Ceviche Chef - Nathan Obuch

It is not everyday we get a submission from the USA. Well, we have now. So buckle up, and lets see what greets us from the other side of the pond!

In the authors own words

Greetings from the U.S.!  Attached is my submission for the Crap Games competition.  After hearing of the competition, I started working on a game on my TS2068 , then had some free time whilst on vacation (TS2068 was left at home) so I wrote another game - "Ceviche Chef" using the http://torinak.com/qaop emulator and a mac.  The concept was created by one of my co workers, Steve Joseph, who, like most Americans, had never seen or heard of a ZX Spectrum or TS2068. I told him about the contest, and by way of explanation showed him a video of  Advanced Lawnmower Simulator.  He said "You should write a crap game about a Ceviche Chef." I have now done so. Much like global warming, It may not be what the world needs, but it's what the world is getting. 

Notes:

Run the emulator in 48K Spectrum mode. It does not auto launch, you'll have to RUN it. 

When the game requests that you press an "E" key, take that literally. 

The game is designed to work with capslock off. 

What happens with the music is intentional. (I thought, what can I do to make this game more crap AND avoid copyright strikes in the highly unlikely event someone puts gameplay video on YouTube?) 

Review

Guilty feet have got no rhythm. Not sure why that tune was selected, but there is certainly a nice 80s vibe as soon as this little basic games loads up. Music - top marks! 

So, the game itself is very simple. You are a chef making these fish and lime dishes. All you actually do is press the buttons in order. As you press them, you gradually make the dishes. 

If you make a mistake you get a telling off, and threats of HR involvement.

That's the premise. Pretty simple, but then it is based on ALMS, in which you just press M to mow. So this is a whole lot more complicated.

The key to victory is to remember the sequence of keys required to make the dish. I am terrible at remembering such things, so I cheated and wrote them down. But honestly, it's not that hard.

Plate. Fish. Lime. Squeeze. Trash. Then something else, I've already forgotten!

So a non-game really. But it is lifted to something rather pleasurable by a number of important aspects.

1) atmospheric music

2) novel concept

3) the cool little graphics and animations are really rather good.

In fact, I can't stress enough that this simple little program has a lot of charm.

I was wondering if I were going to see some funky Timex graphics modes. But from what I can tell, these are not really available to the basic. Which is a shame!

Final thoughts

I am not going to strive to write a thousand words on this simple program. However, it is a charming thing with nice music and graphics and I very much enjoyed trying it.

So all in all, well done. Nice to see the speccy getting some love in the US. Awesome stuff.

UPDATE

The game has been updated with new features. The main thing is a cruel timer that make the task a race against time! This makes it more of a game, but I quite like the casual gameplay of the previous mode. I'll include them all and you can decide which is best for you.

Nathan's Wild Claims, and lyrics! :

Back in 1983, I first wrote the Ceviche Chef theme* on my TS2068, lyrics as follows: "You plate the fish and squeeze the lime/ it's much the same thing every time/ those are the dues you have to pay/for Ceviche Chef, yes, life's that way" Unfortunately, that total and absolute bastard George Michael stole the riff, went on to have a hit song with "Careless Whisper" in 1984 and hits me with copyright strikes every time I try to use it.   *this is of course a complete and utter fabrication

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