| Skool Daze |
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Information AboutSkool Daze |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT SKOOL DAZE | |
| 1985 video games | |
| zx spectrum games | |
| commodore 64 games | |
| action-adventure games | |
| school-themed video games | |
''Skool Daze'' is a Computer Game created by David Reidy for the ZX Spectrum and released by Microsphere in 1985 . A Commodore 64 port was subsequently made. It is one of the Spectrum's best-loved games. The game was hailed for breaking many of the gaming moulds by pursuing a creative route of a childhood experience at school. INSTRUCTIONS From the original instructions:
CHARACTERS Boys
There are eleven other boys who have no name and are identical in appearance. Occasionally one will communicate with the player to warn him of impending dangers during breaktime, such as a hidden peashooter, measles or the swot telling tales to the Headmaster. They serve no other real purpose. It is possible to hit them and to stand on them, which is useful for being able to jump higher to reach targets, but they are too short to be able to knock out with a catapult. The boys sometimes travel as a mob (usually after lunchtime) knocking down anything in their path - this can lead to lots of lines if a master happens to be nearby (either for the player lying on the floor or being accused of knocking the master over when the mob passes them too). Masters
Each master has his own idiosyncratic banter with the boys. Mr Rockitt and Mr Withit refer to their pupils as 'cherubs' and 'chaps' respectively. Messieurs Creak and Wacker hate boys. Perhaps it is Mr Withit's ease in the company of the boys that means he is always on dinner duty. It is possible to attack masters with a catapult but any attempt to punch them is futile. All masters use the same punishment if they witness any form of misbehaviour: the giving of lines (a seemingly random number in multiples of a hundred, between 100 and 800). If the miscreant commits the transgression behind the master's back he may well escape punishment. It is possible to strike a master using one's catapult and get another boy into trouble if he is closer at the time of the punishment, which is worth the same number of points as the number of lines given, as well as being mildly entertaining in itself for the player. The offences for which the player could be punished, together with the messages used by the masters when punishing, were as follows:
When the player reaches 10000 lines, Mr Wacker begins moving rapidly towards Eric; when he reaches Eric, he delivers the game over message in a speech bubble ("YOU HAVE OVER 10000 LINES TO WRITE. DON'T COME BACK TO SCHOOL TILL YOU HAVE DONE THEM ALL. PRESS A KEY TO PLAY AGAIN"). It's possible for the player to knock down Mr Wacker whenever he gets close and thus continue playing for a theoretically infinite amount of time after reaching 10000 lines, although it would be nearly impossible to achieve any game objectives in this condition. It's also possible for Mr Wacker to be knocked down or stunned by another character while delivering the Game Over message, in which case the message pauses until he recovers; this could potentially lead to a loop, but this is exceptionally rare. No other characters apart from Eric are ever disciplined for being out of their seat or on the floor, which enables the player to empathise with the principal character who is interminably picked upon by the staff. The boys with no name are never punished, as if they are invisible to the masters. You can however edit the names of all the masters and boys to your liking to perhaps customise the game to the player's own school. ROOMS Each master is associated with a particular room (Mr Withit teaches in the Map Room, Mr Creak in the Reading Room, Mr Wacker in the Exam Room and Mr Rockitt in the White Room) although occasionally masters teach in other masters' classrooms. Other areas of the school include the Headmaster's study, the Revision Library. Frustratingly for the boys, there are no toilets - players would have to wait until the sequel '' Back To Skool '' for those. There is a dinner area where boys are expected to congregate during dinner although it is impossible to sit down and there is no sign of any food. The throng of characters occupying the same small area of the screen during dinner make this period particularly fruitful when it comes to collecting points for hitting other boys using one's fists and one's catapult. Curiously, Mr Withit is always the teacher on duty during dinner. There are plenty of seats in the Exam Room and the White Room but an insufficient number in the Reading Room and Map Room. This is a source of frustration to the player as Eric is constantly shoved out of his seat and punished with lines for lying on the floor. In the sequel, ''Back To Skool'', this behaviour was altered so that boys smaller than Eric were unable to push him out of his chair. SELF PROMOTION The character of Boy Wander would run around writing on blackboards about Microsphere games like '' Wheelie '' and '' Sky Ranger ''. In ''Back to Skool'', Boy Wander writes about '' Contact Sam Cruise ''. COMPILATION APPEARANCES Skool Daze appeared on the Spectrum compilation '' 4-Most Big Hits '' by Alternative Software , which also included '' Yeti '' by Destiny Software , '' Flunky '' by Piranha Games and '' Hysteria '' by Software Projects . It also appeared on the compilation '' 10 Computer Hits 1 '' by Beau-Jolly . SEQUELS The game was followed by '' Back To Skool '' in 1986, which expanded the gameplay to include a neighbouring girls' school and a love interest (with the benefit of being able to reduce one's lines), along with stink bombs, water pistols, frogs, sherry and a long-suffering caretaker. An unofficial remake is '' Klass Of '99 '', a PC edition of ''Skool Daze'' with updated graphics. The PC game '' Skool's Out '' was linked to Skool Daze by its authors, but in fact is radically different and was disliked by many fans of the previous games. TRIVIA
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