THE BALROG

Greeting my most excellent adventurers and welcome to the most bodacious adventure column in computerland. So don those shades, read the column and party on dudes!

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News

Magazine news...

The Balg has had a few of his favourite magazines drop through the gold letter box this month so I thought I'd give them a mention. First was Adventure Coder which is now up to issue 17 and still (just) going. I say just because the editor, Chris Hester, is having problems with lack of contributions - so if you fancy passing on some adventure creating/writing hints and tips then write to Chris to help him out. Issue 17 includes some amusing stories, letters, a review of a spectrum adventure disc-based magazine and the first in a series of articles entitled 'How to make a thingy' which step-by-step tells you how to write an adventure creator in Z80 for the Spectrum. Since the Z80 chip is the same processor as on the CPC it should be of interest to CPC coders. Next through the gold letterbox was Members Pack 14 from the Adventurers and Strategy Club - 42 pages of additional material for the 'Reference Book of Adventure'. The Balg's reference book is now very useful - it has over 350 pages of adventure reviews, letters, hints etc. The Reference Book is a brilliant idea and a great adventure aid but as usual there is little CPC content and it is quite expensive. However if you're planning on keeping with adventures for some years or if you have more than one computer it is well worth subscribing to. This issues ASC also had enclosed a voting form for the 'Golden Chalice Awards' an annual ceremony similar to the Adventure Probe awards - as soon as I get the results I'll print them in these hallowed pages. Next through the post was the latest issue of Adventure Probe which is now in its sixth year. Adventure Probe is of its usual high standard and as well as the regular sections there is an article/interview with nearly all of the Infocom game authors (taken from an American bulletin board) and the sad news that Peter Knowles of PK Graphics (the sister company of Guild Adventure Software) might be leaving the adventure scene as all his computers were recently destroyed in a freak accident - hope that everything works out Peter! Finally the Balg was happy to receive a surprise package from Matthew Harrodine containing his fanzine 'AOK' - thanks very much Matthew! AOK appears to be mostly techy stuff but two of its 36 pages are dedicated to adventure (written by 'The Equaliser' who has some suspiciously familiar tips!) and is quite good although the print quality is quite poor. The addresses:-

Chris Hester, Adventure Coder, 3 West Lane, Baildon, Near Shipley, West Yorkshire, BD17 5HD. UK Price £1.25 per issue.
The Adventure & Strategy Club, 17 Sheridan Road, London E12 6QT. Tel: (081) 470 8563. Price £24/year, £14/6 months - send for more details.
Mandy Rodrigues HBalg, Adventure Probe, 67 Lloyd Street, Llandudno, Gwynedd LL30 2YP. UK Price £1.50 per issue.
Matthew Harrodine, Editor, AOK Fanzine, 155 Haslucks Green Road, Shirley, Solihull, West Midlands B90 2LG. UK Price £1/issue.

Wow Adventure convention video

For avid Adventure Probe fans who missed the convention or who went to the convention and want to see it all the again, WoW software have put together an hour long professionally edited video of the highlights of the convention. Notable appearances include Mandy Rodrigues HBalg, Simon Avery, Larry Horsfield, Tony Collins, Joan Pancott HPilg, Lorna Patterson, Debby Howard, Dungeon Master (the columnist from ACU) and the Balg himself! The video costs £12 and is available from the usual WoW address.

WoW News...

Talking of Wow, Joan Pancott HPilg, chief of WoW software, has been ill recently (get well soon Joan!) but it hasn't stopped WoW as she now has the rights to all games previously sold by Atlas software (under the guise of Mandy Rodrigues HBalg) - this includes both of Bob Adams games Grue-Knapped and Helvira Mistress of the Park plus a couple of others. As well as gaining the Atlas games, WoW also have two new adventures especially aimed at children - Big Top, written by Ronnie Slater, and The Last Snowman, written by Margaret Crewdson - authoress of the Angelicus adventures. Both are for ages nine to ninety and the Last Snowman comes personalised with the childs name. Prices are £2 on cassette and £4 disc.
Joan is also releasing a new PAW game by Steve Clay called 'The Taxman Cometh' - apparently you play the part of a tax inspector and you have to collect money from various people (Ken Dodd and Josef Locke watch out!) Disc only at £4, Joan asks that you please specify what machine you have so that she can configure the game.
Joan Pancott HPilg, WoW Software, 78 Radipole Lane, Weymouth, Dorset DT4 9RS.

Yarkon Blues II

Jason Davis is at this moment putting the touches to Yarkon Blues II which will be released by WoW software. For more details write to WoW at the usual address but if it's anything like the original it'll be a good game - and it's a two parter as well! Price is £3 on tape and £5 for the disc version.

GAC Compo entries...

Edmund Spicer has already written his entry for the GAC compo and has put it in Data PD for all to look at. You play Madman Peters who must rescue Princess Maryanne Tooth from the Bald-rog! (Grrr!... - Balg) Edmund has also asked that I plug his adventure column in Artificial Intelligence (the magazine) and his games else he'll set his retarded killer fish on me - consider them plugged Edmund! However, please please please could I ask readers not to send your entries into the GAC compo yet! You've got months to go before the closing date and its pointless sending your games in early as you might miss some valuable hints and tips from the GAC Clinic!

New Adventure PD library

KAT (Kiron's adventure team) PD has recently been set up by Kiron McLellan who is looking for software to put in his tape-only library. Write to Kiron at 35 Compton Place, Erith, Kent DA8 112Y for more details.

Adventure swapshop

Simon Avery has just started an adventure swapshop, as he writes in his letter 'I'm doing this as I feel it is needed now that adventures are getting more and more scarce (the older ones) and I myself find it difficult to locate certain titles - I'm still looking for 'The Secret of St Brides' amongst others and I thought it would be nice for other people to be able to turn to a swapline. It's sort of a helpline in which I help adventurers to find games that are not available through the various companies. The idea is that if I can get people to send me a list of adventures they have and no longer want, then I can compile a database. Then, anybody looking for a certain game, or a general list, could contact me and I'll put them in touch with whoever may have that game.' All Simon asks is that you send an SSAE when writing to him so that he can reply. If you want to sell some of your adventures then just send Simon a list of the games they want to sell along with the price for each game (P & P inc.) and his or her address. Any phone number would also be appreciated so that the buyer can check the game is still available. A great idea Simon and I hope it works! For more details write to Simon at 71 Fore Street,Chudleigh, South Devon TQ13 OHT or phone (0626) 854339.

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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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Adventure Post

Where's my booklet?!

...After applying for your GAC booklet enclosing a cheque for £2.99. I also wrote another letter to you with no response... (Mr Ward, Dorset)
...I sent for GAC booklet in December but have received nothing - What's going on!?!... (Brendan "Legolas" McGoldrick, Strabane)
...Six weeks have passed since I sent a cheque for £2.99 in respect of the GAC Booklet offer. I have not received any booklet and my cheque has been cashed... (Mr A D Urquhart, Crowborough)
...I still have not, over two months later, received the instruction booklet for which I paid... (John Doe, Worthing)
Argh! The Balrog was nothing to do with the booklets - it was Rods job (pass the buck!) but the Balg has tortured (sorry I meant 'talked to'!) Rod and everyone should now have their booklets. The orders for booklets was a lot more than we thought and I think poor Rod got a little snowed under with all the demand (he has got to edit a magazine as well you know!). Apologies to all who received their booklets late - but don't worry, there's still months before the closing date of the GAC competition!

Yo Balrog man!

My friends have lent me a couple of these weird adventure games. The graphics are mega awesome but they won't respond to my totally cool £400 joystick! I tell you man if I don't find a solution to my problem I'll eat my Nikes and burst the air bubble. The adventures puzzling me are Heroes of Karn and the mega wicked Hobbit. Get groovin' and give me some tips to get me started or I'll smash all my public enemy records!
Love,
M. C. Chisel
PS Get a grip on yourself, find some decent clothes!
Yo MC! Consider those tips printed! (Although I still think you should destroy those public enemy records!) And as to my clothes sense - I always thought blood stained leather suited me!

Eye of the Beholder on CPC?

Can you get eye of the beholder on Amstrad tape?

Michael Parkinson, Southsea

Nope sorry Michael, Eye of the Beholder is a 16-bit game and I very much doubt there will be plans to convert it to the little old CPC.

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Clue-sniffing with the Balrog

This months scintillating collection of clues are from Daniel Pooley, Brendan "Legolas" McGoldrick, Phil Johnson (Northenden), Chris Godfrey (Basingstoke), Thomas Christie (Grangemouth), Lee Hatton (Northern Ireland) and Robert Melody (Surrey).

Heroes of Karn (esp. for M C Chisel)

Get the tinderbox and light the marsh gas.
Kiss the frog.
Attack the barrow wight with the bible.
Bribe the guard with the money.

Hobbit (esp. for P L Ramsay & M C Chisel)

To pass the eyes at the forest - wear ring, west, wait twice, west, wait twice, west, north, west to Beorn's house. Elrond is used to read the map.
Wargs can be killed with swords.
Get caught by the goblins to find the small curious key.
Open all in Beorn's house.
To cross the black river, look across river, throw rope across river (repeat until lands in boat), then pull it, climb into boat.

Kentilla

To get the graphite - put the diamonds in crucible, put crucible in furnace, turn dial to on, turn dial to off, get crucible, look in crucible, get graphite.

Knightmare

From Scullery, go right, up and right until you come to wall monster. Find odd one out and face down, open door, go down, get potion, drink potion in a permanently open exit and leave - you will now have spells.

Lord of the Rings

You need the candle - go west from your house until you meet a guard. Wear ring, west, remove ring, get candle and light the candle with the matches and you will be able to see where you are going.

Lords of Time

Pull out the tiger's bad tooth, and give it to the tooth fairy. Accept her second offer.
Take hour glass, look at picture, N, look, get matches and candle, wind and enter clock, turn cog (1 to 9), swing pendulum, open door and go north.

Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less

Ascot: Wait until James calls in that Harvey is heading to parade rings. Enter parade rings, I say professor porter, say chemistry (wait until horse wins) invite Harvey to Oxford.

Quest for the Golden Egg-cup

In God's temple there is a rubber duck in the bath and the "under-the-bed-object" under the cardboard cutout of the bed.
Give the credit card to the man on the raft if he refuses to let you aboard his craft.
Give the bottle to Wongo the witch to get the magic wand.

Rigel's Revenge (esp. for Madryn P-M)

Once in the minefield go E and SE until you are east of a hut, E (guards appear), say anything, say anything (bomb wakes up), introduce bomb. It talks in Rigellian. Guards steal mine detector and run away.

Scapeghost - Part 2

Dig around in herb garden to get card.
To get body to hall - run to attic, get socket, get in, tie socket to body, get out, get plug, down, examine clock, open panel, put plug in panel, close panel and push clock.

Simply Magic

At the start, go to the room of sadness and cry.
Go to the room of happiness and give handkerchief to clown.
Give pearl in the room of wisdom.
Drop key in the room of bewilderment (everything is backwards so you have to drop to get!)

Spiro Legacy

To get Bonzo spell - While in the bathroom (of Abbeyville), stand on toilet and look in cistern - you will find a tin which has a computer disc in it. Take the disc along to the estate office and turn on the computer, put the disc in the computer and load program.
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Mr D J Gahan (there's a lot of people not using their first names this month!) comes to the aid of a reader in the January issue of AA who was stuck in Dun Darach - to get through the locked door in the Alchemist shop you need to be in possession of a Platina from the Assayer, 82 Silver Street - thank Mr Gahan!
Brendan "Legolas" McGoldrick has the clues needed to solve Jonathon Constable's problem in Shadows of Mordor - you simply 'POLE RAFT WITH BRANCH' to get the raft across the swamp.
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Lords & Ladies of Adventure

Usually the Lords & Ladies do a grand job but a complaint was received this month about one of the Lords of adventure from a reader who wishes to rename anonymous. It seems that this Lord spent several weeks replying to a help query and then only replied with some very unhelpful tips and the advice to throw away one of his games because it was so
bad! (Not very constructive advice) The rest of the letter was the Lord trying to sell his software. Please can I ask Lords & Ladies who are having troubles replying promptly to queries or who have games on their list that they haven't completed or are unwilling to help with, rather than have them on the list and waste adventurers time and money,
please could they get in contact with me and I will remove the games or them from the list. Don't worry though - this is the first complaint the Balg has ever received about Lords & Ladies (its usually the Lords & Ladies complaining about unsociable phone calls and letters with no SSAE!) and most of the Lords & Ladies are brilliant adventurers just wanting to help!
Castle Blackstar, Heavy on the Magick & Mystery of the Indus Valley.
Andy Clayton, 29 Portman Road, Scunthorpe, South Humberside DN15 8PD. Tel: (0724) 872135 between 6pm and midnight.

Aftershock, Big Sleaze, Colour of Magic, DAA, Dracula, Escape from Khoshima, Espionage Island, Fourth Protocol (Pt. 3), Frankenstein, Hunchback 1, Imagination, Mega Bucks, Message from Andromeda, Mordens Quest, Mountains of Ket (Pt. 1), Return to Eden, Seabase Delta, Shard of Inovar, Souls of Darkon, Star Wreck, Stormbringer, Subsunk, Top Secret,
Warlord, Werewolf Simulator, Wizbiz & Wolfman.
Dawn Greastrix, 10 Chatsworth Drive, Chadsmoor, Cannock, Staffs WS11 2EW.

Help with GAC Programming.
Len Townsend, 61 Lowergate Road, Accrington, Lancashire BBS 6LN.

Crispin Crunchy, Gnome Ranger, Message from Andromeda, Scapeghost, Simply Magic, Talisman of Power, Top Secret & Yarkon Blues.
Jay Honosutomo, 41 Thriftfield, Hemel Hempstead, Herts HP2 5YH. Tel between Mon-Fri, 4.30-9pm (0442) 242957

Adult II, Boredom, Deadenders, Dungeon, Firestone, Gnome Ranger, Hitchhiker's Guide, Ingrid's Back, Jason & the Argonauts, Lancelot, Quest for the Golden Egg-cup, Rigel's Revenge, Scapeghost, Smashed, Tizpan & Venom. Richard Jamieson, 79 Land Street, Rothes, Aberlour, Banffshire AB38 7BB.

Aftershock, Football Frenzy, Gnome Ranger, Kentilla, Knight Tyme, Mega Bucks, Rigel's Revenge & Seabase Delta.
Jon Bingham, 10 Cowslip Walk, Amblecote, Brierley Hill, West Midlands DY5 2QN.

Bestiary, Blue Raider, Firestone, Quad X & Wizards Castle.
Lee Davies, The Flat, 415 Whitehall Road, Bristol B55 7BP.

Fantasia Diamond, Fish, Future Wars & Guild of Thieves.
Bilbo Baggins, 67 Philip Avenue, Nuthall, Nottingham NG16 1EB.

Grange Hill, Great Escape & Knightmare.
Thomas Storey, 27 Queens Drive, Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear NE26 2JU.

Star Wreck.
Steven Kenny. Tel (0942) 213195.

Star Wreck.
James Morley, 27 Rowlestone Rise, Greengates, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD10 ODS. Tel: (0274) 616674

Hollywood Hijinx & Scapeghost.
Gwynn Hopkins, Albion House, Llandre, Nr. Aberystwyth, Dyfed SY24 5BS.

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GAC Programming Clinic

If you have any questions on the use of GAC, specific GAC related problems and queries or hints and tips of your own then jot them down and send them to the Balg's GAC Programming Clinic at the usual AA address.

Dear Balrog,

I bear great tidings for all adventure fans! Within this missive is held the secret of loading GAC from the covertape - without using the menu program. This, unfortunately, applies only to those of us lucky enough to own disc drives. My handy hint will allow all budding adventure writers to produce a working disc containing nothing but the GAC code, (and all that empty space to be filled by their adventures).
The first step is to transfer the tape (Number 10) onto disc by following the instructions in the magazine. Make sure the disc with all the transferred software is in drive A, then type in the following little proggette:
|a
memory &7fff
load "menu.bin",&8000
poke &8100,&3e
poke &8101,1
poke &8102,0
save"gac",b,&8000,&7a5,&80ea
NB: Since there are no line numbers, each command is executed immediately RETURN is pressed.
Once you have typed that little lot in, you should find a new file on your disc, "GAC.BIN", 3K in length. This is a modified version of the "MENU.BIN" program.
Now, all you need to do is copy the files:

1.BIN
GAC.BIN and
QS.ADV
across to a new blank disc (using CP/M or your fave disc copier) and you're away!
Alternatively you can use it on the original disc, but it does not leave as much room free for adventures. You needn't copy QS.ADV across, but it is handy to have around when starting to program a new adventure. 1.BIN however is essential as it contains the main GAC program, whereas GAC.BIN is simply the loader.
To start up this new copy of GAC, simply type
RUN"GAC"
and before you know it, it's running!
By the way, if you change the last number 1 in the line 'poke &8101,1' to a 2 then save, (changing the name to 'Belle'), you get a file that can run the Southern Belle direct.
Austin Donnelly, Glasgow
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GAC entry format

A lot of people have written asking for what they should send with the GAC games they write for the competition - so here they are - the full compo rules!
The game must be GACed (It is a GAC competition after all!)
It must be one part only (the covertape won't have room for a multi-part game but you can have a loading screen if you want)
You can send your game on a tape or disc (although I'd prefer the game on disc) but if you want your game back you must include a stamped self addressed envelope.
You must send a solution and map with your entry (I can't be expected to play hundreds of GAC games without any help!)
It would help if you sent any relevant instructions.
It would also help if you wrote why you feel your game is good- outline any clever puzzles, amusing responses or strong points.
Don't forget you can also mark your game as PD if you'd like Debby Howard of Adventure PD to stock the game if you're not the lucky winner.
Remember don't send your games yet - there's no rush!

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Competition Time!

Yep! You guessed it - we're running a competition for the best GAC game written with this covertape. To stop people cheating and sending in games they wrote three years ago (not that we don't trust you or anything) we've decided to write a little storyline:-
'You are intrepid editor Rod Lawton, saviour of the innocents and all round Mr. Nice Guy, who has been magically transported to the Balrogs lair - quite what will happen next is unknown but you must rescue a damsel in distress, Princess Cathy, who the Balg has captured for his dinner...'
That's it - all you have to do is use your newfound GAC skills to write an adventure based around the above storyline. The prize? The winners game will appear on a covertape, which will probably lead to more fame than Michael Jackson and oodles of money (err... well probably not but you can dream!)
The closing date is not till 1st November 1992 so you have lots of time to write in to the GAC clinic with questions as well as reading the programming tutorials. The only other stipulation is that games must be sent in with a full solution and map as well as any other items that you think might be helpful (£5 notes appreciated!) - if you're game has a really clever routine, or a really hilarious response then tell me when you write in - else I might not see it! Remember there is no rush to send your game in so wait a while to read the next few issues tutorial...
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Booklet
If you're serious about using GAC then write to GAC Booklets, c/o AA enclosing a cheque/postal order for £2.99 and we'll send you the instruction book! However you don't necessarily need the book to use GAC but it certainly helps! Please DO NOT address send money to the Balrog as I have no booklets (well, you can send me money if you really want
but don't expect anything in return!)
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