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Runecaster delves once more into the secrets of adventuring. AS WE WATCH MANY SOFTWARE houses striving to improve the graphics which now illustrate most adventures, it is interesting to talk to the actual players of these modern-day marvels. Whilst nearly everyone agrees that swiftly drawn, colourful graphics can always enhance the appearance of an adventure. most of the players I have spoken to recently, also go on to say that unless the pictures have some relevance to the game play, then the contents - either descriptive text and/or good puzzles - is what really matters. Following this is usually a discussion on the attributes of the latest parsei These too seem to become more complex as time goes by, with longer and longer sentences being understood and actioned with astounding accuracy. But do many players use these wonderworkers? Most, it seems, tend to use the least possible number of words and letters. The exception occurs when repeating a set series of commands to get to a previously attained position. Interesting ain't it? Who are we all trying to kid? Probably the only people to gain from all this are the promoters of programs - you have to admit it sounds better if you are advertising an all-singing, all-dancing program. Then there is the newcomer to adventures. It certainly provides something to look at while trying desperately to think about what to do next! Let us know what you think. And give us some examples of what you like listed in the order of preference. Whilst thinking about it, try playing a text only adventure like The Secret of St Brides. Back to School St Brides is a real location and a real school. Girls pay money to stay there but it is no ordinary school. It is as though time was stopped 50 years ago. The scenario is straight out of those storybooks our parents used to read, although this adventure takes things a step further. You play the part of a recently joined 'pupil', puzzled by the apparently total belief of all the others, that the time is 1929 and not 1986. Your self-determined quest is to find out The Secret of St Brides. The program has been around for some time for the Spectrum but has only recently been produced for the C64, It is a Quill-based game and is not easy! There is plenty of descriptive text and lots of things to find. The problem is working out what to do with them. There are two approaches to the game - the basic one of tracking down what is 91ti s s t o e v g i t e 1 t s kommomE64 going on and also an additional one to find the Amulet, If you can find it and let St Brides know, the school will award you an 'A' Level in Adventuring. The vocabulary is fairly extensive and the problems met along the way are devious - the instructions suggest that they may all be solved by logic, inventiveness and a little homework. All I can say is that I must have missed some of the lessons where they explained this homework. I'm stuck! A neat touch is the option to save a game position to either disk or tape the program is on tape). It is not an expensive program but it will keep you frustrated for hours. Try it and see, then let me know what to do with the cat basket! 26 Come Home Mike Hammer Thr latest detective adventure to hit the C64 is from US Gold's All American Adventure series. It's entitled Masquerade. This is a fairly middle of the road program without unusual features to make it remarkable. It is only available on disk, from which the graphics aee called up each time they are needed and take about eight seconds to appear. The pictures are clear and colourful and are in a semi-cartoon style that comes across well. There are three modes of presentation - text only, all graphics shown, and a neat variation called up by the command 'MIXED'. This will display text only but a null 'RETURN' flips the display into 'all graphics' until the next null 'RETURN'. You play the part of a private-eye on the trail of a Mr Big in the crime world. The accent is on observation and you must not expect to see everything immediately at fi rst glance. Various messages and descriptions are not repeated so have your notebook handy! There is a time element to your play, as the initial locations will explode into thin air, 75 minutes (not real time!) after you start out on your investigations. This could be 'crucial as you must intercept a telephone message before this happens! The command interpreter is the basic VERB/NOUN input and the vocabulary does not appear to be very large. The first five letters of most commands must be given for them to be actioned. This is very important since the response to anything it does not recognise is "SORRY CAN'T DO THAT RIGHT NOW". Fortunately this does not apply to direction commands (N,S,E,W) and things like inventory (I) and look (L). The general style is reminiscent of Mindshadow (which is now available on cassette) but does not have quite the same polish exhibited by Activision's game, It should prove an ample challenge to the detective brigade and although not excessively difficult, is probably not to be recommended to the novice adventurer. •
Diabolical I always knew that I had a strong tendency towards the more active type of adventure games - Halls of Death, The Valley, Exodus: Ultima ill and more recently the reconstituted Temple of Apshai Trilogy - but I never thought that I would suffer a program that crashed so many times, that I lost count. Just browsing through the shelves of a software emporium not so far from home base, I came across Telengard produced by Eclipse Software for The Avalon Hill Game Company. I thought I remembered seeing this advertised in some American magazines but could not remember it being pushed at all in this Country, so, at f7.95, I gave it a try. There have been many attempts to reproduce Dungeons and Dragons style games on computers. Some have been reasonably successful, some have been pretty ghastly. Telengard, I find horribly addictive, but it is true to the main aim of a D & D type of scenario. Telengard is a graphics adventure in which the main aim is to gain experience and find treasure whilst fighting off all the nasties that hinder your progress. The graphics are reasonable and the tension mounts from the first few moves to the last moments of life. You start at the bottom of stairs that lead up to a congenial inn. So far so good. All around you is a maze of passages. These you must explore to find treasure, gems, gold, silver, even refuse! You start out with sword, shield and armour, all of a pretty mediocre brand, because if you search diligently you can fi nd better quality items, indicated by such as "A+7 SWORD". All of this is very much par for the D & D course, even the opening determination of your characteristics is very sensible. You see a series of random numbers allocated for your character's attributes - strength, intelligence, wisdom, constitution, dexterity and charisma. These series of numbers will continually be updated until you press 'RETURN' to signify your acceptance of the present batch. This may sound as though you can cheat to get the character you want, but in practice, all this means is that you can sway the result by concentrating on one or two characteristics - you are not likely to see an 'all 18s' series very often! You may also choose your character's name. The instruction booklet firmly recommends that you choose a character with a sound constitution! Heed the advice well, it's based on knowledge, of the game. A character's 'hit points' are initially equal to its constitution. As these are whittled away each time you are hit by a monster, the larger the starting value the better. Lost 'hit points' may be regained by a restful night's zizz at an inn, Unfor- tunately, it is not often possible to return alive to said inn in time to recuperate! Although you start beneath an inn, this is by no means the only inn to be found - there are lots of them. Thank the gods for small mercies! On arriving at an inn, any gold you have with you is banked safely away and your experience credited with the amount of gold with which you arrived. All valuable treasure - gems, silver etc. - is converted to the gold standard for this calculation. Neither does it matter which inn you decide to visit, they are all linked by 'computer-inn'. a fantasy world version of Barclay's Bank! TELENGARD CO M M O DO RE 64 1 , 5 f • As your experience increases, certain values trigger a change in your 'hit points', this means that you can take more punishment and can venture further into Telengard in search of more dangerous monsters and greater loot. Amongst the maze of rooms and caverns which you explore will be found numerous stairways that reach down into the depths of Telengard - travel that way at your peril! It is quite dangerous enough for even the Level three adventurer to travel far from the initial position, let alone look for further trouble down below! Not only will your level be incremented by your increase in experience but also your ability to cast spells will increase. Initially you only have the skill to cast level one spells, and only one of those between visits to rest and recuperate at one of the thoughtfully provided alehouses. Magical spells are divided into six levels of relative power. Each spell level has six distinct spells. Characters at.experience Level one or two, have only the 27 Adventures six spells at level one at their disposal. As characters gain levels of experience the use of higher level (and therefore more powerful) spells becomes possible. Every three levels of experience gained, permits the use of the next higher level of spells. Spells are of roughly two types - 'combat' spells and 'duration' spells. The former are active offensive spells such as 'magic missile', lightening bolt* or 'fireball'. The latter allow you to cure wounds, search for traps or pass through walls etc All commands are given via the keyboard as single key inputs and, except in the novice's training exercise (entered by calling your character Demo!), action takes place in 'real time', so you have to have your wits about you, There is in fact plenty of lime to take the appropriate action - but it does not seem like it when you first start! Commands are divided into two types - 'action' and 'encounter', There are nine of the first type and they are very easy to remember. 'H' for help will tell you what they are! The 'encounter' commands are 'E'vade, 'C'ast (a spell) and to picl. up something you will be prompted to press 'RETURN'. Movement is controlled by the four keys W,XS,A (NSEW), U and D. There are 20 different types of monsters roaming around Telerigard. Most of them are hideously opposed to your continuing existence! A very small proporticn meet you with the greeting that they - like taken two ways to start with, initially y thought o u they r were going to eat me but, they actually help you, perhaps curing b you o of all d wounds or maybe giving you a y powerful " . weapon. T The hmonsters have a similar system to ayou and t your experience, so they have a c different level, this level and their rank (Gnoll, lowest - Dragon highest), deter- a mines how many experience points you n gain in defeating them. It also determines bhow difficult they are to defeat! Although eyou may be only on the first level, a surprising number of powerful creatures appear right from the start. When I first came up against a level 60 Giant, I thought there must have been a glitch in the program but then I found the instruction booklet hints at level 76! As befits a game of this type, some of the monsters have quite nasty habits - several drain your energy and knock you down a level of experience. Dragon fire is not much fun either! There are a number of 'features' such as stairways, pits, altars etc. which remain at the same locations - if you can find them again. Fountains seem to crop up quite often. The water from these varies in colour as does its properties when drunk. Some colours are benefi cial, and, surprise. surprise, some are not! There are potions to heal and also those to increase your strength. Various
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