Cutthroats (ZxZvm)

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Personal Rating 10/10

Paul Coppins 10/10

Most home computer owners in the United States these days have a disc drive. A drive offers the advantage of being able to access, read and re-read data into memory very quickly, and in random order. Cassette tapes are very different. To access data positioned at the end of the tape requires that nearly all the tape must pass the playback head and then, if previous data items are required, the tape must be rewound by the operator. Infocom have, for a long while now, produced Adventure games that use the capabilities of disc access to read in data quickly in any required order, and at such a speed that it hardly delays the response. This means that a vast and complex game can be run on a relatively cheap micro, since the computer's memory need contain little more than the program itself. Competition in this field is beginning to hot up, but Infocom undoubtedly have the lead at present, and have the technique neatly wrapped up. All their titles are available for a wide range of micros, but they are not cheap at £30-£40 each (unless you have a Commodore 64, for which many titles cost a mere £11.99). Perhaps their special appeal is due to Infocom's policy (and proud boast) of text only - no graphics. The text is so descriptive that no computer graphics could do justice to the subject. Whilst nearly every other series has come in for criticism somewhere along the line from C& VG readers, not one letter of disenchantment has ever reached us about any Infocom game, despite a rapidly increasing number of drive-owning players. The complete range of Infocom games is Zork I, II, and III (Fantasy); Starcross, Planetfall and Suspended (Science Fiction); Deadline and The Witness (Detective); Enchanter and Sorceror (Fantasy); Infidel, Cut-throats, Seastalker and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. in the next few months we will be looking at The Witness and the famous Hitchhiker's Guide. Right now, Paul Coppins brings you up to date on two of the latest titles. Following Infidel and Suspended, Michael Berlyn, one of Infocom's top authors, has once again brought together the right ingredients to create yet another superb Adventure. In Cut-throats you are a skin diver who happens to be on an island called Hardscrabble. You are approached by a bunch of cut-throats who make a proposition, involving you locating two sunken wrecks containing treasure. You have just learned of the location of these ships from an old map entrusted to you for safe keeping by an old shipmate only minutes before he was killed in a scuffle by a couple of shadowy characters, just outside your hotel room. Your instincts tell you to have nothing to do with the proposition, but with such high stakes, you consider it worth taking the risk. First you have to go about getting the necessary equipment to make the dive, at the same time attempting to keep your new-found colleagues from selling each other out. Not an easy task at the best of times. In the second half of the Adventure, you start diving in earnest. There are two wrecks and each time you play the wreck your find is determined at random. Depending upon which ship you are allotted, the plot differs in a very subtle way, having the effect of making Cut-throats two Adventures in one. Some of the differences are so small that it's very easy to miss them altogether, but if missed, the result can be murder - as I found out once or twice to my cost. In conclusion, Cut-throats is an Adventure that I personally enjoyed immensely. It has not got the most difficult of puzzles, but then it is graded as a standard level game aimed at Adventurers of moderate skill. But it has a good plot and a great sense of humour. Cut-throats is available for a wide range of computers, all requiring disc drive, including Atari 48K and Commodore 64, from Infocom.

Personal Computer News

Bob Chappell

[ZXSR: The review for Cutthroat is not for the Spectrum version, but multiple machines or a.nother machine. The text could describe the Spectrum version. Scores have not been added as separate entities but only at the end of the review to prevent score-skewing.] CUTTHROAT BUSINESS There's a nautical note to Bob Chappell's musings this week as he tackles deep-sea deadlies in his search for hidden treasures. Sunken treasure, deep-sea diving, a shady bunch of cohorts, Davy Jones' Locker, and all things nautical and nefarious. These are the staple ingredients of Cutthroats, the latest text adventure from the Infocom stable. The adventure is available, on disk only, for a number of machines including Atari, Apple and Commodore 64. It was written by Michael Berlyn, author of two other superb Infocom adventures, Suspended and Infidel. If you've sampled either, you'll know you're in for a real treat when you play this latest in the Tale of Adventure series. DEAD GIVEAWAY You're a daring deep-sea diver, holed up on Hardscrabble Island, and an historical book on shipwrecks has been placed, in your safekeeping by an old shipmate. Life is cheap, skullduggery is the main course on the menu, and your pal is not long for this world. He's murdered within minutes of leaving you. A miserable end for him but possibly wealth untold for you since the loaned book contains a map showing newly discovered locations of treasure-laden wrecks. With the aid of the book, equipment, various shady characters and a goodly dollop of derring-do, you are out to salvage treasure from a shipwreck, on the ocean bed. One clever wrinkle to this tale is that there are four differently located wrecks. You only have to find one but every time you play, the wreck is randomly determined by the game. THERE'S A TAVERN The action proper starts at the Red Boar Inn. A hastily scrawled note has been slipped under your door. The note, signed by 'Johnny', offers the prospect of a big deal if you make a rendezvous with him at 8.30 in The Shanty. Who could resist such an assignation? The Shanty, a place of refreshment, is down near the wharf. If you expect this quaintly named quayside cafe to be a tourist halt with chintz table, cloths, afternoon tea and buttered scones and a string quartet playing Victor Sylvester, you've bought the wrong adventure. HIGH SOCIETY The Shanty is no place to take your granny for a cup of Earl Grey and a cucumber sandwich. It's a scruffy tavern whose customers are unsavoury enough to bring a tear of nostalgia to the one eye of Long John himself. Take Pete the Rat, for example. He got his name while serving as cook on a far-east voyage. When the food ran out, he did his best to keep the crew supplied with fresh meat. No wonder why they threw him off at the next port of call. Then there's the Weasel, a small greasy man with shifty eyes who picks his teeth with a nasty looking knife. For the price of a noggin, he'd sell his own granny, never mind yours. POLLY GONE Hobbling up and down the bar is a parrot with an eye-patch and a wooden leg. The locals consider the parrot to be insane. Engage it in conversation and you'll wonder whether it's you that has a marble or two adrift. For me, the parrot's choice of words instantly conjured up irrepressible images of WC Fields and Wimpy (from the Popeye cartoon saga). Polly is apt to comment; 'After due consideration, I find myself in an embarrassing position. I would gladly except a hard biscuit today if you would accept payment on Tuesday.' CLOSE SHAVE You should realise by now that recovery of the treasure trove is going to be no piece of cake. But it's all great fun and the adventure is guaranteed to provide you with plenty of pleasure along the way to snaffling the treasure or getting your throat cut, whichever comes first. All the excellent Infocom features are present: sophistication, full sentence parser; stimulating puzzles; immaculate, detailed rose; nicely-worked plot; multiple routes to a successful conclusion. And it all hangs together so beautifully. No doubt about it, Cutthroats is yet another successful adventure in a long line of triumphs for Infocom. Long may it continue, says I. WHAT LARKS And now for something completely different. Return of the Joystick is a text and graphics adventure for 48K Spectrum owners. It's different for two reasons. First, it has a daft plot and second, it has lots of in-jokes to entertain computer game buffs. While much of the humour is a mite childish, it's great fun coming upon well-known characters and spotting spoofs of popular games. The game (constructed with the aid of Gilsoft's Quill and Illustrator) is set around the twelfth ZX Microfair and involves you in a barmy search for a joystick. Walk east from King's Cross station and you end up in Moscow's Red Square. A bonus on the reverse side of the cassette is an introductory program followed by a clutch of excellent spoof screen title pages including The Gobbit and Lords of Daylight. They really do look like the originals. My personal favourite was Chublock, showing the famous detective with thumb in mouth. All good, clean fun. The game is £4.95 (£6.95 on Microdrive cartridge), and available from Delta 4 Software, [redacted].