THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE



MINDER



PUBLISHER

DK'Tronics



AUTHOR(S)

Don Preistly



YEAR

June 1985



CATALOGUE NUMBER



CATEGORY

Adventure



DESCRIPTION



CONTROLS

Keyboard



INSTRUCTIONS



ORIGINAL INLAY CARD TEXT



HINTS/CHEATS



SEQUELS/PREQUELS

None



REVIEWS



_Minder_ Review from Sinclair User No. 39, June 1985:



Who needs 30 packs of pure gold acupuncture needles? Hookey

stuff, without a doubt, but that won't stop you from making a

deal in _Minder_, based on the hit TV series.  _Minder_ puts you

in Arthur's shoes with a two grand stake and a fortnight to get

rich. Visit the Winchester Club to make the contacts you'll need

to buy your stock, or have a chat with proprietor Dave about the

doings of the Old Bill, in the person of mean, moody, Inspector

Chisholm.  When you've bought the goods you want, you'll have to

try and sell them to one of the many shady dealers in the manor. 

If they're bent, Chisholm will be after you. And there's always

the aggravation of trying to get hold of Terry to do the fetching

and carrying.  True to form, all Arthur ever does is count the

money.  The game is played out through conversations with the

many charachters.  There are up to 35,000, identified by an

identikit style of graphics to build up their faces. you can use

Arthur's own brand of cockney most of the time; the program

recognises much slang, although at times you have to use a

specific phrase to clinch a deal.  You can also play a more

devious game, selling goods you don't own and then trying to pick

them up cheaply before time runs out to make a killing.  It's all

great fun and very much like the TV show, except in so far as

Terry's life as a minder, with all the violence and confusion,

is barely mentioned.  Unfortunately the game is marred by the

occasional bug in the interpreter, so that conversations can go

off the rails, with words missed out or the wrong prices agreed

on.  That tends to destroy the illusion and show up the program

as rather more simple than it appears when things function

properly. however, you will never get the old 'I don't

understand' comments.  There is plenty of humour, particularly

in the extraordinary goods you will have to buy and sell.

Chisholm can be a right pain at times, and you may have to cut

your losses and dump bent stock to avoid being hassled on

other deals. but the roots of _Minder_ are still those of a

fairly simple trading game, and although it may sustain itself

for a while, it will ultimately become boring to play.  In all

fairness, _Minder_ could have been done extremely badly indeed,

and to the credit of DK'tronics and Thames TV it is not at all

bad. Just a bit more care at the final stages, with a touch more

variety and depth to the conversations, and it could have been

a classic.



                              Chris Bourne



Publisher: DK'tronics

Price: 9.95

Memory: 48K

Rating: **** (out of 5, meaning: Value for money)





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