Humbug - Graham Cluley RRP œ9.00
                     (PC text adventure)

I know from personal experience that it isn't easy to write an
adventure game, but I've often thought that it must be several
times harder to write one which is funny too. Trying to get the
right balance of humour while juggling flags and counters and
trying to ensure a good story and mix of puzzles at the same time
seems an impossible task. But luckily there are a few people who
have achieved the impossible and one of them is the author of
Humbug and an equally funny game, Jacaranda Jim. One final point
to ponder is that he's programmed both games from scratch too!
Makes you feel 'umble, doesn't it....

Anyway, back to Humbug itself. The title comes from the fact that,
once again, you've been sent to boring old Attervist Manor to
spend the school holidays with Grandad - and this is the Christmas
holiday. The old codger is a bit of a trouble-maker so the idea is
that you're supposed to keep him out of mischief. Fat chance!
When you enter the Manor, after being dropped off by a cab, you
find him fast asleep in his chair, clutching a document from his
neighbour's solicitor.It seems that Grandad is in a bit of a spot
financially and his neighbour, Jasper Slake, has offered to settle
his debts for him in exchange for ownership of the Manor - what a
nerve! Gramps must think so too 'cos he's written a rather rude
word on the document; he obviously doesn't fancy the idea
suggested in it that he goes into an Old Folks' Home.

Slake thinks Grandad is crazy too, partly because he says there's
treasure hidden in the grounds of the Manor.  Well, Slake could be
right - after all, Grandad idolises Napoleon Bonaparte and dresses
just like him! On the other hand, if he isn't crazy and there IS
treasure somewhere about and you could find it, it'd solve all the
old boy's problems. Plus it would give you something to do in this
awful weather.....

Whereas Jacaranda Jim was a really fun game to play, Humbug is
even larger and more amusing with lots of weird objects to collect
and wonder what to use them for and the house is riddled with
strange chutes which lead ..... who knows where.  There are

several creatures around the Manor and its grounds too; a bear cub
searches for food in the woods, an owl sits in the attic, a
hedgehog hibernates by the boiler while an aardvark in a suit
sleeps on top of a washing machine and a wumpus (eh?) is trapped
in a perspex tube. Can you get it out without sending the poor
thing into orbit? I especially liked Grandad's cat, Schrodinger,
who wanders from room to room. You can play a game called
Wubble-a-Gloop with a games-crazy octopus too, if you've got the
nerve and can work out how to beat him.

The human NPCs are equally realistic, from Grandad's gardener,
Horace, who will foil any attempts you make to map a large maze in
the garden by collecting any objects you drop and putting them in
his dustbin, to several Vikings (one of whom wears a Marks and
Sparks coat and carries a Filofax), a gravedigger and a barman.
You'll meet the last two characters once you use Grandad's
wonderful invention - a time machine, which will take you back to
the Attervist Manor of Victorian times.


Grandad has invented other items apart from the time machine. His
speciality seems to be robots which have been constructed from the
odds and sods that anyone else would throw away; milk bottle tops,
pipe cleaners, old treacle jars and the like. You'll find several
of these on your travels. The best one, though, has got to be
Kevin, the clockwork shark. Just read this description, taken from
the game:

"I am in the pantry. It is a small, dark room - the only source of
light being a barred oval window built close to the ceiling in the
west wall. A definite niff of seaweed wafts around the shelves.
Small mountains of marzipan and icing sugar are liberally
scattered across the dark stone floor. There is a movement from
behind one of the taller mounds of marzipan and a shark totters
around on his hind fins. The shark smiles benignly at me, "Hello,
my little poppet". The shark paternally pats me on the head with a
damp flipper and flamboyantly places a small caddy on one of the
pantry shelves. The shark smiles at me again and waggles his
eyebrows in anticipation of my response."

If that has whetted your appetite for the game, there's a
shareware version of Humbug available from SynTax. It's complete
apart from the fact that it only saves to RAM and not to disk but
that will certainly give you a chance to see the game for yourself
and play a fair way into it. Of course, you'll need a PC emulator
as well to play it on the ST. If you want to buy the full version,
you can get it direct from Graham Cluley, "Malvern", Seaton Road,
Camberley, Surrey, GU15 3NG for œ9.00 but don't forget to tell him
you want it on a 3 1/2" disk.  For that, you'll get a copy of the
latest version of the game, maps, a vital bit of information
you'll need to complete the game, help by post for when (if?) you
get stuck.  Jacaranda Jim is available from the same address for
just œ6.00.  In both cases, please add œ1.00 for overseas airmail
orders.
                                             Sue

@~The Shareware version of Humbug is on SynTax Disk 157 and
@~Jacaranda Jim is on SynTax Disk 153, both at œ2.50 each.