[{"TitleName":"Orm and Cheep: The Birthday Party","Publisher":"Macmillan Software Ltd","Author":"Widgit Software Ltd","YearOfRelease":"1985","ZxDbId":"0009151","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Spectrum Issue 21, Dec 1985","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-11-21","Editor":"Kevin Cox","TotalPages":82,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Kevin Cox\r\nArt Editor: Martin Dixon\r\nDeputy Editor: Peter Shaw\r\nProduction Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nEditorial Consultant: Andrew Pennell\r\nSoftware Consultant: Gavin Monk\r\nContributors: Stephen Adams, Dougie Bern, Nick Davies, Peter Freebrey, Ross Holman, Dave Janda, Max Phillips, Rick Robson, Tony Samuels, Chris Wood, Phil South\r\nAdvertisement Manager: David Baskerville\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Neil Dyson\r\nProduction Manager: Sonia Hunt\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Chris Talbot\r\nManaging Editor: Roger Munford\r\nArt Director: Jimmy Egerton\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":"ORM AND CHEEP - THE BIRTHDAY PARTY\r\nMacmillan\r\n£6.95\r\n\r\nRick: Orm and Cheep doesn't exactly roll off the tongue like Starsky and Hutch or Arfur and Tel but they're the teeny heroes of the TV screen. Macmillan are definitely aiming this little offering at the under eights. However, in the best tradition of Watch With Mother (or Dad) this game is well presented and requires enough thought to allow oldies to play along too.\r\n\r\nThe game starts with a reaction test which will determine the ability level you start on. A memory test follows with Cheep, a flighty little thing, having to choose the ingredients for Orm's (the caterpillar with the gorms) birthday.\r\n\r\nCheep, the chatty little canary, then has to round up all the guests for the party too. Hedgehog, snail and mouse can be found through a simple maze which even has signposts to help the lost. Mole's underground tunnels are a little more complex and require some mapping out - all good practice for a budding computer buff. It's not that easy though you've got to avoid those nasty baddies the cat, crow and rat whilst you search.\r\n\r\nOnce the gang's all there they have to be seated in the correct chairs. Having achieved that, the crow turns up and causes a kerfuffle so you have to start again. Never mind. The program cunningly adjusts the skill level the more accomplished you become.\r\n\r\nGood, clear and colourful graphics, excellent sound effects and unpatronising instructions and attitude toward the younger user all go to make this a solid starter and, dare I say, educational game.","ReviewerComments":["Takes you back to your childhood, dunnit? Shame about Cheep's broken wing though...\r\nRoss Holman\r\n7/10","Educational software always seems to have the best graphics routines - why can't other publishers get to this standard?\r\nDougie Bern\r\n8/10"],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"53","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Ross Holman","Score":"7","ScoreSuffix":"/10"},{"Name":"Rick Robson","Score":"8","ScoreSuffix":"/10"},{"Name":"Dougie Bern","Score":"8","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 45, Dec 1985","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-11-18","Editor":"Bill Scolding","TotalPages":156,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\nEditor: Bill Scolding\r\nDeputy Editor: John Gilbert\r\nStaff Writers: Chris Bourne, Clare Edgeley\r\nDesigner: Gareth Jones\r\nEditorial Secretary: Norisah Fenn\r\nPublisher: Neil Wood\r\n\r\nADVERTISING\r\nAdvertising Manager: Louise Fanthorpe\r\nDeputy Advertisement Manager: Shahid Nizam\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\nCover Photograph: Spitting Image Productions Ltd.\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. Please write 'Program Printout' on the envelopes of all cassettes submitted.\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\n102,023 Jan-Jun 1985"},"MainText":"Publisher: Macmillan Software\r\nPrice: £6.95\r\nMemory: 48K\r\n\r\nTaking cartoon characters from the television and using them for software isn't always successful, but two games by Macmillan Software work quite well.\r\n\r\nBoth are programmed by Widgit, by now veterans in this field. Orm and Cheep - The Birthday Party is a younger style Phineas Fogg. There are no words to read and it is essentially a maze game.\r\n\r\nCheep has to overcome certain problems before bringing all his friends to Orm's birthday party, but first he must find his friends. Mole is the most difficult to find.\r\n\r\nElementary maps can certainly help. Decisions are easily made by pressing a key when a signpost flashes.\r\n\r\nNarrow Squeaks is a collection of four games, mainly concerned with logic puzzles. The graphics are good and I particularly liked Rat's Game where you have to move each of the animals out of a hollow tree trunk.\r\n\r\nBoth games appeal to the 4-7 age group and a useful addition to the family library.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"30","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Theodora Wood","Score":"4","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"4/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 22, Nov 1985","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-10-24","Editor":"Graeme Kidd","TotalPages":156,"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\nProduction Assistants: Gordon Druce, Matthew Uffindell\r\nSoftware Editor: Jeremy Spencer\r\nAdventure Editor: Derek Brewster\r\nSub Editor: Sean Masterson\r\nStaff Writer: Lloyd Mangram\r\nContributing Writers: Chris Passey, Robin Candy, Ben Stone, John Minson, Mark Hamer, Gary Liddon, Julian Rignall, Gary Penn\r\nClient Liaison: John Edwards\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: MacMillan Software\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\nRetail Price: £6.95 each\r\nLanguage: machine code\r\nAuthor: Widgit Software\r\n\r\nI must confess that I'd never heard of Orm and Cheep before these programs landed on my desk. The publicity handouts, however, informed me that Orm (a worm) and Cheep (a yellow bird of some sort) are well-loved cartoon characters from a TV programme 'watched by 72% of the 4-15 viewing audience'. Both games are marketed as being suitable for 'kids of all ages' - a very misleading statement. I know it can be very difficult to categorise games into neat age ranges, but what on earth are 'kids of all ages'? The handout, in fact, claims that 'whether you are 6, 16 or 60 you'll find Orm and Cheep a lot of fun'. Not being any of these ages myself (no, I'm not telling you how old I am?) I invited some kids ranging from 5 to 14 years of age, to look at the programs with me.\r\n\r\nBoth Narrow Squeaks and The Birthday Party begin with a reaction tester to set the level of play. The words 'Orm and Cheep' drop, one by one, towards a horizontal line and the player has to press a key to stop them as near to the line as possible. Having thus set the starting level, the difficulty of the game adjusts according to the player's skill. Narrow Squeaks contains four games, and I'm afraid we found them all totally boring and pointless. The instructions are extremely difficult to find for a start (they are hidden away in the text describing the game) and the children certainly had a lot of difficulty working out what to do as the explanations, once you have found them, are far from adequate. The objective in each game turns out to be surprisingly simple and totally uninspiring.\r\n\r\nThe Birthday Party is described as 'a compelling graphic adventure' but it can hardly be said to fit into the adventure game genre - and we definitely didn't find it 'compelling'. The idea is to move Cheep around the countryside to find animals invited to Orm's birthday party, and accompany them safely to the party having outwitted the enemy on the way. We found the noise of Cheep flapping his wings particularly irritating as the game progressed - and there is no facility for turning off the sound!\r\n\r\nThe graphics in both programs are quite nice, but I'm afraid that's the only positive thing I can say. These Orm and Cheep games got a definite thumbs down from all the testers, with the five year old saying they were the worst programs he'd seen. One parent, in fact, told me that if he'd bought the games for his children, he'd have returned them to the shop and tried to get his money back! 'Absolutely awful' just about sums them up!\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\nControl keys: any key, which keeps the game simple for the very young child\r\nJoystick: not applicable\r\nKeyboard play: responsive\r\nUse of colour: bright and attractive\r\nGraphics: appealing\r\nSound: maddening, and impossible to switch off\r\nSkill levels: adjusted automatically","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: Both games are totally awful","Page":"24","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Rosetta McLeod","Score":"42","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Use of Computer","Score":"60%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"70%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"40%","Text":""},{"Header":"Getting Started","Score":"35%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"20%","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"25%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"42%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]