Previous Next

Are we going to see Gonch trying to flog copies of Grange Hill in the playground? Well, if he can put them out at half the price he might have a chance, but at £9.95 he'd get a knuckle sandwich.

The story's simple enough. Gonch has had his Walkman confiscated (his own fault for wearing it in class) and has to get it back from the staffroom to avoid his mother giving him GBH of the lugholes when he gets home.

The top half of the screen is a graphic of where you are, with Conch and his mate Hollo walking about in it. You control Conch with keyboard or joystick and generally have to wait while Hollo trundles along after you, though you do need help from your faithful assistant to complete some of the tasks.

At the bottom of the screen is a clock, which you're up against, and room for the various text messages that pop up in little boxes. Press the fire button and a menu of eight commands comes up. Among these are pick up, drop, examine use and so on - choose these and a sub-menu comes up listing the objects available for each verb. There's an option to talk to other characters, but with moving graphics to take care of you can imagine the parser's not exactly Level 9.

So, can you pick up objects like torches and use them in the right place? Can you leap over gaps in walls, that being the average arcade element of the game? Course you can, Malcolm!