by Rich Cunningham

Saturday morning cartoons have long been an American institution almost as long as there has been television. This tradition most likely started as a hold-over from the Saturday matinees that were popular in the thirties and forties. Cartoons such as Space Ghost, Johnny Quest, Scooby-Doo, and dozens of others have been enjoyed by countless numbers of children glued in front of their television sets. The television has been a line of demarcation between the cartoon world and the real world. The toon characters have their world, and we have ours. But have you ever wondered what would have happen if somehow that barrier was removed, and the cartoon characters came into our world?

Well, funny you should wonder about such a situation, because that is the premise behind one of the newest games from Sierra On-line. The name of the program is "Stay Tooned!", and it creates a world where some cartoon characters have escaped from the television and are running wild in an apartment house. Holy Pandora's Box, you say, how is this possible? Very easy, if you play the game. According to Sierra, it is "a wacky multimedia cartoon adventure bursting with....zany games, spoofs on pop-culture, loony characters, slapstick humor, and comical pranks....".

The setting of this game is an apartment building in the big city. The main character, represented by the player, is sitting in their apartment, channel surfing the local networks, enjoying such quality programming such as "Schlepardy", "Frauds", and "Whinefeld". The channel surfing is done with the ever popular and ever present remote control. On this remote is a mysterious red button. By hitting the number keys, the channels switch on the television. Pushing this red button does something else......it starts the adventure.

Pressing the red button causes the television to go boom (as in "fall down, go boom"). It is then that the characters escape and head for the hills. They spread around the apartment house you are in, and, since you let them out, it is up to you to catch them. This is done by finding the remote control, which is accomplished by using one's eyes, ears and brains. You then have to use the remote to recapture the little critters. To do so, you must explore the building, searching for clues while avoiding the toons-on-the-loose, who will try to create havoc by stealing your cursor or (worse) throwing a cream pie at you (not a bad pie, crust was a little hard, but otherwise okay). To get into the various rooms in the building, the user must find keys to them. This is done by searching for, or winning them in some of the 30 plus games located throughout the program. These games include puzzles, shoot-em ups, and brain teasers. This is the program in a nutshell.

This game has several strong points going for it. One is the graphics. They are very, very good. It is almost like watching Saturday morning cartoons. Another strong point, and one I find very attractive, is the high level of randomization that exists in the program, and the endless variations in game play it offers. No two games will ever be the same, since none of the games pop up at the same point in the program twice in a row. In addition to the 30 or so games, there are puzzles built into the game that must be solved. Without giving too much away, if you are playing the game, and a giant doughnut (named Duncan) is blocking a doorway, well, just call the cops. Everyone should know the stereotypical relationship that exists between police and doughnuts.

One other aspect of the game that deserves mention is the inclusion of the state-of-the-art ToonVision 3-D glasses. These glasses allow the user to view optical illusions and special effects in certain parts of the game. Having grown up shortly after the 3-D movie craze of the 1950's, and having viewed several different attempts at 3-D imaging over the past few years, I can honestly say that this attempt still leaves a lot to be desired. The problem with any attempting artificial depth perception is just that, it is artificial. It may improve over the coming years, but it still has a long way to go.

This program is fun to play. It will offer a child (or adult) hours of recreation in an environment that is very reminiscent of the excitement of Saturday morning cartoons. I enjoyed them (the cartoons), as well as this game, and I am sure you will, too.