chr1sbean2 Oct 2023
Fun and simple game that was great for us playing as a family and taking a life each as noone had to wait too long! Absolutely loved the fireplace and tv level with the changing channels....everytime i saw the trapdoor character i would smile!
Steve9 Feb 2020
Diddle diddle dumpling, one shoe on one shoe off. Henry's House is a graphic powerhouse for the Atari and a later release too. Really looks fantastic and has great gameplay/animation. A great platform game that shows again what the Atari could achieve.
Monk31 Jan 2020
I never liked this game on any platform. The Atari version has nice and colorful effects and 'rasterbars', which I always like.
The game itself is nothing to type home about, and as these very old games tend to be, it's way too difficult to be enjoyable. You basically have to memorize everything and play pixel-perfectly to proceed, and any experimentation is always punished.
Basically you have to hone your skills until you memorize everything perfectly and can play instinctively in some kind of Zen mode.
The reward is not worth the work.
The reason why in 1987 a simple game like this would've sold more than its slightly crappier C64 version in 1984 is that by 1987, not many games were released for Atari computers, so any game would seem like a mirage that you have to get.
Another reason is that in 1984, the C64 was still fairly new platform, but it was almost drowning in all kinds of games - many much better ones than this. People wouldn't have been so ready to give up their money for this, when so many better games were already available. We have to remember that games like "Impossible Mission" came out the same year.
So I don't know what Philsan was trying to prove here, but I think the results would be confusing at best.
There are games that are better on the Atari, games that are better on the C64, and games that are 'pretty much equal' on both.
This game falls to the 'better on the Atari' category, although the difference is not big.. especially considering this came out three years after the C64 version, so better polish is expected.
I like the presentation, the visuals, etc. but the game itself is just too tedious for me.
Owning an Atari has changed my viewpoint about many C64 games - nowadays there are games that I never play on the C64 anymore, since I can play the Atari version.. if I wanted to play this game, it would be one of those games.
Philsan25 Jan 2020
According to Christopher Murray (Unofficial Atari Visual History Book, Greyfox Books, 2019), he programmed the game on his Atari 400 but the publisher asked to recode it for C64 as it would sell more on that platform. The game was released for C64 on 1984 and for Atari 8-bit computers on 1987. It sold many more units for the latter.
rave.N9 May 2016
CHEAT MODE unlimited lives, built-in back-door, type CPM on the title screen.
There is supposedly a bug that can crash the game if you jump and land a certain way.
jamie o2 Feb 2014
I remember getting this on a cold winters night and playing until 2am..well late for an 8 yr old.Easily one of my favourite games and also one of the first i completed,happy times indeed.
william22 May 2013
impossible to get pass screen two well for me anyway
Hayley3 Jul 2011
Game soundtrack was amazing- and it was probably one of the first games i completed. Graphics were pretty good, and it was very playable- tough, but not impossible.
Possibly one of Masteronics best
Gruppenfuhrer WOLF15 Sept 2010
I remember waiting for the end of holidays to play Henry's House again at home.
Colin Baker23 Feb 2009
Absolutly brilliant game for its time, and it still holds a lot of good memories, although at times it was incredibly frustrating! Still well up there with my favourite games of all time, even today.
Roberto Rodriguez7 Feb 2009
The greatest retro game of all time in my opinion. The controls are spot on and the level design is borderline genius!
The only slight disappointment is that there isn't an ending screen - you simply loop back to the first level.
However, you can't really complain with what's here. I didn't touch this game for about ten years but was surprised by how well it holds up today. I still hate that damn bird though!
Jonny EOL12 Dec 2007
Essentially the game Jet Set Willy should have been. A colourful and highly enjoyable platformer.
Michael Strorm25 Oct 2006
Great game; even by 1987 standards it seemed like an "old school" platform game, but it was done so effectively. I was particularly impressed with the second screen.
I didn't find out until later on that it was a conversion of an English Software C64 game from a few years earlier (Mastertronic must have had a deal with them; I think they converted ElektraGlide to some other formats.) It explains the homages to various games of that time.
Ironic that the JSW-influenced sprites on one screen of HH look really nice, and the graphics on the "real" Atari JSW were atrocious. Oh well :-/
There's not that much difference between the C64 and Atari versions (Atari has a slight edge), except that the music in the Atari version is better :)
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