[{"TitleName":"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory","Publisher":"Hill MacGibbon","Author":"A. Curtis, N. Head, Michael Foreman","YearOfRelease":"1985","ZxDbId":"0000899","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 19, Aug 1985","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-07-25","Editor":"Graeme Kidd","TotalPages":132,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Publishing Executive: Roger Kean\r\nEditor: Graeme Kidd\r\nTechnical Editor: Franco Frey\r\nArt Editor: Oliver Frey\r\nProduction Designer: David Western\r\nSoftware Editor: Jeremy Spencer\r\nAdventure Editor: Derek Brewster\r\nStrategy Reviewer: Angus Ryall\r\nStaff Writer: Lloyd Mangram\r\nContributing Writers: Matthew Uffindel, Chris Passey, Robin Candy, Ben Stone, John Minson, Mark Hamer\r\nClient Liaison: John Edwards\r\nProduction Manager: Sally Newman\r\nSubscription Manager: Denise Roberts\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\n©1985 Newsfield Limited.\r\nCrash Magazine is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions [redacted]\r\nEditorial/studio [redacted]\r\nAdvertising [redacted]\r\n\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios, [redacted]; Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset Ltd (Member of the BPCC Group), [redacted].\r\nDistribution by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £14.50 post included (UK Mainland); Europe: 12 issues £21.50 post included. Outside Europe by arrangement in writing.\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. The opinions and views of correspondents are their own and not necessarily in accord with those of the publishers.\r\n\r\nMICRONET:\r\nYou can talk to CRASH via Micronet. Our MBX is 105845851\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Hill MacGibbon\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\nRetail Price: £9.95\r\nLanguage: Basic and machine code\r\nAuthor: Soft Option Ltd\r\n\r\nThe five games included in this package are loosely based on Roald Dahl's best selling children's book of the same name. The literate among you may well remember the story that went something along these lines... The owner of the local chocolate factory was getting near his time and wanted to find a successor to take over the factory. He sent out five little coupons inside 5 bars of chocolate and then told the world. Well, everybody we bananas and started buying lots of chocolate, everybody except Charlie because his family could only afford one bar. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Charlie got his voucher and went with four others on what they thought was just going to be a day trip.\r\n\r\nThe five games each relate to the five voucher winners, Charlie, Augustus, Violet, Veruca and Mike. All of you will know that all of the others perished (for a while) due to a combination of nosiness, greed and gluttony. Charlie, being a kind-hearted sort, has taken on the challenge of rescuing his foolish companions.\r\n\r\nThe game on side 'A' is divided up into four parts. Each one is a single screen arcade game relating to the events surrounding the demise of Charlie's four companions. Augustus Gloop is trapped inside a network of pipes and you must guide him to the bottle by closing off sections of the pipe. Violet Beauregarde is having a bad time with a load of blueberries. The berries are raining down from above and you must deflect them into the juicing machine. Only when the vat is full will she be safe. Veruca Salt has upset the squirrels and they are after her blood. The only way she can avoid being caught is to poison them all by placing poison nuts in their path. Careful though, the poison only has a very short life. Meanwhile Mike Teavee, the nerd, is trying to pinch all of the Wonka bars off each of the five platforms in the warehouse. Not in itself difficult, except that the cameras are after him firing their lethal shrinking ray. Being able to hop on the inter-platform lifts may not be enough to save this wally…\r\n\r\nThe fifth game, which is loaded from the 'B' side, is the final part of the story. If you are successful in the first four games you will be given a code which allows you to play the main game for real, otherwise you'll be stuck with the practice mode. Charlie's objective is to collect the six gold keys which will allow him into the glass lift. To do this he must work his way through 43 screens avoiding being squashed by platforms, sweets, marshmallows and the like.\r\n\r\nAnd they all lived happily ever after....\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nControl keys: 6/7 left/right, 8/9 up/down, 0 to fire\r\nJoystick: Kempston\r\nKeyboard play: poor response\r\nUse of colour: pretty tatty\r\nGraphics: dated and slow\r\nSound: nice tunes\r\nSkill levels: one, with practice mode for the fifth game\r\nLives: between three and twelve\r\nScreens: total of 47","ReviewerComments":["When I received my copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I thought that it might be something a bit special. The packaging was excellent, including a free book. But what a disappointment! The graphics on both sides of the tape are very flickery and do not flow at all, although the colour and sound brightened things up a little. The keyboard selections were not very good and. to make matters worse, the game did not respond well to keyboard play. I am sorry that for £9.95 the games did not do justice to the packaging.\r\r\nUnknown","You might think that almost a tenner for a game is quite a lot. Some people moan about Ultimate's prices but they do produce rather good games. This package includes four arcade games and a son of arcade adventure as well as a book. The arcade games are not at all special. While the graphics are reasonable the games are not very playable. The graphics in the adventure are OK but again not inspired by any means. The game itself is pretty hard - perhaps too hard, because l think if this game has any appeal at all it must be to the little ones.\r\r\nUnknown","I didn't like any of the games presented in this package. The standard of the graphics and the sound is poor. The graphics are jerky and hard to follow. I found it very hard to move the characters in any of the games, probably because the keyboard responded so badly. If I had to pick one out of the games it would be Augustus because it was pretty original. A shame that what looked like being good value turned out so badly.\r\nUnknown"],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: A bit of a disappointment.","Page":"38,39","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"A Squiggly Wiggly screen from CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. Who on earth does the plumbing in the Wonka Bar factory?"},{"Text":"Killer Cameras chase the naughty person, in a screen from CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. It's your job, as the nice Charlie, to rescue the miscreant."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Use of Computer","Score":"58%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"61%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"58%","Text":""},{"Header":"Getting Started","Score":"63%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"52%","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"50%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"63%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Spectrum Issue 17, Aug 1985","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-07-18","Editor":"Kevin Cox","TotalPages":66,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Kevin Cock-up\r\nArt Editor: Phoebe Evans\r\nDeputy Editor: Rocky Horror Shaw\r\nProduction Editor: Louise Cook\r\nArt Assistant: Martin Dixon\r\nEditorial Consultant: Andrew Pennell\r\nSoftware Consultant: Gavin Monk\r\nContributors: Stephen Adams, Dave Nicholls, Roger Willis, Ross Holman, Mike Leaman, Toni Baker, Dougie Bern, Chris Cockayne, Paul Woof, Iolo Davidson, Tony Samuels, Chris Wood\r\nAdvertisement Manager: David Baskerville\r\nProduction Manager: Sonia Hunt\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Chris Talbot\r\nManaging Editor: Roger Munford\r\nArt Director: Jimmy Egerton\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Chris Robur\r\nPublisher: Stephen England\r\n\r\nPublished by Sportscene Specialist Press Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England. Telephone (all departments): [redacted]\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 Spectrum ©1985 Felden productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Spectrum is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY\r\nHill MacGibbon\r\n£9.95\r\n\r\nRoss: Well, the box looks nice... and inside there's a great book, Roald Dahl's Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. Oh yes, there's also a cassette with five games on it, but the less said about that the better!\r\n\r\nBased on various episodes in the book, the four games on side one of the tape load as one and can be accessed in any order from a menu. However, you're going to have to beat all four games on side one to get the code you'll need to start playing the game on side two.\r\n\r\nThe first game features Augustus Gloop being squirted around the maze of tubes of the sweet-making machine - your task is to guide him safely to the flask. Game two has Violet Beauregarde directing deadly blueberries at you from gaps in the wall of the juicing room. In the third game. Veruca Salt has to fend off squirrels with poisonous nuts and lastly, game four depicts Mike Teavee in a levels games collecting chocolate bars whilst avoiding killer TV cameras.\r\n\r\nThe game on the other side is a sort of Jet Set Willy clone, but it's not good enough to make up for the games on side one. Overall, I'd say the package was overpriced, with the best item being the book.","ReviewerComments":["I loved the film, but the game doesn't quite live up to it. There's a lot of variety, but I found the individual games frustrating as they were either too easy or too hard.\r\nDave Nicholls\r\n2/5 MISS","Well, if you've read the book and seen the film, you'd be well-advised to miss the game. Seeing as how Roald Dahl is usually known for his horror stories, he'll probably be very happy with the Spectrum version!\r\nRoger Willis\r\n2/5 MISS"],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"45","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Dave Nicholls","Score":"2","ScoreSuffix":"/5 MISS"},{"Name":"Ross Holman","Score":"2","ScoreSuffix":"/5 MISS"},{"Name":"Roger Willis","Score":"2","ScoreSuffix":"/5 MISS"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 40, Jul 1985","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-06-18","Editor":"Bill Scolding","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\nEditor: Bill Scolding\r\nDeputy Editor: John Gilbert\r\nStaff Writer: Chris Bourne, Clare Edgeley\r\nDesigner: Craig Kennedy\r\nEditorial Secretary: Norisah Fenn\r\nPublisher: Neil Wood\r\n\r\nADVERTISING\r\nAdvertising Manager: Rob Cameron\r\nDeputy Advertisement Manager: Louise Fanthorpe\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executive: Kathy McLennan\r\nProduction Assistant: Jim McClure\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Linda Everest\r\n\r\nMAGAZINE SERVICES\r\nSubscriptions Manager: Carl Dunne\r\n\r\nTELEPHONE\r\nAll departments [redacted]\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to Sinclair User please send programs or articles to:\r\nSinclair User\r\nEMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nOriginal programs 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 pay £20 for each program printed and £50 for star programs.\r\n\r\nTypeset by Saffron Graphics Ltd, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Peterboro' Web, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1985 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\n91,901 Jun-Dec 1984"},"MainText":"Publisher Hill MacGibbon\r\nPrice: £9.95\r\nMemory: 48K\r\nJoystick: Kempston\r\n\r\nHave a sticky time in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, based on the renowned children's book by Roald Dahl.\r\n\r\nThere are five games - four arcade and an arcade adventure. The first four must be completed to gain entry to the final program.\r\n\r\nIn the first game Augustus Gloop has been sucked into a mass of tubes in the sweet machine. You must run left and right across the screen changing the direction of the tubes so that Augustus will flow into a flask. A pretty game but boring and frustrating to play.\r\n\r\nThe second game takes you to the juicing room where Violet Beauregarde is being squashed by blueberries.\r\n\r\nVeruca Salt has enraged the squirrels in another room and dropping poisoned nuts is the only way to prevent her being thrown down a rubbish shute.\r\n\r\nIn the last of the four, Mike Teavee is being chased by cameramen out to shrink him with rays of light. He must jump from level to level, picking up Wonka chocolate bars.\r\n\r\nThe final program is really a 43 room Jet Set Willy game and difficult to get into, even in the practice mode.\r\n\r\nYou have to guide Charlie around the factory and collect six golden keys so that he can enter the Great Glass Lift.\r\n\r\nCharlie and the Chocolate Factory palls after a very short time. However, as the package comprises five games and the book it must represent reasonable value for money.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"24","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Clare Edgeley","Score":"3","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"3/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair Programs Issue 33, Jul 1985","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-06-20","Editor":"Rebecca Ferguson","TotalPages":60,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Rebecca Ferguson\r\nStaff Writer: Colette McDermott\r\nDesign/Illustration: Elaine Bishop\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Shahid Nizam\r\nProduction Co-ordinator: Serena Hadley\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Maria Keighley\r\nSubscription Manager: Carl Dunne\r\nPublisher: Neil Wood\r\n\r\nSinclair Programs is published monthly by EMAP Business and Computer Publications.\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 £25 for the copyright of listings published and £10 for the copyright of listings published in the Beginners' section.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1985 Sinclair Programs\r\nISSN No. 0263-0265\r\n\r\nPrinted and typeset by: Cradley Print PLC, [redacted]\r\n\r\nDistributed by EMAP National Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\nAll subscription enquiries:\r\nMagazine Services,\r\nEMAP Business and Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]"},"MainText":"PRICE: £9.95\r\n\r\nCharlie and the chocolate factory is a singular book, which looks bound to convert to an original computer game. Hill MacGibbon have done such a conversion in five parts. Four games chart the fates of those obnoxious characters Augustus Gloop, Violet Beaurearde, Veruca Salt and Mike Teavee while the fifth and longest game takes you through the chocolate factory.\r\n\r\nThe first four games are simple arcade-style puzzles. Mike Teavee, for example, involves a platforms and ladders style game while Veruca Salt tries out a game reminiscent of Breakout. Augustus Gloop has the most original game, in which you must twist the pipes of a fantastic machine in order to steer Augustus to safety.\r\n\r\nThe arcade games, although difficult, hold no long term appeal, and fall to catch the anarchic humour of the book.\r\n\r\nCharlie and the Chocolate Factory comes complete with the original book by Roald Dahl.\r\n\r\nProduced for the 48K Spectrum by Hill MacGibbon, [redacted].","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"19","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Colette McDermott","Score":"53","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Rating","Score":"53%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Computer Issue 7, Jul 1985","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1985-06-20","Editor":"Toby Wolpe","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Toby Wolpe\r\nAssistant Editor: Meirion Jones\r\nProduction Editor: Ian Vallely\r\nSoftware Editor: Simon Beesley\r\nCommercial Software Editor: Paul Bond\r\nEditorial Assistant: Lee Paddon\r\nEditorial Secretary: Lynn Dawson\r\nEditorial: [redacted]\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Nick Ratnieks\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Ken Walford\r\nSenior Sales Executive: Julian Bidlake\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Kay Filbin\r\nNorthern Office: Geoff Parker\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Maxine Gill\r\nClassified: Susan Platts\r\nPublisher: Gavin Howe\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Shobhan Gajjar\r\n\r\nYour Computer, [redacted]\r\n©Business Press International Ltd 1985\r\n\r\nPrinted in Great Britain for the proprietors of Business Press International Ltd, [redacted].\r\nISSN 0263-0885\r\nPrinted by Riverside Press Ltd, [redacted], and typeset by Instep Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: U.K. £14 for 12 issues.\r\nSubscription Enquiries: [redacted]\r\n\r\nABC 131,769 June-December 1984."},"MainText":"Spectrum\r\nHill MacGibbon\r\nArcade Adventure\r\n£9.95\r\n\r\nJust imagine that! A whole day inside an enormous chocolate factory! And not just any old enormous chocolate factory! No, it's Wonka's Factory, where they make marshmallows that taste of violets, and chewing gum that never loses its flavour.\r\n\r\nThis is the prize that Charlie Bucket wins when he finds a golden ticket in a Wonka's chocolate bar. And this is the plot of Roald Dahl's scrumptious book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Now those lovely people at Hill MacGibbon have turned it into a yummy computer game.\r\n\r\nThe primary game is split into four sections based on the plight of individuals who fall foul of the Chocolate Factory in the best moralistic way. Augustus Gloop whose face is like a monstrous ball of dough with two tiny currant eyes peeping out, becomes a purple blob in one of the sweet machines. Depicted in a maze of pipelines on the Spectrum screen, you must move Charlie backwards and forwards at the base of the screen, twisting pipes until Augustus is safely decanted into a flask. Otherwise he emerges from an open pipe as a sticky cloud.\r\n\r\nThe next section has Violet Beauregarde menaced by bouncing blueberries. Basically a breakout-style format you use keys 6, 7, 8 and 9 to move Violet around and get her shield to fend off the ferocious fruit. The idea is to bounce berries into a juicer, or else.\r\n\r\nThe fourth section confronts television addict Mike Teavee with TV cameras. Their deadly rays can only be counteracted by eating Wonka bars.\r\n\r\nIn the third section Veruca Salt has enraged the squirrels in the nut room. They want to chuck her out with all the other rubbish. She tries to leave poison nuts in their path, but these fade away quickly.\r\n\r\nA nice touch is that you can practice each section without having to play the whole game, but if you rescue Charlie's companions in the primary game, then you will be given the code you need to help Charlie find the six gold keys in the chocolate factory.\r\n\r\nAnd this leads you to a whole new game on the flip-side of the cassette. This would seem to be a game in the style of Manic Miner, with 43 challenging rooms to explore, in order that Charlie can enter the Great Glass Lift.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"29","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Paul Bond","Score":"3","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"3/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"ZX Computing Issue 20, Aug 1985","Price":"£1.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-07-25","Editor":"Ray Elder","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Ray Elder\r\nEditorial Assistant: Cliff Joseph\r\nGroup Editor: Wendy J Palmer\r\nSoftware Assistant: John Gerard Donovan\r\nSales Executive: Alice Robertson\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Barry Bingham\r\nDivisional Advertising Manager: Chris Northam\r\nCopy Controller: Sue Couchman\r\nPublishing Director: Peter Welham\r\nChief Executive: T J Connell\r\n\r\nOrigination and design by MM Design & Print, [redacted]\r\nPublished by Argus Specialist Publications Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nZX Computing is published bi-monthly on the fourth Friday of the month. Distributed by: Argus Press Sales & Distribution Ltd. [redacted]. Printed by: Garnett Print, Rotherham and London.\r\n\r\nThe contents of this publication including all articles, designs, plans, drawings and programs and all copyright and other intellectual property rights therein 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 Argus Specialist Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Argus Specialist Publications Limited 1985"},"MainText":"Hill MacGibbon\r\n£9.95\r\n\r\nAn interesting package based on Roald Dahl's popular book of the same name. The tape has a different program on each side, side one being a program which consists of four arcade games and on side two is what they describe as \"a multi-screen arcade adventure\".\r\n\r\nWhen side one has loaded you have the choice of playing any of the four games in practice mode, ie. you play them as normal but your scores do not go towards getting the code needed to play the game on side two. This is quite a good idea as it means that you can practice each section until you are ready to attempt all four sections in sequence to try for the elusive code.\r\n\r\nThese games are reasonable and provide good though not very sophisticated entertainment. They are quit difficult to master and a joystick does help a lot. Side two provides a longer, 43 roomed platform type game. This can played without the code from side A but the six keys which you have to find to complete the game will not be there. However you do get infinite lives and a chance to explore the room before undertaking the final task. I found that I enjoyed playing these games but lacked the inspiration to go for the ultimate solution. Not bad if you consider it to be a pack of cut price games.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"76","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"3/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictiveness","Score":"3/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"4/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]