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I have to admit, before we start, that arcade adventures are not my strong point, but Technician Ted was great fun to play. As you can see by the picture, he certainly looks an extremely enthusiastic worker, but his boss seems to have him on a blacklist and is out to end his career as a technician before he has even had time to start.

Ted has just enrolled with the local microprocessor factory as a technician. He starts work promptly at 8:30am every morning and works till clocking off time at 5:30pm. His boss has set him twenty-seven tasks, all of which must be completed by clocking off time if he is to stand any chance of promotion at all. If, however, he does not complete these tasks, oh boy, Big Boss will come down on him like a shot and Ted will be out on his ear (or more appropriately in the dustbin as the amusing little graphics sequence shows, when Ted fails to accomplish his task).

Ted's fiendish boss however refuses to tell Ted what these tasks are to be and where they are located within the factory. Good old Ted, undaunted, asks a mate of his who also works at the factory to help him out, and he is given a map of the layout of rooms adjacent to the canteen on the premise that Ted buys him a cup of tea at break in the canteen. Ted's mate also knows that his first task is at Ted's desk and that after that he must visit the silicon slice store Ted is also informed that his next task is in the diffusion furnace but his mate unfortunately has no idea where that is.

Ted's desk is strategically positioned right underneath the nose of big boss, next to the office appropriately named "We Call Him Sir".

In each room, Ted has to hit two flashing boxes in correct sequence to complete a task. Sound easy? It did to me, but Ted's luck is certainly not in today for the whole world appears to be down on him. It's not often that rampant televisions, silicon slices, and filing cabinets all gang up on you.

In fact, the writers of this game have incorporated some rather gruesome deaths. The cloakroom is full of death traps; everywhere you do you stand the chance of being speared by a nasty hook. Jump one step too soon or too late and you could end up hanging by your neck on the end of a coat hook. Still, not to worry, it's only another life lost, and Ted doesn't seem in the least perturbed. He just goes merrily on his way bouncing into pots of trouble around every corner.

Some of the tasks mentioned about (hitting two flashing boxes in correct sequence) have a time limit imposed and you have to hit the second box before the time has run out. You will know if there is a time limit because two silicon wafers will appear at the bottom of the screen and run along a pink strip to the end. When they reach the end of the screen, your time has expired.

The pink strip along the bottom of the screen is known as a 'Tell Tale'. This lets you know how many lives you have left by the length of it. As well as a limited number of lives, you will find that you are on a clock to complete the tasks. The clock runs from 8:30am to 5:30pm; unfortunately, not in real time. The time of day is shown in the bottom right hand corner of the screen so that must be watched as well as the 'Tell Tale', although I found that this won't be necessary until you are well practised at staying alive.

A surprise element in this game is its full event processor which means that solving a problem in one room changes the nature of another problem elsewhere.

Technician Ted is Kempston, Sinclair Interface II and Protek compatible.

Throughout the game is played a musical accompaniment to Ted's activities which luckily can be turned off since it could become extremely irritating after a time. The keys on the keyboard are well chosen for ease of use and the program incorporates a pause option to stop the game if necessary. The game has over forty high resolution screens, which means an awful lot of rooms to explore to find the twenty seven tasks in the Chip Factory.

An excellent game nevertheless, I hope you have better luck than I did.