It seems such a long time ago that Acorn had their computers in most UK schools and even longer ago that I was sitting in a classroom playing games on the BBC Masters that the school had bought. Several games stand out in my memory and these include (in no particular order): Yellow Brick Road, Little Red Riding Hood and the one that I'm sure most of you who used school computers in the late 80s will remember, Granny's Garden.
 
In this, the first of a series of articles, we'll be taking a look back at Yellow Brick Road.

 

Yellow Brick Road

Released by MEP North in 1985, Yellow Brick Road is, as the title suggests, based around the story of the Wizard of Oz. The game takes the form of an adventure and is in three parts which are cunningly titled Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
 
The game starts by asking you if you would like to help Dorothy and Toto get to the Great Oz's castle to help them get home. If you say "No", Dorothy gets upset and tells you that "That's not very nice". Saying "Yes" gets you a "Thank you very much" instead, and the adventure begins.
 
You start your adventure by a signpost and you must collect the objects you need to help the people you see along your way. Items such as the red shoes are useful later in the game and could lead you into trouble if you don't pick them up whilst you're here. You get yourself around by choosing an option from the numbered list and make your way around the Ditch, Forest, Garage, Bridge, Stile, Cornfield and Signpost, meeting the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow and the Lion along the way, before crossing the ditch into the Land of Oz. At this point, you're told to call your teacher. I didn't have a teacher watching me, so I pressed "t" to bring up the teacher's menu and take myself to Part 2 of the adventure.
 
Part 2 begins with a quick question to help the Tin Woodman chop down a tree to cross the river. You're given a letter to take with you (be sure to write these down, as I didn't on my first time round and had to do it all again so I could guess the word later on!). At this point, it helps if you know your trees and plants. After you've crossed the river with your tree knowledge, you enter a field of poppies, where you have to answer 10 sums before all the petals fall off the three poppies on the screen (a total of 9 petals). Once you've done that, you have a code to break. It's a fairly simple code. Each letter of the alphabet has a number from 1 to 26. A being 1, B is 2 and so on.
 
Part 2 ends with a set of steps, where you are asked to make words from the letters on the steps. This rewards you with the final letter you need to make up the password. Once you enter the password, the mighty Wizard of Oz appears and tells you to call your teacher once more to set you on your way to Part 3 of the adventure.
 
Part 3 starts with putting sentences into the right order, for example "Dorothy want home I am to am I go" becomes "I am Dorothy and I want to go home". Once you've put the four sentences in the right order, the Wizard tells you to go and kill the Wicked Witch of the West (try and get away with killing in schools these days!). You set off along the Great Path of Oz in which you must travel down each road once and once only to get to the castle. This is simple enough, but the Witch has of course set a few traps for you, which involve some mini games.
 
When you arrive at the Witch's castle, she sets the Scarecrow on fire. - How rude. - You can put the Scarecrow out by finding the magic word in the word search and with that the Witch is dead. Hurrah! And finally, Dorothy can go home to Kansas, the Scarecrow has some brains, the Tin Woodman has a heart and the Lion has some courage. Poor Toto doesn't get anything. You are asked to call your teacher and the adventure ends here.

Screenshots

Click on any of the screenshots to see a larger version of it.