Profesión: Detective - 1er. Caso: El Fantasma de Villa del Mar

PROFESSION: DETECTIVE - THE CASE OF THE GHOST OF VILLA DEL MAR

You'll have to forgive me, but I'm afraid this review isn't going to be very detailed. You see, when I write one of these reviews, I like to learn as much as possible about the game beforehand. You know the drill: play a few rounds, spend some time with it, and if I'm unfamiliar with it, try to find the manual. It always helps to read the instructions, understand the plot, and everything else. It makes for a more complete review.

Well, in this case, we'll have to settle for skimming the surface of a game that's technically terrible, but which seems to have more depth than it initially appears.

"Profession: Detective, The Case of the Ghost of Villa del Mar" (what a title!) is the Spanish version of a character created by Spinnaker Software at the dawn of the 8-bit era. In the original, it's not a single game, but a series of them, all revolving around an investigator who must solve a series of mysteries, with a certain childish touch.

Not surprisingly, the "saga" is aimed at younger gamers, although it must be admitted that anyone (even us nostalgic, budding thirty-somethings) can have a good time with it.

And you can't imagine how hard it was for me to gather this information. Of course, I could have tried to guess what the original title of the game was. "Surely," I thought, "it'll have the word 'Detective' in it." Well, no. It's (get this): "Snooper Troops." Go figure...

Even more: I don't even know which of the adventures is the one you have here, translated, although I deduce that it's "The Granite Point Ghost" (because the word "Ghost" appears in the title).

What was that one about? Well, it was about a family moving into a house they had just bought. But it turns out that a series of strange noises, all sorts of knocking sounds, and other supposedly supernatural annoyances are making their lives miserable.

Displaying admirable skepticism (and even overcoming the disappearance of... the youngest daughter's kitten—didn't I tell you this is aimed at younger players?), the family members think that someone is actually trying to force them out of their property, so they hire our services to solve the mystery.

I haven't played long enough to confirm whether this case of "The Ghost of Villa del Mar" is actually a translation of "The Granite Point Ghost." It's not easy, among other things, because the game is meticulously translated. Even the street names and character names have been adapted to our language (with a charming Catalan touch; notice the surnames of some of the suspects: there's a Serra, a Castells...).

The game is primarily controlled through menus and exclusively with the keyboard (something quite unusual for the Commodore). A series of numbered options will appear on the screen, and you must select one by pressing the corresponding key. There's a sort of "automatic notepad" that records the places visited, the suspects questioned, and their answers. There's also a database in the detective office where you can manage the information found and gather more data on the characters until you can formally accuse one of them.

Keep in mind that the original version of this game dates from between 1982 and 1983 (some of you may not even have been born yet), so technically it's ancient, with almost no sound, and graphics so schematic and simplistic they wouldn't look out of place if they were scribbled on a piece of paper pinned to a nursery wall. Don't even expect action. It's an incredibly slow game. But, making an effort of imagination, and trying to think about what impression it might have made, especially on the kids who were just starting out in computing, 20 years ago, I think we are looking at a truly charming game, despite all its flaws.