Emlyn Hughes Arcade Quiz

Sinclair User

Graphics 68%

Sound 72%

Playability 89%

Lastability 91%

Overall 92%

Gary Liddon 92%

He's here, he's there, he's bloody everywhere, Emlyn Hughes, bon viveur, chum to the royals and professional jumper wearer, grins his way into yet another computer game. This time it's Emlyn Hughes' Arcade Quiz, a wild bout of pub trivia machine type fun for all that has you winning money that you can't buy beer with. Traversing a lolly laden block map with your quiz cursor, the idea is to make your way from left to right answering questions in order to make it across to the win bar on the left hand side of the screen with enough money to enter the next level. And that would be just as easy as it's sounds if it wasn't for map constantly scrolling and pushing you towards the lose bar on the left. Different looking blocks do different things (see the block stock), some helpful and other hateful, but the most common block to contend with is the question mark block which can only be passed once you've the correct answer to a 3 way multiple choice. You know the sort of thing: Once you've got to the win bar your collected cash can be banked in quick fire question round. Nerves of steel and brains of Bob Holness will get you money enough for the next level. Those of you with nerves of blancmange quickly end up in a Game over situation. Win loads of money Emlyn's bribable into letting you skip a level. Despite the fact that any moolah you end up with at the end of game won't make your piggy bank fatter in the real world, it really is fun. More fun than selloptaping breadcrumbs to a window and watching birds bash their brains in.

Blocker: Have one of these pop up your bottom as you're traveling the board and you'll get stuck!

Bomb: Blamm! Hit the bomb block and heaps of questions vanish in a puff of pixels.

Clock: This one's a helpful chap who'll temporarily pause the scroll giving you a bit of a breather.

Fruit and Gems: Collect these for extra cash, it's just like a fruit machine!

Money: it's the name of the game and if you don't pick up enough of these you're out on your earole!

Question: What a pain in the rear parts. Hit one of these and you'll have some tricky trivia to deal with.

Spinners: these throw you all over the shop. Very annoying when there's a row of them to get by.

Zapper: Just what the doctor ordered! These doobries gives your quiz cursor amazing question hopping powers for a limited time.

Your Sinclair

Life Expectancy 40%

Instant Appeal 42%

Graphics 35%

Addictiveness 30%

Overall 32%

Kati Hamza 32%

Audiogenic £10.99 cass/£14.99 disk Reviewer: Kati Hamza Wobbly. That's how I felt when they told me. Wobbly, weak-kneed and overwhelmed. I mean - little old moi reviewing a game about the greatest jumper-wearing, lolloping Liverpudlian centre back of them all? There are people who'd kill to get as close to Emlyn Hughes as this! I had to take a deep breath, I can tell you. Then, jibbering with the thrill and excitement of the thing, I loaded Arcade Quiz. Immediately I encountered Disappointment Number One. Emlyn Hughes Arcade Quiz has about as much to do with football as it has with gnat-farming in Timbuctoo. In fact, the questions are strictly 'general knowledge' with the odd smattering of tasty footy gems thrown in. It looks and plays exactly like a pub trivia game. The object is to get from one side of the screen to other by moving across a bunch of natty squares interconnect. A lot of them are question squares, a few are devious spinning squares and traps, and some are covered in bonuses or the odd piece of cash. (If you don't pick up a big-enough wad you can't afford a ticket to the next level even if you win.) Now here's the sneaky bit - if you're slowed down by traps (or just plain thick) the scrolling finally catches up with you and pushes you off the screen - game over. The graphics and sound aren't too hot, but so far it looks like a neat little trivia number. Right. Off I go. Question Number One. Who did the zany animation for Many Python's Flying Circus? A) Terry Gilliam; B) Michael Palin; C) Graham Chapman? I know it, I know it! It's A! (Cor-rect) Okay, let's have a look at Question Two. What is the name of the dog in Neighbours? Erm... Bouncer, obviously (So far so good, eh?) Question Three. What public school did Winston Churchill attend? Haven't the foggiest. Does anyone in the office know? Erm, no. Do any of my friends know? No, I'm stuck. The questions in Emlyn Hughes Arcade Quiz are either super-easy or rather obscure. Put it another way I'd say they're simply not very good. Disappointment Number Two. Now, what's the capital of Scotland? You know and I (and even Emlyn) know that capital of the place nobody knows what the men wear under their kilts is Edinburgh. But this game doesn't. Sometimes it tips Aberdeen or Glasgow for the job instead! Disappointment Number Three. And as for the Big Em, all you really get to see of him are a few monochrome head and jumper shots of the king of the v-necks, smiling (if you're doing well) or covering his face in shame (if you're not). Which is probably the only saving grace of the game actually. All of which brings me to the following sorry conclusion. 1) Winning cash bonuses isn't exciting unless there's real cash involved. 2) Quizzes aren't much fun if you know most of the answers in advance. 3) Don't ask Audiogenic if you want to pass your Geography O-Level. And my final verdict? I'll give you three guesses. A) A superb and challenging arcade quiz full of top knotch questions and clever little touches; B) An okay-dokey little number but nothing too exciting; C) A fairly neatly-designed arcade quiz marred by crap questions? (The answer's at the bottom.)

And here I am in the bonus round. More cash on offer if I get the questions right. Can you guess the answer?

Recognise him? Yep, it's the great toe-poking impressario himself - the man who has as many jumpers as a kangaroo convention (a lot) - the marvellous, the amazingly spooky Emlyn Hughes.

With questions like this you sometimes wonder why it's not Magnus Magnusson leering down at you instead!

Read it at Your Sinclair Rock'n'Roll Years

Crash

Presentation 67%

Graphics 71%

Sound 75%

Playability 70%

Addictivity 67%

Overall 68%

Mark Caswell 70%

Richard Eddy 64%

Audiogenic £9.99/£14.99 Based on trivia machines in the pubs, Emlyn Hughes Arcade Quit objective is to correctly answer as many questions as possible and collect a lot of dosh. Moving from left to right across a scrolling maze of coloured tiles you win a round by reaching the Win bar at the other end. The questions are multiple choice and offer six themed categories: Pop and Rock, Sport, Entertainment, Arts and Literature, People and Places and General Knowledge. Three answers are offered - guess right and you move to the next square, a wrong answer moves the Lose bar closer to you (if it catches up with you it's end of game). Collecting cash on the way allows you to enter the next level and fruit gives you a bonus. To help you stay one step ahead of the Lose Bar there are friendly tiles, these include clock stoppers which freeze the movement of the screen for a short while and bonus game tiles that allow you to enter a special round played against the clock. Emlyn Hughes Arcade Quiz has been awaited for quite a long time (it was previewed in Issue 73), and I'm afraid I'm disappointed. Movement of your cursor is sluggish: very often I found I had to bash the relevant control key several times to gain any response. Graphically the game is good: at least the Emlyn sprite is recognisable. But at the end of the day Emlyn Hughes Arcade Quiz suffers the usual problem of computer quiz games - repetition of questions. MARK 70%