THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABASE

MRS MOPP

PUBLISHER
Computasolve (rereleased by Atlantis)

AUTHOR
Tina Billett

YEAR
1983

DESCRIPTION
A very basic arcade type game of picking up objects, using them
to perform certain tasks, and doing it all very quickly!

CONTROLS
A - Up
Z - Down
N - Left
M -Right
S - Magic Spell

Kempston Joystick

INSTRUCTIONS
The game is based around a single screen and several storage
utensils!  You control Mrs Mopp in her kitchen. As soon as the
game starts, rubbish, dirty glasses and laundry start appearing
all around you. You have to run and grab the utensil which is the
same colour as the rubbish in order to clean it up.  These
utensils can be put down at any time and exchanged for
anotherone, but only one may be carried at a time and you must
replace the utensil where you found it. When carrying the wrong
utensil, you may not walk over the rubbish, so as the screen gets
fuller it becomes more difficult to move. You must therefore
change utensils regularly in order to prevent the screen from
becoming too cluttered (and to stop you getting trapped!).  After
so many pieces of rubbish have been picked up in a utensil, it
(and Mrs Mopp) will begin to flash, indicating that it is full.
When this happens you can no longer pick anything up until you
have emptied the utensil into the relevant cleaning machine
(sink, washing machine, bin, etc.).

Doing well results in level advancement, where you get a wider
variety of rubbish to pick up (including some fantastic Y-Fronts)
and things appear much more quickly. Mrs Mopp has to be kept
happy in order to work well, and to aid in this task she is
provided with a bottle of wine (!) which you can make her
drink at any time when she is feeling less than 'Happy'. Be
careful though, drink too much and she'll get drunk - and a lot
more difficult to control!  Release from impossible situations
is provided in the form of magic spells, which are earned when
you work well and can be used to destroy any rubbish in your
immediate area.

CHEATS
SEQUELS/PREQUELS
None.

INLAY CARD TEXT
----------
MRS MOPP
by Tina Billett

LOADING INSTRUCTIONS
1)  Connect the EAR socket on your 48k ZX Spectrum to the EAR
socket of your cassette player using the appropriate lead
supplied with your computer, making sure that the MIC wire is
disconnected.
2) Place cassette in the player and rewind to the beginning.
3) Type LOAD " " then press the ENTER key. Press the PLAY
button on the cassette player.
4) Mrs Mopp will now load and enter play mode automatically.
NOTE If any difficulty is experienced, rewind the tape, adjust
volume control and repeat the above.

THE GAME
Mrs Mopp has a very untidy family who leave their cups, shirts
and other belongings all over the kitchen for Mrs Mopp to clear
up. In addition to this, the kitchen also gets dirty, and must be
cleaned as well as tidied. Being a tidy-minded person, Mrs
Mopp has separate containers for clearing each set of items
which are stored on their own shelves. The containers, however,
can hold only ten objects before being emptied at the appropriate
place and when full, Mrs Mopp FLASHES and must be relieved
of her burden.
Like any housewife, Mrs Mopp gets tired and needs
refreshment, but be careful not to let her over-indulge herself!!!
Unlike most housewives, however, Mrs Mopp does have a
limited number of MAGIC SPELLS which, if used carefully will
assist her in her task.

MOVEMENT
Mrs Mopp is moved around the screen either by using a
Kempston joystick at the following keys:
A = UP  Z = DOWN  N - LEFT  M - RIGHT
A combination of these allows Mrs Mopp to be moved
diagonally ie; A plus M - UP/RIGHT; Z plus N - DOWN/LEFT.
Whichever method is chosen, the following keys are used for
special effects-
P = PAUSE (to temporarily stop the game, any other key to
restart (wait for tone after pressing)
Q = QUIT self explanatory
S = MAGIC SPELL


PICKING UP AND DEPOSITING OBJECTS
Before any clearing up can be carried out, Mrs Mopp must first
be carrying the right container. This can be acquired by moving
Mrs Mopp alongside the required object then, provided that no
other container is already being carried, that container wilt be
absorbed into her ample figure, changing her colour accordingly.
Only then can items by cleared by moving over them. Each
container must be replaced before another can be picked up.
Common sense will dictate which container picks up which
objects and their final destination. (Dust is not normally picked up
and put into a laundry basket then emptied into the sink!)

SCORING
5 points are awarded for each object cleared. An additional 100
points are given for each container successfully emptied. A
bonus of 1000 points is scored at the end of each level beyond
the first provided that at least one Magic Spell remains. Each
level achieved brings more spells. At the end of play you will be
given the opportunity to enter your name (maximum 8
characters) if your score exceeds that of the former champion.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE
This software has been compiled by, and includes part of,
MCODER II which remains the property of Personal Software
Services. All other rights, including graphics, illustrations and text
remain the property of Computasolve Ltd and may not be
copied, transmitted, transferred, reproduced, hired, tent,
distributed, stored or modified in any form, in part or in full in
any way without the express written permission of Computasolve
Ltd, 8 Central Parade, St. Mark's Hill, Surbiton, Surrey KT6
4PJ. Tel: 01-390 5135.
----------

SCORES RECEIVED
As far as I can tell, Mrs Mopp was released before any of the
major Sinclair mags were around (apart from maybe Sinclair User,
but I don't recall that far back!). It was never re-released, so
only the oldest of Speccy users will remember it (sob, that's me,
I'm getting on....)

URL
This snapshot is NOT widely available. I got my copy by
requesting it from ca4aba@osiris.sund.ac.uk.

However, to fix this I have uploaded the snap to ftp.nvg.unit.no.
It is now available in the pub/sinclair/snaps/games/arcade
directory as mrsmopp.zip, thanks to Arnt's very speedy service!
Many thanks to him.

GENERAL FACT
Not much is known (if you know more, please update this
document!), but here is what little I have worked out :

Mrs Mopp can play up depending on the model of your Spectrum. The
keyboard control causes major problems in Issue 3 Speccies - i.e.
it just doesn't work!  This can be shown using Gerton Lunter's
Z80 emulator by selecting Issue 2 emulation OFF...try and move
her now! This is one of only two games I know of which fails on
an issue 3 Spectrum (the other being Rasputin, in which the
music sticks on one note if you don't have an issue 2). This may
have something to do with the fact below :

Mrs Mopp is written in Spectrum BASIC and compiled into machine
code using a BASIC compiler, which identifies itself in the
snapshot as

ZX COMPILER  V2.0
1983 THRELFALL and HODGSON
Compiled OK

It plays pretty fast, but you can see how it could have
originally be a BASIC game! It would probably fit into 16k, but
starts too late in memory and is therefore 48k only.


NOTES
I love this little game - it takes me right back!  I'd recommend
it to anyone who got their Speccy way back when they weren't
trendy (i.e. any time before Christmas '83!).
