[{"TitleName":"Election","Publisher":"Mastertronic Ltd","Author":"Mark Brady","YearOfRelease":"1984","ZxDbId":"0001587","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 8, Sep 1984","Price":"£0.85","ReleaseDate":"1984-08-30","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":112,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nProduction Designer: David Western\r\nArt Editor: Oliver Frey\r\nAdventure Editor: Derek Brewster\r\nStaff Writer: Lloyd Mangram\r\nContributing Writers: Matthew Uffindel, Chris Passey\r\nClient Liaison: John Edwards\r\nSubscription Manager: Denise Roberts\r\nCirculation Manager: Tom Hamilton\r\nAll circulation enquiries should ring [redacted]\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Limited.\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nGeneral correspondence to: [redacted]\r\n\r\nTelephone numbers\r\nGeneral office [redacted]\r\nEditorial/studio [redacted]\r\nAdvertising [redacted]\r\nHot Line [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nPhotosetting by SIOS [redacted]\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios, [redacted]\r\nPrinted in England by Carlisle Web Offset Ltd (Member of the BPCC Group), [redacted].\r\nDistribution by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £10.50 (UK Mainland post free)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £17.50 (post free).\r\n\r\nWe cannot undertake to return any written or photographic material sent to CRASH Magazine unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Mastertronic\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\nRetail Price: £1.99\r\nLanguage: BASIC\r\n\r\nThe aim of the game is to defend the parliamentary seat of Pendell by choosing your manifesto from given points, within 10 days and with a budget of £5,000 and any donations you may collect along the way. In other words Election is a strategy/options game.\r\n\r\nAt the start of the game you must select the party you wish to represent, Tory, Labour, Alliance; and then choose three of the points offered for your manifesto. You are shown what points the two other parties are campaigning on. Pendell is split up into 24 streets, and the political colour of Pendell can be seen as the streets are listed showing how many houses support the various parties. From then on the game offers up the usual allowance of options such as attending meetings in different streets, where value points are provided for you to use in answering questions tabled. You may rent billboard space in specifically offered streets, or buy advertising space in the local newspaper. Then there's the street by street canvassing, when you may choose how many to visit in a day. When renting billboard space, attending meetings or canvassing, the program informs you of the political colour of the street in question.\r\n\r\nIn between the campaign activities, various random disasters can strike such as your campaign manager running off with the funds. When the 10 days are up, it's time to sit back and watch the votes come in, street by street.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nControl keys: general entry\r\nUse of colour: generally uninteresting\r\nGraphics: mainly text with small characters for houses\r\nSound: poor\r\nSkill levels: 1\r\nOriginality: election games are hardly new, and this one has little to offer apart from the long election day sequence","ReviewerComments":["Standing for parliament is one thing but defending a seat in an unresponsive town like Pendell is another matter. This game seems to have been put out unfinished and it's very uninteresting and very boring. I wonder whether the programmer ever played this game...\r\nUnknown","For £1.99 this must be one of the best value for money games I have seen. The election simulation is rather absorbing and addictive. Several correct political opinions are in there, like Common Market, defence, unions etc. It really is a good game, I thoroughly enjoyed it. On the subject of low budget games such as this, I would say that the text type simulation would usually be the best value for money as low budget games are rarely written in machine code for super smooth graphics, so the BASIC type which do not rely on graphics, like this one, are better suited.\r\nUnknown","Electron actually seems interesting for the first few minutes, but then it becomes tedious. You are following the same limited number of options time after time for ages. A day seems to take forever, but the worst isn't over. When the game is complete and you 'sit back' to watch the results coming in, the twenty four streets take almost 15 minutes to complete. 15 minutes when all you do is sit back and yawn. I really can't see this being thought of as exciting - after all, it is a simulation, not reality, and therefore has little of the real excitement attached to an election, and no justification for the long wait.\r\nUnknown"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: Two reviewers thought it a waste of time, one thought it above average to good.","Page":"99","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"The political colours of Accacia Ave to Manor Drive - Election."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Use of Computer","Score":"40%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"N/A","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"28%","Text":""},{"Header":"Getting Started","Score":"35%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"38%","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"45%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"37%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]