Black Tower

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Personal Rating 4/10

Keith Campbell 4/10

Your quest is to find three keys and a scroll and return them to the hut where you started. With one or two exceptions, the graphics are not worth viewing. The text scrolls smoothly on a split screen under the graphics, but the response is painfully slow at about 10 seconds which is a long wait. Worse is the fact that key location details disappear under the graphics by the time the response is complete. Although there is time enough to read all the text, a quick look aside to jot down details on your map and you'll miss other vital information. Other shortcomings include a QUIT with no RESTART?, a failed TAKE that gets no response at all, and a blanket reply YOU CAN'T DO THAT YET! to commands that are unrecognised. Any attempt to examine either a character called Josh, who might be man or beast for all I know, or any other feature results in the hilarious reply: CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT. This is a pity, since the map developed in quite an interesting way and so did some of the events, like helping a servant with a crossword. Given a bit more thought, more memory and less graphics, Black Tower could have proved quite interesting and enjoyable. Black Tower is from Dollarsoft for the 48k Spectrum.

Personal Computer News

Bob Chappell

PRICE: £6.50 PUBLISHER: Dollarsoft [redacted] If only Black Tower had been as good as the cassette inlay said - I'd have had a great treat. Boredom, however was the main outcome. Let me translate some of the inlay's hyperbole for you. Take 'exciting'. If an excruciatingly slow response coupled with the the most mundane text seen this side of a telephone directory is exciting, this is a thriller. Take 'magical lands'. If a wood, a large forest, a huge forest, a pub and a but are magical lands then welcome to Oz. Take 'exciting people'. I met one, a character called Josh about whom I was told absolutely nothing. Any attempt to examine an item was stonewalled with 'Curiosity killed the cat.' Take 'interesting places'. If location graphics that would shame a three-year-old are exciting, my doodles should hang in the Tate. The 'difficult problems' part, turned out to be true - the problems of keeping awake. What can you say about an adventure that, when fed with the verb ZQX (or any real word it doesn't recognise), responds 'You can't do that... yet'. Yet? I placed Black Tower in the slot of my magical one-armed bandit and hit the jackpot - three raspberries.

Crash

Atmosphere 4/10

Vocabulary 5/10

Logic 5/10

Debugging 8/10

Overall Value 3/10

Derek Brewster 3/10

DEREK BREWSTER'S ADVENTURE TRAIL CLAMBER UP THE TREE AND DELVE INTO THE NEST Reviewing adventure games is not a simple matter when compared to arcade games. For one thing, it takes a lot longer to do a game justice and the reviewers own prejudices can bear more upon an adventure. Leaving aside the fundamental text vs graphics, the vocabulary a game accepts can either reassure or perversely cloud the reviewer's conscience. Some adventurers have GET, others TAKE and some have both. Some use ENTER, and others GET IN, some GO object as in GO DOOR. Some adventures have tried to establish, and keep to, a standard or a reasonably uniform use of words. Others have entered the market with little prior knowledge of what is the vogue. My opinion has changed in order to fall in line with the concensus. I at first viewed GET and GO DOOR as crude but now accept these expediencies both for their ease of use and more importantly, for the simple reason that many good adventures use them, and therefore many seasoned adventurers will approach a new game expecting to be able to use them unless the cassette packaging expresses some substitutes. Dollarsoft have produced some games that display many aspects that lead me to the belief that they either haven't consulted the rest of the adventure market or have done so and rejected much of what they have found, Their adventures are strange but Black Tower, it has to be said, is original. Adventurers, judging by the mail I receive, do not dedicate their computer time to just one adventure and its problems, but have many on the boil at one time. This suggests to me that, as far as vocabulary is concerned, a few familiar commands might help ease the explorer into the adventure and any original or nonstandard features should be clearly marked on the packaging. A game that reduces me to a swearing moron all because its hallowed maker assumes my idea of an adventure is to match the first phrase that came into the author's head ,, well, that game will not endear itself to me, even if it be Sherlock itself. BLACK TOWER Producer: Dollar Soft Retail Price: £6.50 Author: R. Stevenson, P. Durbidge 'You must move from one location to another trying to find three keys and ultimately the scroll. When these objects have been found take them to the hut. (How exotic!). When moving about, you may come across various items which may be of help to you later on, and you may pick these up if you wish to... may instruct with various phrases such as NORTH, SOUTH, TAKE STONE.' I hope Dollar Soft forgive me for one moment but this no-nonsense northern description of adventuring I found genuinely amusing. It's also good to know that the company is continually improving its product - I have version 2.0 - and no doubt Dollar Soft will glean some useful information for the next amendment, once all the reviews are out. The cassette inlay gives the impression of a company new to adventuring hoping to attract a fresh audience. Well, if this is the case Black Tower isn't such a bad game and shows some features which, like the cover, bring a smile to the countenance of a jaded reviewer. The screen is divided into roughly two halves. The upper shows a simple graphic representation of the scene while the bottom half scrolls information about the location, visible exits and what you can see. I say scrolls but this is to demean what is a theatrical romp across the screen. The print enters stage right, prints across at a steady, moderate reading speed, then flits left as if in a ballet dance. Once this bolero has ended a return to the norm is abrupt. You see Josh, a stilted, wooden character first met in Suicide Island. But no, I will not banter endlessly as if lamenting a wet weekend in Whitley Bay. No, this game has more going for it than Suicide Island. Black Tower has an average response time of 27 seconds due to its curious, novel, printing display. It shows some advances on its predecessor. Suicide Island, by allowing L for LOOK and both TAKE and GET for picking up objects. The game is a little rough at the edges and doubtless version 2.1 will be nearing completion by the time you read this. Difficulty: Average Graphics: Yes, but poor Presentation: Good Input Facility: Allows simple sentences Response: Probably the slowest ever written Special Features: Character Interaction, but low level