Game Review: Scumball (ZX Spectrum, Bulldog)

Until now, I’d never actually played Scumball before writing this review.  This is unusual, as generally I’ve played most of the games that I review, way back in the 80’s.

Anyway, the moment I said that I’d review this game next, there was a sudden burst of messages from the team.  It’s as if I’d stumbled on a gem and by having this game in my collection for so long (but never actually loading it) was somewhat, unfortunate!  I suppose, as they say, good things come to those who wait.

With high hopes, excitement and expectations of a good game, I have naturally had to put that to one-side with a fresh, clear mindset.  So, how does it fair?

Kicking Up a Stink with L.I.N.D.A.

Once Scumball has fully loaded, you are immediately presented with a screen to re-define the keyboard.  These are Left, Right, Jump, Report and Fire.   This is to control L.I.N.D.A. (the Laser Incorporated Nasties Disposal Android) made especially to be a killing machine.

The object of the game is to clear the sewers of assorted nasties which have over-run them.  Guide your Android through the sewers and locate the eight grenades that have been scattered around.  Once you get one, immediately take it to the lair of green slime and with all of eight collected, blow up the green slime.  Location 033 is where the green monster is, so if you are holding a grenade, as soon as you enter the screen, you automatically lob the grenade towards it.  Then it’s off to collect the others.

On Your Marks… Get Set…  Whoosh!

Scumball moves at a very high pace.  When you begin on the first screen, you immediately fall downwards at a rate of knots!  You can move left or right onto a ledge, but blink and you could be on the second screen, almost miss seeing it!

You can easily dash your way around many screens in just a few moments, so if you enjoy exploring games (or drawing maps), you can really get straight into this game.  From what I could tell, there were up 128 locations (numbered 000 to 127).  The further down the sewers you go, the higher the location numbers get.  Sometimes, though, the location would show 000 without being in that location, which is a bit of an anomaly.

Fortunately, with its speed, you never feel out of control (for example, running into any nasties accidently.) and I’d say that the playability is therefore up there with the best of them.  To say its smooth is an understatement and this game really shows what the Spectrum is capable off.

Should you make a mistake, it’s down to you as the player and not some dodgy collision detection.  However, there is an exception to the rule here….  Although the playability really does work very well, there was one problem that did mean losing a few lives in one go.

Colliding with aliens, depletes your energy but sometimes a spinning shuriken would appear and that kills you instantly.  You would sometimes respawn back to where it was, depleting lives.  For instance, when it was moving towards the bottom right-hand corner of the screen, I moved to the right onto the next screen.  When returning into that room, it remained where it was and I lost my lives and you see a screen:  You are beaten…  Game over.

Reporting with an Unexpected Vanishing Act

Pressing the Report key displays quite a few statistics your progress during the game.  What I did fine odd though was that once you have viewed the report screen, it acts as if you have re-entered the room.  So even if you are sitting on a solid floor, you’ll see L.I.N.D.A, for example, fall downwards into the screen as if starting again.  I just don’t understand why it just does continue from where you viewed it.

That did make me think if you get into a tight spot on the screen, you could just view the report and just pop back into the screen again giving you a clear advantage.  If you therefore kept doing that, then it would be like cheating really!

Top Banner Area of The Screen

In the top-left hand corner, there are three coloured vertical blocked bars labelled as S, L and P.

• S – Spare parts
• L is your laser supply. You do not have infinite fire power so aim and use wisely (but still have a blast, it is an arcade platform shooter after all!)
• P is the for Power. A total loss of power results in losing a life (of which you begin the game with 6 of them).

Also displayed are your score, the number of grenades remaining in the sewer system, the screen location number (rooms aren’t named), number of lives, the word Bonus and the weapon that you currently hold.

Sound Effects

There is no music in Scumball but there are a few sound effects here and there.  The best one being when the screen disintegrates, hearing a scrunching up of paper style of noise.

When you start the game in the Recharging area and I think the best way to describe the sound, is like a ringing alarm sound.  Otherwise, the game has a few other white noise sounds when firing and colliding with aliens.  Hitting an alien makes a sound too.

Noticeably, there wasn’t a quick beep when collecting an item (maybe to keep the game flowing quickly without short pauses.)  I’m thinking here along the line of other platform games where when you collect a key for example, you’ll hear a quick sound effect.  Anyway, that’s not here in Scumball.

Graphics and Loading Screen

The loading screen is very colourful and detailed.  The games title, Scumball, is drawn in such a way that it gradually becomes more rope-like the further across you read it.  There is a shackled skeleton with nil by mouth written above it plus a very large green scaly monster.  Top marks for great presentation here.

The most obvious thing that immediately hits you with Scumball is that all the screens are extremely colourful.  There is a large array of aliens which move and bounce around the screen diagonally.  When aliens bump into each other, they rebound of in opposite directions from one another too.

The animation in Scumball is of a very high standard.  When walking, the step frames look neat.  Most rooms have rising bubbles which pop and produce an alien, falling water droplets (creating a splash on the ground) and flames flickering away.  Surprisingly, these are not red and yellow, but in fact, green and cyan.)  Maybe the sewer pollution has affected the way fire burns.  Anyway, just be thankful that it can’t be smelt it through your computer screen!

Considering that there is pretty much something happening on the screen most of the time, there is very little flicker or colour clash.  Yes, there is some, but its minimal and more than passable.  It doesn’t spoil the game whatsoever as it’s far and few between.

Useful Objects

When scurrying around the screens, you will usually see plenty of useful items to reward you.  Batteries, lasers, grenades and by collecting the helmet, you gain invincibility (which makes the border change colour quickly for around 10 seconds).  Another object shaped liked pointed arrows created a little multi-directional red explosion within your nearby vicinity which could come in quite handy if surrounded by the nasties.

Collecting bonus points makes the word Bonus change colours and the points drift of up into the air.  A nice touch.

Bear in mind, that it’s not always best to grab everything straight away.  If you don’t need a fresh supply of lasers, just leave the triangle with L in it alone and collect it later when you do need them.  Think longer term and you’ll get further into the game.

Small Annoyances

Another issue is that you can re-define the keys Up, Down, Jump, Report and Fire buttons all with the same letter.  As soon as you press that letter, you instantly go to the report screen (and obviously that’s it!) until you lose your lives.  A small check to ensure you can’t choose the same keys would have stopped that from happening, of course.  Luckily, you can re-define the keys again afterwards so there is no switching the computer off and back on again to re-load the game.

One screen results in L.I.N.D.A. constantly falling to her death (as you can’t to jump out.).  It’s not a bug as the words “Bad move.  Don’t go down from 118.” are written near the bottom of the screen.  When you know where it is (just remember the location 118), you go to the screen below and repeat the same mistake.  This is effectively Scumball’s equivalent of Entrance to Hades from Jet Set Willy (so avoid at all costs!)

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