[{"TitleName":"Moonlight Madness","Publisher":"Bubble Bus Software","Author":"John F. Cain","YearOfRelease":"1986","ZxDbId":"0003277","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 33, Oct 1986","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1986-09-25","Editor":"Graeme Kidd","TotalPages":140,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Publishers: Roger Kean, Oliver Frey, Franco Frey\r\nEditor: Graeme Kidd\r\nStaff Writers: Tony Flanagan, Lloyd Mangram, Hannah Smith\r\nAdventure Editor: Derek Brewster\r\nStrategy Editor: Sean Masterson\r\nTech Tipster: Simon Goodwin\r\nContributing Writers: Jon Bates, Brendon Kavanagh, Rosetta McLeod, John Minson\r\nProduction Controller: David Western\r\nArt Director: Dick Shiner\r\nIllustrators: Ian Craig, Oliver Frey\r\nProduction: Gordon Druce, Tony Lorton, Cameron Pound, Jonathan Rignall, Matthew Uffindell\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Nick Wild\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nEditorial and Production: [redacted]\r\n\r\nMail Order and Subscriptions: [redacted]\r\n\r\nADVERTISING\r\nBookings [redacted]\r\n\r\nPrinted in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistributed by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced whole or in part without written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return any written material sent to CRASH Magazine unless accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material which may be used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates.\r\n\r\n©1986 Newsfield Limited\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Bubble Bus\r\nRetail Price: £7.95\r\nAuthor: John Cain\r\n\r\nAnother game from the author of mega-selling Booty! The story is set in a strange house owned by a mad professor who invents weird and wonderful gadgets. His home is full of them, and some are very sinister indeed as our hero finds out when he unsuspectingly pays a visit during Bob a Job week.\r\n\r\nThe hapless Boy Scout trots up the garden path full of good intentions and rings the rusty bell. An old man wearing huge horn-rimmed spectacles answers the door. Just as the lad is explaining that he's come to do some good turns, the old man suddenly slumps to the ground whispering. \"My pills, my pills...\"\r\n\r\nIt's a race against time to find the pills which are locked away in a sale. First, sixteen keys have to be found... and there's a time limit: if you take too long then the Prof might not pull through.\r\n\r\nSecret inventions hidden in the house are possessively guarded by bits of machinery, and the servants who help with the upkeep of the house don't limit themselves to doing the housework and a bit of gardening. The old man's minions are highly trained individuals who have been instructed to attack anyone who enters the house. With all this to contend with, the little Scout is going to have quite a hard time locating the keys and combination...\r\n\r\nEach room in the house is filled with strange creatures and gadgets which are set on removing the young infiltrator from the premises. Three lives are supplied. Contact with the odd-ball staff is generally fatal, and jumping too far down onto lower platforms also spells death. To get around this irritating problem, the Scout must master the use of mobile platforms controlled by bellpushes. By pressing the appropriate button, a platform can be moved into place to bridge an all important gap or summon a moving platform to your rescue.\r\n\r\nSecret passages link screens, but where they lead is a surprise in itself. Predictably, the keys and important items in the game are all carefully guarded by the scientist's minions who have no idea that you are actually trying to help their master.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nControl keys: redefinable\r\nJoystick: Kempston\r\nKeyboard play: slow and unresponsive\r\nUse of colour: lots of colour resulting in lots of colour clash\r\nGraphics: small and uninteresting\r\nSound: little tunette plays throughout, good spot effects\r\nSkill levels: one\r\nScreens: 43","ReviewerComments":["I was expecting Moonlight Madness to be a fast all-action arcade adventure/come shoot 'em up, but on loading it turned out to be a slightly disappointing Booty sequel. After the usual initial struggle to master the controls and learn the 'physics' of the game, it became quite fun to play and even addictive to a certain extent. The graphics are large and colourful but there is a lot of character clash which does get on your nerves after a while. The sound is fairly well done: there are some nice effects and a tune plays continuously. Not a bad game, overall, but nothing remarkable.\r\r\nUnknown","Booty was a real classic in its day, being easily the best cheapie of its time. Hasn't John Cain come down in the world! Moonlight Madness isn't anything like as good. The title screen plays a nice tune, and has got some pretty animation, but there were some pretty bad bits in the game. The main character moves at an amazingly varied pace, as if there's a force ten gale blowing to the left. When any attempt is made to move right, all the moving characters on the screen slow right down, and the man really has to slog it out against this powerful 'wind'. As far as drab, boring, unattractive, uninteresting, overpriced platform games go. Moonlight Madness is pretty good. By normal standards, though, it's dire.\r\r\nUnknown","BUBBLE BUS have been reknowned for their great arcade/adventures, so when I saw that they had teamed up with the author of Booty, I was really looking forward to seeing what they had come up with - the end result is extremely disappointing. The presentation of Moonlight Madness is well up to scratch; great inlay story and picture, and a good loading and title screen - but the game leaves a bit to be desired. BUBBLE BUS seem to have put this game in the wrong range. Moonlight Madness should be in the Minibus range - it has all the makings of an average budget game. The graphics are none too exciting, consisting of colourful but flickery characters. The games drawing point is the sound, and there are a few good tunes - one continuous throughout the game - and neat spot effects. To my mind, Moonlight Madness is an over-priced little game that could be beaten by many a budget title.\r\nUnknown"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: A sequel to Booty which doesn't seem to have progressed from the first game by John Cain.","Page":"37,38","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Use of Computer","Score":"56%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"61%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"55%","Text":""},{"Header":"Getting Started","Score":"64%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"57%","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"55%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"56%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 11, Nov 1986","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1986-10-09","Editor":"Kevin Cox","TotalPages":113,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Kevin Cox\r\nArt Editor: Martin Dixon\r\nDeputy Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nProduction Editor: Sara Biggs\r\nDesigner: Caroline Clayton\r\nStaff Writer: Phil South\r\nTechnical Consultant: Peter Shaw\r\nContributors: Stephen Adams, Luke C, Mike Gerrard, Tim Hartnell, Ian Hoare, Gwyn Hughes, ZZKJ, Tommy Nash, Chris Palmer, Max Phillips, Rick Robson, Rachael Smith\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Julian Harriott\r\nProduction Managers: Sonia Hunt, Judith Middleton\r\nPublishing Manager: Roger Munford\r\nPublishing Director: Stephen England\r\n\r\nPublished by Sportscene Specialist Press Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England.\r\nTypesetters: Carlinpoint [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinters: Chase Web Offset [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1986 Felden Productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Sinclair is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"Bubble Bus\n£7.95\nReviewer: Peter Shaw\n\nHmmm, don't like the title Moonlight Madness much, howzabout Daylight Robbery. Catchy, ain't it?\n\nWhat makes this game even more amusing is that it's the first I've seen so far to receive the Sinclair Quality Control stamp. From now on I'll take it as a signed, sealed and delivered death warrant. This is truly dreadful.\n\nThe traditionally weak story line goes as follows. You play a lost boy scout who's wandered up to the mad professor's house. The prof himself answers the door and then promptly has a heart attack, gasping that you must find his pills, that are in the safe, that can be opened by the sixteen keys, that are scattered around the house, that also needs a combination, and the staff in the house are none too friendly to strangers. Take my advice, let him die!\n\nEither this program is written in compiled Basic or the programmer is only up to the half-way stage in a Tim Hartnell classic. The... movement... is... very... jerky... and has a tendency to stop\n\nat infrequent intervals for no particular\n\nreason at all. The programmer hasn't used masks on any of his sprites either, so when you or one of the prof's henchmen walk past anything, it's obliterated. Plus, it's very slow and sluggish and surely by now platforms are a little long in the tooth for full-price games?\n\nIncluded in the features is a standard redefine keys option. Unfortunately, you can't redefine all the keys. Try the popular left/right - A/S and you'll find that you keep saving the game and entering doors you don't want to while walking. Trés confusing\n\nMaybe Bubble Bus had a touch of Moonlight Madness when it picked this one for its new release.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"78","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Peter Shaw","Score":"6","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"6/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"6/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"6/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 61, Nov 1986","Price":"£98","ReleaseDate":"1986-10-16","Editor":"Tim Metcalfe","TotalPages":140,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Tim Metcalfe\r\nDeputy Editor: Paul Boughton\r\nEditorial Assistant: Lesley Walker\r\nSub-Editor: Seamus St. John\r\nDesign: Craig Kennedy\r\nAdventure Writers: Keith Campbell, Paul Coppins, Steve Donoghue\r\nAmerican Correspondent: Marshall M. Rosenthal\r\nArcades: Clare Edgeley\r\nSoftware Consultant: Tony Takoushi\r\nPublicity: Marcus Rich\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Garry Williams\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Katherine Lee\r\nAd Production: Debbie Pearson\r\nPublisher: Rita Lewis\r\nCover: Gary Ward\r\n\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nJuly-December 98,258"},"MainText":"MACHINE: Spectrum\r\nSUPPLIER: Bubble Bus\r\nPRICE: £7.95\r\n\r\nJohn Cain had a lot of success with the budget-price Booty. But it's doubtful whether Moonlight Madness will repeat his success.\r\n\r\nIf it had been a budget game - and I wouldn't mind betting that's what it was intended to be - Moonlight Madness might have got a better reception. But at £7.95 it's a rip-off.\r\n\r\nAnd that's a shame because Bubblebus has put out some nice product over the past year, including a great budget title called Classic Invaders on the Amstrad. But MM does not cut the mustard at this price.\r\n\r\nIt tells the story of a young lad who arrives outside the old oak door of a mansion demanding: \"Bob-a-job, Mister.\" Could he be a cub scout by any chance?\r\n\r\nThe door has been opened by an ancient scientist who promptly collapses, gurgling \"My pills.\"\r\n\r\nYour task is to get his life saving pills out of the safe which can only be opened with 16 keys and then by cracking the combination. Get the idea? A succession of screens packed with ladders, platforms and puzzles follows.\r\n\r\nThe puzzles are fairly entertaining, the graphics are fairly crude. There's nothing really new here.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"44","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Paul Boughton","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"6/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"6/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"6/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"ZX Computing Issue 31, Nov 1986","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1986-10-23","Editor":"Bryan Ralph","TotalPages":92,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Bryan Ralph\r\nAssistant Editor: Cliff Joseph\r\nConsultant Editor: Ray Elder\r\nAdvertising Manager: John McGarry\r\nDesign: Argus Design\r\nA.S.P. Advertising and Editorial [redacted]\r\n\r\nPrinted by Alabaster Passmore and Sons Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nAdvertisement Copy Controller: Andy Selwood\r\n\r\nDistributed by: Argus Press Sales and Distribution Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nZX Computing Monthly is published on the fourth Friday of each month. Subscription rates can be obtained from ZX Subscriptions, [redacted]\r\n\r\nThe contents of this publication, including all articles, designs plans, drawings and other intellectual property rights herein belong to Argus Specialist Publications Limited. All rights conferred by the law of Copyright and other intellectual property rights and by virtue of international copyright conventions are specifically reserved to Argus Specialist Publications Limited and any reproduction requires the prior written consent of the company.\r\n\r\nArgus Specialist Publications Limited. ©1986"},"MainText":"Bubble Bus\r\n£7.95\r\n\r\nI always used to hate, loathe and utterly detest Bob-a-Job Week when I was a cub scout, and Judging from the scenario of this latest Bubble Bus title, things haven't changed much over the last twenty years. Having wandered down a huge drive to an old mansion, you ring the bell whereupon your call is answered by an even older man. He explains that he is a mad professor and is somewhat surprised that you have got even this far, having managed to avoid his guards and booby traps. Such is his surprise that he promptly drops down with a heart attack although not before blurting out that his pills are locked in the safe and you will need sixteen keys to open it.\r\n\r\nHonestly, the lengths some people will go to in order to avoid paying up but you nobly decide to do your good deed for the day and try and get the pills. The mansion consists of a series of doors, switches, platforms and monsters and your task is to wander round, collecting the keys and generally avoiding getting killed. If you are standing next to a door, pressing fire will move you through into the room behind. Stand next to a switch though and the fire activates the appropriate mechanism. Not all of these are beneficial so the temptation to go round pressing everything in sight must be avoided. Typical effects include building extra platforms, activating lifts and mobilising monsters. Getting to where you want to go often requires both timing and planning. One annoying feature is that certain doors lead to a row of eight doors with a large pair of eyes above. This is some sort of maze and it is possible to get out again, it just takes some patience. So frustrating is this element of the game that two people who tried the game thought it was a bug and reloaded the game (there is no way to abort your current game).\r\n\r\nOther features are annoying too. You can redefine the keyboard but the pause and music on/off keys are not affected so I found that every time I tried to move right, I paused the game. This is just bad programming and something that should have been picked up in play-testing. The game looks and plays very much like Booty which is no great surprise as John Cain wrote them both. Like Booty, Moonlight Madness would be all right at budget price but is not very good value as it stands. Keeping to the boy scout theme, be prepared before you buy this one.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"38","Denied":false,"Award":"Glob Minor","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"Grim","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]