor. Other record companies also tried to get into computer gaming a the same time, releasing similar rubbish. K-Tel put out an few double game tapes before giving up. Virgin Games were another, charging about £7 each for their early batch of games, including the quite frankly atrocious Sheepwalk, a sheep-dog simulator - a short BASIC game with a habit of crashing due to programming errors. It was the sort of game you'd type in from a magazine in 20 minutes, and then never bother to save.

Love your sense of humour, had never heard of this game, but i am glad it exists to have made your video possible! Great video.

Knew we were in for something when she said it was Ashens who suggested it. It's not a bad ider for a first go and the spider really is cute. The butterflies at least look like you could guess that's what they are and they stand out more than if they were trying to use other bugs. If this was just a kid's programing project for a class, even the purple thing would get credit from me. I'd have probably played something like this happily on my TI, but then I know they didn't put carp on that so it would have been good.

Any update on the book?

Omg Oct. Your friends with Ashens! That's so cool!!

The heliconiidae butterflies shown around 5.50 are actually very poisonous and eating them would most likely kill the little spidey

It looks like they're using text mode to draw graphics using custom tiles for the "sprites". That's why the "window frame", let's call it that, disappears when Pacman overlaps with it. It's basically just deleting and typing over the "text" on screen every frame so any part of the "window" in the way of the Pacman tiles will end up disappearing. I could also be talking out of my arse.

Definitely someone's first game written in BASIC :)

6:02 EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! that's all you hear now, thanks tinnitus!

That looks like an awesome cover art for the box tho. That would probably be a nice game poster at least 👏😁

nice Aglais urticae @ 5:17 ; I wish I could identify the one at 5:50 as it is an heliconidae for sure.

On the box art, that purple thing looks a bit like a fish. I think that makes slightly more sense than a Pac-man shaped creature. Jumping fish by a window with a live wire seems no less plausible.

Good to see you, good content as always hope you are well thank you

tiny lil 8-bit jumpscare!

Watching this made me think - even if it wasn't a totally obscure game I'd never heard of till now and it's awesome to have it covered like this, I'd watch Octy cover a game I'd already seen, just to see her unique reaction on it :)

It looks like an incomplete Basic program - the programmer never got around to the scoring code

Fun fact:The comedian Simon Munnery made games for the ZX Spectrum and the Vic 20 as a teenager

Great video as always octavius king 👍

Somehow while watching this video there were less clouds and i can see a bit more sunshine. Thanks!

I wonder why the purple thing wasn't a bird. That would have made so much more sense, at least assuming they're on the outside of the window.

I'd love to see you cover Trespasser some day. I freaking love that game for what it is, and I'm not sure if you'd consider it to be bad enough. But I think it would be hilarious to see your take on it.

You are a wonderful person and you deserve love and happiness. Bless you. 😇

5:58 - the spider is ravenous, so that's not a beep, but the spider burping.

Hi! Hooray! Thank you!

Butterfly feels like someone tried to recreate Atari's Black Widow from very hazy memories.

Count Duckula! :D

Heeeeell yeeeeaaah! You we NEVER understand how excited I got when i got the notification!

Woohooo all excited to see a new video love all the content

Been too long since last vid I was beginning to think you'd stoped

Awesome as always .

Looks lightish red to me. Gotta refill my headlight fluid first, though.

I think the flickering graphics are simply because this is written in BASIC and can't erase and redraw the graphics fast enough.

Thank you Octy :)

Is there a listing for this game?

Yes, that spider is very cute. Now to download it, and play it. Edit: Found it on WoS, and it was £2.99 back in 1984, which is about £9.34 now.

That flashing is because the sprites in this game "move" by erasing them from their previous position and then putting back in the new one, but due to bad programming (is it redrawing the entire scene for both functions? God, I hope not), it isn't able to do both steps in a single frame, so it appears to flash when it is removed and not yet re-added.

This would be decent as a type-in game from a magazine, something to look at, fiddle with and improve more than actually play, but to actually charge people money for it? Yikes. Judging by the (lack of) performance it's probably written in Basic, too. (short pause while I download it and look at the file) Yup, it's 165 lines of (surprisingly well commented) Basic. Hugh should absolutely have sent this off to a magazine and gotten an actual writeup rather than the undeserved hate of everyone who ever bought this.

3:04 it's a spiderweb

Cutest spider ever!

I don't think you'll read this comment, but I wanted to say that I really enjoy your content. The character you've created is really refreshing. It keeps me engaged and wanting more. You have real creativity, and it shows. Please don't stop doing what you love. Life is too short to mess around and not acknowledge your worth. I appreciate you opening up about your struggles because we all struggle too. As someone who hasn't found their place in this world, it's nice to know that someone like me can find my place one day. Thank you for showing me that. Cheers

I remember buying this game for something like 50p, and I still to this day feel I'm owed 50p. I used to amuse my niece and nephew by changing the text to use their names in the instructions. Basic, how I miss thee...

I think Hugh Davis might have been Welsh?

Christ, that’s bad. I’m now regretting not sending my ‘BASIC’ - coded Spectrum classic ‘The Hunter Pops Balloons’ to Pulsonic. I’d have made a fortune! (The premise of my game was, ‘The Hunter’ (cartoon dog from TV series) fires arrows at hot air balloons, which ‘POP!’ when you hit them. After you clear the screen, you start on the next level. Yes, it’s that shit…)

Great video as always! Just a comment for the algorithm!

Initial reaction: You're missing some controls or something. Like there has to be some web-shooting button that you can use to trap the butterflies, making this like a Qix-type game. Because this can't be the entire game. It' just can't be. Reaction when you read the instructions: .......oh

I guess it's a jumping spider. And yes, jumping spiders can be pretty darn cute!

This reminds me of the very first game I ever played - a ZX Speccy game called "Streaker". You play as an overweight bald bloke who's lost all his clothes and needs to find them before he gets arrested by old-school bobbies. I never got very far since I was 8 at the time, but I heard that aliens happened maybe. I spent literal decades thinking it was some sort of childhood fever dream until I googled it one day - I'm kinda sad no-one has looked at it on KZfaq yet since I reckon it'd be freaking hilarious! Has anyone else ever come across or remember playing this game? I need to know I'm not alone!