Big K


Carpet Capers

Publisher: Terminal
Machine: Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Big K #8

Carpet Capers

Take a collection of clearly quite deranged carpet layers leaving multi-coloured trails behind them, add a selection of objects to be picked up as you move from room to room and the overall effect of Carpet Capers is a bit like Painter meets Jet Set Willy. Sounds good? It is - eventually.

Initially, though, it's just bloody irritating. The carpet layer figures are horrible, flickering stick men, which take a bit of getting used to. And then there's your apprentice, who buzzes around you like a blue-arsed fly, nabbing objects that you're after and often making it impossible to tell exactly where you are. Result: until you get the hang of it, utter confusion.

Once you get going, however, it's completely absorbing. I looked at my watch after a couple of games and was astonished to find that I'd been at it for an hour and a half. The trick is to get the objects you need to keep you going, get a key to let you into the next room, nobble as many other carpetfitters as possible and lay a quota of carpet without blocking yourself in a corner. All in all, over nine screens just enough tricks to get the old adrenal gland buzzing nicely.

It makes really nifty patterns, too.