It's time for another simple text adventure for BBC Micro for people of all ages by Anita Straker.
For this game, you start out at the entrance to the zoo. Your quest is to go around the zoo, find all the trash and take it all back to the entrance and drop it off in the rubbish bin. Aside from the cardinal directions, you can also TAKE, DROP, and USE items. LIST allows you to see what you're carrying (you can only hold five items at any given time), and you can type in HELP and press Return to get the in-game instructions again. Keep in mind that using items makes you weaker, and if you use items too many times (about seven or eight times), you'll pass out and the game is over.
As you look around, you'll notice items strewn about. These things are in random locations every time that you play. Be sure to type the name of the item as you see it on the screen to guarantee that you pick it up (the only exception is "some string;" you can just type "string" for that one). Sometimes there will be bees that will keep you from getting the items. They are also randomly placed every time you play, much like the items, and will always be near an item. Unless you have the pot of honey and can USE it where the bees are, you cannot get rid of the bees until you find the pot of honey. Thankfully, the bees do not hurt you if you try to take the items while they are around, and using the pot of honey on a screen with the bees does not make you weaker, unlike with other items on other screens, and you can use items and get weaker seven or eight times until you run out of energy and the game is over.
Some spots lead to a dense field of swirling fog. If you get caught in it, you might as well say game over, as you will be stuck in it with no way out. Make sure you save often, especially if you don't know the zoo layout by heart.
As you drop stuff off at the rubbish bin, the description for the entrance area changes. Remember that you can only go east from there.
The items you need to pick up and drop off are the sweet paper, the biscuit tin, the toffee wrapper, the lollipop stick, the crisp bag, the newspaper, the old comic, the cigarette end, the leaves, the peanut bag, the empty cake box, the string and the pot of honey. Save the pot of honey for last. Once you drop off all the items, the game will let you know and you'll have won the game. The maximum amount of points you can get in this game is 75, and if you drop everything in the rubbish bin, you'll easily get then all.
The graphics aren't any different from what we've seen in [i]The Lost Frog[/i] or [i]Tea Shop[/i], and the sound is the same as ever. As far as the text is concerned, however, compass directions, screen descriptions, the presence of the bees and the presence of the items are all different and easily identifiable colors. I didn't have any problems typing things in or getting around, and I didn't see any errors. Once you've played this game, there's not much of a reason to play it again due to it being so short and easy, and you'll probably be playing something else. Even so, this is still a fun, nice and pleasant game for BBC Micro enthusiasts of any age and makes for some clean, simple text adventure fun.
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