Download Beverly Hillbillies, The

I guess the clash of cultures has always been good material for comedies. One of the ultimate culture clashes that appeared on TV was probably when simple rural folks became rich and moved to a prestigious neighbourhood. That’s right, I’m talking about The Beverly Hillbillies.

You’ve probably heard of the sitcom that was really popular some four decades ago, but this game is based on the movie which came out in the early 90s.

You play the role of Jed, who needs to get something for dinner. Well, as luck would have it, you strike oil. Next you drive to Beverly Hills, where people are just too eager to relieve you of all that money. If you watched the movie you’ll understand what I mean.

Anyway, the graphics of this game are nice enough for 1993, and the music isn’t too bad (but very repetitive). For some odd reason it doesn’t play in DOSBox, but it plays fine when you're using VDMSound. The controls could have been improved: You can use both the mouse and the keyboard (I suggest you move with the keys and click with the mouse). To exit the screen you need to find the place where the arrow turns into an intersection of four arrows (sometimes you’ll have to bring Jed close enough with the keys).

The Beverly Hillbillies isn’t your typical adventure game. It doesn’t have a range of verbs you can click on. You only click on things you interact with - sometimes you won’t know what those things are - or drag an object over Jed to use it. If you wish to talk to a person, that's not a problem (you simply click on the person), but for other objects there’s no way of telling what you could click on, so you’re basically on a pixel hunt. There are also quite a few sequences where you need to move around, like the maze of Beverly Hills, while looking for your house. Many times this reminds me more of a puzzle game, because you actually have puzzles to solve.

Here’s the one that gave me quite some troubles, because there’s no hint on how to solve it: driving to L.A. It’s important to be in the right lane when you see the sign that mentions L.A. At the first sign ("It’s a long way to L.A.") you need to be in the upper lane, at the second sign ("You will have to drive long to get to L.A." – or something like that) you need to be in the middle lane, at the third sign ("On the way to L.A.") you need to be in the middle lane and at the last sign ("Short way to L.A.") you need to be in the bottom lane. Do not change lanes in between. Start in the right lane and only change it when you come to the sign.

The game will seem quite tough at some points, and there’s no walkthrough to be found. I’ve forgotten half the puzzles (a dozen years have passed since I last played it at a friend's place), so good luck to you.