The Devil's Hand

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Vocabulary 73%

Atmosphere 80%

Personal 82%

Value 85%

Keith Campbell 82%

MACHINE: Spectrum 128K - £4.50 available from Marlin Games, [redacted] Sitting at your junior reporter's desk in the local newspaper office, you are fed up with the constant round of WI meetings, gay vicars, Scout group news, and jumble sales. You yearn to get on to a big story. Opening the envelope in front of you, you discover a letter from Rose Myrtle, of Myrtle Cottage in nearby Puddlecombe. Seems there's been rumours of a strange black beast up on the moors. Yesterday, one of Farmer Lamb's sheep was found mauled, and not by a fox nor a dog, nor Gary Williams either. This could be your big chance, as the senior reporter is away. Sure enough, your editor tells you to get out after the story, generously thrusting £5 (How much? - Eugene) petty cash in your hand. Soon you arrive at Puddlecombe, where the mysterious sightings have been made, and the investigation begins. This is a text only adventure, and being a 128K game, there's plenty of it. the events and conversations are described in detail,a nd the location text is often amusing: "Outside your office the traffic speeds past at a crawl, and your lungs fill with fresh carbon monoxide fumes..." Whilst the main challenge of the game is in getting to the bottom of the mystery, even at the outset you have to be methodical in thought and action, in order to be able to reach the scene of the action. If you like a good old fashioned mystery-thriller with plenty of detail, this biggish adventure by Linda Wright should be just up your street.

"Mystery thriller with lots of detail."

Home grown quality.

Your Sinclair

Graphics 7/10

Text 6/10

Value For Money 7/10

Personal Rating 7/10

Overall 7/10

Mike Gerrard 7/10

FAX BOX Title: The Devil's Hand Publisher: Compass Software, [redacted] Price: £2.50 Reviewer: Mike Gerrard After a bit of a wait author Jon Lemmon has completed the final part of his 'Darkside' trilogy, coming after the excellent Demon from the Darkside and The Golden Mask. The professional colour inlay explains the background to the story. The basic idea is that you play the part of Morrack and must 'battle against the dark hordes of evil', meaning you're on a Seek and Destroy mission against that nasty piece of work Draylon... sorry, Drakon, and must destroy his black soul before he can destroy the great Wizzard Zorron. One thing that impressed me about the first two in the series was that, like the inlay, although these are essentially from a one-man software house, the results would put many a professional outfit to shame, no names mentioned. The Quill has been used with The Press text compressor to cram in 30K of text and 14K of graphics: 30 of the 70 locations are illustrated, and these are nicely done but do take a while to draw. Still, there's always the PON/POF feature, to switch pix on and off as you wish. Other options include STORE to save to RAM, STAY/FOLLOW instructions to give to other characters, a VOCAB command to prevent you wasting time trying to find the right words, and a free compass with every adventure! just type in COMPASS and you'll be reminded of the arrow symbols which are used to show the exits. You start next to an old sea wall, and "to the south a large Troll moves swiftly as if he has my scent." Too true he does, as five moves later he pounces and you're deaded! it takes a few experimental moves here to try to work out the best thing to do, but no sooner had I escaped the reaches of the Troll than I was in a circle of black twisted trees where an Orc was waving his weapon at me. Dirty devil. I noticed a deep dark pit. Should I risk it? Okay, down I go (complete with sound effect) to find, yippee, a sword - but before I can pick it up the Orc drops down too and rips my throat out. Rats! These early sudden deaths might have put me off a lesser game but there was always enough interest to keep me plodding on, getting a step closer to a possible solution each time. Another black mark for several spelling mistakes (e.g. 'guidance', 'friendley' and 'embeded'), but a bonus for the good use of sound effects - one was so unexpected that it really made me jump, but I won't spoil the surprise for you. Another nice touch are the graphic symbols used for game objects, and the screen presentation and layout is very well done. There are a couple of potential allies in the adventure, if you treat them right, though don't expect the sophistication of a character in Gnome Ranger or a PAW'd game. I felt The Devil's Hand was far easier than its predecessors, as I progressed through quite steadily clocking up the percentages, but it's well above average for games in this price range and it would be money well spent. I'm now hoping for a fourth game in this trilogy!

Read it at Your Sinclair Rock'n'Roll Years

Crash

Overall 72%

Kati Hamza 72%

ADVENTURE TRAIL WITH SAMARA Ahh, it's that time of year again and I really feel nostalgic for home... Tinsell'll be hanging from the pyramids now, and little multicoloured fairy lights draped over the camels' humps. Everyone's probably arguing over whether we'll have a sandstorm on Christmas Day - I hope so, even if I won't be there (sniff), I love a yellow Christmas! But what a strange place Crash Towers is during the Christmas season. Here the roof is covered in a blanket of that odd white stuff which accompanies the festive period... dandruff, I think it's called. Oh well, on these chilly nights what better way to warm yourself than by sitting beside the fireplace, a snake coiled in your lap while you ponder over an adventure or two. No doubt the big software companies have plans for what you'll want under the Christmas tree, but until they've got some finished games for us to review, how about some homegrown games? This month's offerings are all based on sinister themes, so brace yourself for some spine-tingling chills and read on brave adventurer, read on... THE DEVIL'S HAND Compass Software £2.50 This is the sequel to both Demon From The Darkside (84%, Issue 35) and The Golden Mask (74%, Issue 41), and is the third and final part of The Demon Trilogy. Like its predecessors it was written using the now ancient Quill with The Illustrator and Press data compressor (all produced by Gilsoft). Thus its presentation is very similar to those two previous adventures, with plenty of colourful, well-drawn pictures to add to the atmosphere. The ominous plot sounds familiar - an evil demon called Drakon has escaped from the hero, Morrack, and disappeared into the mystical lands of Gorgon. There, he has amassed hordes of ores, ready to lay siege to the tower of the powerful Wizard Zorron. If he succeeds he will wield enough magical power to control the universe. Your task, as Morrack, is to track down this vile villain and destroy him. Your quest begins near a sea wall, around which a large troll lurks. The lumbering oaf is after your blood, after having smelt your scent (Chanel No 5 perhaps?). This immediate problem is fairly difficult to overcome and can only really be solved by trial and error, as there is no logical solution. Plus the fact that you only have a handful of turns to play with, before the terrible troll rips your throat out (urgh!). Once this irritation is conquered, the first of several characters is encountered - Gruff The Dwarf, a helpful little soul, is only too ready to bravely aid you in your hazardous venture. And hazardous it certainly is, with plenty of enemies and other perils ready to drain your life away at the slightest mistake. Thankfully, a STORE (in RAM) facility allows you to experiment without perennially having to worry about getting killed. Swimming to a distant island you meet the first of many orcs (they're everywhere nowadays - ED). This one is rather more difficult to vanquish than most, as he cannot be defeated by FIGHT or KILL ORC. Instead a more obscure method must be used - a clue to this is given by the location description. Numerous objects can be collected, each being accompanied by a small picture - a nice touch. However, only seven items may be carried simultaneously, causing much dilemma as to what to leave behind - some of the objects are just useless red herrings. The uses for some articles are also very obscure, such as that of the charcoal. Vocabulary is understandably limited mostly to standard Quill commands, although typing VOCAB reveals some extra ones, including FOLLOW and STAY which are used to control the actions of your colleagues. Another interesting command is COMPASS (the name of the game producer, of course) which replaces the normal compass letters with arrows. The appearance is smartened by a stylish and legible, redefined character set. All location descriptions are accompanied by a small picture of the Devil's hand itself - a human hand making a shadowy image of the devil (this replaces the mask symbol used in the same way in The Golden Mask). With The Quill being such an old utility and having been surpassed by the PAW (also from Gilsoft) it is now rarely used, even for home-grown adventures. So seeing it successfully used here is a reminder that only the imagination and skill of the author can create an absorbing adventure. Author Jonathan Lemmon says he stayed with The Quill to maintain the style of the two previous games. Adventure-writing utilities are only tools with which to work and do not ensure good adventures, no matter how many features they offer. Nevertheless, the newer utilities allow a greater degree of freedom to express new concepts, such as character interaction, and Jonathan Lemmon says that this is his last Quilled adventure - he's moving onto the PAW. Yet more evidence of the sensible attitudes of Mr Lemmon is shown by his use of pictures, which can often serve only to detract from the atmosphere created by the text. This is certainly not the case with The Devil's Hand and the well-drawn, colourful pictures enhance the enjoyment of this competent little adventure. If you feel like battling against evil, The Devil's Hand can be obtained by sending £2.50 to Compass Software, [redacted].