FISH!
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(written by Mike Gerrard, published in Your Sinclair magazine No. 41 in 1989) 

I have to admit that Fish! (with its free exclamation mark) puts me in a tricky position, and I don't just mean at the start of the game when you're swimming upside down in a goldfish bowl. No, what I mean is that this latest Magnetic Scrolls title is co-written by our very own Phil South, so it's a bit difficult being objective when you've heard about the game from the start and seen the blood, sweat and beers that Snouty's put into the writing of it. Nevertheless, I shall try. I shall also try to avoid fishy puns, mainly because every one you could possibly think of (and some you wouldn't want to) have already been used in the game, or in the packaging. Our old friend the blue box this time contains the inevitable disk - very sorry, tape-type persons, but this is about 170K of adventure - and a one-week travel card for the Hydropolis Underground Omnibus Company, which is not valid before 9.00am Mondays-Fridays, except Dogger Bank Holidays - gerroan! There's a Fish Identification Chart, a sheet headed "How to Look After Your Fish" and a document from the Mission HQ of the Department of Inter-Dimensional Espionage. At this point you might be forgiven for thinking. "Goldfish... espionage... swimming upside down in a bowl... what the fish is going on here?" What you obviously don't know is that some fish are in fact really Inter-Dimensional Espionage Agents in disguise, and that means you. You thought you were on holiday in a bowl, but you are about to be recalled to duty by your boss, Sir Playfair Panchax, told to pull your fish finger out and get on the trail of the Seven Deadly fins, that dangerous group of inter-dimensional anarchists. To help you, your boss has conveniently sent you three time warps, and you can go through any of these at the start to revert to your normal state (whatever that is) and wind up in three different introductory adventures. It's through tune-warping that the Fins manage to commit many of their dastardly crimes. On the other side of one warp is a recording studio - the music business features very heavily in Fish! You might even find a cassette made by the Fins, and the machinery with which to play it - that's provided you're quick about it as the producer keeps asking you to make him a cup of coffee and if you don't oblige he throws you out on the streets, where you automatically warp back to your goldfish bowl - and warping hurts! Another warp leads to you waking up in the back of a grotty van, and you now seem to be the roadie to a group of some kind, who've all gone and left you to wander round in the ruin of an abbey, trying to avoid the attentions of a group of hippies. This isn't easy, especially as you end up wandering past their camp-fire carrying a church pew. This does rather tend to draw their attention to you. By now you will have gathered that Fish! is one weird game, probably a love-it or hate-it job depending on the wavelength of your sense of humour. Anyone weird enough to read YS in the first place is probably going to love it. I did have some trouble in the third warp, however, which leads to a forest clearing where another espionage agent, Micky Blowtorch (author of Warping Along With Blowtorch), is lurking. Not that he's very co-operative. In order to have a good look round the location where he was stubbornly staying, I asked him to go south east. The response was "Micky Blowtorch says, "What would anyone want to go Please insert the game disk and press any key" Now I know the games weird, but not that weird. The game disk was already in the machine. I pressed a key. Same message. I turned the disk over, even though I knew the 'B' side was blank. Same message. I turned it back again, Same message. I switched off and reloaded and made a note not to try that again! There were niggling parser problems elsewhere, too, partly due to the tricky things you had to try to do in the game. I thought the problems had just a bit too much emphasis on timing - doing things in the right numbers of moves, which means that you have to repeat actions quite a lot so as to work out the best order, that type of thing. But one thing you cannot say is that Fish! is just another mundane adventure. It's one I've kept loading up, returning to each of the warps in turn and trying to make a bit more progress in the hope of getting through to the following major part of the adventure which takes place in Hydropolis. It's tough going! It's also full of funny finny jokes, leaving no fish unpunned, and no barrel unscraped in the quest for aquatic cracks. Spectrum adventurers seem to like that kind of thing - and they should definitely like Fish! (Can I have that fiver now, Snouty?)

RATING: 9/10


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FISH! 
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(retyped by Matej Pokorn from original article published in CVG 8/88)

F I S H Exclusive Review

* SUPPLIER: RAINBIRD/MAGNETIC SCROLLS. 
* MACHINES: ATARI ST/AMIGA/C64 TURBO-LOAD VERSION TO FOLLOW. 
* PRICE: 24.50 GBP 
* REVIEWER: KEITH CAMPBELL 

It sounds corny, and it's easy to say, but I have to: Fish is like no other adventure I've played before. And then again... Fish is something like bits of Leather Goddesses, Stationfall, Lurking Horror, Border Zone, and The Pawn, all roled into one, with a bit of Monty Piton thrown in good measure. Just what sort of game am I talking about? I'm talking of the fifth game to come from Magnetic Scrolls, and the third one this year! Plotted this time by John Molloy (well known to regular C+VG readers for his contributions a few years back), Pete Kemp, and Phil South, it takes the art of adventuring into a completly new dimension - underwater! And before you say "Underwater - it's been done before!", read on... I don't know what it is about fish that makes people go completely pun crazy. I mean think about. Why fish? If someone mentioned cats to you, or dogs, or snakes, you are not going to start making tho most awful puns imaginable - are you? Fish though, and it becomes pun city. Magnetic Scrolls new game doesn't miss the opportunity to become the most pun packed adventure ever. There you are, one ordinary Wednesday morning, happiliy swimming round your bowl, when suddenly a plastic castle breaks the tranquility of the water in your bowl, knocks the pondweed to one side, and landson the gravel beneath you. When you've quite got your breath back, you decide to explore the interior of this alien structure that is now occupying the major part of your environment. Snatching a quick ant-egg snack from the surface, you enter the dark interior with more than just a little apprehension. Dagon, the god-like inhabitant of the castle, mistakenly believes you to have arrived in answer to an advertisement. Before he is prepared to offer you the job, he insists that you take this aptitude test, and return three keys to him. Facing you are three portals, each leading to a mini adventure. One takes you into a recording studio, famous for its recordings of the group known as the Seven Deadly Fins, another takes you to wherea group of hippies are signing round a makeshift fire in a ruined abbey, whilst the third sets you down by a stump in forest clearing. No pouch full of colours in this stump, though. Instead, you'll find a little man who is completely off his rocker, jealously guarding a golden disc that commemorates the millionth copy of a Seven Deadly Fins number. This lunatic has his own philosophy for life, for which he thinks he is famous: Get a home, get a bird, and settle down. He has lived by it, too. His best friend is and his exploding homing pigeon that hasn't a clue where to head for, and is currently sulking in its cage not far away, following a dreadful row between the two. This is an utterly mad adventure, and one that definitely breaks the mould, as I found to my cost just when I thought I was winning! And so, with the three keys safely retrieved, Damon gives you "the big one" - the task for which he wanted to hire you. It seems that the city of Hydropolis is in danger. Water is evaporating away faster that it is being supplied, and the entire fish-world is in danger. A special project has been set up to teleport large quantities of water back - but it seems it has been sabotaged. You find yourself transported into the body of fish-scientist Dr Roach, the man in charge of the project, and you must discover which fish are responsibile for the dirty deed, stop them, and repair the damage. There are plenty of suspects. To start with, there's your colleagues on the project: Eric Chubb, Simon Tench, and Bertie Bream. Having been given the day off, you'll find them down at the Hook, Line & Sinker, having a few snifters. Leaving your apartment (not forgetting your all-important Fishofax) you set off via the underground, for an appointment with the principal of the university. It's rush hour on the tube, and you are jostled by guppies on the way to the city, not to mention the crowds of ordinary pilchards and sardines, as you head towards the famous seat of learning. A little investigation will reveal that a number of key components for the 'device' on which the project depends are out of stock - and a further look round will uncover some likely replacements. Here is an adventure full of fishy puzzles and puns, (try playing The Prawn, or Gilled of Thieves on the university mainframe...) that is guaranted to produce shoals of laugher as you scratch your scales trying to fanthom its depths. Scrolls really seem to be cleaning up on the adventure scene this year. Mind you, it has to be said they havent had much competition. With their old enemy Level Nine not producing anything new of late they have had the field to themselves. Then there is Infocom. What's happened to them - no new game since Christmas.

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* VOCABULARY 8 
* ATMOSPHERE 9 
* PERSONAL 10 
* VALUE 9 
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