Mr. Wimpy

Big K

Overall 2/3

Richard Burton 2/3

PASS THE SAUCE MAKER: Ocean Software MACHINE: Spectrum 48K FORMAT: cassette PRICE: £5.90 You can just imagine it, can't you: "Hello. Ocean Software? This is Wimpy International. We think too many people are staying at home playing with their micros and not out buying tons of our burgers. Run off a quick game. would you, starring our lovable mascot, and sell it to them. They're bound to fall for our subtle advertising ploy and come flooding back!" Thus we have Mr Wimpy, an eating experience over two screens that could put you off burgers for life. Your first task is to guide Mr Wimpy through the job of collecting the ingredients needed to make a burger, frustrated by a maniacal blob called Waldo who keeps stealing them from you. Successfully evade Waldo and you move onto screen two which is, naturally enough, a version of the Burger Time arcade game. Mr W dashes up and down ladders and across buns, meat, lettuce. etc, which drop down to make up complete burgers below. Antagonists in this section are Sid Sos, Pam Pickle and friends. Screen two makes a great game on its own and should have been accessed directly rather than having to go through the lacklustre screen one. Other features include: Joystick options, demo mode, high score and bonus time score. Machine code graphics are smooth and very good, sound is fine also. There are eight levels of difficulty in all. I think I'd prefer a double cheeseburger and a bag of soggy chips.

Crash

Use of Computer 76%

Graphics 82%

Playability 76%

Getting Started 75%

Addictive Qualities 76%

Value For Money 78%

Overall 77%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Ocean Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £5.90 Language: Machine code Author: Jon Woods Considering how frequently Spectrum software houses crowd each other with arcade copies, it seems surprising that 'Burger Time' type games are not common. Blaby must take the credit by quite a long mark for their Barmy Burgers, which appeared earlier last year, and is a very good implementation. Ocean have attempted to go a stage further in Mr. Wimpy (which actually uses Wimpy's famous logo on the cover) by releasing a version which has two separate parts. The first screen, reminiscent of Ultimate's Pssst, has Mr. Wimpy attempting to assemble the ingredients. He must carry a tray from the left of screen over to the right where there are three items to be collected one at a time, a lump of cheese and two indistinguishable ingredients but doubtless things that put the ham in burger. The problems are three manholes (lord knows why) which sail up and down and kill old Wimp off if he touches them, and Waldo the burger thief who steals a tray if he runs into Mr. Wimpy. Waldo is fairly intelligent and tries to home in. If you manage to get all three ingredients back across to the left, then you progress to the second screen, which is the more familiar 'Burger Time' format. Here the layers of the four burgers you must make are kept on separate platforms, connected at intervals by ladders. Segments of each layer are made to drop one platform by walking Mr. Wimpy over them. Kitchen nasties chase around dealing death and destruction, although they can be killed off by squashing them under a falling layer of hamburger, or by a squirt of pepper. It gets rid of them for 30 seconds. You only have 3 squirts available unless you pick up the bonus ice-cream or coffee cup, which gives you more chances to shoot. When all four hamburgers are fully assembled at the bottom of the screen, you are promoted to the next level. COMMENTS Control keys: sensible - S/X up/down, N/M left/right, A = pepper Joystick: Kempston, AGF, Protek, Sinclair 2 Keyboard play: responsive Colour: very good Graphics: excellent Sound: good tunes, poorer in game Skill levels: gets harder each game Lives: 5 General rating: very good.

A blur of action as four quarter-pounders with cheese encounter Mr Wimpy.

Your Spectrum

Peter Shaw

Ryan Davis

Stewart McPherson

SPECTRUM SOFT Starting this issue Your Spectrum will be touring computer clubs up and down the country in an effort to find dedicated games enthusiasts who will give us their impressions, thoughts and feelings on the current selection of new releases. Little do they know it, but these unsuspecting souls will be contributing a large slice of our regular review section in the future. This month we visited the Stanwell Computer Club (which meets weekly at the Stanwell School, Short Lane, every Friday evening from 7-10pm). Five of the resident 'freaks' were enlisted to tell us (and you) what was good or bad about the programs we gave them to play around with. In some cases comment was justifiably harsh, and in others they could hardly contain their glee at coming across a really well thought-out game. The guinea-pig five whose comments appear below, are all members of the club, and they are (in alphabetical order): Corrie Brown, Stephen Cathrall, Ryan Davis, Stewart McPherson and Peter Shaw. Peter, by the way, is also Secretary of the Stanwell Club. Them we do thank. MR WIMPY Ocean Software £5.90 This is a version of the arcade game Burger Time, and you take the place of a chef desperately trying to find the ingredients required to make a beefburger. Numerous attempts are made to stop you fulfilling your cooking quest.

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 7/10

HAMBURGER INGREDIENTS ARE ELUSIVE Mr Wimpy for the 48K Spectrum is an unusual product in more ways than one. Commissioned by Wimpy international, it is billed as the first British computer game to feature a promotional character, complete with company logo and advertising jingle. Mr Wimpy manages to be an entertaining game in its own right. It has eight levels of difficulty and the first screen entails guiding Mr Wimpy across the screen with his tray to collect the ingredients he needs to make his hamburgers. On his way, he has to avoid manholes which engulf him and the burger thief who darts about intent on upsetting his tray, compelling him each time to return to the start and collect another one. If he manages to assemble his ingredients, the next level brings out the kitchen rebels in the form of Oggy Egg and Syd Sos. The game can be played with a joystick and if you are using the keyboard you are unlikely to be able to match the speed of most hamburger restaurants in taking food to the table. The action is extremely fast and steering Mr Wimpy across the screen and back again without mishap is a feat possible for only the very expert player. Mr Wimpy is produced by Ocean, [redacted], and costs £5.90.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Getting Started 8/10

Graphics 8/10

Value 8/10

Playability 7/10

PARALYSED BY PEPPER! If you think that a game called Mr Wimpy must mean another version Burgertime, then you're not wrong. But you're not exactly right, either. The opening screen is original and quite good, but the remaining frames are just another version of Burgertime. The first task in the game involves moving the ingredients from one side of the screen to another. You have to collect a tray and gather the cheese, ham and bun while avoiding Waldo the burger thief, and a group of flying manhole covers. No, I don't get it either! Once you've gathered all the bits and pieces you get to the other screen, which is a pretty accurate copy of the Burgertime theme. The chef is replaced by Mr Wimpy, the logo used in their advertising. You are pursued by an egg, spoon and a sausage and you still have your supply of pepper. The original Burgertime was written by Data East and was licensed for home use by Mattel, who produced a cartridge for the Intellivision. The object is to build up the burgers at the bottom of the screen by walking over the ingredients so that they fall down a level. If you pick up the ice cream or the cup of coffee then you get extra shakes of pepper, which is used to paralyse an enemy temporarily. Burgertime is the same game, whatever you call it. But this is probably the best version around for the Spectrum. It runs on a 48k machine and is available from Ocean Software for £5.90. It's a shame that they couldn't call it by its real name.

Personal Computer Games

Graphics 8/10

Sound 7/10

Ease Of Use 8/10

Originality 9/10

Lasting Interest 8/10

Overall 8/10

Steve Cooke 8/10

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K JOYSTICK: Optional CATEGORY: Arcade SUPPLIER: ocean PRICE: £5.90 A certain hamburger manufacturer may make 'the greatest burgers under the bun' but Ocean's game of Mr Wimpy is certainly one of the greatest games on the Spectrum. As player, you take on the role of an animated Mr Wimpy whose only aim in life is to manufacture as many hamburgers as possible. You perform this task by collecting a tray from a serving hatch on the left hand side of the screen, and then moving to the right-hand hatch to collect the ingredients. This is not as easy as it sounds since a character named Waldo is out to nick whatever you are carrying (perhaps Waldo is one of those teenage hooligans we read about in the papers). To make it even harder, you have to avoid the moving manholes. Quite what moving manholes are doing in a hamburger store, I'm not quite sure, but they do get you rather annoyed when your last man has just fallen into one. If you manage to complete a burger, Mr Wimpy moves on to screen two. Now Mr Wimpy has to make the Wimpy burgers by walking over the top of the ingredients. and by making them fall into the trays at the base of the screen. Mr Wimpy's enemies on this level are the kitchen rebels: Sid Sos, Oggy Egg, Sam Spoon, and Pam Pickle. If there is no way past the nasties, Mr Wimpy can use up one of his three pepper pots, which will enable him to get past the rebels. By picking up bonus gems, ice cream, or a cup of coffee. Mr Wimpy gets an extra pepper pot. Ocean have got a winner with Mr Wimpy, with smooth graphics and excellent sound (including the 'Wimpy is the Home of the Hamburger' tune), and it will give many hours of fun.

Personal Computer News

Lasting Appeal 4/5

Playability 4/5

Use Of Machine 5/5

Overall Value 5/5

Bob Chappell 5/5

NAME: Mr Wimpy SYSTEM: Spectrum 48K PRICE: £5.90 PUBLISHER: Ocean Software, [redacted] FORMAT: Cassette LANGUAGE: Machine code OTHER VERSIONS: None OUTLETS: Sinclair dealers A REAL BUN FIGHT In a novel marketing approach, Ocean Software has joined forces with the Wimpy fast food chain to bring us Mr Wimpy, a game of burger building and sausage survival. OBJECTIVES The game divides into two sections. Part I has Mr Wimpy collecting three ingredients while avoiding manhole covers, and Waldo the burger thief. Part two has him galloping up and down ladders and across platforms in an attempt to assemble four hamburgers. Trying to thwart him at different levels of the game are Sid Sos, Sam Spoon, Ogy Egg and Pam Pickle. IN PLAY Mr Wimpy resembles the Wimpy logo, a small chubby chap dressed in Beefeater costume. Starting with five lives, Mr Wimpy appears in a recess, stage left. As he moves out of his cubby hole, his little legs pumping away, out pops a tray which then obligingly follows in his footsteps. Over at stage right are three burger ingredients which have to he brought back to the left-hand hidey-hole, one by one. Floating up and down in the central portion of the screen are three golden doughnut-like manholes which Mr Wimpy must dodge. A further hazard is the roly-poly blue meanie Waldo who charts a fast and erratic course around the screen. If he hits Mr Wimpy's tray, the tray (and the ingredient, if one is in tow) return to the starting grid. Having successfully captured the ingredients, Mr Wimpy now faces a daunting screen where four hamburgers await his attention. The four constituents of each burger have been stacked vertically, one part per platform. Mr Wimpy has access to each of the platforms by means of ladders. When he runs over the top of one of the constituents, it becomes dislodged and falls down a level, with subsequent knock-on effects. Quite simple, really, or it would he were it not for two beautifully animated mischief-makers: Sid Sos, a twitching frankfurter on legs, and Sam Spoon, a perambulating piece of cutlery. These relentlessly pursue Mr Wimpy who loses a life if caught. He can stop them temporarily by dropping a piece of burger on them or by shaking his pepperpot. Later, a ferocious fried egg and a precocious pickle add to his problems. VERDICT Excellent joystick/keyboard response, humourous graphics, smooth animation, and a zany plot - this one is a real giggle and for my money the best all-round family game to date.