For the cassette versions of Mosaic Publishing's Oxford Digital Enterprises-developed 1987 adventure game, Yes, Prime Minister, you must first connect your Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 or BBC Micro and cassette recorder to your television set and switch all three of them on; you must then insert the cassette into the recorder (ensuring that it's fully rewound, unless it's your first time playing it). For the disk versions, you must insert the disk into your console's disk drive - and what you're required to do in order to load the program into your console depends on the one you're playing:
- ZX Spectrum 48K (Cassette only): Type LOAD"" (without leaving a space between the quotation marks) and press Enter then start the recorder; when loading any part of the game, remember to follow the on-screen instructions to stop your tape at the end of each day, and to start it again when told to do so. If you have a ZX Spectrum 128K (which is also cassette-only), you must restart the console, and select Tape Load from the start menu.
- Amstrad CPC (Cassette): Hold down the Ctrl key and press the small Enter key then start the recorder; if the console is fitted with a disk drive you must press Shift & Enter together, then type TAPE and press Enter . For the disk version, you must type RUN"YPM" and press Enter .
- Commodore 64 (Cassette): Press Shift & RunStop together, then start the recorder; for the disk version type LOAD"*",8,1 and press Enter .
- BBC Micro B (Cassette): Type CHAIN"" (again without leaving a space between those quotation marks) and start the recorder; for the disk version, you must press Shift & Break together. Each day is split into two parts and you must follow the on-screen instructions which appear at midday.
When the program has been loaded into the console, the above menu will appear on the screen; press 1 to start the game, 2 to load a previously saved game, or 3 to toggle between fast and slow speech. To save a game, you must have made it to the end of a day with its menu on the screen, and have a spare cassette or disk - and once you have chosen the option of saving the game, you must follow the on-screen instructions. However, to load a saved game, you must first load that original cassette or disk into the console, followed by the spare one on which you saved your game (in the case of a cassette, you must to turn it to the appropriate side and rewind it); when the menu appears, press 2 and follow the on-screen instructions. When your saved game has been loaded, load the spare cassette or disk into the console again and the game will search for the start of the day after the one where you saved your game - and in the cassette versions, you'll find Days 1 and 2 on Side 1 of the cassette, and Days 3, 4 and 5 on Side 2.