# Horace (video game series)
**Horace** is a British video game series starring Horace, an odd-looking blue character, which began in 1982 on the [ZX Spectrum](https://www.edgepedia.org/zx-spectrum) home computer with *Hungry Horace*, created by William Tang for Beam Software.[1](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2006840/The_Horace_Trilogy/) • [2](https://electronicsandbooks.com/edt/manual/Magazine/R/Retro%20Gamer%20UK/22.pdf) The series ran to three games in the early 1980s, *Hungry Horace*, *Horace Goes Skiing*, and *Horace and the Spiders*, and a planned fourth title, *Horace to the Rescue*, was announced in 1985 but never released.[1](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2006840/The_Horace_Trilogy/) • [3](https://fictionalcrossover.fandom.com/wiki/Horace) Horace (2019) is a separate story-driven platformer by Paul Helman and Sean Scaplehorn, featuring a robot named Horace and drawing on 1980s British culture; it is not part of the original Horace series.[4](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/01/feature_horace_developers_on_die_hard_britishness_and_finding_the_right_genre_label) • [16](https://support.505games.com/support/solutions/articles/150000147231-what-is-horace-all-about-)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Creator | William Tang, for Beam Software (later known as Krome Studios)[3](https://fictionalcrossover.fandom.com/wiki/Horace) |
| First release | *Hungry Horace*, ZX Spectrum, 1982[1](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2006840/The_Horace_Trilogy/) |
| Original trilogy | *Hungry Horace* (maze game), *Horace Goes Skiing* (traffic crossing and slalom), *Horace and the Spiders* (platforming)[1](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2006840/The_Horace_Trilogy/) |
| Unreleased fourth game | *Horace to the Rescue*, announced 1985, never released[3](https://fictionalcrossover.fandom.com/wiki/Horace) |
| Modern compilation | *The Horace Trilogy*, remastered emulated versions, developed by Beam Software, published by Pixel Games UK, released 24 June 2022[1](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2006840/The_Horace_Trilogy/) |
| 2019 revival | *Horace*, a cinematic platformer by Paul Helman and Sean Scaplehorn, funded by 505 Games, built in Unity[4](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/01/feature_horace_developers_on_die_hard_britishness_and_finding_the_right_genre_label) |
| Reception of the 2019 game | Metascore 82 (Switch, 22 critic reviews) and 81 (PC, 9 critic reviews), both "Generally Favorable"[5](https://www.metacritic.com/game/horace/critic-reviews/) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/game/horace/critic-reviews/?platform=pc) |
## The original Spectrum trilogy
*Hungry Horace* was released in 1982 and is best described as a Pac-Man-like game: Horace navigates screen after screen, eating flowers and, when lucky, a park guard's lunch, while avoiding the guards; ringing a bell turns the tables and lets Horace chase them down.[2](https://electronicsandbooks.com/edt/manual/Magazine/R/Retro%20Gamer%20UK/22.pdf) • [1](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2006840/The_Horace_Trilogy/) Contemporary reviews were positive: *Popular Computing Weekly* gave it 100 percent in January 1983, calling it "one of the best Spectrum games and very addictive," and *Computer and Video Games* gave it 80 percent in March 1983.[1](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2006840/The_Horace_Trilogy/)
*Horace Goes Skiing* followed, in which Horace first dodges traffic to buy a set of skis, then slaloms down a mountain course aiming for flag gates and dodging trees.[1](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2006840/The_Horace_Trilogy/) The game is initially similar to the arcade game *Frogger*.[7](https://ourdigitalheritage.org/hostedArchives/playitagain/games/horace-goes-skiing-orginal-spectrum/index.html) *Computer and Video Games* scored it 77 percent in March 1983.[1](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2006840/The_Horace_Trilogy/)
*Horace and the Spiders* (1983) moved the character into platforming. Horace survives the hazards of a mountain and a bridge before facing a horde of spiders in their web; in the last stage he stomps out holes in the spider-web so that the arachnids come to repair it.[1](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2006840/The_Horace_Trilogy/) • [8](https://www.mobygames.com/game/18676/horace-the-spiders/) A retrospective view holds that as a final game in the series it would be a poor title to end on.[9](https://www.gamehammer.co.uk/2019/02/22/the-horace-games/)
Each game in the series was strongly influenced by other popular games of its day, a trait noted even as the games became enduringly popular.[10](https://worldofspectrum.net/pub/sinclair/books/z/ZXSpectrumBook-1982To199xThe.pdf)
## After the trilogy
A fourth game, *Horace to the Rescue*, was announced in 1985 but never released.[3](https://fictionalcrossover.fandom.com/wiki/Horace) The character did surface once more commercially: according to *Retro Gamer*, players hungry for more Horace needed a [Psion](https://www.edgepedia.org/psion) Series 3 PDA and the game SSD (Solid State Disk), which the magazine called "the last link in a piece of gaming history."[11](https://electronicsandbooks.com/edt/manual/Magazine/R/Retro%20Gamer%20UK/43.pdf) Ports also had a limited life: Gregg Barnett created versions of William Tang's three Horace games, and when asked what became of the third game, he told Frank Gasking of Games That Weren't that *Spiders* was not even considered as a C64 port.[7](https://ourdigitalheritage.org/hostedArchives/playitagain/games/horace-goes-skiing-orginal-spectrum/index.html) • [11](https://electronicsandbooks.com/edt/manual/Magazine/R/Retro%20Gamer%20UK/43.pdf)
**The modern compilation.** In 2022 the three Spectrum games returned as *The Horace Trilogy*, a remastered emulated compilation developed by Beam Software and published by Pixel Games UK, released on 24 June 2022.[1](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2006840/The_Horace_Trilogy/) • [12](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/games/franchise/4315-horace) The enhanced version adds saving and loading at any point, support for most modern game controllers, full control remapping, and [image scaling](https://www.edgepedia.org/image-scaling) and smoothing options; a remake of the original game made in Unity is exclusive to this compilation.[1](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2006840/The_Horace_Trilogy/) • [8](https://www.mobygames.com/game/18676/horace-the-spiders/) It is sold individually and as part of the seven-item Melbourne House Bundle alongside other Beam Software titles such as *Penetrator* and *Mugsy & Mugsy's Revenge*.[1](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2006840/The_Horace_Trilogy/)
## Horace (2019)
The 2019 game *Horace* features a separate robot protagonist and is a story-driven platformer released on PC in 2019 and on [Nintendo Switch](https://www.edgepedia.org/nintendo-switch) on 21 October 2020.[4](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/01/feature_horace_developers_on_die_hard_britishness_and_finding_the_right_genre_label) • [16](https://support.505games.com/support/solutions/articles/150000147231-what-is-horace-all-about-) Its protagonist is a small robot clearly stylized after the old Horace, and one of the Spectrum games, *Horace Goes Skiing*, appears in it as an arcade minigame.[4](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/01/feature_horace_developers_on_die_hard_britishness_and_finding_the_right_genre_label)
**Development.** Paul Helman, who began in the industry at 17 at Probe Entertainment creating art assets for *Die Hard Trilogy* on the PS1, started the project in 2010 as a freelance side effort, assembled a demo in Game Maker by 2012, and in 2015 secured funding from [505 Games](https://www.edgepedia.org/505-games), at which point Sean Scaplehorn joined as coder.[4](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/01/feature_horace_developers_on_die_hard_britishness_and_finding_the_right_genre_label) The two-man team spent roughly seven years on the game.[5](https://www.metacritic.com/game/horace/critic-reviews/) Helman described it as a "2D cinematic platform adventure," and the pair called it "a platform game with a twist" and "the most British game you'll ever play."[4](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/01/feature_horace_developers_on_die_hard_britishness_and_finding_the_right_genre_label) The 1980 [Peter Sellers](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-sellers) film *Being There* was a major influence on the story, and the *Community* episode "Digital Estate Planning" influenced its presentation of close-ups and huge pixels.[4](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/01/feature_horace_developers_on_die_hard_britishness_and_finding_the_right_genre_label)
**Design and content.** The game is a pixel-art platformer with tight controls inspired by the 8- and 16-bit Mario games, mainly *Super Mario Bros. 3* and *Super Mario World*, while its sprawling world of rooms to explore and items to collect was inspired by *Jet Set Willy*.[4](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/01/feature_horace_developers_on_die_hard_britishness_and_finding_the_right_genre_label) Platforming sections are periodically broken up by minigames that recall other games such as Pong and [Guitar Hero](https://www.edgepedia.org/guitar-hero), and the entire story and dialogue are delivered through Horace's text-to-speech internal monologue.[13](https://www.popzara.com/games/game-reviews/horace/) The soundtrack mixes Helman's own dramatic scoring with his renditions of famous classical pieces, chosen because works over 100 years old are in the public domain.[4](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/01/feature_horace_developers_on_die_hard_britishness_and_finding_the_right_genre_label) A Spanish-language review catalogs the density of references: within the first half hour the game cites classical music, [Douglas Adams](https://www.edgepedia.org/douglas-adams), Pinocchio, Asimov's robots, the history of painting from Altamira to Dalí, and video game history from *Tennis for Two* and *Pong* onward, with many more later, from [Fritz Lang](https://www.edgepedia.org/fritz-lang)'s *Metropolis* to *Metal Gear Solid*.[14](https://as.com/meristation/2020/11/29/analisis/1606640765_100269.html)
**Reception.** On Metacritic the Switch version holds a Metascore of 82 from 22 critic reviews (18 positive, 3 mixed, 0 negative) and the PC version 81 from 9 reviews; the user score is 7.5 based on 63 ratings.[5](https://www.metacritic.com/game/horace/critic-reviews/) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/game/horace/critic-reviews/?platform=pc) Nintendo Life awarded it 100, calling it "another indie masterpiece," and Switch Player gave 90, describing it as "a 7-year labour of love from a two-man development team."[5](https://www.metacritic.com/game/horace/critic-reviews/) Reviewers consistently note the game's difficulty: despite its story focus, it can require pixel-perfect positioning and complete mastery of the robot's abilities, with comparisons drawn to *Super Meat Boy*.[15](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/398260-horace/reviews/172641) Helman himself attributed the game's modest commercial profile to its look: "Horace does kind of look like 'yet another 2D retro platformer' and it's kind of hard to explain that it's so much more than that."[4](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/01/feature_horace_developers_on_die_hard_britishness_and_finding_the_right_genre_label)
## References
1. [The Horace Trilogy, Steam store page](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2006840/The_Horace_Trilogy/)
2. [Retro Gamer UK Issue 22, Community & Home-Brew Retro](https://electronicsandbooks.com/edt/manual/Magazine/R/Retro%20Gamer%20UK/22.pdf)
3. [Horace, Crossover Wiki (Fandom)](https://fictionalcrossover.fandom.com/wiki/Horace)
4. [Horace Developers On Die Hard, Britishness, And Finding The Right Genre Label, Nintendo Life (Gavin Lane, 2 January 2021)](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/01/feature_horace_developers_on_die_hard_britishness_and_finding_the_right_genre_label)
5. [Horace critic reviews (Nintendo Switch), Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/game/horace/critic-reviews/)
6. [Horace critic reviews (PC), Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/game/horace/critic-reviews/?platform=pc)
7. [Horace Goes Skiing, Play It Again (Our Digital Heritage)](https://ourdigitalheritage.org/hostedArchives/playitagain/games/horace-goes-skiing-orginal-spectrum/index.html)
8. [Horace & The Spiders (1983), MobyGames](https://www.mobygames.com/game/18676/horace-the-spiders/)
9. [The Horace Games, GameHammer Classic Gaming](https://www.gamehammer.co.uk/2019/02/22/the-horace-games/)
10. [The ZX Spectrum Book: 1982 to 199x, World of Spectrum](https://worldofspectrum.net/pub/sinclair/books/z/ZXSpectrumBook-1982To199xThe.pdf)
11. [Retro Gamer UK Issue 43](https://electronicsandbooks.com/edt/manual/Magazine/R/Retro%20Gamer%20UK/43.pdf)
12. [Game Franchises: Horace, GameFAQs](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/games/franchise/4315-horace)
13. [Horace, Popzara Press review](https://www.popzara.com/games/game-reviews/horace/)
14. [Horace, análisis Switch, MeriStation (AS)](https://as.com/meristation/2020/11/29/analisis/1606640765_100269.html)
15. [Horace Review for PlayStation 4, GameFAQs](https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps4/398260-horace/reviews/172641)
16. [What is Horace all about?](https://support.505games.com/support/solutions/articles/150000147231-what-is-horace-all-about-)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Sports, games, and recreation › Video games and digital play › Games and gameplay › Individual game titles › Individual PC and computer-platform game titles › Platformer and puzzle titles*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Oct 21, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license