PSSST! for the ZX Spectrum, an Ultimate review
PSSST! was one of my first experiences of a really slick and addictive Spectrum game. It was launched by publisher Ultimate! around the time of Jet-Pac, prior to the later and more popular isometric games.
I remember cutting out the coupon in Sinclair User to order the game, paid for with a postal order for £5. No downloadable content and PayPal for us back in 1983! Back then you had to rely on a grainy screenshot if you were lucky, and the idea of Youtube to view gameplay was a fantasy.
The game was released on cassette tape, much like all games for home computers of the early 80’s. The ZX Spectrum loading screen for Pssst! was a sign of the graphical goodness to come, with chunky graphics that somehow managed to avoid the colour clash that plagued the Sinclair machine.
Playing Pssst! on the ZX Spectrum
Playing the role of “Robbie the Robot”, your objective is to patrol your garden and protect your green shoot from invading insects long enough for it to grow and flower. The insects would crawl or fly towards the flower, and could be killed by using the right kind of spray for the insect – either a puff of gas, an electric zap or a water spray.
The cans were dotted in alcoves by the side of the screen, and you could only carry one at a time, which forms the main game mechanic. You will encounter a number of different bugs as you progress through the game, starting with caterpillers and moving through bumble bees and wasps, each with a different attack pattern, and requiring different spray types.
Enemy Types in Pssst!
Survival of your flower was a frantic battle to keep swapping sprays and killing insects moving at different speeds towards your flower, each having a weakness to a different spray:
- Caterpillar creep across the screen in a broadly horizontal motion, moving slowly down or up the screen to get to the flower. While they move quite quickly their motion is fairly predictable so they can be easily dispatched. Use the blue can to stop them with a cloud of bug spray.
- Bumble Bees move in a diagonal motion at 45 degrees, bouncing around the screen until they reach the flower. They can be destroyed by the red can can which fires an electrical charge.
- Wasps don’t hang around, they immediately home in on the flower. The wasps will only react to the yellow spray, which destroys them with droplets of insecticide. Other cans don’t even slow the wasp down, so be careful not to bash into them while trying to grab the right spray.
Not the best or deepest game from Ultimate but a taste of things to come, and a world away from the clunky amd jumpy character animation of most early Spectrum games.
