THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE MRS MOPP PUBLISHER Computasolve (rereleased by Atlantis) AUTHOR Tina Billett YEAR 1983 DESCRIPTION A very basic arcade type game of picking up objects, using them to perform certain tasks, and doing it all very quickly! CONTROLS A - Up Z - Down N - Left M -Right S - Magic Spell Kempston Joystick INSTRUCTIONS The game is based around a single screen and several storage utensils! You control Mrs Mopp in her kitchen. As soon as the game starts, rubbish, dirty glasses and laundry start appearing all around you. You have to run and grab the utensil which is the same colour as the rubbish in order to clean it up. These utensils can be put down at any time and exchanged for anotherone, but only one may be carried at a time and you must replace the utensil where you found it. When carrying the wrong utensil, you may not walk over the rubbish, so as the screen gets fuller it becomes more difficult to move. You must therefore change utensils regularly in order to prevent the screen from becoming too cluttered (and to stop you getting trapped!). After so many pieces of rubbish have been picked up in a utensil, it (and Mrs Mopp) will begin to flash, indicating that it is full. When this happens you can no longer pick anything up until you have emptied the utensil into the relevant cleaning machine (sink, washing machine, bin, etc.). Doing well results in level advancement, where you get a wider variety of rubbish to pick up (including some fantastic Y-Fronts) and things appear much more quickly. Mrs Mopp has to be kept happy in order to work well, and to aid in this task she is provided with a bottle of wine (!) which you can make her drink at any time when she is feeling less than 'Happy'. Be careful though, drink too much and she'll get drunk - and a lot more difficult to control! Release from impossible situations is provided in the form of magic spells, which are earned when you work well and can be used to destroy any rubbish in your immediate area. CHEATS SEQUELS/PREQUELS None. INLAY CARD TEXT ---------- MRS MOPP by Tina Billett LOADING INSTRUCTIONS 1) Connect the EAR socket on your 48k ZX Spectrum to the EAR socket of your cassette player using the appropriate lead supplied with your computer, making sure that the MIC wire is disconnected. 2) Place cassette in the player and rewind to the beginning. 3) Type LOAD " " then press the ENTER key. Press the PLAY button on the cassette player. 4) Mrs Mopp will now load and enter play mode automatically. NOTE If any difficulty is experienced, rewind the tape, adjust volume control and repeat the above. THE GAME Mrs Mopp has a very untidy family who leave their cups, shirts and other belongings all over the kitchen for Mrs Mopp to clear up. In addition to this, the kitchen also gets dirty, and must be cleaned as well as tidied. Being a tidy-minded person, Mrs Mopp has separate containers for clearing each set of items which are stored on their own shelves. The containers, however, can hold only ten objects before being emptied at the appropriate place and when full, Mrs Mopp FLASHES and must be relieved of her burden. Like any housewife, Mrs Mopp gets tired and needs refreshment, but be careful not to let her over-indulge herself!!! Unlike most housewives, however, Mrs Mopp does have a limited number of MAGIC SPELLS which, if used carefully will assist her in her task. MOVEMENT Mrs Mopp is moved around the screen either by using a Kempston joystick at the following keys: A = UP Z = DOWN N - LEFT M - RIGHT A combination of these allows Mrs Mopp to be moved diagonally ie; A plus M - UP/RIGHT; Z plus N - DOWN/LEFT. Whichever method is chosen, the following keys are used for special effects- P = PAUSE (to temporarily stop the game, any other key to restart (wait for tone after pressing) Q = QUIT self explanatory S = MAGIC SPELL PICKING UP AND DEPOSITING OBJECTS Before any clearing up can be carried out, Mrs Mopp must first be carrying the right container. This can be acquired by moving Mrs Mopp alongside the required object then, provided that no other container is already being carried, that container wilt be absorbed into her ample figure, changing her colour accordingly. Only then can items by cleared by moving over them. Each container must be replaced before another can be picked up. Common sense will dictate which container picks up which objects and their final destination. (Dust is not normally picked up and put into a laundry basket then emptied into the sink!) SCORING 5 points are awarded for each object cleared. An additional 100 points are given for each container successfully emptied. A bonus of 1000 points is scored at the end of each level beyond the first provided that at least one Magic Spell remains. Each level achieved brings more spells. At the end of play you will be given the opportunity to enter your name (maximum 8 characters) if your score exceeds that of the former champion. COPYRIGHT NOTICE This software has been compiled by, and includes part of, MCODER II which remains the property of Personal Software Services. All other rights, including graphics, illustrations and text remain the property of Computasolve Ltd and may not be copied, transmitted, transferred, reproduced, hired, tent, distributed, stored or modified in any form, in part or in full in any way without the express written permission of Computasolve Ltd, 8 Central Parade, St. Mark's Hill, Surbiton, Surrey KT6 4PJ. Tel: 01-390 5135. ---------- SCORES RECEIVED As far as I can tell, Mrs Mopp was released before any of the major Sinclair mags were around (apart from maybe Sinclair User, but I don't recall that far back!). It was never re-released, so only the oldest of Speccy users will remember it (sob, that's me, I'm getting on....) URL This snapshot is NOT widely available. I got my copy by requesting it from ca4aba@osiris.sund.ac.uk. However, to fix this I have uploaded the snap to ftp.nvg.unit.no. It is now available in the pub/sinclair/snaps/games/arcade directory as mrsmopp.zip, thanks to Arnt's very speedy service! Many thanks to him. GENERAL FACT Not much is known (if you know more, please update this document!), but here is what little I have worked out : Mrs Mopp can play up depending on the model of your Spectrum. The keyboard control causes major problems in Issue 3 Speccies - i.e. it just doesn't work! This can be shown using Gerton Lunter's Z80 emulator by selecting Issue 2 emulation OFF...try and move her now! This is one of only two games I know of which fails on an issue 3 Spectrum (the other being Rasputin, in which the music sticks on one note if you don't have an issue 2). This may have something to do with the fact below : Mrs Mopp is written in Spectrum BASIC and compiled into machine code using a BASIC compiler, which identifies itself in the snapshot as ZX COMPILER V2.0 1983 THRELFALL and HODGSON Compiled OK It plays pretty fast, but you can see how it could have originally be a BASIC game! It would probably fit into 16k, but starts too late in memory and is therefore 48k only. NOTES I love this little game - it takes me right back! I'd recommend it to anyone who got their Speccy way back when they weren't trendy (i.e. any time before Christmas '83!).