Producer: Computasolve
Memory Required: 48K
Recommended Retail Price: £5.50
Language: machine code
Author: Tina Billet
Mrs Mopp has two differences to the usual, it's written by a woman, and it's original in concept - at least as fares computer games go, if you're a housewife it's a plain old kitchen sink drama!
Mrs Mopp's family is one of the messiest in the world, and even that's being kind to them. They litter cups, clothes, dust and lord knows what else all over the floor. Moppsie herself has five utensils to help her in the task, two types of basket, a dustpan and brush and two different trays. Each is colour coded and can only be used to clean up or collect specific items. The blue cups, for instance, may only be collected on the blue tray and the pale green clothes in the pale green basket. There's also a washing machine, a sink and a dustbin. When she's collected enough cups you must take her to the sink where you see the cups being washed, likewise for dust and washing.
Collecting a utensil is done by moving up to it, rather as you did in Pssst. Mrs Mopps then changes from black to the colour of the utensil. As she moves over objects eligible to be collected, she picks them up. When overloaded she begins flashing and you must get her to the correct appliance. Depositing a utensil is done by sliding up to its empty slot.
Like any hard working housewife, Mrs Mopp likes a little tipple. In fact there's a bottle and glass in the top left hand corner. If you take her up there you mustn't let her stay too long or she gets tipsy and then drunk, whereupon she jitters all over the place uncontrollably.
When the mess gets too much and movement becomes impossible, Mrs. Mopp gives up and leaves home. End of game!
COMMENTS
Keyboard positions: well placed, A/Z up/down, N/M left/right and S for Spells.
Joystick option: Kempston
Keyboard play: responsive and 8-directional
Use of colour: good
Graphics: good, well compiled
Sound: fairly good
Skill levels: unknown, but several
Lives: 1
I had a tape error on my copy. The track seemed out of line and made it hard to load. But after that I got some well presented instruction. A good game and very playable.
Mrs Mopp seems to have a fund of magic spells to use when all is lost, but all l ever got, was 'Sorry, right out of spells!'. Which just goes to show that elbow grease is the only way. At the rate which the muck accumulates this is not easy to play. The graphics are good, compiled with the PSS compiler I noticed. Fairly addictive.
Not a game for the squeamish. I'm glad I'm not a housewife if this is what it's really like. It's reminiscent of Ultimate's Pssst, and has the same panicky quality about it. But in Mrs Mopp's life no flowers bloom. I'm afraid I never beat Mrs B's score (the authoress I presume), so I'll go back to throwing rubbish on the floor rather than cleaning it up.
Producer: Atlantis
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £1.99
Language: Machine code
Author: Tina Billett
Mrs. Mopp takes a second bow in the pages of CRASH as we reviewed it in our very first issue when it was originally marketed under Cornputasolve at the price of £5.50. As re-released by Atlantis, nothing has changed in the program and so our review in February still stands. But for those who never saw the issue, here is a brief summary.
Mrs. Mopp's family is one of the messiest in the world - they litter cups clothes, dust and lord knows what else all over her kitchen. Moppsie has five utensils to help her in the task of cleaning up, two types of basket, a dustpan and brush and two trays. Each utensil is colour coded and can only be used to clear up specific items. The blue cups, for instance, may only be collected on the blue tray and the pale green clothes in the pale green basket. There's also a washing machine, a sink and dustbin. Each utensil will only hold so much and must be emptied periodically into the appropriate appliance. She can only hold one utensil a time and these are stored on shelves to either side. Litter starts appearing all over the place as soon as each game commenses, and as she cannot move past or over an object unless carrying the specific utensil for collecting it, the moveable floor space quickly becomes very restricted. When life becomes too unbearable there is a bottle of tipple to help restore her spirits, but beware of taking too much.
The reviewers comments added up to Mrs. Mopp being a good game, original in concept, medium addictive and very playable. The value for money at the time was given as 71% and obviously at £1.99 that is considerably increased, although it should be said that since its release, the standards of software have risen somewhat, which modifies its increase in value.
COMMENTS
Control keys: A/Z up/down, N/M left/right and S for spells
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: sensible positions, 8-directional, responsive
Use of colour: good
Graphics: good, well compiled
Sound: fairly good
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 1
Producer: Computasolve, 48K
£5.50 (1)
Author: Tina Billet
The game which sets out to prove that it's better to create a mess than have to clean it up. Mrs Mopp's family must be the messiest in the world. They litter cups, clothes, dust and just about everything else all over the floor. Moppsie has five utensils to help her in the task, but only the correct utensil will pick up the appropriate rubbish. There's also a kitchen sink, washing machine and dustbin she must use when the utensil carried becomes full. Picking up a utensil is done simply by moving up against it and it can be deposited by reversing the sequence. Like any hard working housewife, Moppsie likes a tipple now and then to keep up up her spirits, but if you let her spirit level get too high she becomes drunk and disorderly. If the work load becomes too much, she'll give up and leave home! The only extra aids are magical spells, but all too often these seem to be out of stock. Well placed control keys, joystick: Kempston. Cute graphics, smooth movement and an original game to play. Reasonably addictive, overall CRASH rating 69% M/C.
Producer: Computasolve, 48K
£5.50 (1)
Author: Tina Billet
The game which sets out to prove that it's better to create a mess than have to clean it up. Mrs Mopp's family must be the messiest in the world. They litter cups, clothes, dust and just about everything else all over the floor. Moppsie has five utensils to help her in the task, but only the correct utensil will pick up the appropriate rubbish. There's also a kitchen sink, washing machine and dustbin she must use when the utensil carried becomes full. Picking up a utensil is done simply by moving up against it and it can be deposited by reversing the sequence. Like any hard working housewife, Moppsie likes a tipple now and then to keep up up her spirits, but if you let her spirit level get too high she becomes drunk and disorderly. If the work load becomes too much, she'll give up and leave home! The only extra aids are magical spells, but all too often these seem to be out of stock. Well placed control keys, joystick: Kempston. Cute graphics, smooth movement and an original game to play. Reasonably addictive, overall CRASH rating 69% M/C.
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