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Contacting the Balg
To get in contact with the Balg, write to him at Amstrad Action, Future
Publishing Ltd, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, AVON BA1 2AP or
e-mail at cazsjw@uk.ac.leeds.dcs.
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Balrog's Postbag
If you have any comments, suggestions or just general views on the adventure
world, the Balrog column or any other adventure subject then why not jot them
down and send them to the Balrog's Postbag at the usual address...
Adventurer protection?
'..Whilst programmers have the law to protect them against the punters
copying their programs, there seems to be little or no protection for the
punters against the programmer - eg someone who buys an adventure which is
badly written or impossible to solve. Don't you think there should be some law
for the people that play the games?'
Jim, Cambridge
Ummm... I can see your point but I think it would be very difficult to implement! Your best bet is to stick to magazine reviews and word of mouth, then you can usually be sure of paying for a quality game. However if you think a game is really awful then you're best bet is to write to the makers and complain.
Pilg Quote
'...Here is a quote from the Adventure section of AA28 - 'Some pessimists
are even predicting the demise of the CPC adventure market with a future
limited to home-brew GAC titles and the occasional budget release'. It seems as
if the 'pessimists' were right doesn't it?'
Robert Melody, Surrey
Umm... Maybe so but then people have been predicting the demise of the amstrad as well of the amstrad adventure scene and yet Amstrad Action is still here at issue 79! Granted the 'major' adventure companies have pulled out of the amstrad market but this is not a reflection on the amstrad - Level 9 and Infocom have all but disappeared and Magnetic Scrolls has only released one game since Fish! However there has been a renaisance of adventures on the amstrad - ok, most of them are GAC offerings, but every now and then a jewel stands out and shows that smaller companies can produce very enjoyable games. In fact in the past years the number adventures released on the amstrad has grown fantastically thanks to the efforts of these small companies and PD libraries such as Adventure PD.
Game recommendations
'...I know how much you love adventuring and I was wondering if you have
ever tried playing any Games Workshop board games. Then you could stalk around
dungeons, devouring careless adventurers and rampaging through peasant villages
on a board in front of you instead of on the computer.Also could you recommend
any good, cheap, cassette based, fantasy, dungeon stalking, village rampaging
(got the idea?) adventure games for the CPC464.'
Lee (Dungeon Stalker) Hatton, Northern Ireland
'...instead of on the computer'!??! I'm sorry Lee, you've got it all wrong! The Balg stalks around dungeons, devouring careless adventurers (and careful ones as well!) as his job - playing computer adventures is only my hobby!Anyway the sort of games you are looking for are available on the Amstrad - I recommend Hero Quest, Lords of Chaos, Bloodwych and Bards Tale to keep you going (although you might experience difficulty getting your hands on Bards Tale nowadays). All four are brilliant role playing games and are great fun - in fact Hero Quest is a conversion of a Games Workshop game so you should be right at home with it!
Jolly Good!
'...I recently wrote to "Beau Jolly", the suppliers of the
"Tolkien Trilogy" about a problem I have encountered with "The
hobbit", and commented that I was disappointed to have only been able to
obtain the tape version of the game. In response, they not only answered my query,
but supplied me with a free disc with two games from the trilogy. I feel that
this courtesy merits a little publicity.'Dave Stokes, Roslin
A big gold star to Beau Jolly for their efforts - it's good to hear when people
have praise for companies instead of criticisms.
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Clue-sniffing with the Balrog
This months scintilating collection of clues are from Thomas Christie (Grangemouth),
Babooshka (?!) (Scarborough), Jonathon Constable (Kendal), Laurence Boyce
(Leeds), Robert Melody (Surrey), Daniel Philpott (Huntingdon), Chris Morgan,
Brendan 'Legolas' McGoldrick (Northern Ireland), Lee Hatton (Northern Ireland)
and Jonathon Papworth for his map of Hero Quest.
Apache Gold
The password to open the wigwam flap is MONIGERO.
Big Sleaze
There is a pawn shop in Kenmore street in part three. Use the cloth found in
Chinatown to find the secret of the statue of liberty...You can find the four
parts of the torn photograph with the objects the dog leaves in your office,
inside the couch at Ben's apartment in Imrahd Street, in the desk in the office
of 21st Street and inside the assassins leg in Chinatown. When you have all
four pieces take them to the dame's apartment at Brooklyn Heights.
Boggit
In the Goblin's Dungeon you can find the egg and the ring. Wearing the ring
stops the goblins from spying you. Make sure you have the egg when you escape
as the eagle will think that it's hers and rescue you. The backdoor is to the
east of the 'goblins refuse' location.
Heavy
on the Magick
The password to gain entry through the door which leads into Wolfdorp is
"Wolf".
The silver nugget destroys the werewolf in wolfdorp. After picking up the
nugget which lies on a rock in the methos, drop the nougat (which can be found
in Trollwynd) on the same rock to make the "cloud" go back in its
basket.Three door passwords are - lunacy, eleven and silence (although to keep
it interesting I'm not going to tell you which doors!)
Hobbit
To get from the Elvenkings dungeon to Lake Town, wait until "Someone open
the Red door." then W, wear ring, S, keep waiting and wearing the ring
until the butler throws a barrel through the trapdoor... then jump onto barrel,
e.
Imagination
Dig loose earth (use long spade) to get RAF gloves.You'll need the infinite
lives poker to climb up ladder.
Examine the old man and bunk bed.
Ingrids Back
Hide behind the sunbed and wait for Jasper. When he comes he will go into the
changing room. Get unchanged and come out - he will go to the pool so you can
go into the changing room to get the faxofile.
Sit on the bird and tell it to go to the lighthouse when you have all the
evidence in part 3, Daisy will disappear but don't worry as you won't need her
anymore.
Knight Orc
To get the green knight's horse reins, bid him hello, when he challenges you
and hands you the axe, do not attack him (he can live without his head!),
instead chop of his horse's head - his horse will fall and pin him to the
ground so you have time to quickly steal the reins.The hermit is a mine of
mostly useless information but give him something golden to get his belt.
Lords of Time
Zone 1: To cross river tie rope to planks. Give Narcissus mirror - He will give
you Lodestone, use this to get keys to shed.
Price of Magik
Cast the ZEN spell to allow quick access to rooms.You need the FLY spell to get
past the ice room.
Pull the rope.
The BOM spell is very useful. You need to wait near the grandfather clock to
learn it, and use the trumpet as a focus (get the trumpet from the Cherub).
Cast BOM at the picture of stonehenge.
Cut the vine with the knife and the mirror with the diamond to get two
important spell foci.
Quest for the Golden Egg-Cup
Give the exploding beans to the guard.
Sharpe's Deeds
Give the rod to the blacksmith to get bellows, then go to Sharpe's grave, find
the ticket, go to the train station, give ticket to the stationmaster, open
cardboard box, get dinghy and inflate it. You can now cross the river. To get
rid of the swan, get bottle, give bottle to bartender, go to bakery, buy the
loaf of bread, go to swan and give the bread to the swan
/********************************************************************
Hero Quest Map by Jonathon Papworth
There are rather a lot of maps so you may need to print some next month as
well.
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Lords & Ladies of Adventure
More valiant and brave adventurers offer their services to us mere mortals.
Remember to phone during sociable hours and to enclose an SSAE when writing for
a reply.
Hitchhiker's Guide, Leather Goddesses, Lurking Horror & Moonmist.
Ken Dean, 63 Elmhurst Avenue, Oulton Broad, Lowestoft, Suffolk NR32 3AR.
Aftershock, Brawn Free, Cacodemon, Case of the Mixed-Up Shymer, DAA,
Espionage Island, Experience, Fantasia Diamond, Forest at World's End,
Frankenstein, Grange Hill, Haunted House, Heroes of Karn, Imagination, Inca
Curse, Kobyashi Naru, Lancelot, Loosed Orc, Lords of Time, Message from
Andromeda, Mindshadow, Pirates, Planet of Death, Quest for the Golden Egg-cup,
Rigel's Revenge, Seabase Delta, Ship of Doom, Spytrek, Subsunk, Terrormolinos,
Three Weeks in Paradise, Trial of Arnold Blackwood & Warlord.
Debby Howard, 10 Overton Road, Abbey Wood, London SE2 9SD.
Apache Gold, Atalan, Base, Bestiary, Black Knight, Boggit, Bored of the
Rings, Castle Blackstar, Castle of the Skull Lord, City for Ransom, Classic
Adventure, Colour of Magic, Cursed Be the City, Dodgy Geezers, Dracula, DAA,
Escape from Koshima, Espionage Island, Fantasia Diamond, 4th Protocol,
Gremlins, Grue-Knapped, Guild of Thieves, Heavy on the Magick, Helvera, Hobbit,
Hunchback, Imagination, Inca Curse, Island, Jinxter, Kentilla, Kobyashi Naru,
Mindfighter, Mindshadow, Mordon's Quest, Mountains of Ket, Mystery of the Indus
Valley, Necris Dome, Never Ending Story, Not a Penny More Not a Penny Less,
Nova, Panic Beneath the Sea, Pawn, Planet of Death, Project Annihilation,
Project Volcano, QOR, Quest for the Golden Egg-cup, Questprobe 3, Rigel's
Revenge, Robocide, Scary Tales, Seabase Delta, Seas of Blood, Smashed,
Smuggler's Cove, Souls of Darkon, Spiro Legacy, Spytrek, Star Wreck, Subsunk,
Sydney Affair, Terrormolinos, Test, Top Secret, Vera Cruz Affair, Very Big Cave
Adventure, Village of Lost Souls & most Topologika, some Infocom, ALL Level
9, Interceptor and WoW games!
Joan Pancott HPilg, 78 Radipole Lane, Weymouth, Dorset
DT4 9RS. Tel: (0305) 784155 Any day - 1pm to 10pm.
Colour of Magic, DAA, 4th Protocol, Gems of Stradus, Not a Penny More Not a
Penny Less, Return to Eden, Scary Tales & Vera Cruz Affair.William Conlon,
171 Mulvey Park, Dundrum, Dublin 14, Ireland.Forest at World's End, Kobyashi
Naru, Message from Andromeda, Quest for the Golden Egg-cup, Rigel's Revenge,
Snowball & Venom.Bill Bennett, 171 Stapleton Hall Road, London N4. Tel:
(081) 340 3884.Redhawk.Lars Arell, Angsrogatan 1B, 554 39 Jonkoping, Sweden.Al-strad,
Astral Plain, Book of the Dead, Federation, Hermitage, Imagination, Teacher
Trouble & Tealand.Peter Knowles, 102 Standhill Crescent, New Lodge,
Barnsley, South Yorkshire S71 1SS. Tel: (0226) 292141Big Sleaze, Lord of the
Rings, Not a Penny More Not a Penny Less (part 1), Quest for the Golden Egg-cup
& Shadows of Mordor.Brendan "Legolas" McGoldrick, 14 Curley Hill,
Strabang, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland BT82 8LP.Adult 1 & 2, Al-Strad,
Big Sleaze, Boredom, Burlough Castle, Can I Cheat Death?, Case of the Mixed-up
Shymer, Castle Blackstar, Cave Capers, Cursed be the City, Doomlords I-III,
Dracula, Druids Moon, Dungeon, Experience, Firestone, Frankenstein, Gnome
Ranger, Gremlins, Jason & the Argonauts, Kobyashi Naru, Magicians Apprentice,
Mystery Indus Valley, Price of Magik, Project X (Microman), Roog, Scapeghost,
Souls of Darkon, Spacy, Storm Mountain, Stryptiche 1 & 2, Swamp Thing,
Theseus, Venom, Welladay & Wolfman.
Mark Wake, 2 Oatland Close, Little London, Leeds LS7 1SW.
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Help!
Lee Hatton from Northern Ireland is stuck in Simply Magic - what is the code to
the silver casket and how do you get the parchment in the room of
frustration?Katharyne Allen from Guernsey is stuck in Corruption and can find
no-one who has completed it (you're right Katharyne, none of the Lords and
Ladies have done it!) - how does she get into the casino and where can she
drive the car as the traffic always seems too bad to let her get anywhere.Mrs
Smith is stuck in WizBiz - she doesn't know how to pass the dog and dragon.
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Just for Laughs
This months collection of humorous responses comes to you from Thomas Christie
(Grangemouth), David Mann, Jonathon Crompton (Denton), Steven Haddon (East
Calder), Ainsbrith (Sage of Dwarn Front) and Mark Wake (Leeds).
Al-strad
Drink water from stream.
Asylum
Swear
Fart
Bar trek
Examine and talk to the worm.
Base
Try emptying the pot and waiting.
The Big Sleaze
Try kissing the woman in the room with the obelisk.
Smash window in office.
Kiss dame.In part 2 at night, go north into central park.
Examine calendar in Joe's diner.
Red moon
Swear
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GAC Programming with the Balrog
This months we look at the 'guts' of the adventure - the conditions. Conditions
are used for puzzles and programming the adventure how to react to different
situations and player input. There are three types of conditions: local, high
priority and low priority. GAC processes in the following order:- Print start
room description Do HIGH PRIORITY conditions Get the adventurer's command Check
for connections and if so, move Do LOCAL conditions (Specific for a room) Do
LOW PRIORITY conditions (General commands)For example, if you want the computer
to describe a room when you type the command 'LOOK' then you would put the
following code in the LOW PRIORITY conditions section:- IF ( VERB 7 ) LOOK WAIT
ENDSo, the general form of a condition is:- IF ( some conditions) some actions
ENDIf the conditions are true, then the actions are performed. For more
explanation look at the bank adventure example in AA76 and AA77.All the GAC
conditions are:-VERB n Has VERB n been typed? (n is a number in the verb list)
VERB 7 will give a TRUE answer if verb number 7 was typed, otherwise it will
give FALSE.NOUN n Has NOUN n been typed? (similar to VERB)ADVE n Has ADVErb n
been typed? (similar to VERB)HERE n Is object n HERE in the same room/location
as the player? For example if you are in room 3 and object 1 is there then HERE
1 will respond TRUE.CARR n Is object n being CARRied?AVAI n Is object n
AVAIlable for use? (ie HERE or being CARRied)x IN n Is object n IN room x? If
object 1 is in room 3, then 1 IN 3 will be TRUE.WEIG n Give the WEIGht of
object n.SET? n Is marker n SET? } If you're not sure what markers areRES? n Is
marker n RESet? } then look in AA77. } Markers 0-2 have special values }
defined below:- } Mkr 0, if set, means that a room has } been described since
it was } last reset. } Mkr 1, if set, means you are in a } light room.
Otherwise you are } in a dark room. } Mkr 2, if set, means you have a lamp } or
some other source of } light. } If markers 1 and 2 are both reset, } then the
program will refuse to } describe rooms, coming up with the } "It's
dark" message instead, since } you are in a dark room without any } light.
} Mkr 3, if set, disables the scoring } mechanism when you exit from } the game.CTR
n Gives you the value of CounTeR n. } For more details onx EQU? n Is x EQUal to
the value of counter n? } counters see AA77.TURN Gives the number of TURNs
since the start of the game.ROOM Gives you the room number of the ROOM you are
currently in.AT n Gives a TRUE answer if you are AT room number n.condition AND
condition Will give a TRUE answer if both of the conditions give TRUE answers.
eg VERB 1 AND NOUN 2 will be TRUE only if verb 1 and noun 2 are both
typed.condition OR condition Will give TRUE if either conditions are TRUE, or
both.condition XOR condition Will give TRUE if one of the conditions is TRUE
and the other is FALSE.NOT condition Will give a TRUE answer if the condition
was FALSE, and vice versa. So NOT VERB 1 will be TRUE if VERB 1 is FALSE.x <
y Gives TRUE if number x is less than number y.x > y Gives TRUE if number x
is more than number y.x = y Gives TRUE if x is equal to y.RAND x Gives a RANDom
number between 0 and (x-1). So RAND 10 might give any number at random in the
range 0 to 9.VBNO Gets the number of the verb in this command.NO1 Gets the
number of the first noun in this command.NO2 Gets the number of the second noun
in this command.NO1 and NO2 are used to check word order, and to GET and DROP
objects without having to have a condition for each one.All the GAC Actions
are:-LOOK Describe the room you are in at the moment.DESC n DESCribe room
number n.PICT Turns the PICTure display on.TEXT Turns the picture display off,
giving a TEXT only adventure.GET n GET object number n. If it isn't here, or
you've already got it, or it's too heavy, then the appropriate message is
printed.DROP n DROP object number n. If you haven't got it, then the
appropriate message is printed out.x SWAP y Exchange objects x and y.OBJ n
Describe OBJect number n.LIST n LIST all objects in room number n.LIST WITH
LISTs all the objects carried WITH you.x TO n Move object number x TO y. To
destroy an object move it to room 0.SET n SET marker n.RESE n RESEt marker n.x
CSET n Set x to be the value of counter number n.INCR n INCRease counter n by
one. The maximum is 255.DECR n DECRease counter n by one. The minimum is 0.
Trying to increase past 255 or decrease past 0 is ignored.GOTO n GO TO room n
and describe the new room.CONN n This checks through the CONNection table for a
connection from the current room using verb n. If one is found, this gives the
room number of the room you would move to if you took the connection, If not,
then it gives zero. As an example, if you were in room 3 in the bank adventure,
CONN 4 would give 4 because in the connections from room 3, verb 4 (W) would
take you to room 4.STRE n Set the maximum weight you can carry to n. STRE is
short for strength.BRIN n BRINgs object n here (if it exists).FIND n FIND
object n and move to it (if it exists). This does not acknowledge any
restrictions (such as connections), so it could be useful in a magic spell or
summoning.SAVE SAVEs the current game position to tape or disc.LOAD LOADs the
current game position from tape or disc.WAIT WAITs for a new command.OKAY Prints
"Okay" and awaits a new command.EXIT Stops the game. The player is
NOT asked, so this is for use when the player gets killed or wins.QUIT The
player is asked if s/he wants to continue, and if they type "N", for
"No" when asked if they are sure, the game continues, else the game
is abandoned.MESS n Prints MESSage number n.PRIN n PRINt number n.LF Prints a
LineFeed. Everything from here is printed on a new line.WITH Is equal to the
room number of where things are put when you are carrying them.HOLD n HOLDs up
the game for n fiftieths of a second. For example to freeze the game for 10
seconds use HOLD 500.x + y Returns the value of x added to y.x - y Returns the
value of x minus y.In all the above, n, x and y need not be simple numbers.
They can be complex expressions (like 2+2 instead of 4 or other words such as
CTR 1 or NO1), but expressions should be enclosed in brackets. For example IF (
VERB 3 ) GET 1 OKAY ENDwill become: IF ( VERB ( 3 ) ) GET (1) OKAY END
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GAC Programming Clinic
If you have any questions on the use of GAC or specific GAC related problems and queries then jot them down and send them to the Balg's GAC Programming Clinic at the usual AA address.