Gloop/Amusement Park
First appeared in ZXF issue 5 (Summer/Autumn 2003)
Author: Jonathan Cauldwell
Publisher (Gloop): Cronosoft (www.cronosoft.co.uk)
Jonathan Cauldwell is a relatively recent Spectrum Hero, but hero he most certainly is and I for one give him a jolly big thumbs up for being a genuine HuBWAW (Human Being Who Adds to the World). Egghead in Space, through its Cronosoft release, has contributed greatly towards a rejuvenation of the Spectrum software scene: future Cronosoft releases include brand new titles, including Jonathan's own eagerly awaited Platform Games Designer, and the forums at WoS are alive with games designing chatter. If it seems like much ado is being made of just a few more titles to add to the many thousands already freely available then you've missed the point; the awakening here is not so much to do with the return of commercially available Spectrum software as it is to do with the re-realisation that designing Spectrum software is fun (as is the reviewing of it, as is the anticipation of the new release and as is the experience of the purchase of something real - you can write all the emulators you want, but Spectrum software is the very lifeblood of the scene, and it just doesn't feel fully alive without it). we did actually know this already, but the prospect of publication and a tenner or two to fund our next ebay purchase was just the little extra bit of motivation needed to float the idea back into consciousness.
The plot of Gloop: mutant aliens intent on taking over the world have established for themselves a reputation for getting in the way of a good day. Once again, then, it's up to you to prevent the end of the status quo, and into the aliens' base - a deserted warehouse - you rush. Your mates, meanwhile, support you from outside, lobbing in energy giving sweets through a hole in the roof to sustain you and gum with which to shoot bubbles at the nasty critters and send them from whence they came.
Yeah, right - like that takes more than one pair of hands. "I'm going in to defeat the aliens from robbing us of our futures - who's with me?" cries the hero. "We're all with you," comes the passionate reply, "and we'll be right here, throwing in confectionary through t'hole yonder. Maximus here will run as one with the wind to the newsagent at the corner of High Street - the one with the Snickers bars on special offer. Frederick will keep a lookout for any pigeons passing over the dodgy roof and cry warning should a package through the hole not be of Maximus' doing. I'll, er, administrate..."
Gloop is Jonathan's third release under the Cronosoft label (although it was actually written in 1994) and - and I'm going to come right out and say this - for me it's not one of his best. Unlike Egghead in Space and Dead or Alive the hook to keep you playing just simply isn't there. There's nothing overtly bad about the game - the sprites are large and well drawn, and float around the screen very smoothly indeed - but after you've bloated a few nasty aliens off the screen with your gum fuelled bubbles, you're left wandering what else there is to do. The screens do change, but the gameplay remains pretty much the same.
If Gloop is a Cauldwell average (and still - I might add - better than I could ever achieve with my non-existent knowledge of machine code), then Amusement Park, Jonathan's entry into this year's minigame competition (see new) is a masterpiece. And it's written - wait for it - in just 4k of code. Most of us have probably downloaded our fair share of size-restricted demos and games in the past and marvelled at what's been achieved in such a tiny amount of memory, but - let's be honest here - it's not as though the games are actually all that playable. Amusement Park, however, had a friend and I up 'til 2am two nights in a row trying to make our fortune through bouncy castles and amazing mazes. Addictive just isn't the word.
Amusement Park is one of those games that sees you ascribing human qualities to routines so small a Quicksilva ant could probably gobble them up and still have room for more. Am I the only one to have spotted, for example, that some of the little stick people that march merrily into the park seem to get away without paying? And are those one or two punters that spend month after month waiting in the entrance to the ferris wheel really under the impression that their turn has not yet come and the wait will be worth it nonetheless, or do we have a vagrant problem? The deeper you get into the game, the more the 4K restriction on the coding becomes apparent: you can't add more than 10 rides, for example, which led (on night two) to the conception of 'Statue City' as the best way to up our ranking; all of this, however, only seems to increase the game's addictiveness and enjoyability - the sight of a single visitor spending several years staring at a sea of identical statues led to some inspired speculation on his/her predicament (and all this, by the way, without alchohol).
So Amusement Park is probably best experienced with a friend. My friend on these two evenings had never actually heard - let alone seen - a Spectrum before, so s/he doesn't need to be Sinclair literate. A young Internet gamer, Serban told me initially he didn't like the look of Spectrum games since the graphics were no good. Night three is now already planned, however, and will involve the game being played in two emulator windows so we can compete directly. A convert? Well he's all set to download Spectaculator for himself when he goes home.
As I understand it, Jonathan plans to develop Amusement Park into a fully fledged 16K title for Cronosoft (never before has 16K sounded like so much memory). It is my sincere hope that the basic game stays pretty much the same, albeit with a few extra features. May I humbly suggest security gaurds, for example, to track down those rogue freeloaders (why should the honest customers suffer through increased ticket prices?) and burger bars to feed those long-term visitors (a death in the park would not be good PR). This will be a title I will really look forward to.
