Scoop

ZX Computing

Brian Robb

This adventure, like the previous one, is unusual in its setting and aim. You are an intrepid newspaper reporter and must search the streets for the front page news which will distinguish you from the other hacks. Fail in your task and you'll be fired! The game begins with the piercing sound of your morning alarm. Sound features quite often in the game with the sounds of lifts and car engines, not forgetting the telephone which rings, providing you with a message which moves you forward in the game. You awake, right at the start, to be faced by a morning domestic routine which becomes your first major task - you must get dressed and head off to work. This is a lot more complicated and confusing than you may think - even the simplest tasks are difficult to achieve first time round. Everything must be done in a particular order. When you eventually find the newspaper office, and this could take a while, the newspaper boss will give you a story to investigate and from there you're on your own! Do you have the intuition which will take you to the top of your profession? This is a very interesting adventure, with fairly good location descriptions and often involved tasks which are difficult to complete. Like London Adventure Scoop is a very good example of a Quilled game at it's best. Scoop and The Amulet, Sentient Software, [redacted].

Sinclair User

Overall 3/5

Richard Price 3/5

WATCHING OUT FOR GREMLINS Richard Price finds something nasty in the blender and goes to El Dorado. SCOOP Publisher: Sentient Software Memory: 48K Price: £2.99 Scoop, as you might expect, turns you into the intrepid newshound in search of the story of a lifetime. Getting to be a legend in your own lunchtime means a lot of effort and a fair dose of trouble to boot. You start by being roused by the shrill tones of your alarm and have to work your way through the day as you might in real life. Stagger out of bed, hunt for clean clothes, get washed, get breakfast, try to ignore the kids. Problems, problems... even your trusty, rusty old Anglia won't start. Forget to wash and your better half will observe cuttingly that you smell rather high today. Get to the office and your boss is really unhelpful. Editors are like that, you know (I don't mean it Bill, honest...) The game has a good kitchen-sink feel with plenty of unglamourous real-life stress and pressure. The interpreter could have been friendlier and more responsive to 'Exam' queries and it would have been nice to see less of 'You can't do that' on screen. I felt that was the case with all three programs.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online