Producer: New Generation
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Malcolm Evans
The sequel to New Generation's successful and novel Trashman sees our intrepid dustman on an exotic trip around the major cities of the works as a sort of freelance waste collection consultant. Travels with Trashman is set in Spain, the USA, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Israel and Samoa.
The object is to collect litter from the various sites and score points. On the right there is a cash figure which increases as you collect, but decreases if you keep bumping into people like waitresses or guests, or annoying them. This cash figure is important because unless you earn enough, you won't be able to afford the flight to anywhere else in the game. The Spanish Part is set in the bull ring. Trashman has to collect all the bouquets of roses that the spectators keep throwing into the ring. But he has to watch out for the black bull, which gets increasingly angry. In the USA the scene is the streets of New Orleans, picking up the money being thrown at the jazz band, but the musicians are a mean lot. In Samoa, it's the beach, littered with holiday makers' rubbish, while overhead the ripe coconuts keep falling down. Israelis are noted for their wailing wall in Jerusalem - what few people realise is how many tissues are discarded by the tearful Jews. Parisian street cafes may look pleasant but there are loads of waiters, irritated diners and tons of frogs - it's the frogs that are the litter problem. Germany sees Trashie clearing away empties at the beerfest, while in Hong Kong there is a lively scene with a carnival.
Each separate section of the game is accessed through a screen which shows the world globe and the various destinations.
COMMENTS
Control keys: user defined, four directions and fire (used for option selection only)
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair 2, Cursor type
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: varied, but not as colourful as Trashman and there are some attribute problems
Graphics: again, varied and neatly animated, but generally a bit small
Sound: nice tunes, not much in play apart from some spot effects
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 1
Screens: 7
Special features:
I must say that I was looking forward to seeing the follow up to Trashman with its clearly defined bright graphics and a high degree of skill required to play it. Generally speaking I was immediately addicted to it. Travels with Trashman, however, is a different matter. I don't find it very addictive at all, and not really playable, just travelling around the world, going to find what rubbish you can collect to earn a living. In my opinion, it is not a very adequate follow up to a previous top seller. Graphics are quite pleasant to look at, but in most cases suffer with a high degree of attribute and clarity problems. Also, there seems to be a definite lack of colour in many areas. The graphics just don't look half as solid as in Trashman, and in many areas look quite weak. On some occasions Trashman (you, the character) is more often than not difficult to find on the screen for the simple reason that there's no outstanding colour of his own to show him up. This poses problems and loss of money and loss of time during the game. To be quite honest, if you enjoyed playing Trashman I cannot seriously say that you will enjoy playing Travels with Trashman because they are two totally different games based around the common factor of Trashman.
Travels with Trashman starts off with a realistic world map showing locations where you may go. The various places have slight differences to the basic task (collecting rubbish), like frogs in France. TWT has, in my opinion, graphics which are not quite as good as in the original, but it offers more variation. One thing is certain, this is no easy game, and you really have to earn your travel money. The game should stand the test of time well.
Part of the game is to get to see the various locations. This is not possible at the start because you are never given enough cash to fly to the more exotic ones, this has to be earned, otherwise you may find yourself restricted to one or two, or even stranded. As in Trashman, there are humourous comments at the bottom of the screen, when you bump into people, or at the end of game. I very quickly got gored by the bull in Madrid and was informed that my (meagre) 30 bonus points would be flown back home (presumably for the poor destitute family). On some screens the graphics work very well and the game is jolly. But there are some where this is not so good, and generally the game lacks the intensity that Trashman had. This lowers its addictivity considerably. I think it's likely to appeal widely but I doubt that it will have the staying power of the earlier game because the playability has been dissipated by the fact that less attention to detail has gone into each of the different locations, than went into the suburban Trashman.
RUBBISH AROUND THE WORLD
Memory: 48K
Price: £5.95
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Cursor
Obsessed with rubbish after a lifetime of emptying the bins of suburbia, Trashman, that Napoleon of garbage, is off to foreign parts to teach the world a thing or two about litter.
Travel With Trashman sets our hero the mission of flying to various famous tourist spots to deal with the rubbish problem. They include collecting roses from a Spanish bullring, coconuts from a Samoan beach, and secret papers fluttering from the windows of the KGB offices on the Red Square.
Trashman was greatly admired for its superlative graphics, but unfortunately the sequel does not match the earlier program in that respect. It is true that the thirteen screens are all completely different, whereas Trashman was built around various streets using the same few houses in different configurations, but there are too many occasions where colours flicker and change messily. Were that not the case, the graphics would be excellent, but as it is you are forced to conclude that New Generation has overreached itself slightly in designing screens too complex.
That does not, however, make the game any the less addictive, and on that score Travel with Trashman is a worthy successor to the original. You start with a fixed sum of money, with which to buy a ticket to a variety of destinations. The money is replenished according to your success in clearing up the rubbish at each location. That allows the player to try at least three screens immediately, even though unable to complete them. It also requires some tactical thinking from the more experienced player, in order to travel as cheaply as possible while still visiting all the locations.
As ever, New Generation has included its own style of humour in the game, not only with the visual gags about what constitutes foreign rubbish, but also with comments on the screen. The comments occur when Trashman bumps into the locals while attempting to do his job, such as tangling with French waitresses at a Parisian cafe, or upsetting the efficient service at the Munich beer festival.
Most of the humour is based on excruciating language jokes, such as 'Gettenze artz a vay' in Germany. By and large, the jokes are inoffensive, although more likely to produce groans than laughs. However, the scene in Benares, where Trashman has to collect the sandals of the faithful as they immerse themselves in the Ganges, is rather more disturbing. Apart from the concept of making fun out of religious beliefs, which also occurs at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, the line 'Hurry curry Trashman' is at best puerile and at worst offensive. If that was the best the company could think of, it should have left the screen out altogether.
If you are impervious to that sort of humour, and do not expect miracles of graphics programming, you will find the game great fun to play and highly addictive. There is a considerable range of difficulty in the various screens, and although the mechanics of picking up litter remain the same, you will have to change your tactics to suit each particular situation.
It is a pity, therefore, that New Generation could not have taken more care with the graphics and humour.
MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: New Generation Software
PRICE: £6.95
After cleaning the streets of London in the first Trashman game, our hero now sets out on a much more ambitious project to clean up the entire world in the sequel to New Generation's hit of the year - Travels With Trashman.
At the beginning game, you are given a certain amount of fare money. A map of the world shows all the cities that Trashman can travel to, providing has enough cash to do so.
The Paris involves catching all the frogs that have been let loose by a made chef at a cafe in the Champs Elysees. No easy job this as our hero must also avoid bumping into the waitresses and losing points.
Other possible starting points are Germany where Trashman is offered the job of collecting the empties at the Munich Beer Festival. Trashman does not have to accept the first job offer he gets. He can fly onto another destination - providing of course he has enough of the folding stuff to pay for his airline ticket.
The most dangerous of his early jobs, and one of the best screens in the game, is the Spanish job where Trashman has to collect up all the roses thrown into a bullring during a bullfight - the bull would prefer them to stay there.
There are ten destinations in the game altogether and it will take a good deal of practice to visit them all.
Comparisons with Trashman 1 are inevitable if a little pointless as the game is really quite different. However, Travels With Trashman is slightly more difficult to get into than the first game.
Personally I prefer Trashman 1, but it is no poor reflection Travels With Trashman that this is the case. After all, there have been very few games launched this year that are in the same league as Trashman for graphics and gameplay. If you liked Trashman 1, you won't be disappointed with the sequel.
MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
CONTROL: Keys, Kemp, Curs, Sinc
FROM: New Generation, £5.95
British rubbish is no longer good enough for Trashman and he is now jetting round the world cleaning up after everybody else. He starts his wanderings in Britain with £250 and a choice of three affordable destinations. These are Paris, Madrid and Munich all of which are marked on a world map, your choice flashing vigorously.
Paris is the closest destination and costs only £100 to reach. Once there, you are placed in a street cafe packed with tables, people and four waitresses running around. Your job is to pick up the green frogs (looking remarkably like a single pixel) which are hopping about. You score points and gain cash for each frog caught but lose cash if you leave too many lying around or bump into a waitress.
Once you have got all the frogs, you need to get to another city. If you don't have the fare then you are stranded. There are destinations all over the world and those further afield like Australia, the USA and Africa take a lot of cash to reach. Flying to a new city gives you another task, which will take the same general form as the first one picking up a number of objects in a single screen.
Control is difficult, especially in the beer hall in Munich, and the fact that you travel slower than everything else is of constant annoyance.
The real lasting interest of the game is the attempt to explore the whole world rather than the challenge of each individual screen. Some of the scenarios are quite imaginative, others a bit cliche'd. In Madrid you face a deadly threat as you try to collect roses in a bullring. The bull is less than happy with your presence and if he touches you with his horns you'll meet a grisly end.
The game isn't as riveting as the original Trashman but there is still enough action to keep me garbage grabbing.
For once a company has managed to bring out a game that is, in my opinion, inferior in every way (including graphics) to the one before. I reckon that takes some beating.
Half the problem of course is that this game has a lot to live up to. If you've never seen Trashman then you may not be too disappointed by seeing him on his travels. I quite enjoyed the game, but was irritated by the long delay every time you lost a round and the amount of time you had to spend on each screen doing the same thing.
STEVE COOKE
The graphics in particular were disappointing, with stick-like figures rushing around the screen. There's a tedious interlude between each journey complete with annoying music
PETER CONNOR
Trashman was genuinely original, the follow-up is a disappointment. At first glance it appears to offer more with so many different locations. But each is just a single screen in which you indulge in the hackneyed game idea of collecting objects while avoiding nasties. Yawn.
CHRIS ANDERSON
Spectrum
New Generation Software
Sweep-'em-up
£6.95
Garbage in, garbage out, as we used to say at break - but Travel with Trashman is a worthy successor to the first Trashman game although not as visually revolutionary as some of the computer games we have looked at this month.
The first screen shows all the cities of the world that Trashman can travel to - but it all costs money. You can travel to America, Spain, Paris, Munich and finally, Jerusalem.
In Paris you have to collect a load of tiny bouncing green dots which are meant to be frogs loose in a cafe. If you bump into a waitress while endeavouring to recapture the rogue amphibian appetisers you lose points. In New Orleans you have to gather up money thrown at a marching jazz band, in Munich you collect the empties after a beer festival.
The deadliest early job is in Spain - and Trashman is not even a football supporter. To show their appreciation of British sanitary technology the Spaniards get Trashman to pick up roses in a bull-ring - while the bull is still in it. A news report about Trashman being killed in Spain is mysteriously followed by the information that you are stranded there without money.
If you do get Trashman to Jerusalem, his job is to mop up tears at the Wailing Walt. So, if you missed giving this game to someone for Chanukah, there's always the Jewish New Year. But I think New Generation are going to have to put in a lot of work on their graphics and brush up their ideas for games if they're going to keep ahead of some of the excellent stuff being produced by companies like Ultimate Play the Game, US Gold and Beyond Software.
This is the sequel to the original "TRASHMAN" game and by and large is just as good. The mission is to go forth into the world and throw away all the trash.
At the start of the game, you are shown a world map and all the countries that can be visited, this obviously takes money (everything seems to these days), and where you can go depends on the amount of money that you have got. Quite a few places of interest can be visited, Spain, America, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Samoa and Israel.
Paris is the cheapest place to start, and whilst there the job offered is to collect all the frogs that the chef has accidentally let loose in the cafe, whilst avoiding bumping into the French waitresses (I know what I would rather do!). The cafe was generally well depicted with tables, umbrellas etc. but the leaping reptiles appeared as white dots bouncing around the screen, even the delicacy of its legs was not apparent.
In Germany, you're at the famous Festival with the mammoth task of clearing away all the empties, whilst trying to forget about your love for the drink as well. This screen was slightly easier to play and the only real difficulty was to catch sight of an empty glass.
After these two locations, you can go on to Spain, where you have to pick up roses in a bull ring. Sounds easy? The bull is still moving about the ring and still fancies a game or two. In New Orleans, you are employed to pick up the money that the crowd are throwing at the band, but some members of the band are mean and greedy, so you have to watch out for them. If you manage to get enough money, then you can be on your way to Jerusalem, where worshippers' tissues have to be tidied up around the Wailing Wall.
The only problem with this game was the fact that the visit to each country lasted far too long and as the money decreased with your inefficiency, it was quite difficult not to find yourself stranded, penniless, and with no means of getting home.
There is quite a lot of action in this game, and although occasionally the graphics were poor, this is a challenging game and should keep you amused for some time.
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