''Pyjamarama'' is a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

for the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sin ...

, and the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

. It features Wally Week as the central character and is the second (after ''Automania'') of a series of games featuring Wally and/or members of his family. It was published by

Mikro-Gen Mikro-Gen was a UK software company based in Bracknell, Berkshire that produced games for home computers in the early to mid-1980s. The company was formed by Mike Meek and Andrew Laurie in 1981, in order to capitalise on the growing boom of micr ...

(through Amsoft for the Amstrad version). Starting in July 1986, ''

Your Sinclair ''Your Sinclair'', or ''YS'' as it was commonly abbreviated, was a commercially published and printed British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum. It was in circulation between 1984 and 1993. History The ...

'' magazine published a monthly comic strip based on the character. There are two different versions of the game. The original plays the song "

Popcorn Popcorn (also called popped corn, popcorns or pop-corn) is a variety of corn kernel which expands and puffs up when heated; the same names also refer to the foodstuff produced by the expansion. A popcorn kernel's strong hull contains the se ...

", the second release plays an original tune. Four other Wally Week games were released: ''Automania'', '' Everyone's A Wally'', ''Herbert's Dummy Run'', and ''

Three Weeks in Paradise ''Three Weeks in Paradise'' is a video game released in 1986 by Mikro-Gen for the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC platforms. It is the last action-adventure platform in the Wally Week series. Gameplay The Weeks family are trapped on a tropical islan ...

''.

Gameplay

''Pyjamarama'' is an

action-adventure game The action-adventure genre is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Typically, pure adventure games have situational problems for the player to solve to complete a story ...

set across several interconnecting rooms. The player takes the role of Wally, who has gone to bed for the night and has to wake up early in the morning for work. Unfortunately, his

alarm clock An alarm clock (or sometimes just an alarm) is a clock that is designed to alert an individual or group of individuals at a specified time. The primary function of these clocks is to awaken people from their night's sleep or short naps; they ar ...

has not been wound, and thus he will sleep late in the morning, and his boss will fire him. However, in his sleep, Wally's

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

travels around his home, and other places, wearing his

pyjamas Pajamas (American English, US) or pyjamas (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth) (), sometimes colloquially shortened to PJs, jammies, jam-jams, or in South Asia night suits, are several related types of clothing worn as night ...

, in search for the key to rewind the alarm clock and wake himself up. The game is made up of static single-screen rooms, each of which can include platforms in various arrangements, objects to pick up, and enemies to avoid. Wally can walk through the screens to progress through the game's map and to pick up objects. Wally can carry two items in a first in, first out arrangement. Contact with an enemy drains Wally's "snooze energy", and if it runs out, Wally loses one of his lives. Snooze energy can be regained by drinking milk, which appears at various locations in the game. When all lives are lost, Wally returns to sleep and does not wake up until late in the morning, losing the game. One of the rooms in the game is a video games room, in which Wally can play a version of

Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter and set ...

against various sprites from other parts of the game. If all the rounds are completed, Wally is rewarded with an extra life. ''Pyjamarama'' can be played either with a

joystick A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...

or with the

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

. There are three controls: walk left, walk right, and jump.

Reception

The ZX Spectrum version of ''Pyjamarama'' received the Game of the Month award in the November 1984 issue of ''

Personal Computer Games ''Personal Computer Games'' was a multi-format UK computer games magazine of the early/mid-1980s published by VNU. History ''Personal Computer Games'' was launched in July 1983. The magazine was part of VNU and had its headquarters in London ...

'', beating the

BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...

version of ''

Elite In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. D ...

'' to the title.

References

External links

*{{WoS game, id=0003949, name=Pyjamarama
Pyjamarama technical specs
at luny.co.uk * 1984 video games Amsoft games Amstrad CPC games Commodore 64 games Single-player video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom ZX Spectrum games Mikro-Gen games