''Fish!'' is a

text adventure '' Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the ...

game by

Magnetic Scrolls Magnetic Scrolls was a British video game developer active between 1984 and 1990. A pioneer of audiovisually elaborate text adventure games, it was one of the two largest and most acclaimed interactive fiction developers of the 1980s. ''Magnet ...

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, Phil South and Peter Kemp with contributions by Rob Steggles.

Plot

According to the game scenario, the Inter-Dimensional Espionage sends operatives throughout the

dimensions In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus, a line has a dimension of one (1D) because only one coordin ...

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 The labour law concept of leave, specifically paid leave or, in some countries' long-form, a leave of absence, is an authorised prolonged absence from work, for any reason authorised by the workplace. When people "take leave" in this way, they are ...

in the body of a

goldfish The goldfish (''Carassius auratus'') is a freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae of order Cypriniformes. It is commonly kept as a pet in indoor aquariums, and is one of the most popular aquarium fish. Goldfish released into the wild have ...

. He learns that an inter-dimensional

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

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 An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

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

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 The Golden Joystick Awards, also known as the People's Gaming Awards, is a video game award ceremony; it awards the best video games of the year, as voted for originally by the British general public, but is now a global event that can be vote ...

. Keith Campbell of ''

Computer and Video Games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website ...

'' 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 ''Zzap!64'' was a computer games magazine covering games on the Commodore International series of computers, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact. The magazine ...

'', 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, Charles Ardai of '' Computer Gaming World'' 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