Travel with Trashman

ZX Computing

Instructions 80%

Addictability 80%

Graphics 80%

Value For Money 85%

ZXC Factor 7/10

David Harwood 7/10

This is the sequel to the original "TRASHMAN" game and by and large is just as good. The mission is to go forth into the world and throw away all the trash. At the start of the game, you are shown a world map and all the countries that can be visited, this obviously takes money (everything seems to these days), and where you can go depends on the amount of money that you have got. Quite a few places of interest can be visited, Spain, America, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Samoa and Israel. Paris is the cheapest place to start, and whilst there the job offered is to collect all the frogs that the chef has accidentally let loose in the cafe, whilst avoiding bumping into the French waitresses (I know what I would rather do!). The cafe was generally well depicted with tables, umbrellas etc. but the leaping reptiles appeared as white dots bouncing around the screen, even the delicacy of its legs was not apparent. In Germany, you're at the famous Festival with the mammoth task of clearing away all the empties, whilst trying to forget about your love for the drink as well. This screen was slightly easier to play and the only real difficulty was to catch sight of an empty glass. After these two locations, you can go on to Spain, where you have to pick up roses in a bull ring. Sounds easy? The bull is still moving about the ring and still fancies a game or two. In New Orleans, you are employed to pick up the money that the crowd are throwing at the band, but some members of the band are mean and greedy, so you have to watch out for them. If you manage to get enough money, then you can be on your way to Jerusalem, where worshippers' tissues have to be tidied up around the Wailing Wall. The only problem with this game was the fact that the visit to each country lasted far too long and as the money decreased with your inefficiency, it was quite difficult not to find yourself stranded, penniless, and with no means of getting home. There is quite a lot of action in this game, and although occasionally the graphics were poor, this is a challenging game and should keep you amused for some time.

Your Computer

Overall 2/5

Paul Bond 2/5

Spectrum New Generation Software Sweep-'em-up £6.95 Garbage in, garbage out, as we used to say at break - but Travel with Trashman is a worthy successor to the first Trashman game although not as visually revolutionary as some of the computer games we have looked at this month. The first screen shows all the cities of the world that Trashman can travel to - but it all costs money. You can travel to America, Spain, Paris, Munich and finally, Jerusalem. In Paris you have to collect a load of tiny bouncing green dots which are meant to be frogs loose in a cafe. If you bump into a waitress while endeavouring to recapture the rogue amphibian appetisers you lose points. In New Orleans you have to gather up money thrown at a marching jazz band, in Munich you collect the empties after a beer festival. The deadliest early job is in Spain - and Trashman is not even a football supporter. To show their appreciation of British sanitary technology the Spaniards get Trashman to pick up roses in a bull-ring - while the bull is still in it. A news report about Trashman being killed in Spain is mysteriously followed by the information that you are stranded there without money. If you do get Trashman to Jerusalem, his job is to mop up tears at the Wailing Walt. So, if you missed giving this game to someone for Chanukah, there's always the Jewish New Year. But I think New Generation are going to have to put in a lot of work on their graphics and brush up their ideas for games if they're going to keep ahead of some of the excellent stuff being produced by companies like Ultimate Play the Game, US Gold and Beyond Software.

Personal Computer Games

Graphics 6/10

Sound 6/10

Originality 6/10

Lasting Interest 6/10

Overall 6/10

Bob Wade 6/10

Chris Anderson

Peter Connor

Steve Cooke

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K CONTROL: Keys, Kemp, Curs, Sinc FROM: New Generation, £5.95 British rubbish is no longer good enough for Trashman and he is now jetting round the world cleaning up after everybody else. He starts his wanderings in Britain with £250 and a choice of three affordable destinations. These are Paris, Madrid and Munich all of which are marked on a world map, your choice flashing vigorously. Paris is the closest destination and costs only £100 to reach. Once there, you are placed in a street cafe packed with tables, people and four waitresses running around. Your job is to pick up the green frogs (looking remarkably like a single pixel) which are hopping about. You score points and gain cash for each frog caught but lose cash if you leave too many lying around or bump into a waitress. Once you have got all the frogs, you need to get to another city. If you don't have the fare then you are stranded. There are destinations all over the world and those further afield like Australia, the USA and Africa take a lot of cash to reach. Flying to a new city gives you another task, which will take the same general form as the first one picking up a number of objects in a single screen. Control is difficult, especially in the beer hall in Munich, and the fact that you travel slower than everything else is of constant annoyance. The real lasting interest of the game is the attempt to explore the whole world rather than the challenge of each individual screen. Some of the scenarios are quite imaginative, others a bit cliche'd. In Madrid you face a deadly threat as you try to collect roses in a bullring. The bull is less than happy with your presence and if he touches you with his horns you'll meet a grisly end. The game isn't as riveting as the original Trashman but there is still enough action to keep me garbage grabbing.

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 7/10

Chris Bourne 7/10

RUBBISH AROUND THE WORLD Memory: 48K Price: £5.95 Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Cursor Obsessed with rubbish after a lifetime of emptying the bins of suburbia, Trashman, that Napoleon of garbage, is off to foreign parts to teach the world a thing or two about litter. Travel With Trashman sets our hero the mission of flying to various famous tourist spots to deal with the rubbish problem. They include collecting roses from a Spanish bullring, coconuts from a Samoan beach, and secret papers fluttering from the windows of the KGB offices on the Red Square. Trashman was greatly admired for its superlative graphics, but unfortunately the sequel does not match the earlier program in that respect. It is true that the thirteen screens are all completely different, whereas Trashman was built around various streets using the same few houses in different configurations, but there are too many occasions where colours flicker and change messily. Were that not the case, the graphics would be excellent, but as it is you are forced to conclude that New Generation has overreached itself slightly in designing screens too complex. That does not, however, make the game any the less addictive, and on that score Travel with Trashman is a worthy successor to the original. You start with a fixed sum of money, with which to buy a ticket to a variety of destinations. The money is replenished according to your success in clearing up the rubbish at each location. That allows the player to try at least three screens immediately, even though unable to complete them. It also requires some tactical thinking from the more experienced player, in order to travel as cheaply as possible while still visiting all the locations. As ever, New Generation has included its own style of humour in the game, not only with the visual gags about what constitutes foreign rubbish, but also with comments on the screen. The comments occur when Trashman bumps into the locals while attempting to do his job, such as tangling with French waitresses at a Parisian cafe, or upsetting the efficient service at the Munich beer festival. Most of the humour is based on excruciating language jokes, such as 'Gettenze artz a vay' in Germany. By and large, the jokes are inoffensive, although more likely to produce groans than laughs. However, the scene in Benares, where Trashman has to collect the sandals of the faithful as they immerse themselves in the Ganges, is rather more disturbing. Apart from the concept of making fun out of religious beliefs, which also occurs at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, the line 'Hurry curry Trashman' is at best puerile and at worst offensive. If that was the best the company could think of, it should have left the screen out altogether. If you are impervious to that sort of humour, and do not expect miracles of graphics programming, you will find the game great fun to play and highly addictive. There is a considerable range of difficulty in the various screens, and although the mechanics of picking up litter remain the same, you will have to change your tactics to suit each particular situation. It is a pity, therefore, that New Generation could not have taken more care with the graphics and humour.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Crash

Use of Computer 79%

Graphics 70%

Playability 68%

Getting Started 72%

Addictive Qualities 63%

Value For Money 76%

Overall 71%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: New Generation Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £5.95 Language: Machine code Author: Malcolm Evans The sequel to New Generation's successful and novel Trashman sees our intrepid dustman on an exotic trip around the major cities of the works as a sort of freelance waste collection consultant. Travels with Trashman is set in Spain, the USA, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Israel and Samoa. The object is to collect litter from the various sites and score points. On the right there is a cash figure which increases as you collect, but decreases if you keep bumping into people like waitresses or guests, or annoying them. This cash figure is important because unless you earn enough, you won't be able to afford the flight to anywhere else in the game. The Spanish Part is set in the bull ring. Trashman has to collect all the bouquets of roses that the spectators keep throwing into the ring. But he has to watch out for the black bull, which gets increasingly angry. In the USA the scene is the streets of New Orleans, picking up the money being thrown at the jazz band, but the musicians are a mean lot. In Samoa, it's the beach, littered with holiday makers' rubbish, while overhead the ripe coconuts keep falling down. Israelis are noted for their wailing wall in Jerusalem - what few people realise is how many tissues are discarded by the tearful Jews. Parisian street cafes may look pleasant but there are loads of waiters, irritated diners and tons of frogs - it's the frogs that are the litter problem. Germany sees Trashie clearing away empties at the beerfest, while in Hong Kong there is a lively scene with a carnival. Each separate section of the game is accessed through a screen which shows the world globe and the various destinations. COMMENTS Control keys: user defined, four directions and fire (used for option selection only) Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair 2, Cursor type Keyboard play: responsive Use of colour: varied, but not as colourful as Trashman and there are some attribute problems Graphics: again, varied and neatly animated, but generally a bit small Sound: nice tunes, not much in play apart from some spot effects Skill levels: 1 Lives: 1 Screens: 7 Special features:

Frogs begin at Calais, and get quite out of hand in Paris. Can TRASHMAN get enough cash together to TRAVEL somewhere else?

Personal Computer News

Overall 8/10

Mike Gerrard 8/10

PRICE: £5.95 PUBLISHER: New Generation Software [redacted] Having won your Diploma of Trashmanship in Trashman, New Generation now makes you an offer you can't refuse (sorry) - the chance to be a bin-man all round the world. You start with £250 in your pocket, which obviously won't get you far with the price of air fares these days, but it will take you to Paris, Munich or Madrid and still leave you some change, in Paris the problem is frogs hopping about a pavement cafe. You have to move in and out of the tables to collect them, avoiding the waitresses, who say something rude in French should you bump into them. Your cash decreases with time passing, especially if you're inefficient or clumsy. You can increase it by clearing the screen enough to allow you a little hop to another city. Like Munich, perhaps, where you wind up in a beer hall and have to clear the tables of empties as the beer-swilling Germans go about the serious business of getting persistently drunk. Different tables raise their arms in unison, and some characters can put away more than others. It's up to you to nip round and collect the empty glasses, trying to avoid the temptation of a quick tipple yourself. If you're capable of standing and haven't lost the air fare you can maybe then go to Madrid, keeping a bull-ring clean. The only complaint is the long delay between games. You really want to get on rather than watch messages scroll across the screen. There's a lot of rubbish about, after all. You'll have to work hard and efficiently in the cheaper places to earn enough to reach exotic locations like Samoa and Hong Kong. Don't ask me what the trash trouble is in Samoa - I'm have enough trouble with the frogs. A fun game, and a good follow-up. You shouldn't need to bin this one.

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Graphics 8/10

Sound 6/10

Value 8/10

Playability 8/10

MACHINE: Spectrum SUPPLIER: New Generation Software PRICE: £6.95 After cleaning the streets of London in the first Trashman game, our hero now sets out on a much more ambitious project to clean up the entire world in the sequel to New Generation's hit of the year - Travels With Trashman. At the beginning game, you are given a certain amount of fare money. A map of the world shows all the cities that Trashman can travel to, providing has enough cash to do so. The Paris involves catching all the frogs that have been let loose by a made chef at a cafe in the Champs Elysees. No easy job this as our hero must also avoid bumping into the waitresses and losing points. Other possible starting points are Germany where Trashman is offered the job of collecting the empties at the Munich Beer Festival. Trashman does not have to accept the first job offer he gets. He can fly onto another destination - providing of course he has enough of the folding stuff to pay for his airline ticket. The most dangerous of his early jobs, and one of the best screens in the game, is the Spanish job where Trashman has to collect up all the roses thrown into a bullring during a bullfight - the bull would prefer them to stay there. There are ten destinations in the game altogether and it will take a good deal of practice to visit them all. Comparisons with Trashman 1 are inevitable if a little pointless as the game is really quite different. However, Travels With Trashman is slightly more difficult to get into than the first game. Personally I prefer Trashman 1, but it is no poor reflection Travels With Trashman that this is the case. After all, there have been very few games launched this year that are in the same league as Trashman for graphics and gameplay. If you liked Trashman 1, you won't be disappointed with the sequel.

Your Spectrum

TRASHMAN ON THE MOVE Not content with cleaning up the streets in sunny Suburbia, New Generation's hero, Trashman, is off on a plane to de-litter the rest of this mucky planet. Travel with Trashman takes you to 13 countries around the world collecting a whole host of items apart from the usual rubbish. In Germany, for instance. Trashman has to collect the empties at a beer festival, whereas in Paris he devotes his skills to newly-released frogs outside a cafe! TWT is available for the 48K Spectrum and costs a mere £5.95 from 'the usual stockists'. 'Dirty' phone calls should be made to [redacted].