The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Tesco in X-rated Lawnmower Simulator shocker

Jason Togneri

One way to tell for sure 

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Try buying it and see what you get!

Mike Iwan Phillips

Virgin too! 

Alien

It's available from Virgin too!

http://www.virginmegastores.co.uk/product/818039/Lawnmower_Simulator_2007/s.jsf

Paul

Language. 

I particularly like the language options: "Language: English (Scouse)"

Matt

Not just Tesco 

http://www.virginmegastores.co.uk/product/818039/Lawnmower_Simulator_2007/s.jsf

Anonymous Coward

Bindun 

I hope it's better than the (infamous) Spectrum original:

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0000089

Also, I see that on the Tesco website the language is listed as: 'English (Scouse)'. Maybe that's why it has an 18+ rating?

After all, we wouldn't want our kiddies coming out with stuff like "Dey don't do dat down der doe do dey doe?" !

Adam Foxton

I'm surprised there've been no... 

Joke

Groundskeeper Willie jokes yet.

<gets coat>

Alan Davies

Finally 

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A game worthy of purchasing a PS3 for.

tim wright

More a case of 

Coat

Lady Chatterley's Hover...

....collects gardening overalls from inside of shed....

Joe Stalin

Groundskeeper Willie 

Happy

From the Simpsons episode where the kids get snowed in at school Groudskeeper Willie rebels against Skinner with the line "Last the last time you slap your Willie around".

Anonymous Coward

Woolies too! 

Happy

It was also available from (the Google cache of) Woolworths too:

http://tinyurl.com/yp98yp

Thomas Vestergaard

Hardcore violence? 

Alert

"Dispatch them by spraying grass cuttings at them before they make divots with slide tackles or, if close enough, *mow them down*!"

Although, mowing down footballers can't be all that gory in a Wii...

Chris Bradshaw

Virgin isn't 18+ restricted 

Coat

It's never as much fun playing with a Virgin one...

Just look at the time...

Neil

I think the line 

Pirate

"Dispatch them by spraying grass cuttings at them before they make divots with slide tackles or, if close enough, mow them down!" may explain the certificate.

Imagine the splatter from being sucked into a ride-on mower.

Horridbloke

PRECEDENT ALERT 

Anyone else remember the Commodore 64 classic "Hover Bovver", in which you stole your various neighbours' flymos and trimmed the lawn with them while setting your dog on the irate owner?

</80SNOSTALGIA>

Anonymous John

'English (Scouse)'. 

Stolen lawnmower then.

David S

A classic... 

http://www.youmustbejoking.demon.co.uk/als/

Dave Thompson

@Horridbloke 

Yes, yes I remember Hovver Bovver, with those fantastic renderings of your neighbours houses - and wasn't the dog on it called Rover...?

Brett Brennan

Practice for the USLMRA 2008 Sta-Bil cup series? 

Alert

Hey, this IS a lawn mower simulator, right? Then you can use it for practice runs during the snowy season for the up-coming 2008 Sta-Bil Cup at the United States Lawn Mower Racing Association!

www.letsmow.com or www.uslmra.com

(Of course there's an official XBox game for this too...see the web site above...)

(I WISH I could make this kind of stuff up...)

Ashley Pomeroy

Crap, in a funky skill-o sort of way 

Paris Hilton

It's nice to see that the legacy of Your Sinclair still permeates British society. I remember the original - was it Professional Lawnmower Simulator, or Advanced Lawnmower Simulator? There was a single key, "M", and periodically your mower hit a stone and conked out. But you could choose several different lawnmowers, all the same. It was a metaphor. For something.

I choose Paris Hilton as my avatar. I would like to hold her hand (very tightly).

Horridbloke

@Dave Thompson 

I think you're right about Rover. Remember the internal dialogue representing the three lives of the game:

"Jim won't mind if I borrow his mower."

"I'll just nip and borrow tom's..."

"Good old Alf... He's a decent chap."

Plus "Go on boy! Kill!" and "ARGH! Lay off me you beastly hound!"

(How long before someone fires up an emulator and corrects these quotes?) This is why the Commodore 64 scene was so much cooler than the purgatory of Spectrum ownership.

As this is an IT site shouldn't we have a nostalgia icon? Perhaps Mr T or Adam Ant?

Anonymous Coward

FF 

Dead Vulture

A fair time ago I went with a mate into town to buy a nice shiny new copy of Final Fantasy VIII and the unhelpful git at woolies refused to sell it to us as he insisted it was an 18+ title. Nevermind the total lack of rating on the cover, just flat out refused.

So how is it news that some monkey keyed in the wrong data on whatever system they're using? Happens all zi time!

Fred

sad 

Stop

whats the world coming too?....

Anonymous Coward

Other Simulators? 

Coat

Could this be the first in a string of simulators for other seemingly mundune activities...?

Laying Carpet, Cleaning the Pool...

Steve P

@Horridbloke, @Dave Thompson 

Jeff Minter has a Hovver Bovver for PC - there's a demo, so you can get your nostalgia fix for free. :)

http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/hbovver.php

Anonymous Coward

sounds like a Scott special? 

Reminds me of something one of my mates wrote many years ago...

Mr Larrington

Final Fantasy VIII???? 

Coat

Seems that Final Fantasys 1 through 7 weren't actually all that final after all, eh?

And to think people blame video games for the Shocking Decline in Standards of Literacy, Numeracy and the ability to kick a ball...

Alex

@Ashley 

Paris Hilton

OMG!! Whislting Rick Wilson!!

LOL! Have still got that tape somewhere in the loft!

"Hold my hand very tightly, very tightly, very tightly! Hold my hand very tightly, ooooh-ooh-ooooooohoooh!"

Classic "hit"

Run Paris, Run!

Anonymous Coward

re: Groundskeeper Willie 

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I liked the one from a Haloween episode, Groundskeeper Willie has stuck a note next to the school thermostat..

"Do not touch. Willie."

Homer reads this out aloud (sans punctuation) and declares it "Good advice."

Max Vernon

call me stupid, but "what???" 

This must be one of those insider-type dry english humour funnies. Could someone please explain it a bit for us chumps across the pond?

Mike Hocker

@Pomeroy 

Hit a stone? Ouchie! no wonder the mower stops... well, if it's one of your own stones anyway...

Steve

I knew that title was familiar 

Paris Hilton

Richard and David Darling, or the little darlings as Amstrad Action labeled them, are to blame.

This lifted from Wikipedia...

"They were famous for releasing a long series of games called "Advanced Something Simulator" or "Professional Something Simulator". This led to the parody "Advanced Lawnmower Simulator" being developed, praised to the skies and then published by Your Sinclair magazine as an April Fool's Day stunt."