Hampstead

Sinclair User

Why is a pure text adventure, written on the Quill, neither large nor complex, included in the classics of the last 12 months? Hampstead is an extremely entertaining romp through the pretensions and social graces of the upper middle class. Armed only with a track suit and UB40, you aim to achieve the unobtainable and indefinable nirvana of NW3. Oxfam shops, industrial art, old school ties, jobs in merchant banking - all are steps up the social ladder and your success in climbing them relies on your ability to share the warped and satirical humour of the authors. Great fun.

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 8/10

Richard Price 8/10

ESCAPE FROM THE MODERN WORLD Richard Price look at some contemporary adventures. When you are on the hunt for a new adventure what is it you are looking for? You will naturally expect the game to have playability - that combination of technical factors most of us take for granted when we buy commercial programs. You have a right to demand a decent vocabulary, good response time and a flexible interpreter which comes across with some sort of personality during play. You will assume the writers have devised carefully designed puzzles set into a coherent structure. Those are the requirements of any good game but it is fair to say that an adventure's success and the satisfaction it gives you will be decided mainly by the quality of its plot and the atmosphere it generates. All of us want an escape into other worlds at times to savour the pleasure of being someone or somewhere else. That fantasy is the core of the appeal of computer adventure. Fantasy, though, is fragile and, whether you prefer herioc, modern or futuristic scenarios, the setting you make your journey in must hold your belief right to the end. Quite often people will say that fantasy works by suspending your disbelief. Tolkein himself did not think that was a convincing explanation of the way the mind handles fantasy. In Tree and Leaf, his short work about fairy stories, he put forward the idea that the writer - or games designer in our case - creates a 'secondary' world which your mind can enter. Once inside it you believe the general setting, the characters and action are true - meaning that they all obey the proper laws of their own world. The spell held over you may well be broken by some jarring intrusion from the real world or simply because the characters behave in a way that is out of kilter with the logic of their surroundings. Far too many programs feature plots which, for instance, ask you to rescue a princess, find the scattered bits of some talisman or simply slash your way through a monster-infested cave riddled with rising damp and littered with treasures which no sorcerer in his right mind would leave lying around. You may not be too happy to be regularly cast as a Conan-clone whose fist is bigger than his brain. That must be desperately aggravating for female adventurers who are expected to undergo a mental sex-change before powering up their Spectrums. If software companies are going to survive then they had better start looking for games which will appeal to a much wider public than is currently the case. To be fair, there is a growing variety of styles and plots in the adventure genre but games that use real story lines are still pretty thin on the ground. The concept of bookware, though, seems to be taking off. Creating computer implementations of successful stories has some obvious advantages as the books have already proved that their 'secondary' worlds can hold people's attention and imagination. It still does not mean that the program will necessarily match up to the excitement or invention of the original but if the programmers are sensitive about the adaptation there is a chance of a good fit. Of course, the memory size of home micros also imposes rigid boundaries and limitations. If you are an amateur programmer searching for a theme there is nothing to stop you turning your favourite pulp fiction into an adventure for home consumption. If you are bored with magic and monsters history can provide equally exciting themes. Your heroine or hero could attempt to infiltrate the lair of the Old Man of the Mountains, the original master of the feared Assassins at the time of the Crusades. Deserts, strange nomads, wild mountains and grim fortresses guarded by fanatical killers all have their place in this adventure. There are some programs which meet all or most of the criteria for successful secondary worlds and yet mirror the preoccupations and paranoias of our own times. They reflect different angles of life and often carry some sharp social comment. Urban Upstart from Richard Shepherd Software depicts the grim emptiness of inner-city life. Imagine any decaying ex-industrial town in Britain and you will have an idea of what it is like to live in Scarthorpe. No jobs, no money, nothing to do. No one will wander the streets. Thuggish skinheads and paranoid police rule here. You must comb the town and find the means to escape. Your own character is pretty suspect and not above theft and fraud to raise much-needed cash. The mean streets are depicted in location graphics but the format is traditional text adventure and tricky at that. The game may not seem like escapism and it is not difficult to recognise parallels with Cut Throat Alley or Grime Street. Definitely a slice of social realism with a gritty, dangerous, feel to it, though not without flashes of humour. If you are one of those gamesters who thinks adventures written on the Quill cannot match the real thing then Hampstead could provide a cure for your scepticism. The technical presentation may be defined by the utility but the subject matter and approach is new and genuinely funny. There you are, stuck in your nasty smelly flat somewhere in the wilderness of north-west London, parked in front of 3-2-1 on the telly. The only way is up - so you think - and you nip out in search of the dole office to get your giro. Outside the back yard, gleaming in the sunlight, is a sign pointing to Hampstead. Nothing can stop you now, so you cross your personal Jordan and pedal towards the Promised Land only to find you cannot attain Hampstead simply by going there. You will have to change your style and your gear, read the right books and do the right things with the right people. Not being totally stupid you will lie, cheat, even steal to get to this Nirvana of NW10 but you must avoid violence at all costs. The game is not merely about finding the right objects - it is also about attitudes as you must work out ways of making the correct deals. The answers are devious. This is good situation comedy from Melbourne House and the game is attractively presented with a hilarious handbook. It is arguably one of the best Quilled adventures to date. From this comfortable tweedy fantasy we descend into a shifting, threatening underworld of conspiracy, espionage and fear. A series of audio messages are recorded on your answering machine. Their growing urgency and the sound of a final shot leave you in no doubt - Valkyrie 17 is active again, a cell of neo-Nazis whose deadly tentacles stretch around the world. Thanks to the dying gasps of your agent you know their ruthless leader is holed up in an exclusive Austrian skiing resort at the Glitz Hotel. Your job is to seek him out and neutralise him. Take care; one foolish move and you will find yourself face down in the snow rapidly becoming a member of the great majority. The level of paranoia is pumped up by ringing phones which, if answered, threaten you and make it clear that your cover is already broken. Everything a good thriller needs is here - locked safes, half-overheard conversations, blood on the crisp snow of the piste. Valkyrie 17 is produced by the Ram Jam Corporation, a new outfit, and features detailed atmospheric descriptions. The location graphics are interactive and will change to show the results of significant actions. No help is given and you are absolutely on your own in a race against danger. Isolation and danger are also the major themes of System 15000 from AVS. This is no standard text adventure but it is definitely one of the most gripping and compulsive Spectrum games so far. A brief note informs you that Comdata Company has been ripped off for a cool million or more bucks in a computerised bank fraud. Lurking behind the heist are the mob, ominous and menacing. Your single lead is one phone number. On loading you will find only the user screen of the 15000 network and the basic instructions on how to operate it. From that beginning you must penetrate the files of the other computers which use the net to uncover the twisting threads of the plot. The giant mainframes of the international banks are well protected against intruders and police data protection squads will shut the system down temporarily once they get a sniff of what you are up to. Stay cool and keep dialling - piece by piece you will edge your way towards the truth and attempt to restore the Comdata lost millions. Your only input routines are phone numbers and an occasional cryptic note on the message board. There is no need to take on any role - this is you against the network in the here and now, deep in the loneliness of the long-distance hacker. After hours of tracing leads you will find yourself cheering in triumph as you enter the files of the Reserve Manhattan Bank with its glittering stars and stipes logo or you will curse in frustration as yet another faceless machine informs you that your data is bad. You will begin to sense the network as very real, a vast jigsaw of numers, names and details. System 15000 is utterly absorbing and compelling and recalls the atmosphere of the BBC series Bird of Prey. Absolutely recommended.

Sinclair Programs

Addiction Factor 9/10

June Mortimer 9/10

Hampstead has a totally unreasonable grip. If I find my feet aching during the day this is automatically put down to my having wandered all round Piccadilly Circus last night. It takes a conscious effort to recall that I was in fact doing nothing more arduous than typing. In my usual daze, I got up to sign on and was struck by the desire to succeed for a change. I resolved to claw my way up the social ladder, from a tacky two-up two-down in what estate agents manage to call West Hampstead, and attain Hampstead - res veritas. Mind you , I suppose I could always settle for Richmond instead, take a trip to Waterloo, and thence by bus to a round of wine bars and bistros, or take the train to Kings Cross for the trip of a lifetime! After about fifty dismal failures (and a few intriguing ones) I have managed to take a job with a company car with which I can get to Islington, St John's Wood, dear old West Hampstead, or go up the M1 to Cambridge. I have still not attained Hampstead, but at least they no longer throw me out of my club. Do not go naked into the industrial estate - maybe there is no ball or string, but it is still useful to remember Theseus. Everybody gets lost in places like this - they can be mapped provided you are not too committed to Euclidean geometry. The gentleman on the train - you know the one if you have been to Waterloo - IS important. If you want to impress him you have to brave the estate, where you find a really tempting item for an art critic. The decisions you make in your job are crucial. They can earn you a bonus but even THAT does not impress Pippa, another social climber. A pity the key to your filing cabinet has been lost - maybe a visit to the shops is needed. DO make a saved copy of the earlier parts of the game. Once you have investigated that thoroughly it swiftly becomes a bit of a bore getting to where you REALLY want to be. Early in the first evening I made 28% - by settling down elsewhere - but remained stuck at 38%, with Hampstead remaining a tantalising and unattainable glow on the horizon, until late last night and early this morning when, in a group effort, we made 85%. The game was developed using the Quill interpreter, but then re-written entirely. Strangely enough, it does not so much demonstrate how much one can improve Quill adventures, as how much can be done within them, since at times it almost seems like a graphic game. As if the game itself were not enough, the SCREEN$ when loading is one of the best I've ever seen.

Your Spectrum

David Nicholls

Peter Shaw

SPECTRUM ADVENTURES Avid adventure fanatics Peter Shaw and Dave Nicholls get to grips with Eureka, Hampstead and Peter Pan. And if you're lost or just plain suicidal in adventure-land, phone for the YS Adventure Helpline... HAMPSTEAD Melbourne House £9.95 If you've extricated yourself from the magical grasp of Dieslowly the Wizard and beaten Bashenchopen the Troll black and blue and you're still driving around in a clapped-out Mark 1 Cortina and drinking pints of best down at the local, then Hampstead is the game for you. You start off in your disgusting flat in north-west London watching '1-2-3' on TV (presumably you couldn't get any lower than that!). Having decided that life surely has more to offer, you begin to progress up the social scale - until you have satisfied all the requirements necessary to attain 'Hampstead'. The idea is that you'll be able to pass into said borough and be accepted by the other inmates. Requirements, of course, include such material possessions as a big car and house... and you also need a good job, a nice wife (sexist devils!), and naturally you have to be seen in the right places wearing the right clothes. The adventure comes in the now almost mandatory large plastic box that includes a 16-page booklet containing much of the background information that's necessary for social climbing. Most of the puzzles are thoroughly logical (there's no using a toilet roll to open the large stone portcullis here!), and the few that aren't will be explained somewhere; exploring is very worthwhile. In fact, the problems are nicely graduated and the further you get, the harder it becomes to progress; the puzzles are also quite linear and each section has to be solved before social aspiration can begin anew for the next. (For instance, you'll get nowhere without your dole money!). All in all, Hampstead is an excellent adventure and a refreshing change from the usual dungeons-type affair... it makes a worthy addition to any collection.

You'll have to progress from shandies to champers in Melbourne House's social climbing Hampstead

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Keith Campbell

GETTING TO THE TOP The object of Hampstead is to climb to the top of the social ladder. One must attain Hampstead, not merely go there, for in this Adventure, Hampstead is a state, representing the epitome of success. To reach this pinncale, of course, it is necessary to lie, cheat and defraud, as in real life. But beware, money isn't the only thing - one must be seen to be doing the right things. It is no good, for example, being a Sun reader, if you hope to become a Hampstead Man! I had a horrible feeling that here was an Adventure in which I would totally fail, never having been known for my diplomacy and tact, not to put too fine a point on it! I mean - would I be writing for C&VG if I had attained Hampstead? Of course not. I wouldn't even be reading it, let alone wearing the T-shirt! There's plenty of humour in Hampstead and it's my type, ie rather sick - a cracked washbasin containing the remains of last night's Vindaloo and Chips, and an old banana and cod sandwich which, when eaten, caused the computer to reply "UGH! No ketchup!" Hampstead, says the accompanying booklet, was developed using the Quill. That implies it is not an actual Quill program. Nevertheless, it has all the hallmarks of one. The booklet is quite hilarious in its own right and I particularly liked the narrative under a photo of some mews cottages describing them as "violently twee". The credits say that the authors run a private college, teaching deportment, conversation and art appreciation. Don't believe a word of it! But the thick wad of £5 notes mentioned just might come true for them! Hampstead is for the 48K Spectrum, from Melbourne House, priced £9.95.

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 8/10

Joanna Pegum 8/10

A DREAM COME TRUE IN NW3 Memory: 48K Price: £9.95 Hampstead is, well, Afghans and jogging and all sorts of things. And Hampstead Man is, well, Jeremy - off to the city, playing squash, and taking Annabel and Toby out for a crepe. If you have ever wondered how Hampstead Man got there, you should try some software written by and for social climbers. Hampstead is not, after all, just a place - it's a way of life. And believe it or not, Hampstead Man may come from the humblest of origins. To get to Hampstead with nothing but a UB40 and a tracksuit you have to know the form - what to wear, what to say, which newspaper, which muesli - and you may have to lie, cheat and steal to get there. Collect the Wykehamist tie, passport to clubland and merchant banking and extract Art from an industrial labyrinth. Head off for Cambridge and Richmond - but be careful. Seek out Pippa, and then get round her father. Only when you have done all that are you ready for Hampstead. Hampstead is a text-only adventure, written on the Quill. Using an all-purpose program limits the scope of the game, and Melbourne House, which produced The Hobbit, could have done better. A more serious irritation is a racist bias. Was it really necessary to have a grinning Pakistani in a north London Post Office, a 'foreign' voice on the station tannoy and middle eastern races selling hamburgers? Despite its flaws you are sure to find Hampstead an entertaining romp up the social ladder.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Personal Computer News

Mike Gerrard

RULING CLASS Mike Gerrard tries his hand at a little social climbing but finds he prefers to stick to battling ghosts, rather than trying to meet the right people and wear the right clothes. Anyone can write an adventure these days, or rather anyone has the means to write an adventure. Whether they also have the necessary imagination and determination is another matter. The range of material that is possible can be illustrated by three adventures all written with a little help - two using Gilsoft's The Quill and one with the aid of a book, Exploring Adventures on the Commodore 64 by Peter Gerrard... a name I seem to have seen before somewhere. Pride of place belongs to Hampstead from Melbourne House (£9.95 for 48K Spectrum version, Commodore 64 due soon), if only because there will be numerous glossy colour adverts for it. I you had any doubts about The Quill's usefulness, when Hampstead's authors finished the game using Gilsoft's utility, about half a dozen software houses were all ready to bid for it, and the authors had the luxury of choosing which company should publish their adventure. The reason for that interest is that Hampstead is different - possibly too different for most adventurers. Whether you like it or not depends entirely on your sense of humour, as it's an adventure about the pretensions of social climbing. From your smelly council flat, you aspire to the dizzy heights of Hampstead, that prestigious address in London NW3. Your first task (apart from switching off the TV which is showing 3-2-1, a wise move) is to find your UB40 so you can claim some dole money. The booklet that comes with the game explains what 'on the dole' means for those who may have already attained Hampstead and therefore do not understand such terms. Note that you must attain Hampstead, and not merely get there. After all, finding the location is easy enough, as anyone can get there on the tube or even on a bike (and you won't go anywhere without your bike clips). But to attain Hampstead you must meet the right people, do the right things, wear the right clothes, and of course have pots of money. If you go to Hampstead without the trappings, you're given a percentage score and must start again, or resume a saved game. The first few tasks are too difficult, and bear more than a passing resemblance to Urban Upstart (muggings, indecent exposure, dingy streets). But then they get harder and it's the kind of adventure where you can reach a place and only then discover you should have brought a particular object with you, rather than the one that initially seemed more useful... though what use a banana and cod sandwich is to anyone, I don't know. There's the obligatory maze, an industrial estate, which I've managed to get into, but am as yet unable to save despite trying to mark my place with bike clips, and banana and cod sandwiches. The humour raised a smile or two, though never exactly had me rolling on the floor, and it's hard to see Hampstead taking off with the majority of adventurers who want to kill at least 16 dragons before their lamp goes out. Denis Through The Drinking Glass was another attempt to do something different (again using The Quill), and although it was a personal favourite of mine it could have sold better. Perhaps Hampstead will be the exception, with the weight of Melbourne House behind it. At the opposite end of the spectrum, so to speak, is Buffer Adventure, another The Quill adventure set in the The Buffer Shop in Streatham, a Sinclair specialist. Once in the shop, your aim is simply to get out again, and to do this you must travel through the various departments and deal with the shop staff. Fine as an in-joke, and the kind of thing that uses The Quill quite well, but the terrible jokes and comments about the staff hardly recommend it to someone looking for a challenging adventure. More in the traditional style is Mountain Palace Adventure by John Ryan for the Commodore 64 (£7.95, Ducksoft). It's hard to recommend a book written by your own brother without being accused of favouritism, but its effectiveness is illustrated by the fact that John Ryan hadn't even seen a home computer 12 months ago, and simply by following the techniques from one book he now has his first adventure published, with a second on the way. You can tell from the title that we're back in familiar adventure territory, as the program itself acknowledges: 'Another tale of danger, excitement and greed.' You must infiltrate the Palace to nab all the treasure you can, and store it somewhere safe. Though it draws rather heavily on Colossal Cave Adventure (a headless ghost continually throws an axe at you, and a thief takes your treasure to deposit it in a maze) there's nevertheless enough originality in the writing to recommend it. EAT GHOST produces an interesting response, and as you wander the cloisters and corridors you must deal with a blacksmith, a watchdog, piles of rubble blocking the way, a maze of mystical chambers, a pit to cross, a dragon and our old favourite the lamp and tinderbox. There are a few irritating bugs. You can find a shovel, but if you dig in the wrong place you get a variety of responses such as WHAT'S A ROD? or WHAT'S A N? In one place where there's Magic Dust, GET DUST produces WHAT'S A DUST? None of these are fatal bugs, however, unlike some programs where they cause it to crash, and if you're looking for an old-fashioned adventure with doors to find and guards to bribe, you could do worse than Mountain Palace Adventure. Three very different end results, then, from using other people's programming knowledge, but make no mistake about the amount of effort involved in writing an adventure. Having written one myself using The Quill, I know it takes time, but once mastered it is a joy to work with. Using a book takes even longer, because you're learning programming techniques, not just how to find your way round The Quill. Whichever you choose, there's no excuse for not producing the goods if you feel you have an adventure inside you. Just don't ask me to solve them all...

The ubiquitous torch and tinderbox in Mountain Palace Adventure.

To attain Hampstead you must start at the bottom of the social ladder.

Micro Adventurer

Julie Lewis

HAMPSTEAD MICRO: Spectrum 48K PRICE: £9.95 FORMAT: Cassette SUPPLIER: Melbourne House If you've ever had cause to wonder why the dustbins of Hampstead have no lids, you're sure to get immense pleasure from playing Hampstead. Described by Melbourne House as "a new type of adventure game", it certainly is different. The authors, Trevor Lever and Peter Jones, seem to take a perverse delight in running down social climbers, which is exactly what you will become if you play the game! The purpose of the game is to attain 'Hampstead', which basically means living in the 'right' house, with the 'right' partner (BOO here to Melbourne House for insisting that I, a female, search for a wife), wearing the 'right' clothes, using the 'right' mode of transport, and being seen in the 'right' places. You must also be prepared to teach your children Esperanto and nail snow-shoes to the walls of your loo (well, every little bit supposedly helps), and if your name is Dave or Tracey you may have to change it to Tarquin or Pippa if you wish to be accepted into the Hampstead elite. The program was written with the Quill, which you either love or hate, and is text only. In my opinion, some of the locations and situations cry out for graphic interpretation the loading page has an excellent one, depicting the same picture which appears on the box, and it is a little disappointing to be faced with the boring blue screen and red objects common to Quill-originated programmes once the game has loaded. For this reason, I think the game is perhaps a little over-priced, although the sense of humour (this really is a funny game) probably makes up for it. Should you become irretrievably stuck, you can send for a hint-sheet. However, beware! In sending for this you forfeit for evermore your chance of earning the diploma in social climbing which your lounge wall wouldn't be complete without. You begin the adventure in your dingy council flat in seedy N.W. London (careful, I lived there once!), apparently watching 3-2-1 on television. As the game commences on a Thursday, I don't quite see how this is possible, because 3-2-1 is only shown on Saturdays (OK, I admit it, I watch it, maybe that's why I haven't succeeded yet!). Anyway, you are told that this is a depressing, degrading position to be in, but when you try to TURN TV off, you can't! You aren't able to WATCH TV either, even though the verb is in the vocabulary list. This, incidentally, includes such words as ABSTAIN, KISS, MARRY, QUEUE and TRANSLATE, a pleasant change from the usual commands. You are also warned that certain words are not acceptable in Hampstead, but not what those words are. However, as this comes under the heading of Bad Language, I daresay you can guess. Your first task is to find yourself a job, and to do this you can (surprise, surprise) visit the Job Centre, but don't expect any miracles there. A visit to the kitchen will provide nourishment to set you on your journey (it's worth buying the game to discover what this is). When I first loaded my copy (on side one) it seemed to be full of bugs. My bedroom walls were painted cickly orange, and mushrooms sprouted throegh the floorboards, there was a rusbin y key in the kitchen and when, unable to escape from that room, on typing FIND DOOR I was told verify ind it yourself! The HELP routine elicited the reply that my intercom was warbling and Sir Lionel wanted to see me in his office (a likely story considering my lowly status). On re-loading on the other side, all these mysterious factors disappeared my bedroom appeared normal, the key became a small rusty one, and I discovered that there is no HELP facility, apart from advice to phone the Samaritans, which becomes monotonous after a while, seeing as I don't seem to possess a telephone! Since then I haven't been able to load side one at all. Anyway, once I did escape the filthy kitchen, I managed to get myself mugged almost immediately by a gang of marauding thugs after my giro-cheque, and on the next attempt I was terrorised by soccer hooligans armed with fire extinguishers. Luckily, by then I had already read the interesting article by Justin Perrier in Arts & Antiques magazine (no, it doesn't help, but I'm glad I read it before I kicked the bucket). Eventually, I found my way to Oxford Street, via rail and bus (atmosphere is provided by having to wait for them to arrive, although they seem too regular to be convincing!). Once in the West End, I discovered the ways of acquiring at least two of the 'right' things, but not the means. So far I've acquired nothing that will get me into Hampstead, even though I have scored 43%. Incidentally, did you know that 24% of Hampstead folk (Hampsteadonians?) die as a result of choking on muesli? To find out what a further 11% die of, you'll have to buy the game!

Sinclair Programs

June Mortimer

AS THE CHRISTMAS SOFTWARE GOES ON SALE SPECTRUM OWNERS ARE SPOILED FOR CHOICE. Hampstead from Melbourne House. What a disappointment. The game arrives in stylish packaging, complete with a pair of languorous Afghan hounds on the cover. The accompanying booklet is excellent, well-illustrated, and full of hints, tips and jokes. The aim of the game is novel, to social climb until you have reached the pinnacle and attained Hampstead. A brilliant start. However, when the game is loaded the screen clears and a limited, text-only adventure appears on the screen. The screen display is unexciting, the game was obviously developed using The Quill without using it to its full advantage. Granted, the problems you encounter are unusual. How many other games require you to cash a giro, cope with unemployment and watch "3,2,1" on television? However, once you have encountered an amusing scenario once, you know the joke. It is unamusing the first time you return, and stale subsequently. The aim of the game is also a little dubious. The morality of many fantasy adventures may be appalling, but it is obscured by distance. You can kill your seventeenth peasant and twentieth dragon without any pangs of conscience, without feeling that this is what you would do if that peasant were set down before you in the middle of the High Street. Action in the inner city is closer to home, and inspires you to act in a normal fashion. If you do not usually use lies and deceit to survive, it is irritating to be forced to do so. If you usually enjoy "3,2,1" it is annoying to be placed at the bottom of the social ladder for doing so. Using "real" situations in an adventure is dangerous, for it encourages the player to act normally and to employ realistic rather than fantastic values. There is a possibility that women will not question playing the hero or a knight, but they will certainly wonder what is happening if they are presented with a real-life situation, shown a woman and expected to treat her as merely a stepping stone to success. It would be easier to be pleasant about this program if Melbourne House had treated it as a mediocre game. Instead, they have built it up to be something it is not, and priced it at £9.95. Original in concept, but way over-priced, Hampstead is produced by Melbourne House, [redacted].

Crash

Atmosphere 8/10

Vocabulary 8/10

Logic 7/10

Debugging 10/10

Overall Value 7/10

Derek Brewster 7/10

DEREK BREWSTER'S ADVENTURE TRAIL BACK TO BASICS There has been for some time a body of opinion which puts forward the view that machine code is superior to Basic, per se. Arcade games, where speed is the deciding factor, may well lend themselves to this argument but some strategy, and all adventure games can be better served by some Basic routines. The reason for this apparent anomaly is clear to anyone who has taken the time and effort needed to master machine code. Although machine code is ideally more malleable in any given situation, coding in reality proves to be certainly slower and often less flexible, and crucially, the program is less easily altered. After playing and reviewing many adventures this contradiction has made itself plain. The complexities of machine code lead to stilted adventures unless the author allows much development time. The economic vagaries of the games market alas, would make it far more worthwhile for such a successful author to produce two or even three arcade games in such a space of time with the certainty of a far higher income. The Quill, as is often plaudited on cassette inlays results in an all machine code program but the structure of each Quilled game is necessarily the same. What is less apparent is the use of similar devices by other software houses in order to reduce the development time of adventures. Herein lies the paradox. Even though machine code should be the more flexible, due to its time-consuming coding it is rarely so in effect and it would seem the case that it is the adventure which makes some use of Basic which shows the originality both in display, theme and plot. So the next time you examine a cassette inlay don't fall into the trap of making judgements based upon the divisive argument - Basic vs. machine code. Where the documentation tells of an all machine-coded program this in itself gives no indication of the quality of the game as an adventure. Basic is devalued by its simplicity and it familiarity but adventure is a more sophisticated market than arcade since at a time when the Spectrum has been pushed to its limits, imagination, theme and plot are now the decisive factors. HAMPSTEAD Producer: Melbourne House Retail Price: £9.95 Author: T. Lever, P. Jones As you are now probably aware I do not live in Hampstead. You have searched every bistro and boutique but to no avail. Although Adventure Trail appeals to the AB group (top socio-economic assemblage in the epi-fauna) I have not succumbed to embarrassed recognition in high society but instead stand unaffected in the cool northern rain waiting for the occasional omnibus and knowing only too well that here it's all about where you bought your flat cap and how deep is the froth on your beer. For more ostentatious affectations one must move south. You set off as a nobody somewhere in north-west London (i.e., nowhere) watching an undemanding, insubstantial, feeble-minded, spontaneously exciting, light entertainment show, 3-2-1! On the dole with no money and the corollary, no friends, you sit in your dingy council flat torn between viewing the non-stop entertainment on TV or following the clouds of smoke from your window as they belch toward you from the local power station. You can look forward to a life of lying, cheating, stealing and defrauding as you scheme your way to Hampstead but for now you must busy yourself with the task of finding that UB40 card. Should you, in real life, be Hampsteaded, or simply exist in nonplussed brain death in Surbiton, the booklet gives exact details concerning the card's use and the elaborate etiquette that surrounds it, such as, queue orderly and don't sleep throught the part where your name is called. The problem is you must attain Hampstead but think it unlikely you'll find many friends in Hampstead dole office. Indeed, subsequent research proves this line of reasoning correct. Denizens of Hampstead fill their time with occupations that have them cast as critics, playwrights, architects and designers, actors and academians, some of whom, like yourself at the start of this adventure, were nobodies living nowhere. To go up in the world you try to gain the admiration and respect of your fellow man, and there's more to it than a fat bank balance. In Hampstead it helps to give the impression you know something of art and to be seen in the right places, with the right people and wearing the right clothes. Be careful not to be flamboyant - it's unseemly to be seen as a social climber in Hampstead so you had better settle there only when you have everything you need. It helps to know something of London even if it's just the sites found on a monopoly board. You choose your route from the following: St. John's Wood, Richmond, West End, Covent Garden, Waterloo, The City, King's Cross and Cambridge. This isn't as easy as it looks as a pleasant suburb may provide such comfort that it becomes too onerous to leave and you join the ranks of the malcontents who never quite made it. What about the game itself? Much effort (alas not enough) has been expended to conceal its use of The Quill, in the Spectrum version in any case, but the cursor and the distinctive R for Redescribe location are evidence enough to pinpoint the source of the program. Perhaps the changes go beyond the simply cosmetic, but surely if this were the case to any great extent all signatures of The Quill would have been vanquished. Quilled adventures haven't done well in the charts but this game may well prove an exception due to its uniquely funny storyline. The adventure has opulent packaging with a sixteen page booklet and a very attractive casing. It sees itself as suitable for a wide range from beginner to experienced, taking several weeks to complete. The '100% machine code' reflects its Quilled origins. The loading screen depicts the home of Hampstead Man which is over two hundred years old, deep within leafy suburbia surrounded by rows of neatly-clipped hedges. On the colourful sofa lounge a Pair of matching Afghan hounds. As you set off on your quest you would be wise to remember what you've read in the Hampstead Booklet which gives you precise details on just how you might achieve that coveted diploma in social climbing. The help offered includes question and answer sessions. One goes like this. Q: Why do dustbins have no lids in Hampstead? A: In order that passers-by may see the week's completed Guardian crosswords stacked neatly within. The booklet is very entertaining and amusing, if not enlightening for those who know little of London society, but reaches the heart of the matter on page 10; Hampstead - what's the point: 'Everybody wants to feel superior. This feeling takes two forms. Those without money must be content to feel morally superior. Those without morals can financially superior. But only in Hampstead is it possible to attain superiority in both. 'So now you know. It's well worth making a thorough search of the house before you leave; the lack of one item in particular will see your sudden exit from the game. You meet this sudden social death with grudging acceptance struck by the reality that you had underestimated just how peculiar social climbing can be. Careful analysis of your every movement will have you in Hampstead before you can say 'colour supplement' but any disparity will be ruthlessly exposed. Hampstead is the most original adventure theme to appear this year and is accompanied by the wittiest book I've read in quite a while. Spectrum owners might like to note that on this occasion the Commodore 64 has acquired the better deal as its version features graphics. Despite this the Spectrum Hampstead has powerful EXAMINE and SEARCH commands which make the early stages very easy helping the occasional adventurer into what is a very amusing and enjoyable game. Difficulty: Reasonably easy Graphics: None Presentation: Good Response: Very fast Input Facility: Limited verb/noun

Dogs for Nobs in the HAMPSTEAD twin-set and pearls game from Melbourne House.

Personal Computer NewsPCN HIT

Overall 7/10

Sandra Grandison 7/10

PRICE: £7.95 PUBLISHER: Melbourne House [redacted] I thought climbing the social ladder would be a piece of cake - but after playing Hampstead I've had second thoughts. Because you've got to climb up, you naturally have to start at rock bottom. So here I am sitting in the lounge of a smelly council flat in North West London, watching '3-2-1'. To move in a direction, it's a single letter command, so I went East. There I hit the kitchen where there's a pile of dirty plates and take away cartons. Being a house-proud person I decide to 'Wash Plates' (as I thought that this was the kind of thing you'd have to do to attain Hampstead). The response I got was: 'You Can't Do That'. Anyway, I go further East, and there's a backyard with a locked shed and a closed gate. After several attempts I get the gate open and go down a narrow street towards the dole office to get my money. In the distance is the sign post to Hampstead. But alas, I've forgotten to get dressed and get nabbed for indecent exposure. Then I'm told I'll never attain Hampstead with a criminal record. Next time round I explore more of the flat where I come across live fungi on the bedroom walls and the remains of last night's vindaloo and chips in the bathroom. I can't imagine why this distasteful description should add to the game - it just made me feel sick. In the bedroom I find a tracksuit and work my way back to the gate, to once again tread the short and narrow path to Hampstead. But my luck ran out when I got mugged by a gang of thugs. Oh, well, Hampstead was just never meant for me. This is quite a good game in terms of a challenge. There's no graphics to add to the text - on second thoughts, I don't think I'd like to see the remains of chicken vindaloo. But the documentation is well done, setting the scene and giving a few hints.