OCS no. 1
OCS no. 2

Corruption

Upon Westminster Bridge [Prerelease name]

General info

Not Amiga Original

Relationships

WHDLoad

2002-11-16

Stats

5,633

Genre

Conversions

Acorn Archimedes
Amstrad/Schneider CPC464/664/6128
Amstrad/Schneider PcW 8256/8512/9256/9512/10
Apple II/IIGS
Apple Macintosh (Classic)
Atari ST/E
Commodore C64/128
PC (DOS)
Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128/+2/+3

OCS

Version info

No
Max 1, Sim 1

Features

Credits

Game design
Game design

Hard Disk Installer

Yes

Simply copy all disk contents to a game folder on HD.

Releases

Year
Name
Licence
Type
Country
Publisher
Languages
Manual Languages
Disks
Rarity
1988
Corruption
AKA Upon Westminster Bridge (Pre-release name)
Commercial
Full Price
Worldwide
English
English
1
One version is common, at least one other version is rare

Notes

[1] Original game contents included an audiotape labelled 'Derek Rogers, March 25th', which the game prompts players to listen to in order to extract information at certain stages (see HERE). Also included was a Casino chip "500" denomination, a guide to casino games, and personal organiser diary pages.

[2] Reportedly, the Amiga version of CORRUPTION is the only platform release to feature a speech facility, although it only has novelty value given that it simply repeats the commands that are entered by players and makes use of Commodore's speech synthesiser from earlier versions of Workbench. Seemingly, the speech facility was left out of the re-released compilation version of the game as a result of Commodore discontinuing the licensing of the Amiga's speech synthesiser from Workbench 2.04 onwards.

[3] When asked what inspired CORRUPTION, game designer/writer Rob Steggles gave this response:

'I’d met Dave Lebling and liked the Infocom murder mysteries. Even when we did GUILD OF THIEVES I wanted to do something different from standard fantasy and sci-fi adventure settings. I was looking at all sorts of genres and finally settled on doing a thriller and, as it was in the Thatcher era, setting it in London amongst the financial sharks seemed like a good idea at the time as it was a world I could get access to.'[Source: Interview with Rob Steggles (May 2010), Magnetic Scrolls Chronicles]


Known releases:
- V1.11 (11-Nov-86) [original release]
- V1.12 (1991) [compilation release - The Magnetic Scrolls Collection Volume 1]


TRIVIA: [1] CORRUPTION (16-bit versions only) was the only Magnetic Scrolls adventure where the game engine was customised to suit the theme of the game. While all Magnetic Scrolls' other adventure games featured scrolls, CORRUPTION'S drop-down menus beneath the graphic window were altered to make them look like pages from a personal organiser.

Additionally, Magnetic Scrolls altered the game engine to count player actions as virtual minutes in the game. Consequently, there are situations in the game where players may have only "one minute left", which means they can only enter one valid action. [Sources: The Bird Sanctuary; The Magnetic Scrolls Chronicles; The Magnetic Scrolls Memorial]

[2] CORRUPTION represented a departure for Magnetic Scrolls, being the first adventure they had written which didn't have a fantasy theme. Coders Rob Steggles and Hugh Steers were keen to write a thriller, and decided on a slick plot that involved corporate fraud and insider trading in the financial sector in contemporary London. With the move away from fantasy-based adventures, Magnetic Scrolls hoped to expand their brand's appeal by exploiting a different genre that would appeal to an older audience.

The calculated risk proved to be a timely success, with CORRUPTION'S release coinciding with the big screen movie release of Oliver Stone's "Wall Street", a fast-paced, stock market thriller focusing on corporate greed starring Michael Douglas as the ruthless megalomaniac Gordon Gekko. CORRUPTION would go on to become a best-seller for Magnetic Scrolls and win the prestigious Personal Computer World (PCW) 'Game of the Year' award in 1988. [Sources: The Bird Sanctuary; The Magnetic Scrolls Chronicles]

[3] The game had the working title UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE, which reportedly was inspired by by poet William Wordsworth's sonnet "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802". [Source: The Bird Sanctuary]

Conversion Notes

Based on 1988 Magnetic Scrolls/Rainbird Atari ST release
PC versions: 40-/80-column text mode, CGA/EGA

NB. - Spectrum 128k release is disk only
- An unofficial C= Plus/4 port exists

Screen info

OCS
Screenshot OCS no. 3

Screenshot OCS no. 4

Screenshot OCS no. 5

Screenshot OCS no. 6

Scan info

Box: OCS
Box scan OCS no. 1

UK Release (front)

Box scan OCS no. 2

UK Release (back)

Box scan OCS no. 3

U.S. Release (front)

Box scan OCS no. 4

U.S. Release (back)

Disk: OCS
Disk scan OCS no. 1

Misc: OCS
OCS no. 1

Casino Chip (front)

OCS no. 2

Casino Chip (back)

OCS no. 3

'Derek Rogers, March 25th' (Audio Tape)

OCS no. 4

UK Advert

OCS no. 5

Magazine Review (C+VG) [1/2]

OCS no. 6

Magazine Review (C+VG) [2/2]

Manual info

OCS
OCS no. 1

Manual (English)

OCS no. 2

Adventure Guide (English)

OCS

No cheats found.

Acorn Archimedes
No conversion screens found.
Amstrad/Schneider CPC464/664/6128
Conversion Amstrad/Schneider CPC464/664/6128

Conversion Amstrad/Schneider CPC464/664/6128

Amstrad/Schneider PcW 8256/8512/9256/9512/10
No conversion screens found.
Apple II/IIGS
No conversion screens found.
Apple Macintosh (Classic)
No conversion screens found.
Atari ST/E
No conversion screens found.
Commodore C64/128
Conversion Commodore C64/128

Conversion Commodore C64/128

PC (DOS)
Conversion PC (DOS)

EGA

Conversion PC (DOS)

Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128/+2/+3
No conversion screens found.

Map info

OCS

No maps found.

MAGAZINE REVIEWS

Magazine
Issue
Rating
Reviewer
Release type
Review
Scans
Amiga Computing
Vol 1 No 6 (Nov 1988)
85%
Dave Eriksson
4
Amiga User International
Vol 2 No 10 (Oct 1988)
10/10
Andy Moss
1
Amiga World
Vol 5 No 7 (Jul 1989)
Dickman
0
Australian Commodore and Amiga Review
Vol 6 No 5 (May 1989)
99.99%
0
CU Amiga
Jun 1988
8/10
Keith Campbell
2
Datormagazin
Vol 1988 No 11 (Sep 1988)
3.3/5
Anders Kökeritz
0
Génération 4
5 (Sep - Oct 1988)
90%
0
Your Amiga
Dec 1988 - Jan 1989
86%
Derek Rogers
1

MAGAZINE PREVIEWS

Magazine
Issue
Rating
Reviewer
Release type
Review
Scans
The Games Machine
7 (Jun 1988)
Preview
2

OCS

Lore Score: 81%

Your Score:

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