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Making the best of a bad night
YOU ARE a Wally, trapped in a nightmare in which familiar objects turn on you as you desperately try to escape from the manic dreamscape. All you have to do to wake up is find the alarm clock.

According to Pyjamarama, an hilarious arcade adventure with stunning sprite graphics, a Wally's idea of a nightmare means being hit by roast chickens, bowled over by spinning dinner plates, attacked by an astral machete, or buzzed by revolving saws. After all, that is what makes a Wally.

In order to reach the alarm clock you have to travel through rooms in which your wildest fantasies are acted out. The ceiling in one room is made up of a gigantic space invader game in which you must blast the invading aliens.

On your travels you must take time to pick up objects which may or may not be useful in the completion of your quest.

A variety of objects dog your movement but the secret passages, found on the ground floor within barrels, should speed you on your way. Bouncing upstairs and sliding down the bannisters will also bring the object of your quest nearer.

Once you have dodged the chicken bombardment, the flying scissors and the falling books you are beset by ghosts in the cellar. Some of the objects are not so familiar - not even Wally could expect a magnet under the table or a rocket in the hall.

The action, plot and graphics of Pyjamarama from MikroGen are great. This Wally is a winner.



John Gilbert


PYJAMARAMA Memory: 48K Price: £6.95 Gilbert Factor: 8

PYJAMARAMA
Mikro-Gen / £7.95

Ross: Pyjamarama is the second of Mikro- Gen's games to feature the infamous 'Wally'. This time, our Wal' is having a nightmare (He'd dreamt he'd just bought a CBM 64? Ed.) and the only way he's going to be able to wake himself up is to find the key to his alarm clock and wind it into action. The setting for the game is Wally's home, each screen representing one room and each filled with beautifully drawn and coloured furniture. In a way that's similar to Atic Atac, you guide our sleeping hero through the rooms - this time seen from the side; just like Jet Set Willy, you can move left, right or jump. Only a few screens have things for Wally to jump on - chairs, tables or staircase.
Each room of Wally's house has a number of doors. Some can be opened just by jumping at the handle but to get through others you need to be carrying certain 'objects'.
You also have a limited amount of energy per life which decreases each time a moving graphic hits you ... so watch out for the hands which burst from the floor and grab you! Touches like this make Pyjamarama a humourous and enjoyable game. 4.5/5.

Dave: Mikro-Gen says you'll never dream a program could be this good, and for once the advert is right. It's worth buying for the games room. 5/5

Roger: It's hard to play but easy to watch. Wally's nightmare won't put you to sleep - just the opposite. It's both pretty and pretty funny, err, if you know what I mean ... 4/5

Ross 4.5/5
Roger 4/5
Dave 5/5

Ross Holman, Roger Willis, Dave Nicholls

Producer: Mikro-Gen
Memory required: 48K
Retail price: £6.95
Language: machine code



Mikro-Gen's worn out working class hero Wally is back again - well he's almost back again in this new adventurish arcade game. Wally's actually asleep in bed and in danger of not hearing the alarm clock which ought to wake him up in time to get back to work in that appalling car factory. But Wally's having a terrible nightmare.

You star as Wally Week's sleeping alter ego, wandering around a vast house as a pint-sized figure in pyjamas and night cap. As this is a nightmare, nothing is as it should be in the dreamscape. Apparitions waltz about the place, hands snatch at your feet from beneath the floorboards, axes fly through the air, there's even a floor which gives you that feeling that you're trying hard but getting nowhere. The object is to find the key that winds the alarm clock and get it to wake Wally up. You are allowed to collect objects littered ail over the place which have various inter-related uses, but only two may be carried at a time.

The controls are simple, left, right and jump. Being hit by a nasty isn't the end; above the playing screen is a glass of "Snooze Energy" milk, which is drained a little bit every time you are hit and goes down steadily throughout the life. Finding some food to snack on is as important as finding the key and alarm clock. Scoring is quite a novel process - you are told how many paces Wally has walked and what percentage of the adventure has been solved.

There seems to be a move afoot from software houses to repeat use of successful heroes, and Pyjamarama is a sequel to Automania - is it as good?

CRITICISM
Pyjamarama has some of the best animation and realistic graphics I have ever seen. All the graphics are large, neat and smooth. As in Automania Wally is superbly done with his night cap even moving as he slides down the bannister. The game itself is very well thought out especially when it comes to finding and carrying the things that help you in your quest to find the alarm clock. Beware of the "Video Room". I could not pull myself away from it for about six waves. I'll be surprised if this isn't a CRASH SMASH. I think it should be as it's a lot better even than the last one from Mikro-Gen, and definitely worth getting.

Okay Wally, don't just sit there suffering from your nightmare - do something about it! Yes, this is the sequel to Automania, the manic car game. You control a sleepy Wally in his quest for the clock. If you liked Automania you will love Pyjamarama. The graphics are superb and the sound is very good. Pyjamarama is a hit in anyone's book - it's got everything you could ask for from a game and more - the only way I can describe it is a sort of Manic Jet Set Wally - it's really an excellent game. You don't score as such, you are given a percentage and how many paces you took - I suppose it's better to have a high percentage with not having taken many paces. Quite a good idea really. The animation is a continuation of that found in Automania but with much more going on. The program's full of neat touches and I especially like the room behind a door marked Video Games where you can play a good game of Space Invaders - so you're really getting two games for the price of one! It's highly playable and just a bit too addictive. Buy it - you won't regret it!

As a simple combination of imaginative graphics, large characters and humour, Pyjamarama is unbeatable, and a fine sequel to Automania. I thought it had just the right amount of frustration and play-again qualities to drive you mad - and make sure you do play again. Wally is in fine jumping form again even though he's shrunk down to the point where tomorrow's chicken dinner becomes a serious threat. There are surprises everywhere like the prat-fall boxing gloves which knock you down when you're not expecting it, and it takes an experienced hand to spot the difference between a lift seen from the side and an ordinary door. Mikro-Gen have been thoughtful enough to provide a large switch, however, marked lift on/off! (But that's in a different location). Undoubtedly an addict's dream hit.

COMMENTS
Control keys: O/P left/right and M to jump, but also user-definable
Joystick: Sinclair, Kempston, but almost any via UDK
Keyboard play: very simple key use and responsive
Use of colour: marvellous, painterly use of colour although it risks some attribute problems
Graphics: excellent, large, fast and smooth, well drawn
Sound: very good
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 3 (watch out for Snooze Energy)
General rating: highly addictive, playable, good value - excellent.

Use of computer 90%
Graphics 93%
Playability 94%
Getting started 91%
Addictive qualities 94%
Value for money 90%
Overall 92%