The Computer Game

I learned today that I am to be the subject of a computer game. The object of the game is to make me popular with everyone, which sounds dead brilliant. Apparently they've written an enormous program containing 200 kilos of text, which Brainbox Henderson says is a lot. Now everyone else can have a go at coping with all the problems that beset me over an entire year of my life. It's an illustrated text game, which means you have artistic pictures to look at while you ponder about what to do next. So have a go, and see what it's like being a budding intellectual and poet who has to cope with my family, friends and the dog. Then you'll know what I have to put up with! Ha! Ha! Ha!

The Adrian Mole 1986 Diary

They've also given you a diary for 1986, which is terrifically flash with hard covers and colour pictures and is too big to go in your pocket. It's full of useful observations on life picked from my own diaries, so as well as noting people's birthdays etc, it can be a shared literary experience and definitely better than using an exercise book.

Introduction

Playing this game will take you through a year in the life of Adrian Mole. When you have loaded the first part of the game, following the instructions below (under the heading Using The Program), you will see that, as you progress through the days in Adrian's diary, you will be asked to make choices for Adrian. Press a number from 1 to 3 to choose one of the options suggested. Pressing key number 4 will display the command and help system menu. This gives a list of the additional features in the game and full instructions on how to use them.

The Game

Adrian is a worrier. The problems of existence hit him hard. Spots, bits of him that won't keep still, the cracks in his parents' marriage, all prey heavily on his mind. There are some consolations. A fourteen-year-old feminist, an eight-nine-year-old chain smoker and his spoilt best friend all help to lift the gloomy introspection of Mole's moods. Mole believes he is an intellectual. He is dogged by ill-health as well as by an infuriatingly ever-present pet dog, and by a catalogue of misfortunes familiar to anyone over the age of thirteen.

The aim of the game is to make Adrian as popular as possible with everyone - family, friends, and the dog! At regular points in the game your score will appear on the screen to indicate how well you are doing. (You can aim to make Adrian as unpopular as possible and see how low a score you can achieve!)

The results of your actions may not be immediately obvious. It won't necessarily pay to overdo things: for example, being too neat and tidy might arouse his mother's guilt feelings.

There are a number of random elements in the game and your course through the troubled path of adolescence may vary every time you play.

If you have already read Sue Townsend's books The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole and The Growing Pains Of Adrian Mole, you will find some characters you have met before and a number of familiar scenes. But, if you haven't yet read the books, you'll still be able to play the game - and knowing the books won't necessarily give you an advantage: in the game, familiar scenes may well have a new twist.

Please note: In order that Adrian's diary changes every time you play, events are chosen at random by the computer. Occasionally, the computer may decide that Adrian has a very quiet month in which days pass and he does nothing worth writing about! If this occurs and you wish to 'rewrite' that month, wait until the end of the month when you are asked "Would you like to continue with the next part? and answer 'No' (press RETURN). The month will then be repeated. Your overall score wil not be affected until you 'replay' that month and make some choices for Adrian.

Using The Program

The game consists of a number of separate programs.

When you reach the end of a program, a message on the screen will ask you if you want to go on to the next program. Type YES and press RETURN. Start the tape on PLAY and press RETURN twice. The next program loads in the same way as the first one. Remember to stop the tap when the game starts again.

So playing through the entire game is simple. Load it as above, stop the tape when each program has loaded and restart it when it is time to load the next program.

If you have a tape counter on your recorder, make a note of the reading at the end of each program. This will be useful if you want to start in the middle of a game. If you know the tape counter reading, wind the cassette until the tape counter is at the reading you want and continue as if you were loading the first part of the game.

Saving Game Position

While playing the game, you can save your current position (so that you turn the computer off, yet return later to the same stage in the game). To do this, insert a spare, blank cassette in the recorder.

Type 4 instead of 1-3 when asked to make a decision on behalf of Adrian Mole. This will display the command and help system on the screen. Press the RECORD buttons on the recorder, type SAVE (RETURN). (If the program asks for a filename, type any short word and press RETURN.) If the tape doesn't move, press RETURN again. When a message appears on the screen to tell you the save is completed, stop the recorder.

Loading Game Position

To load a saved game position you must be playing the same program of the game that you were playing when you saved the game (i.e. that program must be loaded). Remove the game cassette from the recorder and replace it with the one used to save the position earlier.

Type 4 instead of 1-3 when asked to make a decision for Adrian to display the command and help system on the screen. Type LOAD and press RETURN. (If the program asks for a filename, type whatever name you used to save the position and press RETURN.) Rewind the cassette on which the position was saved and press PLAY (RETURN).

When a message appears on the screen to tell you the load is completed, stop the recorder. The saved game position will reappear on the screen.

Loading

CHAIN"" (RETURN)

Game Credits

Game Design: Pete Austin
Pictures: James Horsler

© Level 9 Computing