Producer: Micromega
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £6.95
Language: Machine code

We have had to wait quite a while now for a Micromega release, and A Day in the Life represents something of a departure for the company. There must be a finite limit to the developments a software house can make in games technology, given a particular machine, and Micromega have certainly gone a long way. Now with this new game there seems to be a sense of looking back, for A Day in the Life is not a super 3D advance, but actually a mixed collect-and-run game.

You play a very familiar character, no less than Clive Sinclair - definitely plain Clive, because the object of the game is to keep him alive long enough to get to the palace to be knighted by the Queen. The action takes place over 13 screens of varied action. As it is a day in the life, the game starts out with Clive getting out of bed. Throughout the game you have to collect one object to make a second appear, and when that has been collected you can exit the screen. On the first it is a coat, then the door key. The screens are laid out in such a way that a circuitous route is forced upon you, while objects or people get in your way or kill you off.

After a screen or two you may notice that in some respects this game does have a development in it - it is a story told in pictures. Once out of the house Clive has to visit a couple of shops before going to the station to visit the Autobank, go back to collect his forgotten umbrella, then dash onto the already leaving train. The train takes him to another station which is dangerously crowded to visit another shop to buy a copy of the Financial Times and back to the train before it leaves the station. Each screen has its own time limit, in the case of the last two it is the slowly departing train - will you make it in time? The train disembarks at a London station, not far from the Underground, but first there is the busy bar to visit, the bank and fast food joint before dashing for the Tube to the Palace.

The moving objects on each screen are so arranged to move in patterns, bouncing off each other in unpredictable ways to make life harder. Quite often it takes a few moments to suss out actually how to move about the screen. Should you survive to the Palace you will be rewarded with a lowering of the royal sword and a knighthood.

COMMENTS

Control keys: user-definable, four directions needed
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair 2, Cursor type
Keyboard play: responsive, but finicky in movement
Use of colour: good, bright colours on a generally white ground
Graphics: above average
Sound: continuous but jerky beep music
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 5
Screens: 13

I admit to a soft spot for Micromega after giving us wonderful games like Deathchase, Full Throttle, Code Name Mat and others, so you can imagine my sense of letdown when I loaded Day in the Life and saw what looked like rather old fashioned, even boring graphics, and found that the game was incredibly simple in play. What had happened?! On screen one I felt like screaming - the movement of Clive is very finicky and you have to position him precisely. Old fashioned and frustrating, I thought. But the strange thing is that after playing for about half an hour the damned thing began to grow on me - and not just because of Micromega. Actually, Day in the Life turns out to be an amusing, difficult and strangely attractive game. Attractive in the sense that the graphics are very unusual, well drawn and although not massively animated, there is a lot of detail in them. 'You', Clive, are just the well known, bearded face - very characterful in fact. Well I can't in all honesty say that this is the follow up from Micromega to all those other titles I listed before, but it is still a different and interesting game which requires some patience at first and a deal of timing skill to get through.

It's unusual for Micromega to put out a game like this, they usually deal with hi-tech space age games. But then again, l suppose you've got to part from the theme at some point. At first glance at this game it looks very boring to play and unattractive. Playing the game reveal a few more items - quite a few things to do to keep you busy, but nothing terribly exciting. After playing the game for about an hour l became quite bored with it. Moving Clive about is a very fiddly lob and you need to be precisely positioned to get into the gaps, which does become frustrating when you constantly lose lives. The graphics move very smoothly at varying speeds, they are well detailed and quite colourful, but don't seem to add much to the game. Continuous (if you can call it that) music varies in speed depending on how many characters are on screen - not very good programming. To sum this game up it is definitely not up to Micromega's high standards, and although I found it quite playable I would not recommend it - l have come to expect more of Micromega.

Normally Micromega games are a joy to play but A Day in the Life doesn't rate as well as their other games. The graphics are poor and not a patch on the graphics used in Full Throttle. Sound is all right but nothing to shout about. The game isn't playable and certainly not addictive. This is really a big disappointment coming from Micromega and I hope they never release another game like this!

Dave: At last, good old Uncle Clive has finally received the recognition he deserves. Today's the day he has to toddle off to Buck House to collect his gong as a Dame Commander of the British Empire (bet he's chuffed. Ed.) On the way, he's got to cope with all the aggro of commuting, like avoiding the British Rail staff (though I always thought finding them was the tricky bit). Along the way he's also got to eat, drink and be merry.

Using the keyboard or joystick you have to control Clive - or rather his head. Now we all know he's a brainy bloke, or he wouldn't have invented the Speccy, but only showing his bonce is a bit bad! It's up to you to manoeuvre his noddle around the numerous screens collecting the booty in the correct order.

The rest of the graphics are OK I suppose, but the game gets a trifle tedious because of Clive's finicky ways. He just won't do what you want unless he's in exactly the right places. A slight miscalculation and you've lost a life as well as his body. A good 'cheapie' game being sold at full price! 2/5 MISS

Roger: This could have been a satirical savaging of Sir Clive or it could have been a good game. It's neither. 1/5 MISS

Ross: A multi-screen dodge and run game that traded on a guest appearance by Uncle Clive. It kept me awake for an hour or two. but I've had better days. 3/5 MISS

Publisher: Micromega
Price: £6.95
Memory: 48K
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Sinclair

Rumours that Sir Clive has been made Dame Commander of the British Empire have been confirmed by Micromega. The epic tale of the day he set out to collect his gong takes some telling, though.

Gremlin can report that on the way to the palace Slugger Sinclair suffered a mishap at the barber's and was rendered completely bald. Even the stubbly little bits at the sides were hacked away...

More vignettes from the tempestuous saga include the robbing of a bank, a mad dash from the 8.15 to Euston to buy the Financial Times - doubtless to check up on Polecat Tebbit's conversations with the Italian typists who bought Acorn - scenes of drunken abandon in Carlos' bistro, and petty larceny at the chemists in search of a bottle of hair restorer...

The full version of Uncle's Big Day is told by Micromega in A Day in the Life, a new departure for gossip columnists in that the sordid tale is recorded on cassette, and accessed by joystick, for 27 screens of attractively clear and stylish graphics.

Slugger is represented by a rotund head with that distinctive hairstyle which has made the micro magnate the Lady Di of the computer scene. He bounces with respectable speed through the crowded streets of London, up and down stairs, all the while attempting to avoid ticket collectors, rogue gobstoppers, dancing beermugs and the like. A whiff of the Manic Miner is definitely in the air...

Humour and intelligence are not qualities Gremlin associates with the micro world generally, excepting of course the offices and pages of Sinclair User. Micromega certainly seems to have found a private supply of its own.

20 billion unsold waterproof C5 ponchos in grey plastic to anyone who can explain how to get past the sentries at Buck House in time to hear the wonderful full BEEP version of Land of Hope and Glory...

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Micromega
PRICE: £6.95

Programmer Stephen Redman picked a controversial subject for his first game - Sir Clive Sinclair.

You have to guide Sir Clive a important day in his life - the day he has to pick up his knighthood from Buck House!

He has to brave the difficulties of getting dressed in his computerised house, the terrors of commuting, the problems of making a cash-card machine actually cough up and the perils of shopping.

The game isn't just good because of its novelty value - it is playable too. Lots of puzzles to be solved and lots of fun to be had doing them! The graphics are big and bold and the little "Sir Clive" character is really neat!

No, we don't yet know what the man himself thinks about the game. But watch C&VG to find out.

PRICE: £6.95
GAME TYPE: Arcade

Some celebrities have their lifestyle celebrated on television, some describe their daily routine in the glossy colour supplements. It seems only fair that Sir Clive should have his life examined in A Day in the Life, a Spectrum arcade game.

Life as computer guru seems not to be as straight forward as you would imagine. For one thing, Clive appears to have mislaid most of himself, although his head rolls merrily on regardless. As the game progresses he loses some of his more vital characteristics, not to mention a great deal of lives. Still, what can you expect, venturing into London at a level even lower than that of a C5?

The game claims to detail a day in Clive's life as he makes his way to Buck House to receive the award of Dame Commander of the British Empire. To do this successfully he must cross various screens: the bank, the station, the street etc until he stands at the foot of the throne.

The puzzles are difficult, requiring split second timing and quick reactions. A Day in the Life is produced for the 48K Spectrum by Micromega, 230 Lavender Hill, London.

Micromega
Spectrum
£6.95

One of those twee games featuring you-know-who (snigger, snigger) a bloke with bald head and glasses who is (tee-hee) quite important in the (ha-ha) U.K. computer industry.

Oh no, oh no it's no good I can't hold back, it's Sir Clive and the game has really primitive graphics.

£5.95
Micromega

A humorous game dedicated to "the man who put us ail into business", this has you guiding the Head of Sinclair around several screens of objects to collect and people to avoid. An unusual combination of platform and maze games and all in a 3D perspective.

The graphics looks sparse in comparison to some games on the market, but after a few plays I came to appreciate the uncluttered display - simple in concept it may be, but simple to play it is not. A nice sense of humour runs throughout, and I even found the insert notes funny.

The object of the game is to get Clive to Buck House to be invested as Dame Commander of the British Empire, you start in his house in bed and have to get clothes and a key to get out, avoiding the animated TV, Spectrum, cat (so far it's just like home - Ed.) and the bug in the attic. Objects bounce off each other and just as you think you've got it sussed they collide and come back unexpectedly - exit one of your five lives. Scoring is simply calculated by the time in which you complete each screen and the top score is kept and displayed.

I liked it but found it frustrating as it looked so easy, probably Underwurlde experts may find it rather easy, but for most of us the difficulty is just right, making you want just ONE more go.

Micromega, 230-236 Lavender Hill, London SW11.