Great Britain Ltd

Crash

Producer: Simon Hessel, 48K £6.95 You are Prime Minister of Great Britain and your aim is to stay in power as long as you can. Having chosen which party you wish to represent you are presented with the state of the nation, the rate of inflation, unemployment rate, exchange rate for the pound and dollar, your popularity rating, nation's balance at the bank and so on. Factors taken into account are population figures and relationship of OAPs to children, number of companies in business, tax income from various sources, expenditure for the previous year, and the prices of commodities. The general aim is to work towards the General Election and win it. A highly complex program which takes you to the thrills of Election Night - and beyond (if you're a success) Recommended.

Read it at Crash - The Online Edition

Crash

Producer: Simon Hessel, 48K £6.95 You are Prime Minister of Great Britain and your aim is to stay in power as long as you can. Having chosen which party you wish to represent you are presented with the state of the nation, the rate of inflation, unemployment rate, exchange rate for the pound and dollar, your popularity rating, nation's balance at the bank and so on. Factors taken into account are population figures and relationship of OAPs to children, number of companies in business, tax income from various sources, expenditure for the previous year, and the prices of commodities. The general aim is to work towards the General Election and win it. A highly complex program which takes you to the thrills of Election Night - and beyond (if you're a success) Recommended.

Crash

Producer: Simon Hessel, 48K £6.95 You are Prime Minister of Great Britain and your aim is to stay in power as long as you can. Having chosen which party you wish to represent you are presented with the state of the nation, the rate of inflation, unemployment rate, exchange rate for the pound and dollar, your popularity rating, nation's balance at the bank and so on. Factors taken into account are population figures and relationship of OAPs to children, number of companies in business, tax income from various sources, expenditure for the previous year, and the prices of commodities. The general aim is to work towards the General Election and win it. A highly complex program which takes you to the thrills of Election Night - and beyond (if you're a success) Recommended.

Personal Computer Games

Dick Olney

MACHINE: Spectrum (versions also available for ZX81 and BBC) SUPPLIER: Simon Hessel Software PRICE: £5.95 I'm assured that the 16K ZX81 version of this is number 10 in the ZX software library. It's a colourful and sophisticated management game that gives you the chance to play at being prime minister of our sceptred isle. The idea is to stay in power for as long as possible. So you must end each five-year term in a popular state. To start the game, you key in your name and then choose the party you represent - Labour, Conservative, Liberal or Social Democrat. This is not a decision to be taken lightly. I found that a Labour government always started on a much worse footing than the rest, particularly Tory. When the preliminaries have been completed, you are presented with a rundown of the current state of affairs. Simon Hessel does stress that this is a game and not a simulation. But plenty of variables are taken into consideration - inflation and unemployment being the key elements. Each year begins with these two factors being updated along with the exchange rate, your popularity rating and the balance of the national account. Their movement depends on your performance in the previous year. There are three ways in which you can control these figures. First you must set the levels of income tax, corporation tax, VAT and excise duties on tobacco, alcohol and petrol. These will determine your total income at the end of the year. They will also affect unemployment, inflation and your popularity rating. Next you must set the levels of social benefits, including child allowance, pensions and unemployment benefits. The populace are particularly sensitive to any of these, especially to pensions falling behind inflation. Finally, you are given the opportunity to plough money into some worthy cause in the hope that a social reform will be recognised. At the end of the year, news flashes will appear on the screen concerning riots or party revolts which may force you to revise your policies. After five years an election takes place. You may be given the chance to outline your manifesto for the following term. This involves apportioning 1,000 points between four areas of social concern: inflation, unemployment, overseas aid, and law and order. Then you sit and watch as the results clock up.

Personal Computer News

Lasting Appeal 3/5

Playability 3/5

Use Of The Machine 2/5

Overall 3/5

John Lettice 3/5

NAME: Great Britain Limited APPLICATION: Management game SYSTEM: Spectrum 48K PRICE: £5.95 PUBLISHER: S W Hessel LANGUAGE: Basic OUTLETS: Mail Order, some retail MAX CHARACTER RULES As I watched the last of the Labour strongholds crumble, I asked myself, what went wrong? It wasn't as if I'd gone to the electorate on the wrong policy - matter of fact, I'd gone into three consecutive elections on three different wrong policies. OBJECTIVE Great Britain Limited is best described as a government simulation. It's a text-only game where you become the Prime Minister of your choice, representing the political party of your choice. The program is essentially a budgeting tool - you are presented first with a series of economic indicators, such as the inflation rate, the value of the pound against the dollar, and your accumulated surplus/deficit, then you take it from there. You levy direct and indirect taxes, allocate resources to social services, and spend money on new housing, schools, youth unemployment and so on. This is done in five rounds, each round representing a year of government. After five years, you must face your less than adoring public. If your policies are really extreme it could be a lot sooner. FIRST IMPRESSIONS At first sight, Great Britain Limited seems more realistic than it is. There does seem to be a logical relationship between what you do by way of taxation and public spending and what happens to the economy, but after you've tried a few different forms of government you'll probably find it's fixed firmly somewhere in the economic territory of the 1960s. What I'd regard as a fair attempt to simulate the progress of the current government, for example, went wildly off the scale, and Rhodes Boyson - my choice to lead said government - disappeared into the dustbin of history. IN PLAY But he wasn't the only one. My first effort had been under the guiding hand of the Rt Hon Ken Livingstone. Law and order broke down, and Red Ken-s government was thrown out after only one year. At the beginning of the game, the screen tells you 'INPUT name (max characters 24)'. I took this as a hint, and at the startlingly early age of 24 the Rt Hon Max Characters MP swept to power. Max's Liberal government (yes, I'd defected) endured for 25 years. His style was cynical - he'd shove up taxation to 40 percent as soon as he was elected, build up a large surplus at the expense of the groaning populace, then spend it all in the year before the election. He invariably returned with a land slide majority, despite the fact that his stop-go economic policies stoked inflation up to 2,000 per cent over a 20-year-period. Fags were £60 a packet, and average incomes were around £250,000 a year. VERDICT The fact that cynicism works is depressing, and it's also clear that no way is Great Britain Limited the Treasury Economic Model. But then if you could run the country on a Spectrum, some whizz-kid would no doubt be doing so. It is an excellent game, and it passed one crucial test, in that two economists of my acquaintance, although fully aware of its limitations, are still queuing up to play it. You'd best buy it now before inflation pushes software up to £500 a tape.

ZX Computing

Phil Garratt

NOT ALL THAT HAS COLOUR, GLITTERS. In their haste to get Spectrum software on the market, it appears that some companies have simply decided to recycle their ZX81 stuff, adding a few little squeaks from the sound, and an INK or PAPER or three. Phil Garratt takes a close look at some of the material available, and notes that among the dross, gold still shines. GREAT BRITAIN LIMITED S W Hessel Is there anybody who doesn't think they could do a better job of running the country than the government? Well, all you need is a 48K Spectrum and "Great Britain Ltd" and you can find out. You are Prime Minister and Chancellor rolled into one, and you can choose whether to represent Labour, Liberal, Conservative or SDP. Your task is to juggle the economy with the aim of staying in power for as long as possible. At the start of the game the state of the nation is displayed, with information including the inflation rate, unemployment and your popularity. The Country Profile tells you the number of pensioners, children and companies, plus a breakdown of the revenue from all the various taxes. The Shopping Basket gives you the current prices of household items and the Retail Price index. You then get your chance to meddle! The tax and duty rates are displayed and can be amended, as can the welfare benefits which follow. Failure to maintain benefits can lead to riots and worse, so watch out. You are also given the chance to carry out social reforms such as expanding the Health Service or building new schools. As these boosted popularity, I found it best to time them as close to the election as possible (a trick I learnt from the real politicians!). If you manage to last five years, a General Election is held, which usually led to me being booted out, often in favour of some rather odd coalitions (Labour-Conservative!?!). INFLATION JUMPING "Great Britain Ltd" is a game and not an attempt at realistic economic forecasting. Unlike real life, the effect of decisions is immediate and often drastic, such as inflation jumping from 10% to 120% in one year. But enough information is presented for a player to make very careful decisions based on the data, if he or she wishes to take it seriously. There are many ways in which this game could have been made more realistic and sophisticated, but the program would become much slower to run. I think the author has struck a good balance, and produced a difficult and challenging game. "Great Britain Limited" is £5.95 from S W Hessel, [redacted].

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 7/10

MAKING BRITAIN GREAT IN 48K In Great Britain Limited, a game for the 48K Spectrum, the player inherits the problems of the British economy. You have a choice of becoming Conservative, Labour, Liberal or SDP Prime Minister, with a five-year term of office which would give ulcers to any hardened Minister. The purpose is to manipulate the yearly budget to keep inflation and unemployment at the lowest possible level. That may be difficult one way or another because you may have to raise company taxes to bring down inflation. If you do so, however, people will be made redundant, because bosses cannot afford to retain them. As a result of the tax increases, the dole queues will grow longer. On top of the mass unemployment, soaring inflation rate, increases in prices and taxes, you may have to deal with riots and general public disquiet. Every five years you will have to face a General Election and perhaps suffer a humiliating defeat. It is easier to lose in this game than to win. Inflation and unemployment seem to escalate for no reason at all. The game may enlighten a few to the problems of Government but it is a game, not a simulation. It costs £4.95. Great Britain Limited is available from S W Hessel, [redacted].

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