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The blackboard jungle of chalk and talk forms the background to this desperate tale of Eric's race to get his school report before the headmaster sees it.

Eric is an ordinary schoolboy in an ordinary boys' school but he must do extraordinary things if his mission is to succeed. First, he must set all the school shields flashing to dazzle the teachers who will each disclose their secret letter of the combination which opens the school safe. Then our hero must get the reprot from the safe and stop all the shields from flashing again.

When you realise that some of the shields are too high for Eric to reach, even when he jumps, the horror of his predicament becomes obvious. The only way to reach the shields is by knocking down one of his fellow pupils to stand on or by knocking down a master and bouncing a pellet from his trusty catapult off the teachers' heads. It's bad enough of one of the masters catches him doing his impersonation of a kangaroo let alone these nefarious acts.

The result could be several hundred lines and, if the total exceeds 10,000, this leads to expulsion and the game ends.

Eric is also in trouble if he is caught lying down after a hit from another boy's catapult or if he is found wandering about when he should be having lessons.

The school day consists of short lessons and long playtimes. The school swot is in Eric's class so he can always follow the swot if he is unsure where he should be. The swot is a pain in the neck who cannot tell a lie and snitches on anyone who misbehaves. More lines for Eric! There is also a school bully ... hit him if you dare!

At some time during this activity, Eric must hit all the shields. When this is done, he must knock down each teacher in turn to get the combination. The history master is a doddering old fool who can only remember his name if he sees his birthdate written on a blackboard. Being hundreds of years old, he was born in the year of a famous battle, the Battle of Hastings, for example. If you pay attention during class he will reveal when this was and Eric can then be made to write his date on a clean backboard and the letter will be disclosed.

The next task is to guess the order of the letters given that the head's letter always comes first. Each guess is written on a clean blackboard, then Eric must run to the staffroom, then Eric must run to the staffroom to jump up and try the safe until the correct combination is found.

The school is a veritable ants' nest of activity and the graphics are very well done, if lacking in a range of colours. The school covers about three screen widths and the scrolling leaves a lot to be desired. As Eric reaches the end of one screen it jerkily moves across to, reveal the next part of the school.

All of the main characters' names can be changed at the start of the game to suit your own circumstances adding deeper meaning to the game.

I would strongly recommend this game as a worthwhile addition to anyone's collection.