THE BALROG

The ugliest and meanest of all adventure columnists (Grrr!!.. - The Balrog) continues with his monthly exploration in the world of adventures...

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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.

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Lords & Ladies of Adventure

Once again eight more loyal Lords offer their services to adventurers everywhere. So, if you have a problem in an adventure then just jot it down and send it along with a SSAE to the Lords address.

Heroes of Karn, Knight Tyme, Kobyashi Naru, Souls of Darkon, Spytrek & Subsunk
Robert Squires, 52 Broke Walk, Regents Estate, Hackney, London E8 4SJ.

Adventureland, Apache Gold, Boggit, Classic Adventure, Colossal Cave Adventure, Dodgy Geezers, Doomdark's Revenge, Heroes of Karn, Hobbit, Island, Knight Tyme, Kobyashi Naru, Lost Phirious (pts 1 & 3), Message from Andromeda, Never Ending Story, Orb Quest, Questprobe, Scary Tales, Ship of Doom, Spytrek, Subsunk, Terrormolinos, Warlord & Wizbiz.
Paul & Timothy Stitt, 7 Beaufort Avenue, Beechill Road, Newtownbreda, Belfast BT8 4TY Northern Ireland.

Adventure Quest, Bards Tale, Dungeon Adventure, Snowball & Worm in Paradise.
James Taylor, 9 Crossland Crescent, Aldersley, Wolverhampton, West Midlands WV6 9LG.

Adult II, Atalan, Bewbews, Boredom, Cacodemon, Can I Cheat Death?, Case of the Mixed-Up Shymer, Castle Blackstar, DAA, DAAW, Doomlords, Dungeon, Escape from the Planet of Doom, Experience, Firestone, Grue-Knapped, Hoot, Jason & the Argonauts, Key to Paradox, Labyrinth, Magician's Apprentice, Message from Andromeda, Mystery Mansion, Prison Blues, Quadx, Quest for the Golden Egg-cup, Rouge Midget, Scary Tales, Seabase Delta, Spaced-Out, Spy Trek, Stryptische I & II, Subsunk, Tizpan, TRD & Use your loaf.
Dave Adams, 49 Myers Gardens, St. Helens, Merseyside WA9 3YX.

Iron Lord, Seabase Delta & Spellbound.
William Huddleston, 1 Millwell Park, Innerleithen, Borders, Scotland EH44 6JF.

Knight Tyme & Mega Bucks.
Andy Riddings, 10 Berkshire Street, Chaddesden, Derby DE2 6GQ.

Forest at World's End, Hitchhiker's Guide, Jewels of Babylon, Leather Goddesses & Message from Andromeda.
Iain McCarthy, The Old School, Church Lane, Brantham, Manningtree, Essex CO111QA.

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Cluepot

Thanks this month go to the following brave adventurers who have once again risked their electronic lives to bring these snippets of clues:-

Simon Avery (Chudleigh), Brendan "Legolas" McGoldrick (Strabane), Fred Collins & Rob Low (Party on!), Daniel Pooley, Jay Honosutomo (Hemel Hempstead), Lee Hatton (Northern Ireland) and Robert Melody (Surrey). Special thanks to Thomas Christie from Grangemouth for his hints and his map of S.M.A.S.H.E.D.

Black Fountain - Part 1

To survice the cold, give Shepos the lamb then wear what he gives you.
Give Brusto the herbs and some money to get the Chati (strength potion).
To get past the rockfall in the mine, drink Chati and then push rockfall.
Clean the Chef's dishes.
Hug the bear to get to part two.

Escape from Khoshima

Give the cigarettes to the soldier.
Throw meat to the dogs.
Fill the lighter at the aircraft dripping oil.
Cover the wood with pitch, light the wood and walk through the waterfall.
Trap the snake with the stick.
Sleep in the cave before drinking at the pool.

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MAP OF S.M.A.S.H.E.D.

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How to be a complete an utter B******

Give someone a haircut with the shears (be drunk)
Play the piano if anybody is in the room.
Pour paint over someone's head (be sober).
Pour oil over someone's head (be sober).
Drop the doggydo in any room if it's crowded.
Eat the laxative.

Lords of Time

Zone 9: Go to the plant roots (make sure you have bottle of poison), drop bottle, east twice to the end of tunnel, up three times and wear cloak.

Message from Andromeda

The password for the computer can be found in the 'Old' cave.

Price of Magik

Give the stone golem the robes to get mail.
To get past the gargoyle, "Gargoyle, fear", northwest (Mylar is here).

Simply Magic

Play lute in room of the elf.
In the room of riddles the code to the gold caskett is PEG and to the bronze caskett ROPE.
To get the feather put the peg on your nose.

Spiro Legacy

To get Fido spell - Get the net curtain from the housekeeper room and wear it.
Then go and examine the bee hive carefully...
To get to the island - use the bung from the barrel to stop the leak in the boat. Then cast the Bonzo spell on yourself and push the boat. Row boat south to get to the island.

Scapeghost - Part 2

The objects to put in the hall in part two are Luke's body, the bookmark, the briefcase, the identification card, the envelope, the map and the charred paper.
For clues at any time concentrate in different locations.

Terrormolinos

At the vineyard, go into the tunnels and find the room with the spider. Beryl will see it and create a scene so load the flash onto the camera and take a photo to return to the coach.

Very Big Cave Adventure

Open the can to kill the python.
Throw bomb to kill bull.
Open the gas canister to stop the Jester.
In part two in the horror section, go west three times and wait. You will then be in an Alice in Wonderland section. W, examine table until you get all the objects, wear glove, dial file (on utility belt), file chain, get table, drink liquid, find and open door, north three times, examine and get rabbit (several times). You can now really start part two.

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Help!

If you're stuck in an adventure and can't find anyone in the Lords & Ladies column who can help, then why not write into Balrog Help! at the usual AA address.

Dee Singer from Wolverhampton is stuck in Knight Tyme - how do they get their photo taken and put it on the id card?

Linda Kearney from Handforth is stumped in Gems of Stradus - how does she get passed the Alien? She also wants to know if there is a save option as it takes her ages to get back to the alien after she has died.

Richard Jamieson has encountered a problem in Slaine - he wants to know how to keep the boatman from stranding him on the island with the observatory.

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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. So, on with the questions!

Q: Is it possible to get rid of an object - i.e. a man will sell you a ring for some money so you lose the money.
Nick Hughes, Barnstaple
A: Yep! Just use the x TO n command where x is the object number and n is the room number (room 0 will destroy the object).

Q: On some lines of code you put the line WAIT - what does it mean and when do you have to use it?
Nick Hughes, Barnstaple
A: Whenever you press the carriage return in GAC it increments the turn counter (126 and 127) by one. However, some actions such as SAVE and INVENTORY shouldn't take a turn so the WAIT command is used - this stops the turn counter incrementing by one by WAITING for a new command.

Q: How do you score points?
Nick Hughes, Barnstaple
A: No problemo! Counter 0 is used to score points - thus you can use the INCR 0 and DECR 0 command to increase and decrease the score. So you could thus increase scores when a player completes a puzzle and decrease the score if a player does something wrong (However make sure that you don't allow the player to keep increasing his score by typing the same thing over and over again... ie. if you increase the players score when they open a door, make sure that if they type open door again their score doesn't go up again!)

Q: In my adventure, I want the text to be white and the page and border black. I have written a BASIC loader that changes the screen colours, but as soon as the adventure has loaded the colours return to the default yellow on blue.
David Georgiades, Kent
A: Simple! Use the control code method described last issue to change the colours in the first displayed message or draw an introductory graphic (such as a pretty 'Welcome to Game X' and change the background and foreground colours using the Ink command.

Q: How do you get a player to start off with something in his inventory. I have tried desperately to do this, but all in vain.
Keith O'Conor, Dublin
A: Not sure about this one as I haven't actually tested it out but I think you type 'with' when asked 'Starts in Room' in the objects sub-menu.


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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.

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...