Funhouse

Your Spectrum

Dave Nicholls

SPECTRUM ADVENTURES The aliens have landed and snacthed Dave Nicholls's body - they obviously forgot their glasses! But it's OK, he's grabbed it back in time to go walkabout in Ashkeron. FUNHOUSE Pacific Software £3.99 This game's a real body snatcher - once it's got a hold on you it'll be difficult to throw it off. It is night in an abandoned amusement park when an alien spaceship crash lands. But instead of dashing around on the dodgems and whirling on the Waltzer, these aliens have a much more sinister aim. They gradually take over the surrounding neighbourhood, kidnapping all the inhabitants. Now, controlling them is a central brain (sounds a bit like YS - we couldn't afford one each. Ed) and it's your task to destroy it. At least it makes a change from most other adventure games where it's usually my brain that gets destroyed. Watch out too for a wandering hermit called Herman who'll occasionally lend a helping hand if you get into a spot of bother. Although Funhouse was written with The Quill, UDGs have been used to produce simple graphics and there's a rather natty semi-script redefined character set. If I have a gripe, it's more with the version of The Quill that was used than with the game itself. After a while the messages that appear between commands become very tedious - I don't want to keep reading 'I await your command' every other go. (I have enough of that at work every day!) The latest version of The Quill allows you to redefine all these messages. Putting gripes aside, Funhouse is an excellent game and at this price it has to be a good buy.

Smother mouldy, green bap with mouldy, green mustard and throw at mouldy old vendor! (Tee-hee!)

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

Crash

Atmosphere 7/10

Vocabulary 8/10

Logic 6/10

Debugging 10/10

Overall Value 7/10

Derek Brewster 7/10

DEREK BREWSTER'S ADVENTURE TRAIL THERE IS A FAULT, PLEASE ADJUST YOUR SETS In February a Green paper, a discussion document, went before Parliament which proposes the levy of 10p on an audio tape and 25p on a video tape. The reasons behind this unwelcome addition to personal finances lie in the estimated 65 million LPs lost every year to the illegal taping of music and startling statistics which suggest that up to 90% of blank tapes are used for reproducing copyright material. Could I take this opportunity to put a voice to what many must think of this bill, that it is ill-concEIved and insensitive. The loss of LP sales is a very difficult commodity to quantify as the figure assumes that a fair proportion of those who tape LPs would have been prepared to buy a good number of their taped collection. My own experience, and that of many of my acquaintances, does not bear this judgement out. Before looking at the bill's effects on computing let us first analyse another vested interest which has called for the levy. Video cassettes are used to tape TV programmes more conveniently viewed at a later time. It is hard to visualise exactly where the TV companies are losing out. The idea that taping reduces the life span of a TV programme as it reduces the number of occasions on which it can sensibly be repeated is not borne out by the facts which relate an increase in the number of repeats since the meteoric rise in video recorder sales. It is true that three years ago, say, all blank tapes could be used for were dictating machines or copying but now a significant number are used in the home computer sector, for example, in the legitimate acts of saving adventure games or, for that matter, programming itself (the pile of blank cassettes which build up developing a complex game can grow incredibly high). So the question is, how is the money raised by the levy to be split between the music and computer industries and if the Government seriously intended to include the computer industry why are discs and microdrives not included in the bill? If money is to be appropriated to the computer industry how will distribution be achieved amongst all the companies vying for a share of the proceeds when some are reticent over sales figures and other distort figures up to a factor of ten? It would seem this bill could end up as a direct tax on adventuring with the levy (which amounts to a fine) being added to the amount already allocated in the price of adventure games to offset the proportion lost to illegal copying. The bill is an insult to all those who have never made an illegal copy of a computer game. A law which assumes everyone to be a criminal and punishing everyone as such will set a bad precedent and is the equivalent of imposing a levy of 20p on a gallon of petrol to combat speeding. By imposing this levy the Government would be virtually legalising the copying of copyright material and instill a feeling that has it that, since the levy has been paid then it must now be all right to copy. In short, if you've paid the fine you might as well commit the crime. FUN HOUSE Producer: Pacific Software Retail Price: £5.95 Language: Quill Author: Unknown If you take satisfaction in the journalistic expose based upon hours of painstaking investigation and the dogged tracking of hot leads then you will revel in the knowledge that this game, despite some of the more elaborate devices of concealment, can now be exposed as a Quilled game. But let me immediately deflate the impact of the news. Far from hours it really only took me minutes to come to this conclusion and further, although Quilled, this game departs to such a significant degree from earlier Quilled adventures, it would be most unfair to write it off as yet another adventure clone. To make an impact this type of game must offer something new in the way of theme or interest and I think here we have an original work and a consistently well-executed concept. The story on the cassette inlay is a teeny bit garbled so I think I'll feed it through the journalese machine which crunches up all the words and blends them into a soft gooey sandwich spread sandwich spread (stretching all the facts in the process). The scene of the game is the old abandoned amusement park of Funhouse (abandoned amusement parks, like phone boxes that work, are things which have no parallel in the real world). Now, let's throw in some aliens to spice things up, a sprinkle of zombies, three dollops of green slimy dwarf, mix well and top off with a powerful brain to run it all and if this software takes off perhaps some American Film Financier could use material like this to produce the hit of 86. Herman Hermit must produce the sound track but (like the original?) he is half insane and talks in riddles. Your quest is to search for and destroy the alien's brain. Two objects are most important to the quest The Golden Mask, said to be in two pieces, which will protect you should you gaze upon the brain. The Golden Key is said to have the power to take the life force from the brain. This adventure will take the utmost care as the green slimy dwarves, or Gromuts, have created traps of the most despicable nature which will often result in an early death. Let's have a look at how the game plays. Once you get over the iron gate at the start and illuminate your way with the torch of Herman gives you (it must be night - eerie) you will find a very large adventure just waiting to be explored. The overall layout has been well thought through and the distribution of objects intelligent and logical - searching around the old ticket office turns up a ticket which Proves useful for one of the fairground rides later on. Examine and search are almost always useful to the extent where if an inquiry comes to nought it might well be only the wording which needs refinement to bring some new facts to light. It is worth noting that search is distinct from examine to the extent SEARCH CHAIR brings a less than useful response while EXAMINE CHAIR reveals the goodies. The rest of the vocabulary is friendly and it's worth being persistent as often only the correct (but mostly obvious) word is accepted eg EXIT takes you out of the old ticket office caravan while OUT leaves you flummoxed amongst the litter of old ticket stubs. The storyline is interesting and most lucid and after much playing threads begin to come together to tie up a coherent plot. For example, what would you make a badly scratched and chewed kennel, a snapped chain and a discarded bone? Almost everything you meet can work or show some animation. The vandalised telephone box responds to ANSWER PHONE and the rust remover does indeed remove rust, but in one instance ends up in one of the many instant deaths where once you realize your fate it is too late. (Incidentally, it's GET RUST REMOVER and not GET REMOVER). One item I couldn't get to work was the brass machine with a handle on one side - a shame since it turned out to be a 'What the butler saw' contraption. The graphics, where they occur, are simple either using repeated formats or amounting to no more than the odd signpost pointing the way and represent the bare minimum for the generic subscript 'graphic adventure'. Like the rest of the program, the response time for the graphics is very fast and there's very little to prevent you shooting around most of the adventure from the off. Who knows, if you can deal with the malevolent attentions of the three Gromuts, Beltsnog, Ristlig and Talsnig (usually first encountered when you pick up food dropped by Herman) you might have a crack at getting through in one long session. Most though will be defeated by the sheer length of this one. Funhouse is an aptly named program as it does indeed put some of the fun back into computing, not so much through silly jokes but via a good imaginative plot. The game is quite long with most locations opened up for exploration right from the start, a system which offers the interest of having many problems to solve at any one time. An amusement park is a super setting and you do get the feeling of having the run-around of a park and all that entails. Great fun. COMMENTS Difficulty: moderate Graphics: some primitive illustrations Presentation: good Input facility: verb/noun Response: very fast