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Schizofrenia is a game that will put you in two
minds about paranoia (ho! ho!), well that's roughly
what it says on the inlay anyway. You take the role
of one Alphonse T Nurd, flunky and cleaning minion to
Bogdan Schtunk, a run of the mill mad scientist. Alphonse,
discontent with his menial position, dreams of one day
becoming a great scientist. So, during his nighttime
cleaning shift, he attempts to learn as much as possible
about his employer's line of work.
One
night, while Alphonse is playing at being a scientist,
he stumbles across his Dr Schtunk's latest invention,
the Atomic Particle People Splitter. He unwittingly
activates the machine and is promptly split into two
separate people, Alphonse I and Alphonse II. Oh dear.
Alphonse I quickly realises his mistake and that he
must get himself and his double to the Recombination
Chamber so they can become as one again. To get there
he must travel through the five areas of Dr Schtunk's
lab complex. Unfortunately for Alphonse I, Alphonse
II isn't quite so keen on the idea, as he is enjoying
his newfound freedom and will attempt to hinder his
alter ego's every step. To make matters worse, if the
labs aren't clean by first thing in the morning, then
it's the sack for Alphonse T Nurd -- both of them!
The
five areas of lab are of the platform and ladders format
and each features a certain type of 'logic puzzle' to
be completed. You actually control Alphonse I and compete
against Alphonse II using either joystick or keyboard.
Loading is briefly interrupted to allow you to choose
the control method and there's no way of changing this
once the program has loaded (other than re-loading).
On
the first screen, appropriately titled Area One, you
have to open the main doors leading to (surprise, surprise)
Area Two. This involves undoing four bolts holding the
doors shut and pulling back a lever to swing them apart.
Score and timer controls must also be set by toggling
the correct switches below their respective panels.
If this all sounds too easy, then bear in mind that
while you are doing this, Alphonse II wanders about
the screen attempting to reset any work that you've
done.
Should
you be unfortunate enough to bump into your alter ego,
he will give you a swift kick in the leg to send you
on your way, before continuing on his. If you encounter
him on a top landing however, he's more than likely
to send you crashing to the floor, costing you one of
your three lives.
Area
Two has you moving several little yellow boxes to the
top right of the screen by using a set of lifts in the
middle. You can only move so many blocks at a time and
the correct lift controls must be activated if they
are to work. Area Three requires plenty of thought,
as you have to line up six sets of lifts at the bottom
of the screen and they only move in sets of three. The
penultimate screen, Area Four, is another logic problem
with the task of turning on all the lights in the room.
Before you can do that though, the generator has to
be turned on and to make things that bit more awkward,
one of the light-switches has been wired upside down!
The final screen contains the Recombination Chamber
itself and features yet more switches and frustration.
A series of generators need to be turned on to activate
the machine so that Alphonse II can be lured into it
and the two bodies combined to form one.
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