98. Grumpy Gumphrey Supersleuth

(Spectrum, Gremlin, 1985)
Ive worked in Retail long enough to know two things:
1.The customer is rarely right
2.Thieves will still ANYTHING, regardless of its value.
Problem one is caused by humans being humans and is best dealt with by going blank and playing Poison songs in your head whilst they rant about their "rights" which they "know" or something. Problem 2 is where Grumpy Gumphrey: SUPERSLEUTH! comes in.

Grumpy Gumphrey is a disgruntled (by name) store detective (not strictly a "sleuth") The game required you to get Grumpy through a days work, performing various tasks for your boss and customers, ranging from cleaning bugs from the cafe and finding a lost baby to more reasonable requests like getting your boss drinks and erm.. shooting ducks in the washing machine department.

The game is colourful and fast paced, once Grumpy picks up the scooter he barrels around with a total disregard for customer safety. This alone makes him a hero to me.
Failure to perform tasks within time limits and customer complaints result in a written warning, five of these letters sees Grumpy out on his ass (What kind of company allows FIVE written warnings in the space of a single day?)

I never finished this game, the time limits were tight and it had an awful inventory system, there were frustrating elements such as a customer who ran around causing you to drop items and light switches that blacked out most of the screen. The game required you to visit the boss's office several times, an act that itself could cause you to receive a warning anyway, cheers.
A chart in the office shows sales at an all time low and the boss has a loaded gun on the desk next to him. A scene that hopefully didnt recreate itself in Gremlins head office circa 2003.

Grumpy Gumphrey Supersleuth had bright graphics, a novel idea and an interesting execution, it was also frustrating and often resulted in you trying to gun down the customers. In that regard, It was a perfect recreation of my retail experiences.