Cavey was a new title which we had never heard about until Dean Hickingbottom sent us a disk with some graphics on back in 2015, showing early sprite sheets. You could load each file and enter SYS 2070 to display, but sadly there was nothing playable.
The title was a post-Clockwize development that was being worked on by David Bradley – and was to be a caveman platform game with a working title of Cavey/Caveman Capers.
It was in development during 1992 and was shaping up well, with some test levels. Dean suggested it was a bit “Kings Valley” from what he recalls. Sadly it was never finished – most likely due to the dwindling C64 market at the time. There sadly didn’t seem to be any code, though Dean held hope something might surface.
In February 2026, 11 years after our first post, Dean got in touch to say that over Christmas he had found the source code – and set about trying to get it all assembled. He hit a few snags in PDS, so sent it to someone more experienced with the Commodore 64 and it was successfully compiled.
Tucked within the preview was a surprising inclusion of a level designer, which Dave had coded in to make it easier to create levels. Dean found it was commented out, but has put it back in, fixed some remaining bugs and added a small menu to allow you to use it or just play the game.
As the game is unfinished, then there will be bugs and the gameplay hasn’t been refined, but you can get an idea of just what a fun game this could have been had Dave completed it. It was a surprise to everyone that the game had even got this far – certainly to us, who just felt there may have only ever been sprites and a quick test.
The idea of the game is to simply collect the flashing berries. When you do, an egg will drop which you can jump on to break and release an item within. Usually, the item is something to collect that will increase your health, but if its a smiley face, then your scores are doubled temporarily. It’s sort of a slower paced Bombjack, as you have to wait until a berry flashes before you can collect it.
There are various nasties to avoid, where touching them or falling too far from height will decrease your energy. On a later level, you will be chased by a pterodactyl, and sometimes you will get a boomerang that you can throw at it. After the last level (of which Dean feels there are about 5), the game will restart.
It’s joystick controlled, with “up” used for jumping and fire for using any weapon that you collect. There are conveyor belts, melting floors, spikes, lifts and lava to add to the variety. I’m sure you’ll agree that it is a huge shame it never got further. Hopefully the designer inclusion will help to expand the game for people who wish to play further.
Thanks to Dave and Dean, we have also been given permission to add the full source code for anyone who would like to have a play around and maybe even finish the game. If you do make a game from it – then Dave and Dean would just like a copy :)
So here it is, after 34 years missing and what could have been a late fun budget title for the C64! Enjoy! A huge thank you to Dean Hickingbottom and his friend (who wishes to remain anonymous) for getting the game running for us to add to the archives.
Contributions: Dean Hickingbottom, David Bradley
Supporting content
Available downloads
- Source_Cavey (zip)
- Preview_Cavey (zip)
- Graphics_Cavey (zip)
Gallery
Update history
23/02/26 – Preview recovered and source code added. Case closed! :)
molto bello e ben costruito. Sarebbe bellissimo una versione completa !!!!
Makes a good impression. Nice gfx with good looking sprites and the gaming-concept is also not bad. But the user recognizes, that the gameplay wasn’t quite polished in some places and that the coding was not really finished back then. But perhaps it can be improved, or even finalized, and then released as a full version? Game seems worth the effort.