Producer: Automata, 48K
£10.00

There's not much to be said about Pimania, the game that launched over night the insignificant Pi Man to fame and fortune. The game is wacky, daft, weird and infuriating by turns and to date the famous prize worth £6,000 (plus index linking) has not been won. Although it runs on standard adventure game lines it takes lateral thinking into the realms of higher (or perhaps camp) art. Slow responses but that hardly matters, Pimania is a disease which overcomes most things!

Producer: Automata, 48K
£10.00

There's not much to be said about Pimania, the game that launched over night the insignificant Pi Man to fame and fortune. The game is wacky, daft, weird and infuriating by turns and to date the famous prize worth £6,000 (plus index linking) has not been won. Although it runs on standard adventure game lines it takes lateral thinking into the realms of higher (or perhaps camp) art. Slow responses but that hardly matters, Pimania is a disease which overcomes most things!

Producer: Automata, 48K
£10.00

There's not much to be said about Pimania, the game that launched over night the insignificant Pi Man to fame and fortune. The game is wacky, daft, weird and infuriating by turns and to date the famous prize worth £6,000 (plus index linking) has not been won. Although it runs on standard adventure game lines it takes lateral thinking into the realms of higher (or perhaps camp) art. Slow responses but that hardly matters, Pimania is a disease which overcomes most things!

PIMANIA IS GOING FOR GOLD

Pimania is a fascinating adventure game which has the added compulsion of a prize offered by the manufacturer to the first person who reaches the end of it.

The idea is to pass through a series of Pi-gates which exist in different places in space and time and eventually to find the place in space and time where the Golden Sundial, the prize, has been hidden.

To start the game the players must push the proper key on the keyboard. When first confronted with the task, the problems facing the adventurer seem impassable but the answers are so easy. In fact, it takes a child's mind to determine some of the clues.

The graphics are excellent and the Pi-man, a little cartoon character who can help or hinder the player, is an amusing and brilliant creation.

Some people may not buy the game because they think that when the competition is over the game will no longer be fun. That is not true, as it has many twists and turns before the final answer is found. Locating most of them will take months.

It is the best adventure game we have reviewed for the 48K Spectrum and 16K ZX-81. It is available from Automata Cartography-Ltd, 65a Osborne Road, Southsea, PO5 3LR, and costs £10.

MACHINE: Spectrum (other versions available for Dragon, ZX81 and BBC)
SUPPLIER: Automata Software
PRICE: £10

I'm not too sure that Christian Penfold and Mel Croucher should be allowed to walk the streets. Both of them are obviously warped...

What we have here is a world where saxophones turn into hang-gliders, where red herrings swim across the bottom of the screen blowing bubbles of derision, and where snatches of music confuse, hinder and occasionally help you. Along the way you'll be greeted by a blatant appeal for cash - they promise to send you a T-shirt, but what makes you think you can trust them? Throughout your adventures you'll be involved with the Pi-Man who will give you presents of useful things like blackboards, then next minute rob you blind.

It's a same that encourages all that is noble in the human spirit - namely naked, ravening greed. The prize is a specially designed £6,000 gold and diamond sundial. Whoever wins it will certainly deserve it, but will undoubtedly be a gibbering lunatic by then.

Seeing as there's so much at stake, I'm not going to tell you too much - why should I help you get rich? Suffice it to say that it's an adventure. But the objects are not your run-of-the-mill swords, magic rings and potions - you pick up TV dinners, cans of worms, handfuls of valium...

The object is to get through the Gate of Pi, which will reward you with a place name and date. Turn up at the appointed time and an Automata person will hand over the goodies.

There are potential clues in everything, probably even in the horrendous 'disco single' on the other side of the program tape.

The Pi-Man does a mean hokey-cokey. The animation makes nonsense of the fact that the Spectrum is a slow computer. And the cassette case should carry a government health warning: this game can damage your brain. It would appear that Automata staff are not expecting an early winner - if no one shows up on the first date set they promise to return at the same time on the same day of every year until the prize is won.

Memory Required: 48K
Price: £10

MYSTERY MEETING

A gold sundial worth £6,000 is the prize for the first person to solve all the clues in the adventure game Pimania, As in Kit Williams' book Masquerade, deciphering all the clues will lead the winner to a meeting at a specific time and place with representatives from the authors of the game, Automata Ltd.

The other side of the program tape contains a disco single. Automata say that the clues are scattered in the music, the program and the graphics. Although we did not proceed very far with the quest the music and opening graphics seemed to bear out Automata's claim that the world of the Pi-Man is totally bizarre.

I thought Pimania was the reason I'm two stone overweight until I received Automata's new adventure program for the 48K Spectrum. Advertised as 'The Adventure Game that's for Real', there is more than just satisfaction awaiting the person who cracks this puzzle. If you interpret the clues correctly you can work out the time, date and place where someone will be waiting to hand over the 'Golden Sundial of Pi'. The Sundial is £6,000 worth of gold, diamond, lapis lazuli and obsidian, crafted by the award-winning designer, Barbara Tipple. The prize is on show at Southsea, and will also be displayed at computer fairs and exhibitions (accompanied by Securicor, I hope, in case anyone thinks of a less subtle method of winning it!).

The program starts in a none-too-friendly way with dire threats against anyone attempting to pirate Pimania. Then you have to work out the 'key' which unlocks the First Gate of Pi, and you get to meet the Pi Man for the first time. This all-singing, all-dancing little creature appears from time to time in the adventure, and may help or hinder your progress.

BAKED BEANS

The adventure itself is not a particularly large one, around 20-30 locations, with only short descriptions. The locations are logically connected, and you move between them by entering a number, which may or may not have been suggested in the description. Objects are randomly scattered around, and a pretty odd bunch of objects they are - a cross between the 'Generation Game' conveyor belt and the adverts that come after. A cuddly toy, hula hoop, pork pie, baked beans and quite a few others are to be found, although I didn't have time to do anything very useful with them afterwards!

The program's vocabulary is described as 'absolutely vast', but if you exclude the objects and words which have no useful effect, the actual vocabulary is pretty small. The processing of words entered is reasonably quick, but if the phrase is not understood or a number is entered which is not a valid exit, the command is rejected and the location re-displayed on the screen. This makes the game rather slow to play.

Automata are (in)famous for their ZX81 'cans of worms' programs, and despite the attempt to go more up-market with Pimania, some of the program is distinctly seedy. Rancid sewage pipes flow into clogged canals, watch out for the scab-infested odorous pit and you can guess what the sound effects are when you collect the baked beans! If frustration causes you to use language more suitable for the 'can of worms', you will be harshly punished by the Pi Man.

ALL SINGING, ALL DANCING

Where the program does score is in the large number of tunes and the clever use of moving user-defined graphics. The tunes range from the 'Hokey Cokey' complete with dancing Pi Man, to a gratingly not-quite right rendering of 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' when you collect the Valium!

I didn't have sufficient time to work out how the objects relate to each other or to the locations, so I haven't any idea what the solution is or what form it might take. But with so many objects, tunes, locations and graphics, some or all of which may provide clues to the treasure, there's certainly many hours of detective work to put in.

'Pimania' is £10 and is available from Automata Ltd., 65A Osborne Road, Portsmouth PO5 3LR.

The first move towards graphic adventures takes you on a journey through the mysterious Pi-Land in which objects have to be collected in the correct order so that the Gate of Pi and the Golden Sundial can be found.

The game combines puzzles with the slapstick comedy of the Pi-man who pops up from time to time and does incredible things with a saxophone. It is also one of the first games in which is hidden the secret to a prize, the Golden Sundial. The combination of innovative software and a challenging competition has made the product a legend.

Position 18/50

Pimania really IS different! It is a complete entertainments package!

It all starts with a flashing picture of the Golden Sundial of Pi, a prize worth £6,000 offered to the first person to solve the puzzle.

The player is accompanied by the Pi Man, who starts off by laughing himself silly, and proceeds to offer extremely disconcerting comments.

The game offers a series of puzzles and clues, interspersed with funnies Like a little man who for no reason walks boldly on to the screen and dances the Hokey Kokey to music, a dog that walks up to a tree and barks at it, and a commercial break offering Pimania tee-shirts in grotesque colours and sizes which are all out of stock!

So when the player gets thoroughly frustrated over a problem, the chances are that a good laugh is just around the corner.

The computer program is complemented by a catchy audio number or the reverse side of the tape, "Pimania" by Clair Sinclive and the Pimen. Show business, pork pies, and a deaf-aid among other things feature in this.

I suspect that there are clues hidden in every part of the whole package, and that it will take a very long time to solve.

One thing is certain - it will never bore anyone with a sense of humour!

Pimania is available from Automate of Portsmouth and runs on the 48K Spectrum and 16K ZX81. It costs £10 for the Spectrum and £8 for the ZX81.