Pyjamarama

Producer: Mikro-Gen
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £6.95
Language: Machine code

Mikro-Gen's worn out working class hero Wally is back again - well he's almost back again in this new adventurish arcade game. Wally's actually asleep in bed and in danger of not hearing the alarm clock which ought to wake him up in time to get back to work in that appalling car factory. But Wally's having a terrible nightmare.

You star as Wally Week's sleeping alter ego, wandering around a vast house as a pint-sized figure in pyjamas and night cap. As this is a nightmare, nothing is as it should be in the dreamscape. Apparitions waltz about the place, hands snatch at your feet from beneath the floorboards, axes fly through the air, there's even a floor which gives you that feeling that you're trying hard but getting nowhere. The object is to find the key that winds the alarm clock and get it to wake Wally up. You are allowed to collect objects littered all over the place which have various inter-related uses, but only two may be carried at a time.

The controls are simple, left, right and jump. Being hit by a nasty isn't the end; above the playing screen is a glass of 'Snooze Energy' milk, which is drained a little bit every time you are hit and goes down steadily throughout the life. Finding some food to snack on is as important as finding the key and alarm clock. Scoring is quite a novel process - you are told how many paces Wally has walked and what percentage of the adventure has been solved.

There seems to be a move afoot from software houses to repeat use of successful heroes, and Pyjamarama is a sequel to Automania - is it as good?

COMMENTS

Control keys: O/P left/right and M to jump, but also user-definable
Joystick: Sinclair, Kempston, but almost any via UDK
Keyboard play: very simple key use and responsive
Use of colour: marvellous, painterly use of colour although it risks some attribute problems
Graphics: excellent, large, fast and smooth, well drawn
Sound: very good
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 3 (watch out for Snooze Energy)

'Pyjamarama' has some of the best animation and realistic graphics I have ever seen. All the graphics are large, neat and smooth. As in Automania Wally is superbly done with his night cap even moving as he slides down the bannister. The game itself is very well thought out especially when it comes to finding and carrying the things that help you in your quest to find the alarm clock. Beware of the 'Video Room'. I could not pull myself away from it for about six waves. I'll be surprised if this isn't a CRASH SMASH. I think it should be as it's a lot better even than the last one from Mikro-Gen, and definitely worth getting.

Okay Wally, don't just sit there suffering from your nightmare - do something about it! Yes, this is the sequel to Automania, the manic car game. You control a sleepy Wally in his quest for the clock. If you liked Automania you will love Pyjamarama. The graphics are superb and the sound is very good. Pyjamarama is a hit in anyone's book - it's got everything you could ask for from a game and more - the only way I can describe it is a sort of Manic Jet Set Wally - it's really an excellent game. You don't score as such, you are given a percentage and how many paces you took - I suppose it's better to have a high percentage with not having taken many paces. Quite a good idea really. The animation is a continuation of that found in Automania but with much more going on. The program's full of neat touches and I especially like the room behind a door marked Video Games where you can play a good game of Space Invaders - so you're really getting two games for the price of one! It's highly playable and just a bit too addictive. Buy it - you won't regret it!

As a simple combination of imaginative graphics, large characters and humour, Pyjamarama is unbeatable, and a fine sequel to Automania. I thought it had just the right amount of frustration and play-again qualities to drive you mad - and make sure you do play again. Wally is in fine jumping form again even though he's shrunk down to the point where tomorrow's chicken dinner becomes a serious threat. There are surprises everywhere like the prat-fall boxing gloves which knock you down when you're not expecting it, and it takes an experienced hand to spot the difference between a lift seen from the side and an ordinary door. Mikro-Gen have been thoughtful enough to provide a large switch, however, marked lift on/off! (But that's in a different location). Undoubtedly an addict's dream hit.

Ross: Pyjamarama is the second of Mikro-Gen's games to feature the infamous 'Wally'. This time, our Wal' is having a nightmare (He'd dreamt he'd just bought a CBM 64? Ed.) and the only way he's going to be able to wake himself up is to find the key to his alarm clock and wind it into action. The setting for the game is Wally's home, each screen representing one room and each filled with beautifully drawn and coloured furniture. In a way that's similar to Atic Atac, you guide our sleeping hero through the rooms - this time seen from the side; just like Jet Set Willy, you can move left, right or jump. Only a few screens have things for Wally to jump on - chairs, tables or staircase.

Each room of Wally's house has a number of doors. Some can be opened just by jumping at the handle but to get through others you need to be carrying certain 'objects'.

You also have a limited amount of energy per life which decreases each time a moving graphic hits you... so watch out for the hands which burst from the floor and grab you! Touches like this make Pyjamarama a humourous and enjoyable game. 4.5/5 HIT

Dave: Mikro-Gen says you'll never dream a program could be this good, and for once the advert is right. It's worth buying for the games room. 5/5 HIT

Roger: It's hard to play but easy to watch. Wally's nightmare won't put you to sleep - just the opposite. It's both pretty and pretty funny, err, if you know what I mean... 4/5 HIT

MAKING THE BEST OF A BAD NIGHT

Memory: 48K
Price: £6.95

You are a Wally, trapped in a nightmare in which familiar objects turn on you as you desperately try to escape from the manic dreamscape. All you have to do to wake up is find the alarm clock.

According to Pyjamarama, an hilarious arcade adventure with stunning sprite graphics, a Wally's idea of a nightmare means being hit by roast chickens, bowled over by spinning dinner plates, attacked by an astral machete, or buzzed by revolving saws. After all, that is what makes a Wally.

In order to reach the alarm clock you have to travel through rooms in which your wildest fantasies are acted out. The ceiling in one room is made up of a gigantic space invader game in which you must blast the invading aliens.

On your travels you must take time to pick up objects which may or may not be useful in the completion of your quest.

A variety of objects dog your movement but the secret passages, found on the ground floor within barrels, should speed you on your way. Bouncing upstairs and sliding down the bannisters will also bring the object of your quest nearer.

Once you have dodged the chicken bombardment, the flying scissors and the falling books you are beset by ghosts in the cellar. Some of the objects are not so familiar - not even Wally could expect a magnet under the table or a rocket in the hall.

The action, plot and graphics of Pyjamarama from MikroGen are great. This Wally is a winner.

MACHINE: Spectrum/joystick or keyboard
SUPPLIER: Micro-Gen
PRICE: £6.95

It's no joke being a Wally. You get these strange nightmares, you see - about being unable wake up to go to work and being trapped in a house where everything has grown to an enormous size. Either that or you've been shrunk. Whichever - it still means you are in for a hard time!

Pyjamarama must be Micro-Gen's best game so far. The graphics are great and the playability unquestioned. You take on the role of Wally Week, the hero of several Micro-Gen games.

This time Wally is fast asleep and dreaming horrible dreams. Your job, as Wally's miniaturised spirit form, is to take him up in time for work. To this, you must find Wally's alarm clock and wind it up. Easy, eh? No!

You have to travel around a maze of beautifully drawn rooms full of strange hazards - like snapping scissors and roast chickens out for vengeance on the person who stuffed them. It would unfair to compare this game to Jet Set Willy - but as people will inevitably do this, I'd like to say I think it is better.

Wally moves about his nightmare world collecting - and dropping - objects. Just as in an Adventure, he needs certain objects at certain times to complete the various tasks he needs to complete before reaching the final goal - waking the deeply sleeping real Wally up in time for work.

In many cases, you'll need to collect one object in order to succeed in picking up another - and Wally's spirit form can only carry two things at a time. To swap objects, Wally simply moves over the one he wants - and the one he drops is left behind. Getting exactly the right combination will take some time - longer than I had to get this review to you that's for sure!

There are many rooms in the house - my favourite is the video games room. Enter it and you are confronted with a bunch of hostile scissors which descend from the ceiling space, invader style. Wally can blast them. If he gets all the scissors, some more roast chickens - or are they turkeys? - appear to plague him.

At the top of the screen there's a glass of milk which displays your snooze energy. You can replenish the glass by picking up items of food which appear at various places around Wally's dream house.

You get three lives to play with. Use them all up and you get an encouraging message from the management plus a percentage score and the number of paces Wally has walked.

Pyjamarama is a little gem which will keep you amused for weeks if not months. Here at C&VG we liked it so much that we're sticking it in our Hall of Fame. Make sure Santa sticks one in your stocking this Christmas!

MAKER: Mikro-Gen
FORMAT: cassette
PRICE: £6.95

There are occasional bright moments in a games reviewers life, very occasional, not always too bright, and definitely momentary. Pyjamarama is a positive ray of sunshine. It may however have detrimental effects on your Central Nervous system. I was hauled away forcibly from the screen by a kindly colleague, mumbling 'No, no, don't let the oven-ready chickens get me'.

It's set in the nightmares of one Wally, a little man, but with big problems. He's trying to wake up for work, but o do this he needs to find his alarm clock and wind it up. Unfortunately this must be done in dream reality, and everything's come alive or got bigger. Hands come out of the floor, library books acquire aggressive instincts, and nothing is quite what it seems.

The result is a large and very entertaining graphic adventure. Wally can walk right or left, or jump over things. This is under keyboard or joystick control. There are plenty of obstacles strewn about the rooms to be picked up, which is done by just walking over them. It isn't always clear what they're for however, and while you're figuring that out, Wally's 'snooze energy' is running down. It's also depleted by contact with the sinister hands, roast chickens et al, so the simple everyday act of winding up a clock becomes a full-scale quest.

The graphics are beautifully realised, so each new location is a joy to discover. But can anyone out there figure out a use for the beach-ball?

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
CONTROL: Keys, Kemp, Sinc
FROM: Mikro-Gen, £6.95

WALLY'S PYJAMA NIGHTMARE

To get anywhere with this brilliant new game, you'll have to do a lot of thinking, so to get you in the mood, here's a teasing little riddle. This month has seen the launch of four major Spectrum arcade-adventures: Psytraxx, Strange Loop, Avalon and Pyjamarama.

The first three have over 200 locations (Psytraxx has 1,000), Pyjamarama has around 30. So how can we justify making this tiny pipsqueak of a program game-of-the-month?

Well, it's not just the graphics although these are outstanding: very large, very colourful, very clear, lots of variety. It's not just the fact that the game is the most playable of the four, requiring just three controls - left, right and jump.

The real point about Pyjamarama is that it's the first arcade adventure which is a real adventure.

Let me explain. This year's rush of arcade-adventures was started when Ultimate brought out Atic Atac last Christmas. That game and those which followed - were adventures in the sense that different locations had to be explored. But the other aspect of adventure games - using objects to solve problemswas barely touched on.

This game changes all that. OK, there are only about 30 locations, but each contains a different object and each object presents a teasing puzzle which you, the player must solve.

What is more, the puzzles are all inter-related. Example: a bucket in room A, might have to be filled with water in room B, and taken to room C where it renders harmless the inhabitant man-eating plants. This might allow you to pick up a fuel can in room C which (if you can find some fuel in room D) just might allow you to power a rocket stashed away in room E and reach the moon. So it goes on.

The story is that Wally Week, the lovable idiot first seen in Automania, is now having a nightmare and wants to wake himself up. So he wanders around his house and elsewhere dodging strange aliens and trying to figure out a way of setting off his alarm clock. The instructions give you no clue on how to go about this, it's all down to brain power.

The objects lying around (they're all larger than life since it's a dream) include a door-handle, radio, towel, library book, plant pot, conveyor belt controller, hammer, fire extinguisher, joystick, pound coin, power pack, crystal orb, various keys, driving licence and cooking bowl.

Mikrogen assure me that hardly any are red herrings. They each have a role to play in helping Wally to wake up.

A major point is that Wally can carry only two objects at a time. This apparent limitation in fact gives the game enormous added interest because of the tactical problems it raises. You can't just go round collecting everything. You must try to form a plan and then pick up the exact combination of objects needed to try it out.

When you get stuck, you can take time off to enjoy the game's humour. Ghostly hands appear from the floor and disappear. If Wally mistimes his jump to a stairway, he may end up sliding down the bannisters. Occasionally, when he goes to exit a door, a huge boxing glove appears and knocks him to the ground. Another enjoyable thing is the lift which, once sussed, allows you into a new series of rooms.

These features coupled with the game's superb graphics and easy playability mean that most people will fall in love with it straightaway. Playing it will give hours of teasing frustration, interrupted just often enough by exhilarating breakthroughs which open up new sections of the game.

Of course the big question is: how long will interest last? Will the game be solved in a few days and then be left idle on the shelf? Or will it prove impossible and be given up in frustration?

Our feeling is that Mikrogen have pitched the game at just the right level. It's solvable, but it'll take ages. For example, after a weekend's entertaining play, I still have no clue what to do with some 75 per cent of the objects (I'm mad keen to find out!)

However, even when it is solved the game won't lose all interest, because following a suggestion by PCG, Mikrogen have incorporated a unique feature. The program actually counts the number of steps that Wally takes, so that even once you've completed the game, you can always try again, this time aiming to do it more efficiently.

And for those who haven't completed it there's a percentage rating which will reveal what proportion of the puzzles you've solved.

I've no doubt that Pyjamarama's going to be a massive hit, and perhaps the first of a new genre of computer games. It's certainly a hundred times better than its predecessor, Automania, and, if Mikrogen's hint-dropping department is to be believed, the program's central character may well be used again in future games in an attempt to create a sort of Wally cult.

Sticking to the present day, one thing at least is clear. After a year's searching, PCG has at last found its Wally of the month.

The editor practically had to drag me away from the game to write this and none too soon either since I was developing nervous twitches.

Recurrent nightmares are the theme of the game and I'm sure trying to solve it will give anybody a few of those. Despite being fiendishly difficult to complete, the game is still very playable for the newcomer with delightfully designed rooms to explore with the cuter-than-ever Wally.

BOB WADE

Plucked turkeys, groping hands and various other nasties plague your way in different rooms and there's no help at hand except the use of your own brain (this could be difficult for some of us)!

Anyway, I thought it was a great new idea and certainly old for the old grey matter, so get those keyboard fingers in practice and those joysticks in gear 'cos this one's a goody!

SAMANTHA HEMENS

'Sure looks pretty,' thought I, on catching sight of this little number, 'but is it going to keep me playing?'

Four hours later I had to admit defeat - but i shall be back for more. What I enjoyed about the game was the fact that you did have to use a bit of grey matter while you played. Even when you find yourself stuck over a seemingly insoluble problem the graphics succeed in giving the game enough atmosphere to hold your interest.

My only worry about Pyjamarama would be that one I'd completed it I might not want to play again - but I don't expect to face that problem for some time yet.

STEVE COOKE

PRICE: £6.95
GAME TYPE: Arcade

Logically, there must come a point when animated graphics are produced throughout a Spectrum game on which no other software manufacturer can improve. Mikrogen, with their new game, Pyjamarama, are fast approaching that point.

Pyjamarama stars Wally, hero of their previous game, Automania. Wally is a large, flicker-free, cartoon-like graphic character. He lives in a world which fills the television screen, and appears to fill the computer, crammed with graphics of the same standard.

In Pyjamarama, Wally is experiencing a nightmare in which mundane objects appear to be out to get him, he can carry only two items at once although he can find any amount of strange things to carry, the house seems to hate him, and the only way to wake up is to find and wind up his alarm clock.

This is made even less easy by the fact that, even when asleep, Wally runs out of energy.

The variety and imaginative quality of the enemies faced by Wally are almost unrivalled by any other piece of Spectrum software.

Pyjamarama is produced for the 48K Spectrum by Mikrogen, 44 The Broadway, Bracknell, Berkshire.

READERS REVIEWS

Taking pen in hand, you tell us what the public really think about the goods on sale.

PYJAMARAMA
Mikro-Gen
Richard Oakley

I bought this one because I liked Automania which was the first in the Mikro Gen's series featuring their character "Wally Week" and I thought that even if it was half as good it would be worth the money.

I was amazed to find that instead of being a quick and inferior copy of the first it was even better, and the graphics are fantastic!

This program is one of the wander around and jump over, dodge, jump up and collect things variety, but what makes it one of the best is the large number of detailed graphics. The rooms are not simply areas with platforms in but are fully furnished in great detail.

There is a lot of humour in the game apart from Wally's gormless expression. Try the games for example, where you have to fire knives and forks at descending chickens in space invaders style game.

The plot is quite simple. You are Wally's sleepwalking alter ego and you have to find the alarm clock and wind it up so that Wally will wake up in time for work. Various objects will try and prevent you, and all the time you are running out of "snooze energy" which is represented by a glass of milk. Collect some of the food lying around to restore this energy.

You can only carry two objects at a time and some objects need to be carrying another particular object before you can collect or use them.

The keys are responsive and easy to use and you can also define your own or use Sinclair or Kempston joystick option. The program uses O and P for left/hght and M to jump. Mikro Gen's fast load system loads the program without any problem.

There is a program which I would go so far as to say is a must for any games player and is a classic of it's type. I have some of Mikro Gen's earlier programs and they were pretty ordinary - they really have improved their standards recently. I will be looking out for further releases from them.

ARCADE ADVENTURES

Chris Jenkins looks at some of the more adventurous examples of the marriage of Arcade and Adventure.

The software of the future combines the best aspects of adventure games strategy, the requirement for mental agility and complexity of plot - with the best of arcade games - brilliant graphics, sophisticated programming techniques and exciting action.

These arcade adventures, or Aardvarks as I insist on calling them to the disgust of my colleagues, are in my opinion a genre which will come to dominate the market, as pure adventurers become bored with repetitive text-only programs, and arcade players come to demand something more sophisticated than mindless shoot-'em-ups.

So how do you go about conquering the world of Aardvarks? First, go out and buy a joystick. I know, the very thought will fill some of you with disgust, but grit your teeth and get a bog-standard stick (no need for optional laser sighting attachment and self-locking neutrino ranging circuits) plus the interface necessary for your Spectrum, BBC or whatever.


Next, check out the market carefully. Not everything described as an "arcade adventure" turns out to fulfill the requirements I've outlined. Manic Miner, for instance, could be described as an arcade adventure, but in fact requires no more than infinite patience and precise reactions to play. The best games require more strategic thought, and reading the blurb on the pack should give you some idea of the content. For some reason true Aardvarks usually seem to come in mega-packages with 150-page full-colour leaflets, badges, a club magazine, a scarf, three posters and a plastic goldfish. I exaggerate of course.

For Spectrum owners, an excellent starter is SabreWulf from Ultimate.

Like many adventures, SabreWulf is supplied with the minimum of instructions. All you know is that you mug collect four amulets and combine them to be able to pass through a mystic portal. The play area is a jungle maze of enormous complexity. Several games magazines have published SabreWulf maps, which are very helpful.

As in an adventure game, you'll find on your journey through the maze that you pass potentially useful objects such as treasure, food, weapons and potions. Your character will automatically pick these up on passing over them, but there are also dangers such as various monsters, poisonous orchids and the eponymous Wulf, which you must avoid.

For a game requiring more in the way of pure strategy, you should look at KnightLore, again from Ultimate for the Spectrum. This one features an intrepid explorer afflicted by lycanthropy. You have forty days and nights to find the secret of the Wizard's magic potion before you become a werewulf forever...

The transformation scenes, in which you involuntarily change shape, are brilliantly handled, as are the animated monsters and obstacles. Each of the 128 3-D screens is packed with details; moving stone blocks, treasures, potions, portcullises and the like. The trick here is to approach the mysteries of each chamber imaginatively - for instance, if you can't reach a desired object KnightLore by jumping, can you stand on one of the other objects to reach it, or move it to a new position? Split second timing is vital, as is attention to the clock. Should you transform into a werewulf in the middle of a difficult routine you'll meet a sticky end, either from guardian monsters or from automatic traps.

At the risk of making it sound as if only Ultimate produces good Aardvarks for the Spectrum, another goodie is Underwurlde. This has nearly 600 screens on a grid 52 deep by 16 wide, representing a selection of furnished rooms and mysterious caverns.

To win you must find four randomly-placed weapons and destroy the guardians of Underwurlde. You can run and jump around the caverns and ledges, but must beware of various monsters and natural hazards. Blue gems will make you invulnerable for a limited time. Underwurlde doesn't feature as many strategic elements as Knight Lore, and is perhaps more of a joystick basher.

For a little variation, let's look at the CBM64. Virgin's Sorcerer is a fast-moving Aardvark which features a flying wizard, who has to collect various magic objects in order to reach a confrontation with the evil Necromancer without falling victim to ghosts and goblins. The game looked very impressive when it appeared, but the Commodore version pales into insignificance besides the magnificent Amstrad CPC 464 version. This implementation of Sorcerer features stunningly sharp, colourful graphics, and a truly infuriating and fascinating plot.

Six good wizards are trapped in the game's forty screens. Your wizard must fly around the castles and dungeons of the magic land, picking up useful objects by passing over them, and fighting off the baddies to liberate the six captives. Only then can you progress to the show-down.

The objects scattered around the screens each have a specific task. Swords and clubs are for killing land-based enemies. Shooting stars and spells kill the airborne Demons, and Sorcerer's Moons, Scrolls and Bottles open various doors. Any contact with the enemy depletes your energy, though you can refuel by landing on a cauldron. But beware! If you try to refuel while carrying certain objects, you will lose energy.

The game starts randomly from one of five locations, and it's essential to make a map and keep notes of which objects open which doors. Altogether this is certainly the best game yet for the Amstrad, and possibly the greatest arcade adventure I've seen.

In many ways it's similar to Hewson's Avalon for the Spectrum, which again features a flying mage. This time you are armed with a selection of spells, selected using the joystick controls, which allow you to move around the 200-room Kingdom of Avalon in your quest to destroy the Lord of Chaos. Some doors are locked until you find a key, some are invisible until you cast the right spell. Sprites can be enslaved using a SERVANT spell, and made to work for you. Avalon is so complex that like many adventures it has a SAVE facility. It's one of the most Aardvark-like of Aardvarks, combining adventure and arcade features remarkably well.

For the BBC, you could do worse than investigate MicroPower's Castle Quest. The scenario is similar to that of many an adventure - finding the wizard's treasure which is hidden somewhere inside the castle. To do this you must determine the correct use of the many objects found on the platforms and corridors of the castle.

To give you some idea of the adventure-like nature of the problems you're set, if you are captured by the guards at one stage you are thrown into jail. To escape you must pick up a stool, leap into the air and throw the stool at a torch, pick up the stool and place it near the door, pick up the torch and use it to set fire to the bed, leap onto the stool then onto a ledge over the door, wait for the guard to rush in and leap down behind him, then through the door! It makes getting out of the goblin's dungeon look like a piece of cake.

Back to the CBM 64 for Impossible Mission, a disc game from CBS. Again this takes a good deal of co-ordination as you control the brilliantly-animated figure of a secret agent, leaping from level to level in a complex of underground rooms. The object is to examine the items of furniture and computer equipment in the complex in order to discover hidden computer codes. These let you log onto security terminals so that you can disable the lethal guard robots or reset the elevators in each screen. The password for the final control room is in several pieces, which have to be assembled correctly to gain access. You have a pocket computer to help you, and can also call up your HQ computer at the cost of a time penalty.

Impossible Mission features bloodcurdling software-generated speech and excellent sound effects. It's perhaps more of a logic puzzle than a strategy game, but should interest many adventure fans with a quick trigger finger.

Finally it's worth looking at some more Spectrum games, since the Spectrum is still the first machine many Aardvarks are designed for.

Microgen's Wally series veers towards the arcade rather than the adventure side, but is good nonetheless. Automania, Pyjamarama and the forthcoming Life of Wally are described as "graphical adventures", in which the usual arcade jumping-and-ducking idea takes on a new depth. Automania is almost entirely an arcade game, Pyjamarama has more of a quest element in the saga of the sleeping Wally searching his house for an alarm clock to wake him from his nightmare, and Life of Wally reputedly features several characters any of which can be controlled at any time like a more conventional adventure such as Lords of Midnight.

Ocean's Gift From The Gods also features a combination of animated graphics and a quest element, following the ordeal of Orestes in the labyrinth of Mycenae. Hidden in the chambers are sixteen geometric shapes which, when placed in the right order in the Guardian's chamber, reveal the exit. Various creatures sap your strength, which can be replenished with streams of water. Orestes' sister Electra will help him to choose the correct objects if she's around, but the evil Clytaemnestra will confuse the issue.

Gargoyle's Tir Na Nog winds up this brief look at the wonderful world of Aardvarks. Described as a "computer movie", it features convincing animation set in a world of Celtic myth. The design of the scrolling backgrounds is very rich and detailed. The hero Cuchulainn must traverse a series of interlinked paths. As is traditional, the quest involves finding and assembling the parts of a broken artefact, in this case a seal, while fighting off the baddies which include the ape-like Sidhe. There are some 150 objects which can be picked up and used.

This concludes our brief look at the private life of the Aardvark. Die-hard adventurers will I'm sure curl their lips with, contempt at the idea of it all, but try to be a little flexible. The most sophisticated programs now being produced fall into this category, and you'll soon be finding that skill with a joystick has become as indispensable to the adventure games player as a working knowledge of Elvish.

PRICE: £6.00
PUBLISHER: Automata 0705-735242

Pyjamarama is one of those games that you can play for hours on end and still not manage to get anywhere at all, frustrating isn't it?

Poor old Wally is suffering from a bad case of the nightmares. Not only is Wally suffering from a visitation by this nocturnal beast, but everything in the house seems to have expanded in size and is running riot around the place.

Our hero is simply given the task of waking himself up from this nightmare so he can go back to sleep in peace. Simply collect the alarm clock, wind it up and Wally will wake up. Well perhaps it's not quite so simple, first Wally has to find the alarm clock and just about every object in the house is out to stop him.

Pyjamarama has what is probably the most stunning graphics you are likely to see on aSpectrum. All the rooms in the house are depicted by very large and colourful graphics where animation is needed it is done extremely well. There is nothing more frightening than being attacked by an extremely large roast chicken while paying a visit to the kitchen.

Oh, by the way moving around the house Wally does lose energy, especially if he touches one of the baddies. Eating the food scattered around the house will soon replenish this.

Even though the game is great fun to play, you soon begin to fear that you are suffering from a nightmare yourself. After about three hours of play I still found myself going around in circles. Mind you the instructions do say that the game keeps repeating itself, repeating itself. The problem is that there are a number of objects scattered around the building many of which will help Wally in his travels, however you aren't told what they do.

Pyjamarama is probably one of the best ever games released for the Spectrum.