Surfchamp
Description
Surfchamp is a game that allows you to experience the thrills of surfing. You have the option of practising where you surf to your hearts content without losing energy or you can enter a competition where you surf over ten rounds trying to get the best score. Before you surf you can enter your name and other statistics, choose your board, your suit to match the weather conditions and look at the weather forecasts.
You start on the beach and it is viewed from behind your surfer from an elevated angle and you select a spot in the water to enter as the waves come rolling in from the sea. You paddle up the screen until you find a suitable wave and stand on your board. You now control your surfer and try to keep on the board while doing tricks as the wave pushes you to the beach. Paddling and surfing decreases your energy bar and when it's empty your ride is over.
The main selling point of the game was that a plastic surfboard was included to put over your keyboard and you pressed on certain parts of the board to keep on the board and control it.
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Trivia
Game Intentions
New Concept had bold plans for Surfchamp and beyond. They were working on recreating skiing, water-skiing and sailing using the same concept. Force-feedback was being developed, four years before the cancelled Konix Multisystem console attempted the same thing, and 20 years before the Nintendo Wii made it to market.
They also staged what is believed to be the world's earliest eSports contest, the 1985 World Computer Surfing Championship using the Spectrum version, which was staged when the real-life European Surfing Championship of that year was hampered by excessively calm waters. Each nation put forward four of its real-world competitors, and reigning English champion Jed Stone was victorious.
The project ultimately collapsed in a similar way to the Multisystem - when a huge order of 200,000 copies could not be manufactured in time for Christmas 1985, as Ireland's Industrial Development Authority refused to give them the advance funding required. Ultimately they sold 3000 copies of the Spectrum version and around 600 of the Commodore 64 one before going bankrupt.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by FatherJack.
Additional contributors: Martin Smith.
Game added February 16, 2014. Last modified February 22, 2023.