''Fish!'' is a text adventure game by Magnetic Scrolls released in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

. The game was designed by John Molloy,

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and Peter Kemp with contributions by Rob Steggles.

Plot

According to the game scenario, the Inter-Dimensional Espionage sends operatives throughout the dimensions to fight evil. This is done by possessing someone's body and controlling his actions. The player is Agent 10 who enjoys his leave of absence in the body of a goldfish. He learns that an inter-dimensional terrorist group named the Seven Deadly Fins have stolen a focus wheel. In the first part of the game, the player can visit three dimensions (a forest with a smithy, a hippie van near an abbey and a recording studio). Once the three parts of the wheel are gathered, he learns that the Fins are threatening to take over the water-world of Hydropolis by evaporating the ocean of that planet. The player must warp to Hydropolis to foil the Seven Deadly Fins. The player possesses Dr. Roach, who is in charge of the Project that will transfer water from another dimension to keep Hydropolis alive.

Gameplay

The game is a standard text adventure with static graphics in some versions. The game was re-released as part of the Magnetic Scrolls Collection, featuring a

GUI The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

with an auto-map system, inventory, and pop-down menus.

Reception

The game was voted Best 16-bit Adventure Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards. Keith Campbell of ''

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'' wrote that ''Fish!'' was "like no other adventure I've played before", and that it is "the most pun packed adventure ever." He praised the humor and cited the game as another example of Magnetic Scrolls "cleaning up on the adventure scene this year." Reviewing ''Fish'' in '' Zzap!64'', Kati Hamza wrote, "Every Magnetic Scrolls adventure gets praised to the skies, wins a thousand awards and gets an incredibly high mark in all the magazines. You'd think they could produce a dud once in awhile just for variety's sake". She remarked that ''Fish'' is "slick, subtle and sparkles with subaquatic humor", and that its "parser is up to Magnetic Scrolls usual high standards". In 1992,

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of ''

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'' wrote when reviewing ''Magnetic Scrolls Collection'' that ''Fish!'' was "just a shade too crazy. Unpredictable is good; incomprehensible is not", but "if nothing else, this makes the game original" and had "the most clever gags of the three games".

References

External links

*
''Fish!''
at Lemon 64
''Fish!''
at Lemon Amiga * {{Magnetic Scrolls adventure games 1980s interactive fiction 1988 video games Acorn Archimedes games Amiga games Amstrad PCW games Atari ST games Classic Mac OS games Commodore 64 games DOS games Golden Joystick Award winners Magnetic Scrolls games Single-player video games Telecomsoft games Video games developed in the United Kingdom ZX Spectrum games