Once again the furry fiend awakes from his deep slumber to bring you yet another issue full of adventure information...
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News
Adventure cover tape
After a quick word with Rod (honestly I did not have a sword at his throat!), he has agreed to put an adventure on one of the monthly cover tapes... The Balrog is already negotiating with one company (that sounds like I'm doing something important!) and hopefully we'll have an adventure game on the front cover soon - the adventure?... Wait and see! Meanwhile, if you have any suggestions for adventures that you would like to see given away with AA then write to The Balrog at the usual address (and send some clues while you're at it!)
Adventure Convention
The second Adventure Probe convention will take part on Saturday, 26th October, 1991 at the Royal Angus Thistle Hotel in Birmingham. Although the convention caters for all types of computer, if last year was anything to go by, there should be quite a few Amstrad adventurers there as well. So, if you're interested in going, and meeting the Balrog in his leathery flesh then write to Adventure Probe Convention Information, 67 Lloyd Street, Llandudno, Gwynedd LL30 2YP.
The Golden Chalice awards
Each year the Adventurers Club, run by Henry Mueller, holds awards for the best adventures released that year. These awards are voted upon by the subscribers of ACL. Although the best overall game went to Chaos Strikes Back (Not available on Amstrad), Topologika scooped best mail-order software company as well as best mail-order adventure with 'Last Days of Doom' (reviewed in AA62), Electronic Arts received the award of Best National Software Company and Sim City won best simulation.
Wow!
Two more games have been released this month from WoW software:-
Escape from Prison Planet is a two part PAWed game (disc only) which will run
on CPC, plus machines and PCW. Joan tells me that the scenario is that you've
been put on prison planet and you must escape - I could have guessed that from
the title! Price is £5.
Power Curse is a two part GACed adventure written by Adrian Conn which is
available on cassette (£3) and disc (£5). Sitting in front of your computer one
day you have a strange feeling and you pass out, next thing you know you've
been transported to an alternative universe - you meet a guy called Gorral who
informs you that you are here to save
their World from destruction - you are their only hope!...
For more details, write to WoW at 78 Radipole Lane, Weymouth, Dorset DT4 9RS.
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Reviews
JAWS - the last Studhorse (Stallion?!)
PD, Disc only
Imagine an adventure which is disc only (taking up both sides), has beautiful
digitized graphics in every location, digitized sound and good puzzles...
Sounds too good to be true doesn't it? Well, JAWS has all the above but there
is a BUT - the game is written in French!
Now, although the Balrog is fluent in all three of the orcish dialects plus a
smattering of hobgoblin, he isn't exactly fluent in french! So, it was with a
bit of difficulty and a French-english dictionary that I tried playing this
game! Written by Stephane Saint-Martin and Xavier Brysbaert the general
storyline (as far as I can tell!) goes as follows:-
In 1995 a deadly virus has spread throughout the world and millions of people
are dead and dying. You play a beautiful woman called Shana (you see her
digitized body and hear her voice at the start of the 6128 version) and for
some reason that I couldn't quite fathom you must try and find the last
surviving stallion (called JAWS - perhaps he's got very big teeth!) located
deep in the mountains of Tibet - perhaps the Stallion will be able to save the
World - I'm not too sure on this point!
The game looks beautiful - as I've already mentioned, there are digitized
graphics at every location and some, such as the large waterfall have added
sound effects. As to the gameplay... Ummm.. Well, apart from managing to move
nord, sud, ouest and est and examine things the Balg couldn't really discover
much as to the games quality - his French wasn't good enough! However, I did
discover that saying 'salut' to certain people resulted in them actually
talking back to you through the computers loudspeaker - the old man said
something in french to me when I said 'Salut' and the yak mooed at me!
Another very useful feature is that you can redefine the numeric keypad to have
your own commands programmed in - this makes entering commands quicker and
easier and is definitely a good idea. The cursor keys are also defined to move
the compass directions.
The game is 'Freeware' (I presume this means Public Domain) and to get a copy
send £1 and a blank disc to Megamag, Stephane Curre, 13 Rue de Colman, 59290,
Wasquehal, FRANCE.
I haven't given the game any ratings as I am not sure of its quality! It looks
good - but for all I know its parser and puzzles could be poor... Definitely
only for people who can speak french or have a good dictionary!
Grue-Knapped
£2.99 cassette, £4 disc
Atlas Adventure Software, 67 Lloyd Street, Llandudno, Gwynedd LL30 2YP.
'You and a friend were touring Ormskirk when you discovered an un-mapped cave
system. Being curious adventurers, you started to explore the caves but, as you
had not bought a lamp with you, you were attacked in the dark by a Grue (of
Infocom games and Adventure Probe fame). The Grue devoured your tubby friend
then and there but feeling rather full (good job your friend was fat! - Balg),
he decided to lock you in his cave for when his appetite returned. He has now
fallen asleep outside the only exit. You must find a way to escape, by
exploring and making use of anything you might find, before the Grue awakes...
feeling HUNGRY!'
This is the introductory screen to Grue-Knapped, a brilliantly written ADLAN
game by Bob 'Amster' Adams - some of you may remember Bob when he very kindly
reviewed ADLAN in AA60 after the Balg's monitor blew up.
Text only, the Balg was initially worried that the game would have a few too
many in jokes as both Bob and 'The Grue' (the infocom specialist) are regular
readers and contributors to Adventure Probe - however my fears were unfounded -
the game is just very funny!
The puzzles are well thought out and logical - too logical at times - one of
the puzzles involves reaching a shelf by jumping onto something springy - the
final solution is very logical but so absurd I kicked myself! (And it hurt
too!) Bob's style seems to be similar to Colin Harris's games - his objects are
never what they seem - thus, I was examining the sink and I found a plug - a 13
amp one! There is also a painting of Ormskirk quay - a door key! The jokes in
the game are very funny - the final puzzle is such a play on words it'll make
you groan!
Grue-Knapped has advanced commands such as Ramsave, Ramload and look behind and
look under but surprisingly the game does not understand 'it' or 'all'. Whether
this means ADLAN cannot support these commands or not I don't know but here
they make no difference to the enjoyment of the game.
Overall, one of the best games I have played in quite a while - well done Bob!
Atmosphere 79%
Interaction 75%
Challenge 78%
Overall 81%
Talisman of Power
£2 cassette, £4 disc
WoW Software, 78 Radipole Lane, Weymouth, Dorset DT4 9RS.
Firstly, I'd like to congratulate the author C Bury on following my
recommendations in AA60 on sending software into
magazines for review - it's so much easier if people bother to get their games
playtested, as well as sending all the instructions plus a hint sheet.
Unfortunately, I'm now going to have to admit that I wasn't too impressed with
Talisman! Your quest, should you decide to take it, is to travel to the temple
of Ezekiel and destroy the evil lord Orsova... Included in the instructions you
get a list of verbs the game accepts (always useful for playing adventures) but
not much else!
The game itself was written using GAC and is reasonably large (60 locations)
with average graphics. Most of the puzzles are well thought out, although a
couple seemed a bit difficult as there is no clue at all about what you must
do. For example - you discover two dwarf like creatures sitting by a pond
talking. Fine you think, so you try and talk to them - they just turn around
and tell you to shut up! What you must do is give them a fishing line - but
there is no clue or reason to do this! Another puzzle involves a statue - on
examining the statue you are told it is of Orsova but you are given no other
clues - what you must do is smash the statue up with a hammer to discover a
pick-axe hidden inside. As you don't get many pick-axes hidden in statues this
puzzle is a bit illogical! What would have been better would have been if you
were told that the statue had a pick-axe in its hand or if the 'help' command
had told you to try breaking the statue open...
The parser is unfriendly at times as well - twice in the game you are required
to dig - but the command 'dig' gives the response 'You can't'! What you must do
is type 'dig in earth' - not very impressive! The Balg also had big problems
trying to cross a lake in a boat to get to an island - after spending five
minutes trying to discover how to get into the boat I realised that you could
just 'row boat' without getting in it - however, the only way you could get to
the island was 'row boat to island' - yuk!
To be fair, there's nothing really wrong with the game - it just seems to lack
a certain quality that would make it good. The best word to sum up Talisman is
average - this is C Bury's first game though and hopefully he will improve in
time.
Atmosphere 43%
Interaction 45%
Challenge 42%
Overall 45%
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Clue Sniffing with the Balrog
The Balg is desperate for new clues - so if you have any hints or tips for any adventure, old or new - send them in to The Balrog, Cluepot, Amstrad Action, Future Publishing Ltd, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, AVON BA1 2AP. Thanks to Nigel Arnott, Madwolf, Antcrusher, Adrian Forbes, Hazis Dolgizas, Simon "Aragorn" Netherwood, Howard Swaines and Ian Howlett. Special thanks to Ken Bond for the map of Infidel.
The Big Sleaze - Part 2
Whisper in the library.
The Maltese Bullfinch plays a big part in part 2!
Shoot whale with gun (find him yourself!)
Corruption
If you want to Shave Off that ridiculously overgrown beard:-Go to the
pharmacy.
Buy everything from shelves with credit card.
Go to the Bathroom.
Put the plug in the plughole.
Turn the tap twice.
Let the sink fill with water and PUT SOAP IN SINK.
Them get it and PUT IT ON BEARD.
CUT BEARD with RAZOR!
Guild Of Thieves
To
help the lute work properly, examine the paintings in the gallery.
To get the minah bird, go to the Zoo Office and get the grotty key, now open
the white door and unlock the small door. Open the small door and go through
it, closing it behind you. Put bird in cage (from the gatehouse). If you don't
close the door then the bird will fly away.
Sit on the bed in the main bedroom and press top button with cue.
The oil painting is the only painting worth anything.
The dress is in the wardrobe of the main bedroom.
The china pot is under one of the beds.
To sneak something past the gatekeeper, put it in the swag bag.
In the study, take note of what suit is missing from the box.
At the end, be careful to jump into the boat - just going east will make you
fall into the water which reduces your score.
Island
Swap your shirt with the old man for the matches.
To get the cylinder needed to open the pyramid, dive into the lagoon. There is
a spade under the bushes.
Red Moon
Use the words in the book on the mummy.
Shadows of Mordor
Hold up the phial for light.
Make Smeagol promise before you untie him.
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INFIDEL MAP - KEN BOND
/*
Infidel is a game set in the desert - the majority of the map is set in a
pyramid - would it be possible for the art dep. to make a really nice looking
map? */
/* Sorry for these comments - just been programming in C! */
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Lords & Ladies of Adventure
...If you have a problem, if no-one else can help and if you can write to them - maybe you can use the Lords & Ladies of Adventure...
Adventure Quest, Angelique, Apache Gold, Arnold Blackwood Trilogy, Beer
Hunter, Bestiary, Big Sleaze, Black Fountain, Black Knight, Boggit, Boredom,
Bored of the Rings, Brawn Free, Can I Cheat Death (I & II), Case of the
Mixed-Up Shymer, Cave Capers, City for Ransom, Classic Adventure, Colossal
Adventure, Colour of Magic, Crash Landing, Cricket Crazy, Dodgy Geezers,
Doomlords, Dracula, Dungeon Adventure, DAA, Emerald Isle, Escape Alien
Spaceship, Escape from Koshima, Espionage Island, Fantasia Diamond, Firestone,
Football Frenzy, Frankenstein, Galaxias, Gems of Stradus, Ghosthouse, Grange
Hill, Heavy on the Magick, Hobbit, Hunchback, Imagination, Ingrid's Back,
Ichor, Island of Chaos, Jason of the Argonauts, Journey to Death, Kentilla,
Knightmare, Knight Orc, Knight Tyme, Kobyashi Naru, Labyrinth, Lancelot, Life
Term, Lords of Magic, Lord of the Rings, Lords of Time, Lost Shadow, Magicians
Apprentice, Microman, Mindfighter, Mindshadow, Mordon's Quest, Mountains of
Ket, Mural, Mystery of Indus Valley, Necris Dome, Never Ending Story, Not a
Penny More Not a Penny Less, Panic Beneath the Sea, Price of Magic, Project
Annihilation, Project Volcano, Quest, Questprobe 3, Quest for the Golden
Egg-cup, Rebel Planet, Redhawk, Red Moon, Return to Eden, Revenge of Chaos,
Rigel's Revenge, Robin of Sherwood, Roog, Scary Tales, Seabase Delta, Seas of
Blood, Shard of Inovar, Shadows of Mordor, Sharpe's Deeds, Simply Magic,
Smashed, Souls of Darkon, Spaced out, Star Wreck, Storm Mountain, Subsunk,
Talisman of Power, Terrormolinos, Tizpan, Top Secret, Venom, Welladay, Werewolf
Simulator, Winter Wonderland, Wizbiz, Wolfman, Worm in Paradise & all
Interceptor games!
Mark Eltringham, 39 Gargle Hill, Thorpe St Andrew, Norwich, Norfolk NR7 OXX.
Andy Capp & Price of Magic.
The Kenderian, 475 Westhorne Ave, Eltham, London SE9 5LR.
Jewels of Babylon.
Chris "The Barbarian" Gore, 22 St. Anthony's Pk., Mallow, Co. Cork,
Ireland.
Aftershock, Colossal Adventure, Escape from Khosima, Gnome Ranger, Gremlins,
Guild of Thieves, Haunted House, Hitchhiker's Guide, Ingrid's Back, Kingdom of
Hamil, Leather Goddesses, Mindshadow, Mordon's Quest, Pawn, Price of Magic,
Return to Eden, Rigel's Revenge, Scapeghost, Seabase Delta, Snowball, Sorceror,
& Village of Lost Souls.
Robin Harley, 3 Shropshire Place, Eastgate, Peterborough, Cambs PE1 5BX.
Crispin Crunchy, Crystal Theft, Gnome Ranger, Message from Andromeda &
Scapeghost.
Jay Honosutomo, 23 Tintagel Close, Hemel Hempstead, Herts HP2 6NL. Tel between
Mon-Fri, 4.30-9pm (0442) 242957
Deadenders, Gnome Ranger, Hitchhiker's Guide, Lancelot, Quest for the Golden
Eggcup, Rigel's Revenge, Smashed & Venom.
Richard Jamieson, 79 Land Street, Rothes, Aberlour, Banffshire AB38 7BB.
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Contacting the Balg
The Balg is desperate for new contributions to the Cluepot and Just for Laughs sections - to get in contact with him, write to The Balrog, Amstrad Action, Future Publishing Ltd, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, AVON BA1 2AP and the post will be forwarded to his dungeon.