[{"TitleName":"Carpet Capers","Publisher":"Terminal Software","Author":"","YearOfRelease":"1984","ZxDbId":"0000824","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 6, Jul 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-06-21","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\nClient Liaison: John Edwards\r\nAdventure Editor: Derek Brewster\r\nStaff Writer: Lloyd Mangram\r\nContributing Writers: Matthew Uffindel, Chris Passey\r\nSubscription Manager: Denise Roberts\r\n\r\nTelephone numbers\r\nGeneral office [redacted]\r\nEditorial/studio [redacted]\r\nAdvertising [redacted]\r\n\r\nHot Line [redacted]\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [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 £9.00 UK Mainland (post free)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post free).\r\n\r\nWe cannot undertake to return any written or photographic material sent to CRASH MICRO unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Terminal\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\nRetail Price: £6.95\r\nLanguage: Machine code\r\n\r\nThis is a game about deranged carpet fitters. The screen depicts the plan of a very large room with several exits. The object is to cover the room with white carpet, of which you have an unlimited stock. The main problems come in the form of your apprentice - who's absolutely nuts and should be locked up - and rival firms of fitters who have also been asked to do the job.\r\n\r\nLying about the room are various useful implements like tacks and cutters and a hammer, as well as the essential key (without which you cannot leave a room). There is also food around, which must be eaten if you aren't to starve to death.\r\n\r\nYour apprentice goes about eating all the food and picking up all the useful objects as well as removing your carpet as fast as you lay it. As a target is set and must be reached before you can leave the room, if you've got the key, and score points for squares of carpet laid, you must keep well ahead of the apprentice's depredations. Another problem is that you cannot walk over cleanly laid carpet, so it's easy to get trapped. One way out is to drop two objects if you have them and spoil the square, which lets you out. Alternatively you will have to wait until the idiot catches up and removes a square to let you out.\r\n\r\nYou will be stopped from laying carpet if you run out of tacks or use up hammers and cutters. Escaping from a room through the correct exit leads you into another room. There are nine in all, each with their own spatial problems and rival carpet fitters.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nControl keys: very badly placed in a straight line - O/P left/right, Q/A down/up, SPACE for drop\r\nJoystick: joystick option mentioned but not stated which\r\nKeyboard play: uncontrollable and terrible keyboard layout\r\nUse of colour: average\r\nGraphics: primitive\r\nSound: fair, repetitive and unimaginative\r\nSkill levels: 1\r\nLives: you only die once\r\nOriginality: a possibly good idea obscured by a bad game","ReviewerComments":["First glance at the cover and I thought this was going to be a great game - and I was wrong for the second time in one day! it just goes to show how a great looking cover an fool you into buying a game that turns out to be rubbish. This is the sort of game that you might have bought when the Spectrum was first introduced. I hated it.\r\r\nUnknown","The idea is certainly an interesting one, and Carpet Capers could have been a winner - except for a number of problems. The graphics are very primitive; you, your apprentice and the rival fitters are tiny squares with an outline of a man in them. They all jigger about the place in an uncontrolled manner, and it takes a long while to figure out what the hell is going on. When you do, you realise it really isn't worth it. I'm astonished that a game that looks like this one should have been released as new these days. \r\r\nUnknown","About the only thing written on the cassette inlay that turns out to be true is the warning about TVs interfering and stopping proper loading of the program. It claims (elsewhere) that the graphics are, \"Hi-res flicker free graphics\" and that the screens are, \"FAST machine code action.\" Well, compiled machine code action maybe - they're certainly not what I would call fast, and no one could claim they were flicker free unless they were blind. The idea behind the game sounds quite good, a sort of updated \"Painter\" type, but it's hard to enjoy a game that has such poor playability and uncontrollable, poorly designed graphics.\r\nUnknown"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: Waste of money.","Page":"60","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Assistants and deranged carpet fitters jitterbug their way through hall after hall."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Use of Computer","Score":"15%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"19%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"2%","Text":""},{"Header":"Getting Started","Score":"34%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"1%","Text":""},{"Header":"Originality","Score":"N/A","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"10%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"14%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 29, Aug 1984","Price":"£0.85","ReleaseDate":"1984-07-19","Editor":"Bill Scolding","TotalPages":148,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Bill Scolding\r\nDeputy Editor: John Gilbert\r\nConsultant Editor: Mike Johnston\r\nManaging Production Editor: Harold Mayes MBE\r\nStaff Writer: Chris Bourne\r\nIllustrator/Designer: Craig Kennedy\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: John Ross\r\nProduction Assistant: Dezi Epaminondou\r\nEditorial Assistant: Colette McDermott\r\nManaging Editor: Nigel Clark\r\nAssistant Managing Director: Barry Hazel\r\nManaging Director: Terry Cartwright\r\nChairman: Richard Hease\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by ECC Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\nTelephone\r\nAll departments\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to Sinclair User please send programs, articles or ideas for hardware projects to:\r\nSinclair User and Programs\r\nECC Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nPrograms should be on cassette and articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless a stamped-addressed envelope is included.\r\n\r\nWe will pay £10 for the copyright of each program published and £50 per 1,000 words for each article used.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1984\r\nSinclair User\r\nISSN NO. 0262-5458\r\n\r\nPrinted and typeset by Cradley Print PLC, [redacted]\r\n\r\nDistributed by Spotlight Magazine Distribution Ltd, [redacted]"},"MainText":"RUGGED GRAPHICS\r\n\r\nMemory: 48K\r\nPrice; £5.95\r\nJoystick: Programmable\r\n\r\nYou must be mad to carpet the floors of a local lord's manor, in Carpet Capers for the 48K Spectrum. The lord has also invited your rivals into the house to do as much of your work as possible and so take away money from you.\r\n\r\nYou score pounds for the amount of carpet you lay, and the number of rivals you carpet. You must also remember not to put carpet up to the doors for as any good fitter knows, you must not tread on newly-laid carpet.\r\n\r\nThere are nine rooms and it is best to use a joystick, as the action can be hair-raising. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of the graphics, which are amateurishly stiff in movement and are a character square wide.\r\n\r\nFull marks, however, can be given for the concept which makes the game addictive, perhaps even playable for more than half-an-hour.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"39","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Gilbert Factor","Score":"7/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 34, Aug 1984","Price":"£0.85","ReleaseDate":"1984-07-16","Editor":"Tim Metcalfe","TotalPages":148,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"CREDITS\r\n\r\nEditor: Tim Metcalfe\r\nAssistant Editor: Eugene Lacey\r\nEditorial Assistant: Clare Edgeley\r\nStaff Writers/Reader Services: Robert Schifreen, Seamus St. John\r\nArt Editor: Linda Freeman\r\nDesigner: Lynda Skerry\r\nProduction Editor: Mary Morton\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Rob Cameron\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Louise Matthews\r\nAdvertising Executives: Bernard Dugdale, Sean Brennan, Phil Godsell\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Melanie Paulo\r\nProduction Assistant: Roy Stephens\r\nPublisher: Rita Lewis\r\n\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES POSTAL SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE. By using the special Postal Subscription Service, copies of COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES can be mailed direct from our offices each month to any address throughout the world. All subscription applications should be sent for processing to COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES (Subscription Department), [redacted]. All orders should include the appropriate remittance made payable to COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES. Annual subscription rates (12 issues): UK and Eire: £14. Additional service information including individual overseas airmail rates available upon request. Circulation Department: EMAP National Publications. Published and distributed by EMAP National Publications Ltd. Printed by Eden Fisher (Southend) Ltd, [redacted]. Typeset by Camden Typesetters Ltd.\r\n\r\nThe cover illustration: What a soap opera these four could make together!\r\nIllustrated by Bob Wakelin."},"MainText":"MACHINE: Spectrum 48K\r\nSUPPLIER: Terminal Software\r\nPRICE: £5.95\r\n\r\nCarpet Capers is a game about deranged carpet fitters. Or so says the inlay card.\r\n\r\nWhether this means that the carpets are deranged or the fitters themselves, I'm not entirely sure. And from the game itself, it's quite hard to tell.\r\n\r\nAfter the weird message at the start of the program, the loading screen appears.\r\n\r\nThis contains the main title and also a picture of a carpet. I assume it's meant to be a carpet only from the name of the game. In fact, it looks more like a cross between a map of the River Thames and the top of an electric shaver.\r\n\r\nAnd now we get to the bit which I've been putting off for so long - the game itself. Frankly it's not up to much. The idea is that you're supposed to be laying carpets in the Manor. But it appears that the Lord has a bad memory, for there are two other teams there, all willing to do the work. And they don't particularly want you around.\r\n\r\nYou have to enter nine rooms in turn. These seem to have names very reminiscent of games like Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy. In each, you must collect a box of tacks, a hammer and a pair of cutters to help you do your job. Then, you travel around the screen laying your white carpet. You are competing against the layers of blue and red carpets.\r\n\r\nYou get paid for each square of carpet laid and each room has a target. When you reach the target for a room, you can then progress to the next. To do this, you must also pick up a key. Then it's just a matter of finding the right door. There are three, usually, so a little experimenting soon pays off.\r\n\r\nThe graphics here aren't really up to much. The men are all made from only a single character and the carpet is simply blocks of colour.\r\n\r\nControl is via a joystick or the keyboard. This is not a game which, if I had bought, I would play very often. If at all.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"33","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Getting Started","Score":"9/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"5/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Big K Issue 8, Nov 1984","Price":"£0.85","ReleaseDate":"1984-10-20","Editor":"Tony Tyler","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Tony Tyler\r\nAssisted By: Richard Burton\r\nArt Editor: Ian Stead\r\nFeatures: Nicky Xikluna\r\nContributors: Andy Green; Kim Aldis (Features); Steve Keaton; Richard Cook; Richard Taylor; Bernard Turner; David Rimmer; John Conquest; Nigel Farrier, Duncan Gamble; Tony Benyon; Fin Fahey\r\nPublisher: Barry Leverett\r\nPublishing Director: John Purdie\r\nGroup Advertising Controller: Luis Bartlett\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Robin Johnson [redacted]\r\n\r\nEditorial Address: [redacted]\r\nTelephone: [redacted]\r\n\r\nPublished approximately on the 20th of each month by IPC Magazines Ltd. [redacted]. Monotone and colour origination by G.M. Litho Ltd [redacted]. Printed in England by Chase Web Offset, Cornwall. Sole Agents: Australia and New Zealand, Gordon& Gotch (A/sia) Ltd.; South Africa, Central News Agency Ltd. BIG K is sold subject to the following conditions, namely that it shall not, without the written consent of the Publishers first given, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade at more than the recommended selling price shown on the cover, and that it shall not be lent, resold or hired out or otherwise disposed of in a mutilated constitute or any unauthorised cover by way of trade or affixed to as part of any publication or advertising, literary or pictorial matter whatsoever. IPC MAGAZINES 1984."},"MainText":"MAKER: Terminal Software\r\nFORMAT: cassette\r\nPRICE: £5.95\r\n\r\nTake a collection of clearly quite deranged carpet layers leaving multi-coloured trails behind them, add a selection of objects to be picked up as you move from room to room and the overall effect of carpet capers is a bit like Painter meets Jet Set Will. Sounds good? It is - eventually.\r\n\r\nInitially, though, it's just bloody irritating. The carpet later figures are horrible, flickering stick men, which take a bit of getting used to. And then there's your apprentice, who buzzes around you like a blue-arsed fly, nabbing objects that you're after and often making it impossible to tell exactly where you are. Result: until you get the hang of it, utter confusion.\r\n\r\nOnce you get going, however, it's completely absorbing. I looked at my watch after a couple of games and was astonished to find that I'd been at it for an hour and a half. The trick is to get the objects you need to keep you going, get a key to let you into the next room, nobble as many other carpet-fitters as possible and lay a quota of carpet without blocking yourself in a corner. All in all, over nine screens just enough tricks to get the old adrenal gland buzzing nicely.\r\n\r\nIt really makes nifty patterns, too.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"16","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Dave Rimmer","Score":"2.5","ScoreSuffix":"/3"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"2/3","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"2/3","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"3/3","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"2.5/3","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer Games Issue 9, Aug 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-07-19","Editor":"Chris Anderson","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Chris Anderson\r\nProduction Editor: Roderick George\r\nArt Editor: Ian Findlay\r\nTechnical Editor: Stuart Cooke\r\nStaff Writers: Steve Cooke, Peter Connor, Bob Wade\r\nEditorial Assistant: Samantha Hemens\r\nSoftware Consultant: Tony Takoushi\r\nCartoons: Kipper Williams\r\nScreenshots: Chris Bell\r\nCover Illustration: David Hine\r\nGame-of-the-month poster: Jeff Riddle\r\nGroup Editor: Cyndy Miles\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nGroup Publisher: John Cade\r\nPublisher: James Scoular\r\nAssistant Publishing Manager: Jenny Dunne\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mark Satchell\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Jan Martin\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Pete Goldstein\r\nAdvertisement Production: Simon Carter\r\nSales Executives: Ian Cross, Marion O'Neill\r\n\r\nPublished by VNU Business Publications, [redacted]. Typesetting by Spectrum Typesetting, [redacted] Origination by Fourmost Colour [redacted]. Printed and bound by Chase Web Offset [redacted]. © VNU Business Publications 1984."},"MainText":"MACHINE: Spectrum 48K\r\nCONTROL: Keys, Joystick\r\nFROM: Terminal, £5.95\r\n\r\nIf you haven't quite got the artistic touch with a brush' to play a Crazy Painter game you could do worse than try your hand at this more robust variation.\r\n\r\nInstead of painting you have to lay carpets. This is difficult enough at the best of times, but in Carpet Capers you ace a host of problems besides banging your thumb with a hammer.\r\n\r\nThe game has nine screens, each one representing a different room to be carpeted and each one presenting particular problems. In the conservatory there are numerous bushes to be avoided. In the billiard room an enormous table blocks your path.\r\n\r\nIn each room you have a target - in pounds - for the amount of carpet you must lay. You get only £1 for every square foot and penalties are incurred for being too slow.\r\n\r\nScattered around the screen are the various tools you need to do the job: hammers, tacks and cutters. These must be collected before you can start scoring. You must also regularly stop to eat the food and drink the tea which are in the rooms.\r\n\r\nThe main trouble, though, is that the house is full of rival fitters, all beavering away to cover the same rooms.\r\n\r\nTo move from room to room you collect the key and find the right exit - but only after reaching your target.\r\n\r\nIf you carpet yourself into a corner you have to wait for your apprentice to come and rescue you - there's no walking over new carpet.\r\n\r\nCarper Capers is frenetic fun but its graphics are disappointing - the figures are small and there are so many rivals about that the screen display is sometimes very confusing.\r\n\r\nParticularly annoying, though, is the layout of the keys. What excuse is there for having up and down next to each other? Get a joystick if you want to play this game.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"54,55","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Peter Connor","Score":"6","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Originality","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Lasting Interest","Score":"6/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"6/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair Programs Issue 22, Aug 1984","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1984-07-19","Editor":"Rebecca Ferguson","TotalPages":68,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Rebecca Ferguson\r\nConsultant Editor: John Campbell\r\nManaging Production Editor: Harold Mayes MBE\r\nStaff Writer: June Mortimer\r\nDesign: Elaine Bishop\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Holly Fleming\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Rick Holloway\r\nProduction Assistant: Dezi Epaminondou\r\nEditorial Assistant: Colette McDermott\r\nManaging Editor: Nigel Clark\r\nManaging Director: Terry Cartwright\r\nAssistant Managing Director: Barry Hazel\r\nChairman: Richard Hease\r\n\r\nU.S. Press representative Mr J. Eisenberg, JE Publishers' representative, [redacted]\r\n\r\nSinclair Programs is published monthly by ECC Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\nTelephone [redacted]\r\n\r\nIf you would like your original programs to be published in Sinclair Programs, please send your contributions, which must not have appeared elsewhere, to\r\nSinclair Programs\r\nEEC Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nPrograms should be on cassette. We cannot undertake to return them unless a stamped-addressed envelope is included. We pay £10 for the copyright of each program published.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1984 Sinclair Programs\r\nISSN No. 0263-0265\r\n\r\nPrinted and typeset by: Cradley Print PLC, [redacted]\r\n\r\nDistributed by Spotlight Magazine Distribution Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCover Design: Ivan Hissey"},"MainText":"CARPET CAPERS\r\n\r\nIn the sophisticated Spectrum software market it is not often a game populated by unanimated user-defined graphics retains the user's attention for more than a few minutes.\r\n\r\nCarpet Capers, billed as a game 'about deranged carpet fitters', does just that. The player rushes round the screen - a joystick is almost essential - lays as much carpet as possible, picks up the key and any tools lying around, and finds the door to the next room which the key unlocks.\r\n\r\nTo make matters more difficult , your apprentice undoes all the good work, if you let him; other carpet fitters are laying carpet over yours and you cannot tread on your own carpet. There are nine rooms to complete and each one is a challenge.\r\n\r\nProduced by Terminal Software, [redacted]. Price: £5.95.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"37","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"June Mortimer","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]