Mad Nurse Longplay (C64) [50 FPS]
42Developed by Simon Pick and published by Firebird in 1985
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For today's video, I decided to take a look at 'Mad Nurse', a title that I've looked at a number of times, but never got around to actually playing.
Set within a the busy maternity ward of the local hospital, the player assumes control of eager, trainee nurses, all of whom are tasked with looking after the infants placed under their care. Babies enter the ward on one of the ward's three floors, following which the player must endeavour to pick them up and carry them to a cot, wherein they can be tucked in to prevent them from coming to any harm. The game is, essentially, a case of quick reactions and multi-tasking - think 'Tapper', but with looking after infants instead of serving up mugs of beer.
Placing a baby into a cot results in a number of points being awarded, with the exact total varying based on the number babies already in that particular cot. For players looking to get the best possible score, babies must be taken to less crowded beds and placed therein.
However, what you soon realise is that the occupants aren't simply going to stay put. The little tykes get restless and will clamber out of the cots at the most inopportune moments, particularly when a cot becomes overcrowded. Left to their own devices, the babies will quite happily stick their fingers into plug sockets, drink bottles of medicine, or plunge to their deaths down an open lift shaft (tasteful!). Each death is met by a horrible 'gargling' effect and the little one meets an untimely end, resulting in the current nurse incurring a 'mishap'. Score more than three mishaps and the trainee nurse will be fired for negligence, with the next trainee taking her place.
However, our nurses have a trick up their sleeves that can get them out of a sticky situations. If you spot a baby lurching towards certain doom, pressing the fire button will flood the ward with stun gas, rendering the babies immobile for a short period of time and giving the nurse chance to get them away from danger. The gas can be used a limited number of times, however, so be sure to keep an eye on the 'gas counter' in the bottom right of the screen.
With each level, the game becomes progressively harder, requiring more babies to be placed into cots (and kept there) before the level is over. Once you get to level 20 and beyond, it becomes impossible to deal with the number of babies appearing on each of the floors, especially if one of the floors has no cots and you're forced to move them to another floor to keep them safe.
For me, the biggest problem is the fact that medicine bottles can spawn in any location, even right on top of a baby. Whilst you think you've gt the situation under control, you'll hear the familiar gargle 'o death and see one of them go green where things were previously clear; there really is no way to prevent this from happening, so surviving beyond these levels is based on luck, rather than skill.
Despite things already being pretty difficult, things aren't made easier by the fact that picking up babies is more awkward than it needs to. I found that there is a definite 'sweet spot' as to where the player has to position the nurse before the baby with be picked up, and there are quite a few times throughout the video where it becomes apparent that I'm struggling to pick them up - all of this fumbling around loses you precious seconds, time you simply don't have.
The game features nice enough graphics for the time, with bug, chunky sprites and animation. The way the babies toddle around with their arms outstretched is quite amusing, as is the way each level opens with a short animation of a baby headbutting one of the poor nurses in the bum!
As for audio, a reasonably jolly tune plays throughout the game, although there didn't appear to be any sound, other than the aforementioned death sounds for the babies.
As a budget game, Mad Nurse is, I suppose, an entertaining enough distraction for an hour, considering the £1.99 price tag upon release. However, once the novelty of watching the babies get frazzled/poisoned wears off, and with no actual ending, the only impetus to keep playing the quest for an increasingly high score, don't expect it to hold your interest for long.
Just as an aside, I know that the state of the NHS and healthcare in the UK is a contentious issue at the moment, but I should point out that the game is absolutely no reflection on quality of maternity services in real hospitals. As someone who works in the NHS, I can categorically state that nurses do not routinely subdue unruly babies using stun gas (they actually use cattleprods - much more effective!).
#retrogaming