THE BALROG
Images taken from CPC Oxygen
Welcome to yet another missive from the mighty Balrog spreading
the word of adventure to all his followers...
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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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News
Balrog awards results:-
The response to the Balrog awards was very impressive - letters appeared from
all over the World including Australia! The awards were as follows:-
The top 5 adventures of all time:
5) Magnetic Moon FSF Software
4) Price of Magick Level 9
3) Hobbit Melbourne House
2) Bards Tale Electronic Arts
But, according to AA readers, Helvera Mistress of the Park is the best adventure
of all time. Well done to Bob Adams, the author, for writing such a popular
game!
The award of Best text adventure of the year was a close run thing but the
winner was... (ripping of envelope) Helvera Mistress of the Park!
Best graphic adventure of the year was also very close but eventually Rob
Buckley's Eve of Shadows came out winner. Eve of Shadows
also scooped the award for best PD adventure.
WoW software deservedly won the title of best software house (well done Joan!)
and Adventure PD won the title of best public domain library.
Adventure personality of the year was another close run award (at one point
it looked like yours truly would win but unfortunately I didn't!) which was
eventually given to Debby Howard HBalg of Adventure
PD.
Finally the award of Most promising author went to Simon Avery and why not!
(Brilliant Barry Norman impression by the Balg... NOT!)
The results of the Balrog questionnaire were also very interesting - the average
age of a Balrog reader is 17 and 5% of Balgers are female (Balgettes?). There's
an even split between 464 and 6128 owners with quite a few adventurers without
disc drives (the Balg was surprised by this - I thought many more adventurers
would have disc drives so that they could play the various Infocom, Magnetic
Scrolls and PAW games).
Nearly all of you gave the Balrog column a good mark out of ten (it averaged
out to about 8.5) and most peoples favourite section was the cluepot, with
the GAC clinic and Lords & Ladies being the least popular (although this
was often a matter of taste - some people gave marks of 10 for Lords &
Ladies and others gave it 0). Suggestions ranged from the silly ("Why
don't you turn vegetarian and stop eating all those hobbits?") to more
constructive comments which have all been eaten (but in an intellectual way).
Finally as promised, two lucky readers won a game for their troubles of sending
in the questionnaire. Well done to Marc Curtis of Liverpool and Graham Booth
of Tadcaster.
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Letters
If you have anything to say about an adventure game or the adventure scene
in general then write to the Balrog at the usual address. Sorry but the balrog
cannot reply personally - I have enough on my plate trying to control all
the orcs that live with me!
Dear Balrog,
I am conducting market research into the demand for Adventure Software on
the Amstrad (Tape/Disk) as I am thinking of starting up an adventure software
house to try and revive some of the old flare for the games.
Is it possible to print this plea for help and ask everyone that's interested
to write to the address above.
Iain Quigley, 14 Bute Court, Greenock, Inverclyde, Strathclyde, Scotland PA16
7AG.
Good luck Iain and keep me up to date if anything comes of your idea!
--
Dear Balrog
What is your favourite Level 9 game?
Robert Melody, Purley
Probably Worm in Paradise - the game is massive and has some very tricky puzzles.
Thanks for the letter and GAC hints Robert but unfortunately I can't print
them as they came from another magazine.
--
Dear Balrog,
I was thinking of buying Bloodwych as I have greatly enjoyed playing the Bard's
Tale. I was wondering if it was worth getting, how difficult it was and where
on Earth to get it! I also am looking for the old RPG Rings of Darkness.
Tom Ford, 5 Sheperds Way, Harpenden, Herts AL5 3HF.
Bloodwych is a very good game with a difficulty level on par with Bards Tale
and well worth getting - however you may have difficulty finding it now -
if anyone wants to sell their copy then get in contact with Tom at the above
address. Rings of Darkness is now pretty ancient and could be very difficult
to get hold of (and even if you do you'll probably only get it on the Fourmost
Adventures compilation) - again if any readers can help then they should get
in touch.
--
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Cluepot
Thomas Christie (Grangemouth), Richard Jamieson (Aberlour), Katharyne Allen
(Guernsey), Dominic Corby (Chelmsford) (Robert Smith, Gwynedd)
Case of the Mixed-up Shymer
Examine the gardening display for a packet of seeds.
Give them to Mary, Mary, quite contrary to complete the first puzzle and to
get the pair of gloves.
Corruption
Put all in briefcase, find the tramp in the park and attack him, you will
now be taken to the hospital. Wait until the nurse goes but do not get the
watch. Get up. Get cases and papers. Get up. Put briefcase on empty bed, south,
south, open locker, get stethescope and clothes, north, east, put all but
papers in pillowcase, wait for second footsteps outside, wait, west, west,
wear bandage, lie on bed, wait, wait. You are now in the ambulance. Wear stethoscope
and wait until you are dropped off.
Erik the Viking
Blow the horn to summon your friends.
Type pull boat in the boathouse.
Do not drink the chalice of wine offered by the enchantress.
When you encounter the Dragon of the north sea, send Erik up the mast and
then up again onto the dragons nose. The dragon will then sneeze and blow
you and the boat away. To avoid this you can block his nostrils with the bedding
from the great hall.
Microman (esp. for Tom Ford)
Get lighter, examine car, climb seat belt, wind handle and jump to escape
the car.
Mordon's Quest (esp. for Rix)
Make a blowpipe to despatch the pygmy and then use the pygmy to get passed
the plant.
Lay down the blanket over the quick sand to walk over it safely.
Rigel's Revenge - Part 2
To get passed the checkpoint: From Start: Ex2, wait until you hear marching
to the east, E, N, E, get rifle, examine seat, get documents, W, S, W, wait
again until you hear marching to the east, E, Sx2, Ex4, S, E, dig and get
light guide.
Seabase Delta (esp. for Rix)
Enter car, fasten seat-belt and insert card in slot to get car in station
to move (the card is obtained from the dead body).
Smashed (esp. for Robert Smith)
Inject Clingon with anaesthetic.
Get cat and then enter chopper, switch on then pull joystick to get the key.
Inject Crank with sodium pentathol.
Get Clingon's dress.
Hypnotise crank with Padre's book and give him the dress.
Drill pills and string them with catgut to make fake pearls.
Yarkon Blues (esp. for Robert Smith)
Throw rat poison to rat in cellar.
If you're troubled by lack of light, go into the sewers and walk in a generally
southern direction unti you encounter a transporter. Teleport and you will
gain access to the transporter room where there is a phaser.
As a weapon the phaser's not much cop, but it supplies light in darkened locations.
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GAC Programming Clinic
This month readers have sent hints on how to get the most out of GAC...
List numbers
by Ron Bray
Dear Balg,
I overcame one little difficulty in a way other users may find helpful. Unless
you are extremely well organised, it can be a pain remembering the next number
to use for your verbs, nouns and adverbs. I always have one of each called
'AA' carrying the highest number.
So, when I need a new verb, the screen displays all my verbs in alphabetical
order with AA sitting at the top (naturally!) showing the next number. If
it were, say, 47 and I needed a new verb, Twist, I can immediately delete
47, enter 47 Twist and 48 AA.
ADVINMAN.ADV
by C. H. Hetterington
Dear Balrog,
Does anyone else know about the ADVINMAN.ADV file that follows QS.ADV on the
covertape? It is an amusing little adventure, and it is very helpful to be
able to examine the GAC conditions used in it and see how they work.
Multi-part adventures
by Louise Downing
Balg,
Although it is not possible to link various parts of a game together so you
can carry through objects, there is another way to make multi part adventures
- simply at the end of the first part give the player a password for the second
part and then at the start of part two, make the start location have the description
'Enter password from part 1...' (making sure you have no exits from this location).
Then just create a condition so that when the password is typed the player
is transported to part two proper. However you won't be able to take objects
across from part one - you have to try and make part one end with the player
carrying either no objects or a few objects which you can predict (so at the
end of part one you could attack the player muggers who steal all his objects
etc.)
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Lords & Ladies of Adventure
Adventure Quest, Dungeon Adventure, Gnome Ranger, Imagination, Knight Orc,
Kobyashi Naru, Jewels of Babylon, Lancelot, Lords of Time, Mystery of Indus
Valley, Price of Magik, Redmoon, Return to Eden, Shadows of Mordor, Snowball,
Souls of Darkon & Venom.
Wendy Watters, 82 Booth Road, Stacksteads, Bacup, Lancashire OL13 OSF. Tel:
(0706) 877518
Classic Adventure, Fantasia Diamond, Hobbit, Hollywood Hijinx, Inca Curse,
Mountains of Ket, Planet of Death & Sorceror.
Dave 'Flossie' Havard, 21 Belvoir Close, Fareham, Hants PO16 OPJ.
Forest at World's End, Jewels of Babylon & Seabase Delta.
James Mackle, 45 Kenure Park, Rush, Co Dublin, Ireland.
Bards Tale, Hitchhiker's Guide, Laser Squad, Lord of the Rings, Lords of Chaos,
Lurking Horror, Price of Magic, Quill (+Illustrator) & Scapeghost. ('tripe'
removed - Balg)
Simon Netherwood, 36 Toothill Bank, Rastrick, Brighouse, West Yorkshire HD6
3EZ. Tel: (0484) 719326 5-9pm weekdays, 12-11pm weekends.
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.
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Help!
Stuck in an adventure? Or desperately trying to find one - the helpline it
the place for you! Just send a postcard to Balrog's Helpline at the usual
Balrog address.
Patrick Dyson from Shipley wants to know how do you glue the map and open
the safe in Subsunk - can anyone help?
Wanted: Genesis instruction booklet and hints and tips for Moonmist, Lancelot
and Slaine.
Dominic Corby, 62 Roxwell Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 2ND. Tel: (0245) 353718
Mark Hudd is stuck on level 6 of Bloodwych - does anyone know how to get past
the green pads? He also wants to know what the various wands and rings do.
2 Bankside, Staple Hill, Bristol, BS16 5LQ. Tel: (0272) 564667
Philip Carver is stuck in three games - he wants to know how to stay in the
kitchen in the Famous Five, move the lift in the Pawn and persuade the sessiones
to retreat at Tintagel in Lancelot.
20 Pirie Road, West Bergholt, Essex, C06 3TA. Tel: (0206) 241181
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