Computer Gamer
1st May 1985
Categories: Review: Software
Publisher: Mind Games
Machine: Spectrum 48K
Published in Computer Gamer #2
Give My Regards To Broad Street
Playing the part of Paul McCartney, you have managed to lose the master tape of your next big single and your evil backer Ruth is more than a trifle miffed, to the extent that if you do not return it by midnight, you will be effectively bankrupted.
Fortunately, help is on hand in the form of seven of your friends who, purely by chance, can each remember a different fragment of the song, and will help you put it together. Not so fortunately is the fact that they're scattered all over London and constantly on the move.
The large instruction sheet that accompanies the game gives character profiles of your friends and all you have to do is to work out where they will be at a given time. To help you, you have your computer which tells you who has entered or left a particular tube station.
You control a car, driving round the streets of London. The main portion of the screen depicts the area you are driving through - watch out for Ruth's minions who will occasionally try to force you off the road. The three smaller windows at the bottom of the screen give details of characters' movements, a local map of the area and your nearest tube station. When you pass a tube station, a quick press of the fire button switches the action to a close up of the tube entrance. If you get there before a friend, you can meet them as they come out of the tube and they will give you their music. Watch out for the traffic wardens though, who will clamp your car and thus waste your time.
Once you have all the music, you must head back to Abbey Road studios and there mix the tape. The instructions are deliberately vague about how to do this and I am afraid I won't be any help as I never got this far. Should your time run out, you suffer the ultimate shame of having to busk in a tube station, playing a very off-key version of Band on the Run.
This is a very frustrating game to play to start with as your friends never seem to be where you are. With time though, you get the hand of working out where they are likely to be. The film of Broad Street was panned by the critics. The game isn't that bad but it certainly won't set the computer world alight.