Frank the Flea

Crash

Use of Computer 47%

Graphics 56%

Playability 56%

Getting Started 63%

Addictive Qualities 49%

Value For Money 64%

Overall 57%

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Producer: Megasoft Retail Price: £1.00 plus P&P Author: Richard Welsh Poor old Frank, instead of his normal day to day grind of sucking blood from mammals and transmitting endemic typhus, he's got lost in Major Mansion. He wants his Mummy but the problem is that Major Mansion is a fairly large place. The only thing that Frank really knows is that Mumsie is somewhere on the second floor and that he is in the basement - a rather long way away in flea terms. Unluckily, Frank is no eternal flea either and bumping into various bits of the mansion's furniture depletes his life force. If the poor insect is unfortunate to lose all his energy, then death is the reward, shortly followed by a burial by vacuum cleaner no doubt. This is definitely a fate to run away from. To be back with Mummy supping on a drop of rhesus negative is something worth striving for. Each room is shown from a sideways view with Franky starting from the far left. Frank has to traverse the three screens that make up each floor to get to the flea lift that zooms him up a floor. Luckily for the program, each room takes up exactly one screen, and hopping of the edge of one room flicks another screen into view. On the last level a flashing Mummy flea waits for Frank instead of a flea lift. The game starts with the poor little insectoid stuck in the basement sitting on a sofa. Frank's trusty little leg muscles can operate in two ways: in walking and jumping mode. Frank can jump and walk to left and right. Walking over furniture is all rather logical. If you guide Frank off the edge of one of Major Mansion's chattels then he falls to the floor, obeying all the correct laws of gravity. Jumping is something to be carefully judged, since a misplaced leap almost certainly means a collision and a loss of life force - heading full pelt into a standard lamp or window ledge is a fairly major thing for a flea. Throughout the game Franky's flea status is indicated by his colour. The hue of the insect is also mimicked by the border: Frank starts on white and knock after knock slowly fades to blue. One knock after blue sends him floorwards and the poor little flealet discorporates. If Mummy is reunited with her errant son then the program advises you to try a harder level where the life source provided is a lot less. This is the first release from Megasoft, which is mainly Richard Welsh aged 14.92 years. Written entirely in BASIC, the program may well resurface in a faster form, once Richard has acquired a compiler - and two further releases are in the Mega-soft pipeline already. Richard Welsh can be contacted at Five Springs, Guilsborough, Northampton, NN6 8QB. COMMENTS Control keys: redefinable Joystick: N/A Keyboard play: responsive Use of colour: simple, but neat Graphics: simplistic Sound: beeps Skill levels: 3 Screens: 12

Boing! goes Frank on his travels to be reunited with Mummy. FRANK THE FLEA from Megasoft.

It's not easy peasy being a flea. Furniture and fittings get in your way, and careful jumping is the order of the day in FRANK THE FLEA from Megasoft.