8-BIT · 1985

Camel TrophyThe 1985 video games, playable online in your browser

Play the Camel Trophy video game on the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64. These are two 1985 tie-ins with the legendary Land Rover expedition, running on emulators written in C and compiled to WebAssembly. No plug-ins and no downloads: click Play and the tape or disk loads itself.

▶ Play ZX Spectrum ▶ Play Commodore 64 About the games

The Camel Trophy video games

Each game is a single self-contained page: the emulator, the system ROM or replacement kernel, and the original tape or disk are all built in.

ZX SPECTRUM 48KCamel Trophy Game

Aquarius Edizioni, Italy, 1985 · Simone Majocchi, Giorgio Arcangeli, Eugenio Ciceri, Bruno Molteni · now in English
▶ Play
ZX Spectrum loading screen: Camel Trophy Game by Camel Productions, Aquarius Edizioni and Digiteam
Loading screen
Qualifying quiz question about diesel engines
Qualifying quiz
Zaire route map with route details
Route selection
Land Rovers crossing a jungle river, captioned Camel Trophy Qualification
Qualification
Day 1 itinerary with special stages, miles and fuel
Day briefing
Driving the Land Rover with the dashboard gauges below
Driving

How it plays

Italy's first big commercial Spectrum game arrives on one tape in three parts, and each part loads the next when you need it:

  1. Qualifying quiz: 32 questions on off-road mechanics, survival, navigation and first aid. Your score earns you a crew code.
  2. Route selection: Zaire, the Amazon, Borneo, or plan your own ten days in D.I.Y. mode.
  3. Driving game: rebuild your Land Rover each morning, then tackle fords, humps, bridge building and jungle forks.

The original is in Italian. This edition translates every screen into English, including captions and maps drawn into the pictures, by patching the original tape. The Italian tape is kept untouched in the repository.

Controls

StartClick the screen; LOAD "" is typed for you
Quiz1–4 to answer, Enter to confirm
RouteY accepts a route
DrivingKempston: arrow keys + Tab; keyboard mode: Q W E R T
Rebuild9 choose a part, 0 pick it up
ExtrasTurbo load, one save slot, on-screen keyboard

COMMODORE 64Camel Trophy Video Game

Tequila, 1985 · joystick, one player
▶ Play
New title screen with the Camel Trophy badge and credits
Title screen
Original Camel Trophy Video Game title picture by Tequila
Original title
Supply plane flying over the jungle towards the drop target
Supply drop
Result screen showing the prize
Result

How it plays

A run of short arcade challenges set on the expedition:

  1. Supply drop: release the crate from the plane and steer its parachute onto the target.
  2. Jungle drive: keep the Land Rover clear of the bushes.
  3. Refuelling: waggle the joystick to fill the tank before time runs out.
  4. Bridge crossing and a rough-track run to the finish.

The disk image is a cracked release by CFB; its cracker intro is replaced by a new title and credits screen written in 6502 assembly. The game itself is unchanged.

Controls

JoystickArrow keys + Space to fire (port 2); gamepads work too
StartFire to skip the intro, fire again to start
KeyboardEnter RETURN · Esc RUN/STOP · F1–F7
Save / loadF9 / F10, reset F12
TouchAn on-screen joystick appears on phones and tablets

A bit of history

The Camel Trophy was an annual off-road expedition, held from 1980 to 2000 and famous for its sand-yellow Land Rovers.

1984

Simone Majocchi sketches a Camel Trophy computer game in Milan, working with the team around the Italian tape magazine Run.

1985

The Spectrum master tape goes for duplication on 16 September 1985. A national radio campaign starts on 25 September, and the game sells for Lit. 12,000.

1985–86

Tequila releases the Commodore 64 Camel Trophy Video Game, a set of short joystick challenges. It's catalogued on Lemon64 and CSDb.

Under the bonnet

Both emulators are small, dependency-free C programs compiled to WebAssembly with Zig.

ZX Spectrum 48K
  • Z80 core with all documented and undocumented opcodes and flags
  • Edge-accurate TZX playback, so the original turbo loader runs unmodified
  • Translation tool rebuilds the BASIC, patches machine-code text and re-encodes the compressed route maps
Commodore 64 (PAL)
  • 6510, VIC-II with sprites and raster IRQs, two CIAs, and a 3-voice SID with filter
  • No Commodore ROMs: a small replacement kernel with trapped calls, plus an original font
  • New title screen with a sprite-multiplexed badge, raster bars and a SID tune

Sources & credits

Original games © their respective owners. Camel and Camel Trophy are trademarks of their owners; this project is a non-commercial preservation effort and isn't affiliated with them.