[{"TitleName":"Snoopy","Publisher":"The Edge","Author":"Christian F. Urquhart, Consult Software Ltd, Charles M. Schulz","YearOfRelease":"1990","ZxDbId":"0004607","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 51, Mar 1990","Price":"£1.7","ReleaseDate":"1990-02-18","Editor":"Matt Bielby","TotalPages":92,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Matt Bielby\r\nArt Editor: Catherine Peters\r\nDeputy Editor: David Wilson\r\nProduction Editor: Andy Ide\r\nDesigner: Martin Sharrocks\r\nTechnical Consultant: Jonathan Davies\r\nContributors: Marcus Berkmann, Robert Corradi, Jonathan Davies, Tony Dillon, Mike Gerrard, Ivan Hawksley, Duncan MacDonald, Tanya Maldem, David McCandless, Jackie Ryan, Wag, Louise Willers\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Lynda Elliott\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Caroline Day\r\nClassified Advertisement Executive: Chris Skinner\r\nAdvertisement Director: Alistair Ramsay\r\nProduction Manager: Judith Middleton\r\nAdvertisement Production: Claire Baker\r\nNewstrade Circulation Manager: Stephen Ward\r\nMarketing Services Manager: Zoe Ringrose\r\nSubscription Manager: June Smith\r\nPublisher: Teresa Maughan\r\nFinance Director: Colin Crawford\r\nManaging Director: Stephen England\r\nChairman: Felix Dennis\r\n\r\nPublished by Dennis Publishing Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England.\r\nTypesetters: Point Five [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinted By: Riverside Press [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1990 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":"The Edge\r\n£9.99 cass/£14.99 disk\r\nReviewer: Marcus Berkmann\r\n\r\nPeanuts has been around for so long it's a wonder some enterprising software company hasn't snapped it up before. I mean, it's a natural! Bung in all the characters, connect all their odd little foibles to a plot, and before you can say \"It was a dark and stormy night\" you've got a fiendish little arcade adventure, chock full of puzzles and playability.\r\n\r\nAnd, amazingly enough, that's just what those Edge folks have come up with. After years of sulking over the way U2's guitarist blagged their name they've now returned to form with a vengeance. Snoopy is cleverly constructed, accurate and, for fans of the comic strip, an essential purchase.\r\n\r\nBeginning at the back of Charlie Brown's house, by his doghouse, Snoopy has to wander through the usual network of screens and solve the problem of where Linus'security blanket is. Getting it, of course, involves solving a number of rather tricky puzzles, such as...\r\n\r\n1) What do you do with the catapult?\r\n2) What's the frog for?\r\n3) How do you get the kite down from the tree?\r\n4) Why are the keyboard controls different to the ones printed on the inlay card?\r\n\r\nWell, they were on mine, but that's just part of the overall puzliness of this wacky little game. Once you've got used to the controls, of course, they're easily manipulated, but it can be a little hard to start with.\r\n\r\nAs with Garfield, the programmers have taken the whole notion of 'monochrome' graphics seriously and gone for just that - black and white, just as you'd see the strip in the newspaper. Even the border is grey. Colour freaks may moan at this but I find it rather refreshing.\r\n\r\nAs you wander around you find objects which Snoopy can pick up and take elsewhere, and when he gets where he needs to be he can 'use' them. Try 'using' a few things as you pick them up - what happens then may give you a clue as to what they actually need to be 'used' for. Some things, in fact, can be used more than once. Look in that jar of cookies, for instance. Now it doesn't take an enormous brain to work out one thing the jar of cookies can be used for (SCRUNCH SCRUNCH SCRUNCH BURP), but when it's empty - what then...?\r\n\r\nThe actual game is, I gather, slightly smaller in structure (and so a little easier) than in the bumper 16-bit versions. Even so, that never makes it a doddle. One conundrum has been puzzling me more than most recently - Lucy holds something, and you can happily take it off her. (I even know where it has to go). But when you put it down, whether in the right place or the wrong place, it sits in the middle of the screen, in the same position that Lucy held it, rather than on the ground. Is this a bug, or have I missed something here?\r\n\r\nLet's be generous though and assume that this little wrinkle has been ironed out by the time you come to play the game. If so, you'll find it ruthlessly logical in its puzzles and dependent to a great extent on how much of a Peanuts expert you are. (Our little captions on this page should be useful if you know nowt, but it does help if you've actually read the strip before you play...)\r\n\r\nMy only quibble is that Snoopy himself, who's perhaps the most interesting character in the strip, is not really very interesting in the game. There's no World War 1 piloting, no Joe Cool, no nothing very much. It's a sad loss.\r\n\r\nBut on the main counts, both as a game and as a recreation of the comic strip, Snoopy's fab. As Marcie would say, \"You're weird, sir...\"","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Excellent rendition of the comic strip, with one or two gameplay glitches but loads of good puzzles. Arcade adventure fans will lap it up.","Page":"20","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Marcus Berkmann","Score":"88","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"The Characters\r\n\r\nCharlie Brown\r\nOr 'the round-headed kid', as his faithful hound Snoopy always calls him (he can't remember his real name). The poor chap's doomed to failure in all he touches - attracting the attentions of the little red-headed girl, captaining his baseball team, and, most regularly of all, flying kites. He must have lost dozens of the blighters to the kite-eating tree...\r\n\r\nLucy\r\nA 'fussbudget' (fusspot to us Brits) of Olympic standards, Lucy has a black belt in screaming and shouting when she doesn't get her way. Keen at all times to enjoy herself at the expense of others, there's only one thing she doesn't much like (frogs) and one person who knows this - Snoopy...\r\n\r\nLinus\r\nLucy's younger brother and worshipper of the Great Pumpkin (at Halloween time). Although reasonably hip in most ways, at least for a four-year-old, Linus is totally addicted to his 'security blanket', which he grasps next to him when sucking his thumb. And now he's lost it...\r\n\r\nSchroeder\r\nMusician and love of Lucy's life. For some reason he spends most of this game standing around with an idiotic grin on his face, so if he's lost anything it's clearly not his piano (oo-er)...\r\n\r\n'Peppermint' Patty\r\nSo-called because there was once another character called Patty, who has long since dropped out of the strip. PP is a touch smitten on poor ol' Charlie Brown (who's blissfully ignorant of the fact), but seems to spend most of her time falling asleep in school. How can you wake her up?\r\n\r\nSnoopy\r\nBest-selling author, World War 1 pilot, '60s college radical and virtually everything else you can name in 30 seconds, Snoopy's hobby is being a dog. Sleeping on top of his doghouse and thus defying sense and indeed gravity (ever tried it?), he is the hero of this game and, indeed, of Peanuts generally. Give him some Winalot, someone..."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Life Expectancy","Score":"83%","Text":""},{"Header":"Instant Appeal","Score":"81%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"86%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"89%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"88%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 96, Mar 1990","Price":"£1.6","ReleaseDate":"1990-02-18","Editor":"Jim Douglas","TotalPages":93,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"TRAVEL SPECIAL\r\n\r\nJIM \"private jet\" DOUGLAS (Editor)\r\nBeing a bloody stinking yuppie, our Jim just had to go on the piste, that's skiing to you. He's bought his dayglo green end purple salopettes, got some mirrored raybans and applied some of that gungy white zinc stuff to his kisser and now he's ready for a mega pose on the top of a snowy slope. God, what a poser, I hope he breaks both legs.\r\n\r\nGARTH \"where's me backpack man\" Sumpter (Staff Writer)\r\nGarfy baby has decided it's time to find himself (maan), so he's booked into a Kibbutz in The Himalayas for the summer. He's bought himself some loon pants and a string of love beads and a pack of josticks, and is now practising his spaced-out Hippie look (maaaaaaaaaaaan).\r\n\r\nOSMOND \"a nice quiet break\" BROWNE (Designer)\r\nOz decided to go for a peaceful holiday so the team recommended an 18-30's trip to Benidorm. He's hoping to meet some interesting chums and a better class of girlie (fool). He's just heard he's sharing a room with his predecessor Tim 'lagered up' Noonan and 25 of his mates. Rather you than me, matey.\r\n\r\nAL SKEAT (Production Editor)\r\nPoor old Al. She did all the ringing around for the others and booked up their vacations and the rotten sods have spent all the cash in the holiday kitty and left her with nothing. She's currently on the blower to her Auntie Vi, who says she's welcome to stay at her 'smashing' caravan on Canvey Isle, with her and Uncle Eric, as long as she doesn't mind sleeping with their incontinent Wire-haired Terrier. Al can hardly wait. \r\n\r\nNo part of this magazine may be reproduced, transmitted, stored in a data retrieval system or transcribed without express written permission from the Publishers. (Who are all in a foul mood at the moment, so don't bother asking.)\r\n\r\nAdventure: The Sorceress\r\nI've Got This Problem: Rupert Goodwins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: James Owens\r\nSenior Sales: Martha Moloughney\r\nAd Production: Emma Ward\r\nMarketing Manager: Dean Barrett\r\nMarketing Assistant: Sarah Ewing\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nSinclair User, EMAP B+CP, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Jerry Paris\r\n\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Copyright Sinclair User 1990"},"MainText":"Label: The Edge\r\nAuthor: In House\r\nPrice: £8.95\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nJoystick: various\r\n\r\nThe teeth grindingly insecure Linus has lost his mucus riddled security blanket and unless you can re-unite the two, the soppy fool may have a breakdown.\r\n\r\nSo you've got to track down the blubbering fool's blanket and return it to him before he puts himself in a sanatorium through worry.\r\n\r\nIt's hard to imagine a less appealing storyline. But that's Peanuts for you.\r\n\r\nThe graphics are black and white (don't be fooled by the pics on the box) and well animated. The basic aim is to perform various tasks, collecting objects as you go and eventually come up with a procedure of manoevres which will eventually result in your possession of the blanket.\r\n\r\nThese involve a great deal of 'get object to obtain object y\". In fact, that seems to be all you do. You collect a jar of sweets, eat the sweets capture a frog in a jar which produces a stepping stone for the river. You've then got to use a football to get across the river with the stepping stones. On the other side of the river is another object you need but you can't get it unless you are carrying something else.\r\n\r\nIt's an unfortunate fact that Snoopy can only carry one object at a time. A great deal of to-ing and fro-ing is necessary. Once you've appreciated the rather fine animation of Snoopy's feet, the speed (or rather lack of it) that he walks across the screen begins to irritate. Whenever there are background features in the frame (buildings, trees etc) he slows down even more. This is pretty poor show.\r\n\r\nFor all its instant appeal, Snoopy is really an extremely simple and rather dull game. I seriously doubt that anyone but the most ardent Snoop-o-phile could find more than a few hours entertainment in it.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Very cute and all that, but not a long player.","Page":"31","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"80%","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"N/A","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"50%","Text":""},{"Header":"Lastability","Score":"50%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"55%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]