MAN ABOUT THE HOUSE

You play the part of Ernie Spludge. he of First Past The Post and Get Me To The Church On Time fame. Your wife Rosie has gone into hospital to have your first little Spludge or in this case splodge. Having had the house to yourself for the past week or so you have turned it into a right pigsty and as you have to pick Rosie and the baby up from the hospital sometime today you had better do some fast thinking.

Your first task is to find the hoover and start cleaning or better still get someone to do it for you while you deal with ail the other problems that have cropped up while Rosie has been away These include finding your missing dog, getting the car repaired, and delivenng your wife s manuscript to her publisher. You also need to find your cheque book and some change tor a bus trip into town before you can carry out any of these tasks not to mention booking a driving lesson (don't forget your provisional driving licence) and booking a coach ticket You will need to do some busking if you can find a suitable instrument but watch out for the policeman, Rosie wouldn't like it if you got arrested.

If you played the first two games you won't find this too difficult although I did need some help to get me started There is no search input in the game, examining an object will always suffice and it is verb/noun only, so no complicated inputs It isn't a big game location wise, but there is some toing and froing which can be a bit frustrating if you don't make a map You may be forgiven for thinking that some of the locations look as though they might hold a clue or two, so don't be tooled.

There is also a time limit to get everything done before picking Rosie up from the hospital, which shouldn't be a problem if you get up in time. There is a clock in the top right hand of the screen so you can keep an eye on the time.

A word of warning - don't be in too much of a hurry to leave the house.

Available from: Zenobi Software (please see inside back cover for address) Price Spectrum £2.49 (tape or 3.5” +D disk) £3.49 (3‘ +3 disk) Amiga and PC £2.99 (including FREE emulator). Please add 25p to cover postage and packing

Reviewed by Vicky Jackson on a Spectrum