#skool daze

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Top 47K - Skool Daze (feat. Kim Justice)

American Mcgee’s Alice - Skool Daze:

“A library level? Oh heck yes. This is such a pretty little. There’s a lot of butt kicking and some platforming waiting for you. It’s not a very challenging level neither, so you can chill and have fun...don’t expect me to say that a lot...”

Skool Daze is among my all time favourite games for its complexity and creativity. In this sidescroller, you are a student (whose set name is Eric, but I changed it to Butt) in a school. You must attend classes, and which one you need to go to is indicated at the bottom center of the screen. There is a bell that rings to indicate change of period. If you’re late, you get lines. You don’t actually have to write them, but if you get too many (cap is 10,000) the headmaster/principal will seek you out and expel you, ending the game. There is one little bitch of a student who is not only the teacher’s pet, but for some reason has it in for you and will tattle to the teacher if you’re late (you can see him ratting me out in screen 3 above). Then the school bully punched me unconscious and the teacher gave me more lines for lying on the floor. Just like real school!

The objective of the game is to shoot all the little red and blue plaques on the wall, which you achieve with the pea-shooter you come armed with. Some of the ways to do this requires a bit of creativity, such as knocking down a passing teacher with it, and then while they’re sitting confused on the floor, fire another which ricochets off their head and up to hit the plaque - if you’ve timed it right. Or, jumping up and touching them, or climbing on desks to reach them. All of these activities will get you in trouble if you get caught by a teacher. Also, the aforementioned little asshole student will run off to tell a teacher if he witnesses you doing so. There are fillers of generic students milling about who can’t really be interacted with.

Some of the impressive range of actions you can do are:

-Rename all the named students and teachers at the start of the game

-Answer questions in class (which are real trivia questions given by the teachers, in subjects like geography and math)

-Write on the blackboards (so many unmentionable profanities left by me). You can also get in trouble for this if caught by a teacher or the tattletale.

-Punch the living daylights out of another student. This will get you in trouble if witnessed by a teacher, and the little weasel will tell on you if you punch him.

-Shoot plaques, teachers and other students with your pea-shooter.

-Get sent to the principal’s office

-Shove another student out of their seat in class, usurping it

One of the designers, Helen Reidy, was a former teacher which almost certainly helped in making this game as fun as it is. The NPCs can write their own messages on the blackboards as well, and amusingly, many of them are shout-outs to previous games released by publisher Microsphere, such as Sky Ranger (pictured above). The personalities of the teachers were all based on actual teachers that designer Keith Warrington had in school.

For its innovation, Skool Daze is widely considered to be the pioneer of sandbox games such as The Sims.

Kim recommends...Skool Daze (ZX Spectrum)

If you live in Britain and you’re a kid (you can tell if you’re a kid or not through various checks such as: Do you own a slingshot, how much “tuck” do you consume in a day, do you have friends named Tucker and Gonch, etc.) then chances are good that right now you’re enjoying your half-term holidays — a full week away from the daily rigours of the classroom and bundles of the playground. However,…

Childhood crushes fill you with DETERMINATION! Remember to follow and leave an ask

CHRONO

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