The Snowman

The Snowman is a platform game which was developed by Quicksilva and initially released upon the Sinclair ZX Spectrum in 1983, but was later released upon the Commodore 64 and MSX in 1984 (the same year the ZX version was rereleased by Investronica SA in Spain under a Spanish title, Hombre de Nieve); it is based on the 1978 book of the same name by Raymond Briggs (1934-2022), and to a lesser extent the 1982 film it begat for Channel Four that has been repeated almost every year since.

Although the back of the cassette's inlay card says that the game is based on scenes in the book and film, the connection is very loose, as it is similar to Data East's BurgerTime in that you have to collect pieces of snow (while avoiding gas flames, who will melt them if you touch them) and drop them onto an inaccessible platform, in order to build the Snowman; you will then have to collect the Snowman's facial features for the second stage (where the gas flames have been replaced, with sleep monsters, and they will cost you a life if you touch them), his clothes and accessories for the third stage and ice cubes to keep him cool for the fourth stage (after which the game restarts but with different screens).