Pogo a Go-Go
Our next Sinclair game was Pogo. Somewhat educational as it did promote logical thinking as you had to outwit the computer. I remember the day my father brought this home from the little local computer shop in our town, I saw the cover and immediately felt rather sorry for Pogo, hiding away in his little house.
Persecuted since birth and chased from planet to planet , only to now land on the Planet of Steps (nil points for imagination there Ocean Software) , to still be pursued by his arch enemies , the glass ball , the scorpion and worst of all Hiss the wily snake. What does Pogo decide to do about this? Well he/she/it decides to paint every tile on the board. Now, even at the age of 11 I did think that in this futuristic land Pogo might have designed a spray gun attached to a jetpack and saved itself a whole world of pain. Especially as it had already got access to helipads it could jump on, to be taken back to the top of the screen, but I suppose that would have made the game much shorter and far less of a challenge.
You had to feel sorry for Pogo, blessed with a face only a mother could love, he had little of the machismo of some of the other Spectrum heroes that were around at the time. Horace, who also had unique features was busy tackling spiders, running across busy roads and skiing. But poor Pogo was stuck on the Planet of Steps painting the pavement. In my 11 year old brain I hoped these two were cousins and perhaps exchanged Christmas cards. 'Dear Horace, painted another level of steps today , regards your cousin Pogo' , you know, that type of thing. But I digress ...
This was another really colourful game, simple but yet strangely addictive , you just wanted to help out the wee little magenta guy. The sound effects were rather limited through the ZX Spectrum but connected to the Ferguson Radiogram they became far more humorous, poor Pogo , with that sort of dietary upset I would have stayed inside and hid as well. But now I see this was just another ploy of that wily ZX Sinclair Spectrum to get it's feet ( or interface possibly? ) under the table.
The ability to be able to create such cute characters , in friendly colours. Indeed characters that had a vulnerable edge, (those haunting eyes both on the cassette cover and also the loading screen ) and through this magic black box you were able to help them. It was now not only a tutor but a friend. There were games around that were far less friendly and dear reader we will get round to them , but in this particular snapshot of 1983 , girl and Spectrum had bonded. To Be Continued ....
The ability to be able to create such cute characters , in friendly colours. Indeed characters that had a vulnerable edge, (those haunting eyes both on the cassette cover and also the loading screen ) and through this magic black box you were able to help them. It was now not only a tutor but a friend. There were games around that were far less friendly and dear reader we will get round to them , but in this particular snapshot of 1983 , girl and Spectrum had bonded. To Be Continued ....
