Neighbours/Gameplay

Controls

 * Q, A, O, and P: In the ZX version, you must use these four keys to make Scott Robinson accelerate, decelerate, spin left, and spin right on his skateboard by default; however, in the C64 and Amiga versions, you will have to use a joystick instead. In the Amiga version, you can also press P to pause the game, Space to resume it, and Q to abort it when paused - but you should only do the last if you have no chance of winning it.

Scott Robinson
The protagonist for this game; due to technical limitations, he appears as an unrecognizable yellow stick-figure in the ZX version (everything else in that version is yellow as well, and in that version, he has two different skateboards that can be chosen: one with normal handling and speed, the second with fast handling and speed). However, in the C64 and Amiga versions, he has a third, championship slalom skateboard (described as "for experts only") - so after a few plays, you will have to select the one you are most comfortable with. You can also select up to four (five in the Amiga version) other characters from the show as opponents: Charlene Ramsay (on a go-kart, and referred to as Lenny in the C64 version, as that was her nickname), Henry Ramsay (on a lawnmower), Mike Young (also on a skateboard), Matt Robinson (on a motorcycle) and Bronwyn Davies (on a three-wheeled motorcycle, and only in the Amiga version), as well as three special Paperboy-like obstacles for the tracks (Des Clarke's car, Todd Landers' radio-controlled car and a kangaroo); at the bottom of the screen, Scott has a popularity meter (in the form of the show's logo), and it shall increase and decrease as the virtual viewing audience judge Scott's performance in the races. Crashing into popular characters will decrease his popularity, while picking up pieces of trash will increase it - and you will receive a bonus at the end of a race, based on Scott's current popularity (however, if it decreases to zero, he will get dropped from the show, and the game will be over). This means that in addition to trying to win the races, you also have to keep Scott's popularity up with the virtual viewing audience in order to prevent him from being given the boot; his current position is also displayed in the bottom-left corner of the screen while his current score and lap number are displayed in the bottom-right one.