Producer: Orpheus
Retail Price: £7.95
Author: Richard Wilkins

The saga of crazy-wacky student antics continues with Vyvyan, Rick, Mike and Neil competing for social domination in their seedy student digs. Comrade Bolowski, their landlord, has had enough of their slovenly living habits and is turfing all four out. You must help them pack up their belongings so they can leave.

To start, you choose which Young One you want to become, and a different set of belongings has to be gathered up for each character. The characters all act appropriately: Mike, for instance, wants to take his loud ties while Rick won't leave without his anarchic girlie dresses. Each character has to collect his belongings and put them into the appropriate moving-out container. Rick packs a rucksack, Neil has a wheelbarrow, Mike uses a suitcase and Vyvyan chooses the bin liner. Once these have been located it's a case of pottering around the house trying to get things together. Packing is made difficult because the other three also pick up some of your character's property.

The game is controlled via a nested menu system, with three main options: Action; Talk and Walk. Action enables you to pick up, drop, open, close, eat or smash objects. Talk puts words into your characters speech bubble - paying attention to what is said provides clues to the whereabouts of objects. The walk option allows movement round the property. Walk' accesses a list of rooms, and selecting the required location moves your character. The radio and T.V to provide hints, too.

Once your character has packed up all his belongings he is free to leave the house and search for somewhere new to crash for the night...

COMMENTS

Control keys: P page up menu, ENTER page down menu, 0 to select
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: not very subtle
Graphics: just adequate
Sound: blips and burps
Skill levels: one
Screens: split screen play area

There is nothing about this game that stands out or impresses me in any way. It's unplayable, unaddictive and generally boring. The graphics, although colourful, are full of colour clash; the character animation is jerky and a bit flickery and the sound is limited to the odd spot effect here and there. The one thing that really surprised me was the swearing! It isn't something that I've come across before in computer games. There isn't much to this game. I doubt even ardent fans of the series will be impressed.

I really wanted this to be a good game, but it's the exact opposite: useless. The inlay is highly amusing, but largely irrelevant to the game! The things said inside the speech bubbles are initially quite amusing, as you see the characters saying things you hear them say on the T.V., but after a while the language gets pretty appalling. The graphics are small and uninteresting, and colour clashes occur everywhere. I think The Young Ones is really substandard. Orpheus' slogan reads 'never look back'. I wouldn't waste my time even turning around for a game that's as bad as this.

Yes, the TV series was great, but I'm afraid The Young Ones computer game is a terrible let down. All it seems to be is an excuse for Orpheus to put a few swear words in the game and think that 'the kids' will love it. One problem with the idea, though, you've got to have a game to start with. Not so in this case. The only relevance to the TV series is that there are four 'guys' living in a building. You can't really play The Young Ones seriously in my opinion - more fun is had watching the other people in the house walking around saying very stupid things. When I played the game properly I got very bored, as there isn't much to it. I can't recommend it.

Orpheus
£7.95

Hi there, girly bastards - your starter for ten. What TV series featured bogies, lentils and a psychotic hamster? No, not Emmerdale Farm - though that was close - but The Young Ones, probably British TV's most wacky, alternative, offensive half hour... until the next most wacky, alternative, offensive half hour comes along. Still, it catapulted its four stars to fame and fortune and we all know what that means nowadays, don't we? Yup - a computer tie-in.

Quite how to convert the cult comedy show must've given somebody some sleepless nights, and Orpheus sensibly decided to go for the tastelessly squalid tone of the piece and the setting that we all know and love, the decrepit and decaying house. Once you've chosen which of the quartet you want to play, the idea is to leave your abominable abode. That means gathering your belongings together, and as nothing is ever straightforward, you'll probably need a whole lot of other things before you can finally say goodbye to the slum.

Let's take an example. Mike, the cool person, wants a five pound note. The roundabout way to the bluey is via Rick's piggy bank, subtly opened with an axe to obtain a 10p piece, then a quick phone call to sell Colonel Gaddafi (making his home micro debut, as far as I know) the bomb that's lying around in the kitchen and obtain a fiver deposit. Simple, see. Mike can then put his money in his suitcase, while Vyvyan prefers a bin liner, Rick a ruck sack and Neil a wheelbarrow.

But you can only be a young one once and while you're frantically running round the other three are also preparing to evacuate, moving things and possibly taking possession of all your worldly goods.

The other important aspect of the game is speech, which is via cartoon-style bubbles. The others will fill you in on what they're doing, while the Talk option from the control menu lets your character make suggestions, not all of which will be helpful as his artificial intelligence isn't infallible.

All the graphics are recognisable as are the details of the house. There are attribute problems, as you might expect, but they're not too objectionable. My main worry concerns gameplay. Though the whole thing is rather like a perverse Wally adventure it somehow lacks the charm - though why I should expect charm from The Young Ones, I don't know. If you're a fan of the series you'll probably love it, taking ever increasing joy in appearances from SPG, a chainsaw and a copy of Girlyfun magazine. But without that total devotion you may find it wears thin rather quickly. Speaking for myself, I found it all too close to real life to be funny.

Publisher: Orpheus
Price: £7.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: Sinclair, Kempston, cursor

Cliff Richard doesn't get thrown out of the window but if you want to get the zits off your botty this program will show you how.

The Rather Elderly By Now Ones has finally arrived, complete with lots of hype about a wonderful new artificial intelligence routine called Puppetmaster. It's Orpheus' word for the bits of the program which allow the four characters to each do different things at the same time.

What you see is two rooms at a time of the Young Ones' house, and the four characters - Neil, Rick, Mike and Vyv - moving around. At the top of the screen a series of menus appear, offering various commands like 'walk', 'talk,' 'open' and so on, or a list of objects to pick up and use.

You choose which character to control for the game, and although the objective is the same - to get out of the house - each character has to solve different problems and collect different objects to do that. The ultra-violent Vyv shoves his collection into a bin-liner, for example, while Mike will stash his supercool gear into a suitcase. Vyv is supposed to be the easiest character to play, according to the hint sheet, but all the problems seem pretty tough to me.

Buffs may start muttering Everyone's a Wally to themselves at this point. Certainly there are no arcade skills - everything depends on finding the right objects and using them in the right way. Neil uses the lighter to light his joint, which is obvious enough, but who's going to guess that the cat likes peas which must be defrosted with a blowtorch first?

The graphics are not immensely impressive. I found myself more or less ignoring them most of the time and concentrating on the menus which made the game feel like a particularly stunted adventure. Some of the objects are only recognisable when you match them up with the list at the top, and many have an alarming habit of disappearing if you 'open the bed'. While there may be a reasonable explanation for that - it certainly seems to be part of the problem solving - there's no sense of realism in it.

Characters speak, which gives them genuine characters of a sort. Rick says things like, "It would be really anarchic to pick up the kettle." while Neil might say. "If I don't pick up the chainsaw no-one else will." The words appear in speech bubbles, which hover in place for a bit while the character walks out from under, again spoiling the feel. They do however give clues about what's going on - you might discover that Mike has picked up the seeds which you, as Neil, want to put in the grave. "We sow the seed, we grow the seed, we eat the seed..."

Cosmic stuff, eh?

Not really. Orpheus has put a lot of effort into explaining how wizard Puppetmaster is, but what it really boils down to is a point system for various actions so that characters will tend to do things which have a high point value for them. The idea is as ancient as Galaxians, though I still love watching computer-controlled characters picking up and dropping the same object over and over again because the software can't think of anything better to do.

The humour works best if you know the series well. Alas, it's some time since the programmes were shown, and memory fades. I did recognise a few of the objects - SPG the hamster, the golfball in the toilet and Neil's grave-digging reverie, among others. If you're not familiar with the characters, you'll have trouble working out who does what.

The trouble with these ambitious multi-character programs is that, while there may be masses of brilliant code designed to imitate artificial intelligence, you never really appreciate it when you play. As it is, you're left with disappointing graphics on a rather chaotic game.

The one unusual feature is the way other characters interfere with you, stealing your objects and telling tales on each other. That lends extra dimensions to the strategy, but can also frustrate a carefully plotted solution.

If you want this sort of stuff, then the Wally games or Brian Bloodaxe may be more accessible. Fans of the series and utter bastards with spotty bottoms who write revolutionary poetry about Vanessa Redgrave should add another star to the rating and take a sledgehammer to their piggy-banks.

They'll love it - lentils, girlymags, dead rats and all.

MACHINE: C64/Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Orpheus
PRICE: £7.95

If you thought Friday 13th was the sorriest bit of software of '85 then think again. The Young Ones, which arrived after a lot of pre-release hype from the publishers Orpheus, is a prime contender for that dubious title.

It features the four characters from that cult Beeb TV comedy series Vyvyan, Mike, Rik and Neil the Hippy and he sordid world they inhabit. Their house, the launderette, the local corner shop and their back garden. There's a few other locations - but they are of no real importance - for what starts off to look like an arcade adventure with a difference is just that. The main difference is that there's no adventure - more precisely there's no game.

You see the characters wandering about, you can take control of your favourite personality and make him move around the various locations using the joystick and a menu. You can even pick things up and move them about - but to no apparent purpose.

Not even the speech bubbles which issue juvenile humour from the mouths of the characters give you any real clue to what's going on. The same can be said for the "instruction" sheet which comes with the game. All it says is that you have to pack your belongings and move out of the house.

The menu which appears at the top of the screen allows you to instruct your chosen character where to go.

But that appears to be all. Phone calls to get more information about the game drew a blank at Orpheus - so we can only assume that this IS the complete product or the company have foisted a half finished game on an unsuspecting public.

Orpheus claim that members of the Young Ones helped out during the production of the game. Let's hope Vyvyan doesn't get to see the finished product or there could be trouble...

Various
Orpheus
Arcade Adventure
£7.95

Orpheus brings anarchy to your computer with The Young Ones. You take the part of one of the quirky quartet. Your object is to gather your belongings and get out of the house before the whole rotting edifice crashes round your ears or, worse still, someone asks for the rent.

It is an arcade adventure in the Wally tradition. Your large animated character wanders round picking up things and solving problems, such as how can Vyvian pick up SPG, the assassin hamster, without losing more of his arm than he can spare safely.

Most of the solutions to the problems will be obvious to aficionados of the TV series and the game relies heavily on recreating the chaos of the small screen.

It does so by using the other three characters in the house to get in the way generally and make things awkward. You also have to identify which things in the house are yours. That is a combination of remembering the series, by gaining clues from the other characters and by using the talk command.

That, in many locations, admits you to the tortured workings of your chosen character's "mind". Fans of the series will love the game. Even if not a follower of the frenetic foursome, it should provide you with a few laughs.

THE YOUNG ONES ARE OUT TO CREATE HAVOC IN THIS CRYING, TALKING, SLEEPING, WALKING, LIVING GAME.

Orpheus
£7.95

It's a pity Viv is so violent, it he'd waited a few moments he'd have been able to play Orpheus' latest offering 'The Young Ones'. You've seen the programme, been sick on the record and now you can play the game.

The lads have decided to move out of their house and you can join in the chaos by becoming one of them.

At the start of the game you choose your character from the four who appear on the screen. Rik is the people's poet, a wet sociologist. Mike is the cool person and womaniser. Neil is a hippy, vegetarian and pacifist. Vivian is a punk, violent and totally irresponsible.

The personality of the character affects the way you have to play the game. For example, Neil is a dreamer and moves more slowly than the others but Viv tends to whizz around. Whoever you play, the idea is to collect all of the things which relate to your Young One's personality. The objects are scattered about the house in an anarchic manner which would appeal to Rik's political leanings. Some of the objects are fairly mundane but others are definitely weird. Amongst the kettles, video recorders and guitar cases are chain saws, bogies and dead rats.

Each person can only carry a few things at a time until he finds a suitable receptacle to put them in. For Viv this would be a black bin bag and for Neil a guitar case.

The first person to collect all of his belongings wins the game. This would be easy except for the fact that any of their chattels can be hidden in beds, the fridge, the cassette recorder or any other openable object. Certain objects rely on the possession of others before they can be picked up. The grave cannot be opened without the spade, for instance.

Inside the wardrobe in the hall is the entrance to Narnia but, unless you possess the correct item, access to this make-believe world is impossible. Other locations outside the house include the laundrette and the shop.

Control of your character is via a menu at the top right of the screen. Usually three options are available: action, talk and walk.

Action allows you to do something with one of the objects. This may simply involve picking it up or could give other possibilities like switching it on or opening it up. All of the objects in the room or carried by you are listed along the top of the screen as soon as you select the action option and you simply choose the object you want to use from this list.

Talk can give you clues to the items your character needs. All of the characters are incessant chatterers, indicated by speech balloons appearing from their mouths. Some of the words are not very nice and in one game I played the same swear word appeared on the screen three times in succession. The games market is aimed at young people and many will buy this game on the strength of the hit record 'Living Doll' and I see no necessity for trying to maintain the swearing aspect of the TV series by using language which would make Cliff Richard blush.

While I'm up on my soapbox, why include a lit joint as one of the objects? Surely games dealing with these kinds of subjects should carry some sort of warning on the box?

Walk allows your character to move to an adjoining room. Tactics are essential to successfully collect and hide items which you know the other characters are looking for, but be careful, they may get their own back!

All things considered, this is a good game but marred by its dubious taste in certain areas. Fans of the TV series will love it and have a distinct advantage over those who have never seen it before.