Originally Published November 1989. Amstrad Action Issue 50.
Images taken from CPC Oxygen
Sad news this month, the Pilgrim has departed forever. Actually the old Pilgrim (Steve Cooke) left four months ago to edit ACE and I was brought in to replace him. I wrote last months column as the Pilgrim but it appears that Steve wants to keep the name for himself. Hence the change in column name. I hope I live up to your expectations and with your support I hope to keep the adventure scene alive on the CPC for a long time to come...
NEWS
LEVEL 9 Drops 8 bit machines!
Level 9 - authors of over 15 top selling adventure game releases since the firm's inception in 1981, games including Red Moon, Return to Eden and Gnome Ranger - have announced that their latest adventure release, Scapeghost, is to be the last.
"People have been declaring the death of the adventure market for years," said designer Pete Austin, "so Scapeghost is an appropriate final release. It comes from beyond the grave and you play a ghost." Level 9 has developed a new 16 bit only development system and will not produce any more Amstrad games as "the 16 bit machines sell more games than the 8 bit ones".
This is obviously very bad news for all adventurers, and I asked Pete Austin if there was any way he would change his mind "...only if Scapeghost sells more than we expect..." was his reply. Apparently the 8 bit conversions of Lancelot and Ingrid's Back have had very poor sales compared to the Amiga and ST. The new system will be much more arcade orientated, with joystick and mouse control. I wouldn't like to be in Level 9's shoes at the PC Show!
Another adventure creator!
Good news for you adventure writing boffins out there, another, yes another, adventure writer has been written for the Amstrad. Called Adlan, it is produced by Graduate Software (the guys who put CP/M on ROM). Adlan sounds very impressive - ROM based, with adventures available on cassette and disc format, disc format with graphics which load from disc and can be drawn on any art package. At the moment other details such as price are uncertain but it should be out soon...
This means that the Amstrad now has more commercial adventure creators than any other machine (GAC, Quill, PAW, Genesis & Adlan), stand by for the full review of all the creators soon.
Avon out soon!
Topologika, will very soon be releasing their new game Avon to the adventuring public. Avon is described as "a Shakespearean tragedy of our time..." - perhaps it could be called The Bards Tale! Disc based with on line help, it will, as with all Topologika's games have no examine command. The Pilgrim used to moan all the time about the lack of this command but Balrog will give you his opinion next month...
Reviews
The Unknown Treasure
David Gibbon, 77 Quarry Crescent, Bearpark, Co. Durham, DH7
7DR
£1.99 cass.
As the amount of 'professional' adventures released on the Amstrad has been decreased recently (see news above), Balrog will, where possible, be reviewing smaller companies games. Most of these games are produced on GAC and some are good and much more enjoyable (and cheaper) than their commercial counterparts.
Unfortunately, the Unknown Treasure is not one of those GAC games that stands out from the crowd. The game is well written with an alternative character set, as used by Sandra Sharkey in her Case of the Mixed up Shymer, but the real test of a game is in the playing and this is The Unknown Treasure's failing.
Firstly the plot is very poor, 'Lizor and Gromar are two single Bododian friends and while on holiday on their planet Bodod, they find a treasure map that reveals details of the unknown treasure. The map tells Lizor and Gromar this great treasure can be found on a planet called Earth. Lizor and Gromar decide to go and see Bodod's greatest scientist, professor Hotmod, he tells them to get to Earth they must travel back in time using the professors latest invention, the Time Machine. So Lizor and Gromar take off and fly through space in the Time Machine. When they land the different air affects Gromar's mind and he starts running around like a maniac. Luckily you took an Earth tablet to stay sane but the tablet has made you feel hungry and thirsty a lot. You as Lizor must look for the great unknown treasure and stay clear of the evil things that await you.' (this is the games story-line taken from the cassette). The above doesn't really set the scene of the adventure at all, it sounds more like a plot from a very bad B movie or a ten year olds English book.
Second, the description of the objects is inadequate. A spade is a garden spade, and some objects have no description at all. If the examine command is used just to pad out the game by giving such short responses as it is in TUT then I agree with Brian Kerslake of Topologika in that the examine command should not be implemented. Examining objects is very useful and it's worth giving more detail in the examine command as this keeps the atmosphere going.
The room descriptions are scanty, there are a couple of spelling mistakes and, what most annoyed Floyd, was the use of the word 'big' There is a big stair, big kitchen, big cave, big green road, big passage etc. Another couple of very annoying features in the game include a location 'by a big cottage', examining the cottage, trying to enter it and opening doors has no effect you must 'Jump through window', there is no clue in the game relating to this.
But the game does have a couple of redeeming features! First there is a large number of locations (72 - which is, as the author would say, BIG! for a GAC game). This possibly explains the lack of decent text, all of the memory has been used on the graphics and multiple room descriptions and not enough on parser and messages. The author has included a SKILL command for prolonging the life of the game. SKILL allows you to change the number of objects you can carry, hence skill eleven allows you to carry eleven objects. Thus after completing the game with skill eleven you can try with a lower, and thus harder, level. I do not know the age of the author but the co-writer is nine years old. If David is also this age then I am very impressed with his effort, but feel that he has bitten of more than he can chew in creating his first game so large. I look forward to seeing Davids future games with interest, but unfortunately The Unknown Treasure is poor...
|
Atmosphere............30% |
Challenge...........36% AA Rating..........30% |
Balrog's
Post
This month the postbag was decidedly empty, Balrog wants to hear from more of you - so put quill to parchment, pen to paper or finger to keypad and write (please says Balrog!)
Howard Swains wrote in during the columns absence, asking for it to return (thanks everybody again!), and also enclosing some tips. He also enclosed some amusing responses from a couple of adventures. Balrog liked his idea of funny responses so I have started a new section called 'Just for laughs' in which any amusing responses you have can be printed. So if you know of any send them in...
Clue Sniffing
with Balrog