Castle Blackstar

Crash

Atmosphere 9/10

Vocabulary 8.5/10

Logic 8.5/10

Debugging 10/10

Overall Value 8.5/10

Derek Brewster 8.5/10

DEREK BREWSTER'S ADVENTURE TRAIL THERE IS A FAULT, PLEASE ADJUST YOUR SETS I read George Orwell's book way before 1984 but found it strange the way everyone last year went to great lengths to point out how modern society bore little relationship to the one portrayed in the novel. I was one of the few people to take the opposing view. If I remember rightly, and it is a long time since I read Orwell (at Primary school - it was slotted in between the Red and Orange Books and Peter and Jane go Ferreting) the book tells of how telescreens impose a highly ritualised life-style on the island's inhabitants. Statistics were used to show how things were getting better when it was plain things couldn't get much worse. What of our society? During the last cold winter the electricity board met with very high demands on electricity, supplying in excess of 45,000 megawatts. Although this demand, brought on by the severe temperatures, was exceptional it was exceeded by the confluence of the end of a final episode of a BBC television series and a commercial break in a film on ITV. What this tells us about society is startling and leads me to think the power wielded by television is out of all proportion to its authority. To give Orwell's novel renewed topicality, simply substitute the word telescreen with the word television. Or to paraphrase a learned Canadian, if the medium is the message then I'm afraid the news isn't good. So what has all this got to do with software? Well let's first take newspapers as an example. The light-weights of Fleet Street would have little to do with TV during its infancy yet now find it profitable to devote up to two-thirds of their space to the gogglebox and its plethora of soap operas and petit politics. The crucial point with software is not that tie-ins with programmes is a bad thing in itself, it's just that, if TV is not quite Big Brother, it is large enough to intimidate anyone with the idea of buying rights to a TV programme into parting with a considerable amount of money. The point is, big business, delightfully absent in the early days of software, scares me an awful lot because big business needs a big turnover to realise big profits to get even bigger. It can get to the ridiculous stage where you either buy what they tell you to or you buy nothing at all. (If you don't think things could ever get that bad try buying a decent pair of shoes in the High Street). Remember, you can't beat the imagination of one lone programmer or a small team huddled in deep thought around a project and also, TV seldom comes up with new ideas itself but in almost every case relies on a steady stream from books, stories, newspapers or the good old radio. It would be nice to think that we could choose what we particularly like from books, comics etc, rather than wait for some comfy TV people to decide this for us. And I would hope the same could be true for software. CASTLE BLACKSTAR Producer: CDS Micro Systems Retail Price: £6.95 Language: Machine code Author: Mike Sheppard Castle Blackstar was reviewed in the March issue of CRASH but appears here under the auspices of Adventure Trail because it has been revamped and relaunched. The program I have is dated July 84, but this is version 9.9 and the truth is, it has battled its way through the vagaries of the marketplace for almost a year to settle in the pastures of CDS; it appears now as a fine piece of software, not dated at all, and in keeping with the finest text only traditions, with intelligent prose and consistent plot. It is set in that classic adventuring time zone of Prehistory, that is, even before the wireless brought you the Goon Show. Let's have a look at what the cassette cover has to say and you'll see what I mean. 'Imagine... as you awaken from your sleep troubled by strange dreams and visions you find yourself in a luxurious room furnished in silver and glass. The ceiling is high and arched with a huge relief map of the moon hanging overhead... woman speaking to you. She is tall and willowy with hair like spun silver. She carries easily an air of authority and wisdom.' The relief map of the moon is explained by the fact that Artemis is the virgin goddess of the hunt and the moon, the twin sister of Apollo. The objective of your quest is to return the power orb to Artemis but you can also score points through certain actions and by solving the many puzzles and finding the treasures to be taken back to be cleansed of their evil. Clearly, sophisticated scoring, as used here, is much fairer and more interesting than some recent games that have even stooped to an increased score with every new location visited. Press any key on loading and you are in a valley surrounded on three sides by forest and you'd be well advised to take the easy route to begin with, west along the valley, unless you like to start off with a maze (equivalent to starting the day with cracking the ice on a lake for your early morning dip). Sadly, being a reviewer, I thought it my lot to take the metaphorical plunge but when I grew tired of wandering, keying in QUIT resulted in a NEW program. Needless to say, I was not amused (the metaphorical cramps and almost drowning, arrgh!). Along the dusty road, reading the keystone reveals the author and contributors which I found handy as there is no mention of them on the cover. West takes you to the infamous castle itself. If you are reading this review for clues, then I'm sorry, but it would be unethical for me to tell you how to get the drawbridge down - but yes, you're quite right, it is your first major problem. Kindly, the program does not impose a major impasse here for the eventual solution lies in the adjacent locations. The descriptions are most evocative and the locations are the result of much prethought and careful design. As more and more of the story becomes known, the structure and intelligence behind the plot becomes gradually apparent. The rooms and halls of the castle are consistently real; living quarters, kitchen and dining room, ramparts and drawbridge are all where you might expect, and function in an authentic way. The text forms a good narrative, and it is easy to visualise the castle as you move about it. Here is the description of the dining room: 'You are in a grand dining room with glorious decor and a huge chandelier. Above you is an overhanging gallery which overlooks the archway forming the west entrance. A somewhat less than inviting exit leads east.' Vocabulary is good with few surprises. Simple commands such as ENTER, IN, OUT, UP and DOWN are widely accepted to enter all manner of buildings, facilitating quick and easy movement. Input goes a little beyond verb/noun with TAKE LAMP AND LIGHT IT and DROP SWORD AND LOOK while WEAR is a refinement of GET. Apart from SCORE and the inadvisable QUIT, the game features GOES which gives the number of turns taken so far; VERBOSE which gives the Full location description and QUIET which only gives the full text for new locations. N.E., S.E. etc, and UP and DOWN make the castle and the mazes that surround it lengthy explorations. Castle Blackstar is a super text adventure where the thought and careful planning behind its inception are most evident. The game is clever and consistent, well-designed, well-presented and with many ingenious and logical problems. If they don't make them like this any more, then it will be a shame. COMMENTS Difficulty: Quite difficult Graphics: None Presentation: Good Input Facility: Good Response: Very fast

Your Computer

Hugo North

48K Spectrum £8.95 SCR Adventures For those who like their text adventures meaty, Castle Blackstar should prove toothsome fare. It is a complex, puzzle-rich quest that challenges you to score a maximum of 240 points which are gained by finding and returning treasures, performing certain actions and accomplishing the main objective of your mission - to find and return the lost orb to the Lady Artemis. Your start your journey in the vale of Castle Blackstar. Wander too far from the path and you'll he lost in a forest maze. Experienced adventurers will be well aware that the best way to map out a maze is to drop objects along the way so make sure you find some before going on a forest jaunt. There are plenty of intriguing and unusual objects and puzzles, many of which will undoubtedly have you reaching for the aspirins. As a small taste of what's in store, difficulties along your way include an invisible hand, eagle eggs and a water-logged boat. Original and challenging puzzles, fast response, a comprehensive vocabulary and plenty of atmosphere make Castle Blackstar a worthy contender for your hard won gold.

ZX Computing

Greg Turnbull

MINDPLAY Intrepid Adventurer Greg Turnbull continues his series of reviews for lovers of 'arcade-alternatives'. CASTLE BLACKSTAR SCR Adventures This is the first in a series of 'Artemis quests' from SCR Adventures. It is a text-only, machine code program giving extremely fast response times. Essentially it is a medieval fantasy, similar in theme to 'Knight's Quest'. The object is to enter the castle and recover the power orb, located in the vast (no understatement) underground caves. Maximum (240) points are awarded for collecting all the treasures, completing certain special tasks (by overcoming puzzles), and returning the orb to the Goddess. All the usual commands are understood from a comprehensive vocabulary of some 200 words (it uses approx. 40K of memory.) If you get frustrated at any point, don't be tempted to swear, as this will cost you one object! There are many nice, humorous touches along the way, as well as a few red-herrings. The game is not in real-time, so you can sit back and think your way out of each situation .It isn't interactive either, so you can't go round talking to the few characters you occasionally meet. Single and four-letter strings are used. For example: I = inventory, L = look, SCOR = points so far, N, S, SW, NE, U, D, etc. Plus some new and interesting commands: 'GOES' for number of turns taken, 'VERBOSE' for full descriptions, and 'QUIET' for shorter text on each location. (Although I couldn't see that 'quiet' had any noticeable effect!) This feature is not usually seen on anything smaller than a disc-based program. The description themselves are very long (they may even fill an entire screen), and certainly create the atmosphere appropriate to the game's period. Sadly there is no provision for a 'HELP' feature for those of us who get stuck easily. Thankfully 'QUIT', 'SAVE', and 'LOAD' are all supported. One feature I do like is that there are a number of possible ways around some of the problems. This means that you don't suddenly come to an impasse (akin to hitting a brick wall), as often happens in some other adventures. One awkward point is that not all the available directions are displayed on the screen - you have to guess - and it's easy to forget to try all of the possible ways. There are many locations, so good mapping is essential (especially as there are numerous levels: castle; upper and lower levels, two towers, tunnels and caverns, plus the huge cave system.) Fortunately these are very accessible, so without having to solve too many problems you can easily get to see over 90 locations. This is very useful for the novice. However the puzzles are challenging enough to keep the hardened adventurer busy for quite some time (due to the fact that they were written by fellow adventure-player.) Hidden in the game are a number of death-traps. Dark places are to be avoided for fear of very nasty Deodans, who appear to enjoy decapitating unwary players! Getting killed isn't necessarily the end of the game; you merely drop all objects at that location, lose some points, and very handily get reincarnated back at the start. Hint: Beware of the forest, without the objects needed to map it, and remember the lamps and oil can run out. The program also contains some oblique references to various literary sources. For example: a pentagram and an Angel of Death from 'The Devil rides out', a sword in a stone from the 'Arthur' legends, and runes about Smaug on a Mithril knife from a certain well-known book! The manual is well-written, but doesn't give anything away. SCR can be contacted if you really get stuck; and if you're brilliant the first 50 to complete the quest get free "Castle Blackstar" T-shirts. Overall an excellent adventure, especially for the beginner. The next one in this series, 'Pyramid of the sun' is due out later this year. If it's as good as this one, it should certainly be worth playing.

Your Spectrum

Andrew Base HIT

George Price HIT

Johnathan Norman MISS

JOYSTCK JURY Evaluating the batch this month is the Gloucester Computing Club. Any club wishing to offer their services should contact Ron Smith, Your Spectrum, [redacted]. This month's reviewers (all ten of them!) are members of the Gloucester Computer Club and, in alphabetical order, they are: Stephen Avent (28), Andrew Base (15), Robert Ledbury (22), Mark Manning (15), Nigel Newland (13), Peter Newland (15), Johnathan Norman (15), George Price (35), Mike Skinner (30) and Richard Vernon (15). They all set to work with Spectrum, pen and paper to tell us what's right and what's not so right with the latest new releases. THE GLOUCESTER COMPUTING CLUB In a moment we'll get on to the verdicts of our nimble-fingered, boggle-eyed band - to find out which new games are bound for the YS Top 20. But first, some details on the club. It was formed approximately eight months ago by Mr B Ledbury (who happens to be the father of Robert - one of our reviewers) and it's already built up a membership of 35 enthusiasts - ages ranging from 10 years to 'mature'. Meetings are currently held in two rooms at Mr Ledbury's home; one for games evaluation, the other for more serious studies. Membership is free and for more information, contact Mr Ledbury, [redacted]. CASTLE BLACKSTAR SCR Adventures £6.95 You wake in a strange room that's furnished with silver and glass: out of the windows you can see landscapes of staggering beauty. However, there's a tall woman telling you to go recover the Orb from Castle Blackstar, you may keep any treasures you find - once she has cleansed them from evil.

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Keith Campbell

A game you QUIT because you want to start afresh, but leaving you with the message "QUITTING GAME WITH XX POINTS" and leaves your computer locked up, is NOT friendly! I always adopt the philosophy that when a player leaves any game entering END or QUIT, the computer should be returned to its normal state - not have to be disconnected before it is any use. And an Adventure requiring a reload for another try is not nice anyway. OK, grizzling over - is the game any good? Surprisingly, after my bad start, and prejudiced as I had become against it, I found Castle Blackstar to be a very interesting adventure - certainly better than many available for the Spectrum. The game is text only and the machine code program gives a fast response. It has a good plot, some reasonable puzzles and I felt happier with the simple black on white text than with many a lavishly illustrated multi-coloured game. The objective, which is fully explained in the accompanying leaflet, is to recover an orb, rid it of its evil powers and collect treasure. Points are awarded for being clever and collecting things. The map is big and colourfully described and the vocabulary is claimed to be in excess of 200 words. Nevertheless, I found plenty of words that weren't recognised; many of them being displayed before me at the time! Adventurers, as well as always being friendly and helpful souls, seem to be more disposed to bad language than most and this game copes with the situation in an original way by providing a swearbox - a location which fines you one object before you can escape! If you're going to say something nasty, make sure you have a redundant object in your possession first! I can proudly claim to have beaten the swear box with some particularly foul language, but I suppose as a journalist I should have a wide vocabulary. (Shut-up CampbellMary Whitehouse will try to have it banned if you're not careful!) So there you have it - don't go down in the woods to play, don't quit, and watch your mouth! Castle Blackstar for 48k Spectrum is from SCR Adventures, priced £8.95. Versions for Dragon 32, Commodore 64 and Apple II are planned.

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 7/10

Memory: 48K Price: £8.95 Attention all battle-weary adventurers. Once again the call has gone out for a real live hero to investigate the traps and treasure, monsters and magic of some dank, perversely unmappable castle in a forgotten corner of Fantasyland. One ought to yawn, turn the lamp low, put out the griffin and go to bed, but for aficionados of secret chambers hedged about by impenetrable logic puzzles the delights of playing the game seemingly never flag. If you were bored by the last fantasy adventure you played, Castle Blackstar is unlikely to excite you wildly. That said, the SCR team has produced a competent text-only adventure. The computer accepts most of the usual commands and has a 200-word vocabulary. A modest prize is offered to the first few adventurers to reach the bitter end and return the Orb of Artemis to its rightful place. One welcome feature is the ease of movement round the castle and its environs. Andrew Cummins of SCR says most of the problems are accessible independently of each other, so there is no need to spend days beating your brains out on one problem before you proceed to the next. The program is apparently the first in a series of related quests. It remains to be seen whether players have the stamina to keep up with the series but Castle Blackstar should keep the peculiar minds of adventure freaks hyperactive for a month or so at least.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Micro Adventurer

DD

BLACKSTAR MAINTAINS TRADITION MICRO: Spectrum 48K PRICE: £8.95 FORMAT: Cassette SUPPLIER: SCR Adventures, [redacted] The goddess Artemis has mislaid an important orb. She'd like you to go and look For it. As per union rules, anything else you can loot is yours to keep. Suddenly you find yourself in a wooded valley beside a dusty road. This, in glorious black-onwhite, is the none-too-original beginning of Castle Blackstar, a traditional text adventure set in a familiar pseudo-medieval fantasy world. Not too promising at first sight, perhaps, but persevere because this is an excellent, absorbing, detailed and tough adventure. The heart of a text adventure is the quality of descriptions and puzzles, and both are first-class in this, the first of the Artemis Quests. There are a few unfortunate spelling errors here and there, but not enough to detract from the rich and convincing atmosphere built up in the wild countryside, deserted castle, subterranean catacombs, underground lake and so on. If purple prose turns you puce there is a useful command which switches out the full description of locations already visited, leaving only the name (Kitchen, South Tower for instance). A large area can be explored with little difficulty, and many interesting things lie about unguarded. Working out what to do with them is another matter, though, and I found the solutions to problems not as hard to identify as what the problems actually were. If you get killed, the goddess appears to revive you, but three resurrections seems to be her limit. I was particularly impressed by the integration of some objects into the room descriptions themselves, not simply wheels which turn and buttons which press, but things you can get and take away. This helps increase the atmosphere substantially and makes it vital to read the descriptions carefully. Castle Blackstar is well-documented and offers a query service as well as T-shirts for the first 50 finishers. It's a shame you have to reload every time you quit or expire, but I found loading quick and reliable, so this wasn't the problem it might have been. If you like traditional text adventures, this will do very nicely.

Crash

Overall 75%

Producer: SCR Adventures, 48K £8.95 (3) Author: Sheppard, Cummins & Richardson A text-only adventure, and first of a planned series of Artemis Quests. The Goddess Artemis, glimpsed in a dream, bids you enter Castle Blackstar to recover her power orb from the vast underground caverns. To achieve maximum points all treasures found must be cleansed of their evil, all puzzles solved and the orb returned. Location descriptions are detailed and atmospheric and response times are machine code fast with a touch of humour. The development of cause and effect is pretty advanced with situations like the turning of a winch in one room, causing the raising of a chandelier in another far away. Perhaps the only drawback is the rather steep price in comparison to many other similar adventures, so a low rating on value or money, but overall a CRASH rating of 75%.

Read it at Crash - The Online Edition

Personal Computer Games

Steve Cooke

POWER FROM THE GIANT CASTLE This month, PCG's resident White Wizard conjures up a magical new section. Okay adventurers, this is IT. Drop everything, take the 'phone off the hook, lock all the doors, drug the cat, and get stick in to the first of PCG's new monthly adventure specials. You name it, this is where you'll find it. Gossip, hints, reviews, and much, much more. These four pages are about to become the most sought-after location in the kingdom. Don't miss them! Every adventure we look at will be thoroughly explored and graded, with ratings awarded in four different categories. We'll be looking for imagination, suspense, challenging scenarios and the sort of programming skills that help make a good game into a great adventure. We shan't be giving away too many secrets (which would spoil all the fun) but we shall try to help you avoid wasting your hard-earned pennies on programs that aren't worth the tape they're recorded on. Each month we'll give space to readers comments, so if you've got something to say, let us know. We're waiting to hear about your high scores, your favourite game and locations - and if you want to mention fantasy fiction, dungeons and dragons, or anything else connected with adventuring, then go right ahead. Last, but not least,we'll be offering clues to some of the most common problems you encounter. But to ensure that we don't give the game away, these clues will be presented in a special form so you can't read them by mistake. Full details will be found below. So if you really get stuck, write and tell us - we may be able to help. Congratulations for having found your way to these pages. The long and winding road stretches ahead of you. Night is falling, and in the distance you can hear the howling of wolves. Read what follows and you may, just may, survive... REVIEWS OF THE LATEST TEXT GAMES A picture is worth a thousand words so they say, and they can go on saying it as far as I'm concerned till they're blue in the face. When it comes to adventures it just isn't true. By now I expect half of you are reaching for your pens with every intention of making me Wally of the Month. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not against graphic adventures. It's just that until we get home micros with decent sized memories then every picture is going to cost a thousand words, and that means poorly described locations, fewer characters, fewer puzzles, and less interesting games. There are some exceptions, and we'll be looking at those in future issues. But meanwhile you'll understand why I was so impressed with Castle Blackstar, a new Spectrum adventure from SCR Adventures. This is a text-only game that forms the first part of a series, the Artemis Quests. Although currently only available on the Sinclair, these programs will shortly be available on other machines. GRAND SCALE Castle Blackstar is an adventure on a grand scale, in which your objective is to locate a 'power orb' in the castle dungeons and return it to your revered Goddess. On the way you have the chance to collect various treasures which will add to your score. So far, nothing new. Where this program really scores is in the description of its locations and the large (200-word plus) vocabulary. As you explore the Castle and the caverns beneath it, you really do get a feel for the world into which you have fallen. My only quibble with SCR's program is that it doesn't allow you to quit the game and re-start. If you enter 'Quit' the game crashes and you have to re-load. Another minor annoyance is that the program doesn't specify which word it is having trouble with when it rejects your inputs, but since the vocabulary is of a decent size this isn't too much of a disadvantage. The program accepts complex commands, and all words may be abbreviated to four letters, plus of course the usual N, S, E, W and so on. The next game in the Artemis series, Pyramid of the Sun, should be in the shops this summer. GAME: Castle Blackstar MACHINE: Spectrum 48K SUPPLIER: SCR Adventures PRICE: £8.95 TRILOGY Recent months also saw the launch of the first game in another text-only series, a trilogy this time, Mountains of Ket from Incentive Software Ltd. From the blurb supplied with the cassette you'd expect this to be something really special - 'A giant of an adventure program featuring Combat, Interactive Beings, Monetary system...' Unfortunately the game itself doesn't quite live up to expectations. Mountains of Ket is nicely presented on the screen with good use of boxes and colour to make the text more readable. Input is in the two-word verb/ noun format which places a few limitations on the player, especially since the vocabulary isn't that large. There are some good combat sequences, and the angry reaction of passersby when you decide to kill someone is a welcome disincentive to mindless violence. However the locations are very scantily described and the atmosphere of the game suffers as a result. GAME: Mountains of Ket MACHINE: Spectrum 48K SUPPLIER: Incentive Software PRICE: £5.50 VIVID Spectrum owners who like their locations to be vividly described, and who aren't content with Castle Blackstar, might like to try Melbourne House's Classic Adventure. This is a version of the program Colossal Cave (or just 'Adventure'), the game that started it all, back in the days when you used your computer to heat the room and did your calculations on a slide-rule. Adventurers on most home micros have already had a crack at this classic, thanks to Level 9, but Melbourne House's offering is £3.00 cheaper. How does it compare? Well, it has to be admitted that the difference in price is reflected in the quality of the program. However, what I liked about Melbourne House's game was that it was subtly different from the original Colossal Cave. Even if you're familiar with the older program or one of its modern versions, you could find yourself in trouble in Melbourne House's version. The locations in this game are excellently described by comparison to most of today's text-only programs, so if you haven't already tried this game, and can't afford the extra for Level 9's version, then Classic Adventure looks like a good bet. GAME: Classic Adventure MACHINE: Spectrum 48K SUPPLIER: Melbourne House PRICE: £6.95 Another text-only program, recently released for the Commodore 64, also shows the influence of Colossal Cave in some of its locations. Island Adventure is written by Peter Gerrard, whose 'Exploring Adventure' books are reviewed elsewhere on these pages. Peter is a firm text-only fan. 'Graphics detract from an adventure.' he told me, 'because everyone has their own ideas about what the locations look like.' He certainly practices what he preaches in Island Adventure, but I felt that the locations weren't sufficiently described to give the reader much idea in the first place. Otherwise the game is of the standard 'stranded-on-an-island-get-as-much-treasure-as-you-can' type, and if you've played Colossal Cave you'll find some of the puzzles easier to solve. GAME: Island Adventure MACHINE: Commodore 64 SUPPLIER: Duckworth PRICE: £7.95 Complexity: 6/10 Atmosphere: 3/10 Interaction: 5/10 Value: 4/10 BUSY Salamander, who produce adventure programs for the Dragon, BBC and Oric, seem to have been very busy recently. The first Dan Diamond trilogy is now complete and the third title, Fishy Business, is currently available. By the time you read this they should have released the first program in the second trilogy, Franklin in Wonderland, in which the intrepid detective attempts to rescue a damsel in distress. Salamander tell me that reading Alice in Wonderland will help you solve the adventure. The Dan Diamond games were notable for their way of displaying information on the screen, with separate boxes giving information on your location, input, and items carried. The same lay-out is used in two other new Salamander games, Wings of War and The Cricklewood Incident. REFRESHING The Cricklewood incident is an utterly pointless game that had me howling with laughter some of the time and screaming with frustration the rest of the time. Some of the humour is a little out-of-date (when did you last have a coffee-table nailed to your head?) but like Richard Shepherd's Urban Upstart it makes a very refreshing change from the usual dungeons, dragons, and dwarves. Your quest (if you can call it that) in The Cricklewood Incident is to find the Holy Grail, having first left your padded cell where you had been put for safe keeping. There are five levels of play, ranging from Utter Wally to Geoff Boycott (who rates one higher than Superman). You will encounter a number of fascinating characters, including a very tiresome Hell's Angel. The fight sequences are highly amusing, and although the locations are very briefly described, this game stands on its sense of humour alone. GAME: The Cricklewood Incident MACHINE: Dragon SUPPLIER: Salamander PRICE: £7.95 Complexity: 6/10 Atmosphere: 6/10 Interaction: 5/10 Value: 6/10 SERIOUS STUFF There isn't much humour in Wings of War, the first of a two-part adventure in which you are parachuted down behind enemy lines to steal some plans and escape back to good old Blighty. Serious stuff here, but somehow the simple vocabulary and brief descriptions don't manage to conjure up much of an atmosphere, and the challenge of the game lies more in finding things than in solving puzzles or dealing with other characters. Wings of War was a first attempt from someone new to adventure programming, and Salamander assure me the second game in the series, White Cliffs of Dover, is a vast improvement. Let's hope so. Dragon owners seem to have been spoilt for choice when it comes to adventures recently. Klartz and the Dark Forces is another new release for that machine from Dungeon Software. Described as a 'multi-adventure' it places you in a time capsule and sends you off through the ages to gather relics of the victims of the evil Klartz. I'm afraid I can't recommend this game. I stumbled across the first relic almost as soon as I'd left the capsule, and the small vocabulary, poor error checking ('Illegal input. Please Recompute') didn't encourage me to go much further. Even so, I gathered up most of the relics before quitting the program. Ah well, some you win, and some you win just too easily This month I've concentrated on text-only games, so next issue I'll be looking at graphics adventures and replying to your letters. If you want me thrown into the Bottomless Pit for being rude about your favourite game, you'd better put pen to paper. I'm quite prepared to cross swords with anyone on these pages, so beware! GAME: Wings Of War MACHINE: Dragon SUPPLIER: Salamander PRICE: £7.95 Complexity: 5/10 Atmosphere: 4/10 Interaction: 3/10 Value: 4/10 GAME: Klartz And The Dark Forces MACHINE: Dragon SUPPLIER: Dungeon Software PRICE: £9.95 Complexity: 2/10 Atmosphere: 6/10 Interaction: 5/10 Value: 4/10 The White Wizard ADVENTURE RATINGS Adventures need special treatment when it comes to ratings, so we've devised a whole new system for them. Each game will be awarded points in four different categories: Complexity, Atmosphere, Interaction and Value. Points will range from 0 (Abysmal) to 10 (Sheer Genius). The first category, Complexity, will be determined by the number of locations in the program, and the difficulty of the tasks presented. The Atmosphere rating reflects the quality of the descriptions of each location, and the standard of graphics if they are provided. Points given for Interaction will be based on how large a vocabulary the program has, how helpful its responses are, and the type of in puts it can accept. Adventures accepting only two-word inputs, for example, may score lower than those accepting multi-statement commands. The last category, Value reflects value for money. It is an overall rating of the game that takes all the above factors into account, matches them with the price of the program and its originality, and awards points accordingly. Any game that scores 10 for Value belongs on your shelf. A game that scores 0? Into the waste-paper basket.

From top: Castle Blackstar; Mountains of Ket; Exploring Adventures on the Commodore 64.

Crash

Use of Computer 80%

Playability 80%

Getting Started 89%

Addictive Qualities 83%

Value For Money 45%

Overall 75%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: SCR Adventures Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £8.95 Language: Machine code Author: Sheppard, Cummins & Richardson The task in this text-only adventure, which is the first of a planned series of 'Artemis Quests', is to enter Castle Blackstar at the behest of a beautiful, mysterious woman glimpsed in a dream. There you must recover her power orb from the vast underground caverns. To achieve maximum points all treasures found must be cleaned of their evil, all puzzles solved and the orb returned to our dear lady, who is, of course, no less than a Goddess - Artemis. She promises to covertly help you during your quest. The maximum score is 240 and, if successful, you may keep all the loot! A note in the accompanying 8-page booklet says that the driver software for Castle Blackstar is based extensively on the Adven-80 program developed by Peter Scargill. COMMENTS Graphics: text only, very simple, black letters on white ground, clear and easy to read