As regular readers will know, I have a soft spot for Eighth Day adventures. It's my brain, I think. Ronnie Goes To Hollywood is no disappointment, keeping up the tasteful style begun with HRH. If your image of President Reagan is more that of the Spitting Image puppet, playing with toy submarines in the bath and not knowing if it's Christmas or Yore Kippur, then this could be one for you.
    Like Yes Prime Minister,, you get to run the country for a week and see what it does to your popularity rating. Type SCORE in this one and you'll get a popularity percentage, though don't pay too much attention as you can get it up to 100 percent soon after the start of the game - it won't last, you can be sure of that. The aim is to see what it's like at the end of the week, after you've visited not only Hollywood but Ireland, New York and even Geneva for talks with the head of a certain other powerful nation. Just so you know what's going on, the adventure comes complete with a free 8-page copy of Ronnie User.
    The game begins with you in bed at the White House. Nice blankets, with real cute pictures of plains and aeroplanes on them. Now what's that ticking sound? My Mickey Mouse alarm clock? Heck no, it's a limpet mine. Hey, Nancy!? No use shouting for the First Lady, she went on a dress-buying spree hours ago. Better get up and look around. What's this hanging up? A truss? Yup, better wear that. After all, I need all the support I can get. And look at this neat little submarine in the bath... time for a quick splash?
    If you can make it downstairs in one piece (or in Ronnie's case in several pieces, including truss, wig and deaf-aid) you might get to play with the White House computer, and a neat use of The Quill input routine means that you can make decisions about world events by pressing the appropriate number yes. The events that come up on the screen change as time passes, quite a clever addition to the usual adventure scenario methinks. It means you have to keep a timetable as well as a map, and remember (if Ronnie's braincells can cope with it) that you only have till Sunday evening before the games over. Type TIME to find out how it's going.
    And before the game is over, you should have had quite a few laughs at the expense of Mr President. Not the hardest of adventures, and it isn't quite in the same laughter league as Delta 4, I don't think, but it's not far behind.

Ratings given by other magazines

9/10

Info supplied by the SPOT*ON database