Tom

Tom is a platform action game that takes you inside the treacherous Tomb of Pharaoh Manilo. You control Tom, a small explorer seeking fabulous wealth across six massive pyramids. Your goal is to collect 54 keys scattered throughout each level while avoiding enemies, spikes, and deadly falls. The game features multi-directional scrolling, which was rare for home computer platformers in 1984. Tom can run, jump, duck, and fire a magic spray that consumes energy with each use. Each level requires you to find and collect nine boxes before you can escape. Falling from great height is instantly fatal, as is touching any enemy or trap. You begin with five lives, and every 10,000 points earns an extra life. Before starting, you can adjust the number of players, difficulty level, and even select which pyramid to begin exploring.

Commodore 16

Released in 1984 by Kingsoft, Tom on the C16 is widely considered the definitive version of Udo Gertz's platformer. Unlike the C64 port, this version features a single vast tomb of 178 screens rather than six pyramids, with checkpoints saving progress after every key or door. Tom has two movement speeds—walk and run via SHIFT—and can perform low or high jumps depending on momentum. The TED chip's limited capabilities (no sprites) forced Gertz to program soft-scrolling by hand, yet the result remains technically impressive for 16KB of RAM. Music plays intermittently, composed by Gertz himself. The game was initially incompatible with the Plus/4, requiring a fixed version from Anirog in 1986 titled Tom Thumb. While a spike placement bug on higher difficulties makes completion impossible, the C16 version's checkpoint system and tighter controls make it more playable than its C64 counterpart.