Software:Back to Skool

Back to Skool
Cassette cover from ZX Spectrum version
Publisher(s)	Microsphere
Designer(s)	David Reidy
Platform(s)	ZX Spectrum
Release	EU: 1985
Genre(s)	Action-adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

Back to Skool is a video game, sequel to the Skool Daze, created by David Reidy (whose wife Helen was a school teacher at the time) with graphics by Keith Warrington for the ZX Spectrum and released by Microsphere in 1985. The gameplay is very similar to - if more advanced than - Skool Daze, incorporating most of the same characters, gameplay elements and graphics.

The game is ranked 19th in the "Your Sinclair official top 100" Spectrum games of all time.

Gameplay

The game differs from its predecessor by an increase in the size of the play area (including a neighbouring girls' school) and a number of gameplay changes.

The girls' school incorporates its own new characters including undistinguished girls with hockey sticks, Hayley (girlfriend of the main character Eric) and Miss Take (the headmistress). Only at break time and lunch times are the girls allowed to mingle with the boys, in the central grassy playground, separated at other times by a high gate. The opening and closing of the gate is controlled by the school caretaker Albert, a new character to the game. It is also possible for Eric to sneak over the gate into the girls' school during lesson times, either using the bicycle (after completing the challenge of finding its lock's combination and then performing a tricky manoeuvre on it), by watering the flower beside the gate and then jumping on it, or by kissing Hayley through the gate. When the girls and boys are allowed to mingle and when Eric gains access to the girls' school, he can kiss Hayley, who will then agree to do 1000 of his lines for him. This reduction method can be used up to six times before Hayley refuses to help Eric any more.

Elements added in Back to Skool include stink bombs (used to trigger the opening of windows), water pistols, mice that can be released in the girls' school causing widespread panic, and sherry (which can be squirted into cups and used to "intoxicate" teachers by splashing it on them with correct timing).

Reception
Review scores Publication Score Crash 93% CVG 30/40 Sinclair User Your Sinclair 9/10 Computer Gamer
Awards Publication Award Crash Crash Smash Sinclair User SU Classic

Suicide

It is possible to commit suicide by opening the top-storey window and making Eric jump out. Jumping out of a window is necessary to sneak into the girls' school, but only from the first floor - not the second. When this happens, Eric will lie incapacitated on the ground outside the boys' school until Mr Wacker approaches and tells him "You are not a bird, Eric. You're expelled", and the game ends.

Bugs

There are a couple of known bugs in the game. One enables you to see what goes on in the girls' school without leaving the boys' school by making the whole screen scroll until it goes all the way to the girls' school.

Another bug makes a teacher disappear from one of the classrooms. By positioning Eric so the teacher is out of sight to the left and leaving the room and re-entering.

External links

• Back to Skool at MobyGames
• Back to Skool at SpectrumComputing.co.uk