I admit it, starting a blog and having this as the opening topic may not be the most sensible for my reputation, but I'm going ahead with it anyway. In my normal bored state I was browsing forums and saw someone fighting their corner that "Nintendo invented the mini game genre" which led me to this gem from my childhood on the old C64.
Like all games, this has a plot and like most from the era it's dead simple. Donald Duck as a miserable bugger is trying to work four jobs to make enough money to buy various items for his nephews and put on a playground for them to play to their hearts content. I think this was a bribe to stop them telling social services about his foul mouthed tirades (including racial abuse according to comments made in '88s "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" towards Daffy Duck...) and his refusal to wear something on the lower half of his body. Either way old school developer "US Gold" put together this game of challenges.
The four jobs are basic mini games. The Greengrocers, which saw you sorting stock coming off the back of a delivery, it's thrown at you in a particularly cavalier fashion so I just used to let it fall on the floor most of the time. The Toy Store which involved stacking the shelves, or matching the toy with the same colour and shape on the shelf. Airport baggage handler which meant putting cases in the right place so they don't miss the flights and finally "railroad controller" which meant changing the switches of the lines to help a train get from A --> B. Then exchanging your hard earned cash for swings ladders and so on. After your purchases you get to watch a little blackmailer go and play on a couple of the bits before buggering off for more extortion.
Ultimately though I have fond memories of it and isn't that what a computer game is about? It's simple and fun (or at least was, must hunt it out some time just for old times sake) and supposedly educational though learning the abbreviation L.A.X did nothing for me, it's just a song by "the attractive one from S Club" isn't it?
Right enough on the nursery games, next time I rant about how flipping hard it was to find your way around Greendale in the Postman Pat game for the speccy...
