Hillsea Lido by Vulcan Soft

[McLaren mp4]

Does anyone ever remember playing Vulcan Soft's 'Seaside Strategy Management Simulation' game, Hillsea Lido?


One hell of a niche genre. A bit like someone coding a 'Corner-Shop Simulator'.


Most people are familiar with Vulcan Soft via the Valhalla games.


A bit of trivia, I believe Hillsea Lido was coded in Portsmouth UK, as were Silent Hill: Origins and Shattered Memories. And there actually is/was an outdoor Pool called Hilsea (just the one L) Lido in Portsmouth.

[gimbal]

I was not even aware this game existed, never seen it mentioned once.

[ Show youtube player ]

It looks quite unique but at the same time it has that typical Vulcan Software shine to it. The artist has a specific way of drawing faces and especially smiles/grins.

[Nobby_UK]

Had it as part of 'Vulcanology: The MiniSeries Compilation'
but never played that part of it, or at least not enough to remember.

[PixelsAtDawn]

I was aware of it but I never played it. Definitely read about it in magazines.

[Mad-Matt]

I played it a fair amount back then. Kind of like a side on Theme Park, which I also played a lot of.

[lilwshu]

I remember this as I live just the road from the lido - it's still there but currently shut for COVID reasons. I think Vulcan were based in Southsea.

[McLaren mp4]

I heard that some of the early Vulcan games were made in-house, literally, at a house in Powerscourt Road, Copnor, Portsmouth. But, I can't remember where I got that from.

The Wiki gives Paul Carrington's current HQ as Cotswolds.

(Would be great if it were called The Carrington Institute or something).

[Cobe]

I remember showing this game to my grandpa. It was a summer break. And I brought my Amiga to the countryside.

[Cherno]

A demo came on one issue of Amiga Games, I remember that it had that distinctive smooth cartoon style that Vulcan Soft's other titles shared.

[Superman]

All the ADF files I tried of this game eventually crash to a guru on my A500. I suspect it needs either kickstart 2 and above or 1mb chip ram or both.

[Arnie]

I played this game to the end. I accumilated over a million pounds which ment I could book Michael Jickson (not a typo) for the theater. Made a lot of money from that.

Somrtimes hard to keep track of everything. One time I forgot to pay for a bodygaurd to stop the guy banking the cash from getting robbed...guess what?
He got robbed.

Good game...fond memories.

[AmigaGroningen]

I bought the game when it came out, still have the box and disk. Played the crap out of it, loved it. Still play it at least once a week daily on WinuAE.

[DisasterIncarna]

i remember getting it on a CD32 game compilation, i also remember i liked it, but sucked at it, just like i sucked at theme park, but also liked that, i also still play vulkan softwares, Europa2 today, still enjoy that tho i suck at the surface/3d ship part.

[Megalomaniac]

Not something I ever played, it was released around the time I accepted that the Amiga was basically dead (Escom pledging to sell 60,000 by Christmas 1995 but ultimately selling 9,000 was the final straw) but it sounds pleasingly quirkily British, and presumably runs a lot smoother and less buggily on an A500+ or A600 than Theme Park.

[Vapor]

Never played it and surprised there was a game named after it. Hilsea Lido is about 1500metres from my house !!!

[Titler]

I remember it got positive previews, then a bland review in Amiga Power; I never got around to trying it however.

[Daedalus]

I played the demo disk briefly. I remember it being an alright game, but didn't grab me enough to buy the full game.

[oscar_ates]

This helps maybe:

Mr Paul Carrington BA (Director)
Vulcan Software Limited
Vulcan House, 72 Queens Road, Buckland, Portsmouth, Hants PO27NA, England UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1705 670 269
Fax: +44 (0) 1705 662 226
Email: pa...@vul-soft.demon.co.uk
Pages: http://www.vulcan.co.uk

[BigD]

@McLaren mp4

I couldn't stand the Vulcan titles! It was an abject admission that Amiga owners were going to have to accept mediocre titles from then on! Clickboom! at least tried to raise production values by exploiting hard working Eastern European developers admittedly! However, I preferred Phoenix Fighters from Alive Mediasoft (another shady post-Commodore publisher) than anything Vulcan pushed out into "we're desperate for software" Amiga bargain bins!!

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by BigD

@McLaren mp4

I couldn't stand the Vulcan titles! It was an abject admission that Amiga owners were going to have to accept mediocre titles from then on! Clickboom! at least tried to raise production values by exploiting hard working Eastern European developers admittedly! However, I preferred Phoenix Fighters from Alive Mediasoft (another shady post-Commodore publisher) than anything Vulcan pushed out into "we're desperate for software" Amiga bargain bins!!

You may have a vitamin D deficiency. Because that is incoherent raving that was not really called for.