The Helm

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Personal Rating 5/10

Keith Campbell 5/10

The Helm is another Spectrum game written using the Quill and is text only. The object is to find and restore the sacred and powerful Helm of Immortality, currently held by the evil Lich. I groaned inwardly as I read about the plot - about as original as a sandwich in a lunch box. The Adventure lived up to my expectations in terms of its plot and problems - nothing special, as they say. Locked chest in first location. Solution - open chest with key I am carrying. Get knife since it's sure to be needed elsewhere. Come across unclimbable rope hanging from tree. Solution - cut rope with knife. To be fair, they do get more difficult, but seem rather mundane. What does make the game different, though, is the style of text. Instead of saying "I see..." followed by a list of objects present, the narrative goes: "Upon further careful opticular contemplation of the immediate surrounding environment, I find the following" and then the list. Unusual the first time round, maddening by the tenth. But it doesn't end there! Should you type a command that the program doesn't understand, such as "Move rubble" at the blocked mountain pass, you will receive the following message: "Unfortunately your subhuman linguistical attempts at simple communication are beyond me. Try conversing in the Queen's English." A message that strong is a dangerous thing to put in any Adventure with a vocabulary any smaller than the standard set by Infocom. Best to play safe, on the basis that the programmer is more likely to have made an error of omission in the vocab., than the player a typing or spelling error. Overall, the game performed well, but didn't hold my interest for very long and the attempts at humour wore thin very quickly. What I did like was the squelchy sound every time I pressed a key. Just what I thought a Spectrum keyboard should sound like! The Helm is for 48k Spectrum from Firebird Software.

ZX Computing

Firebird, the BT company who made such an impact with their first collection of SW have added to their range with the introduction of seven new programs in their Silver, £2.50, series. THE HELM is another adventure but this time text only. This program found a place in my heart for the lovely tongue in cheek approach which it adopts. Humour is a matter of preference but I found myself playing over and over again to discover what other comments the programmer had included. Nice one Simon Jay, highly recommended!

Sinclair User

Overall 4/5

Richard Price 4/5

Publisher: Firebird Memory: 48K Price: £2.50 The Helm confers immortality on its wearers. The current owner is the local, evil Lich but he does not have all the pieces of the sacred headgear. Without all the bits he cannot become an eternal Lich so it is up to you to find the remaining disguised portions and enter the wicked one's castle. There you can steal the final piece. The Lich will not take kindly to this. The game is text only and composed in medieval script which is occasionally difficult to read. The interpreter's responses are servile and sometimes long-winded - instead of 'What next?' you get 'What would you have me do next, Your Brillianceness?'. The text scrolls up the screen in different colours and has a startling kaleidoscopic effect. Despite that the descriptions and general information are quite full and there is a fine tongue-in-cheek approach to the business of magical adventure. There is a wide range of deduction problems ranging from the traditional crossing of the ravine to defeating a mesmerising Psyak - which manifests itself as a ball of light. As far as I am concerned, Firebird can carry on bringing out programs like these. They both show that text adventures can be fun without having to be self-important in attitude.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Graphics 7/10

Sound 6/10

Value 8/10

Playability 7/10

MACHINE: Spectrum SUPPLIER: Firebird PRICE: £2.50 Have you the cunning, power and knowledge to crack the dark one's lair and discover the Helm of Immortality? Find this fabled object and wrest it from the grasp of Lich and you will win the gift of immortality. The Helm is an adventure text game in which you have to solve puzzles and perform certain tasks to solve this entertaining riddle. You may need a long life - if not immortality - to solve this.

THE PRICE IS RIGHT Buying computer games can be an expensive business. Some can cost anything up to £14. To buy all the latest titles as they come onto the market would cost a small fortune. And that's beyond the pocket of most people. So it's no wonder that software companies have started producing a range of games costing no more than a couple of pounds. Unfortunately, besides being cheap, some were very nasty and a waste of money. It seemed far better to save up and buy a top price game. But such is the potential of the market that the quality of the games has improved while the prices have been kept low. So Computer & Video Games thought it would be worthwhile to take a look at some of the current budget games on the market from software houses. Firebird, British Telecom's software company, is now in the process of updating its Silver catalogue which was launched in October 1984 with great success, with all the games selling for £2.50. Star of the original 20 titles was undoubtedly Booty on the Spectrum 48k and Commodore 64 which, claims Firebird, has sales now in excess of 100,000. It's now being converted to the Amstrad and should be available by late summer. In Booty, Jim the cabin boy faces death by drowning or at the hands of the Ghost Pirate as he searches through the hold of the Black Galleon in search of treasure. Another favourite is Gogo the Ghost on the Commodore 64 which has, believe it or not, 150 frames of haunted happenings. New games shortly to be introduced into the Silver range are Microcosm for the BBC B, Subsunk for the Commodore 64 and Don't Panic for the 16k and 48k Spectrum. Mastertronic, formed in April 1984, now claims to be the brand leader in budget games - its extensive range sells for just £1.99 each. In its first 12 months of trading, Mastertronic says it has audited figures of sales for two million games. New developments for 1985 in the £1.99 range include two semi-educational games in its Mistertronic titles - Make Music with Mistertronic and Type Rope - aimed at the six to 11 age range. Earlier this year, Atlantis Software launched three games under its new Atlantis Gold label, selling at £2.99 each. They were the Dungeons and Dragons-style Adventure Velnor's Lair for the Commodore 64 and Nicotine Nightmare and Self Destruct, both on the Spectrum 48k. The last two have proved so popular that Atlantis is in the process of converting them for the Amstrad - a move which again points to the growing popularity of the machine. Mike Cole, of Atlantis, says: "We believe in the Amstrad as the next thing to come. It's a lovely machine. We will be supporting it." Being launched this spring is The Sparkler range of games from Creative Sparks at £2.50. Sandy Mackenzie, of Creative Sparks, says: "There is a a need to supply good quality software at prices affordable to kids". The company's decision to produce cheap software was prompted to a great extent by the large number of excellent games sent in by amateur writers. "By promoting games in the budget range," says Sandy, "we are opening the industry to new talent, and also serving the interest of games buyers by publishing good games at reasonable prices. After all, low prices doesn't have to mean low quality." Soit seems that pocket-money power is being recognised at last and computer star wars could soon become computer price wars. About time, too!

Crash

Atmosphere 6/10

Vocabulary 5/10

Logic 6/10

Addictive Quality 5/10

Overall Value 6/10

Derek Brewster 6/10

DEREK BREWSTER'S ADVENTURE TRAIL A WALK IN THE PARK For some time now one aspect of adventuring has become ever more prominent in my mind as I've walked through a local park. This park has a river flowing through it, buildings of some interest, both genuine historical structures and more fanciful follies, alongside the traditional embellishments of a city park - layers of flowers of every hue lining sinuous pathways. What struck me on my stroll was the realisation that every device needed to fill an adventure lay not in a darkened room festooned with the latest bits of microcomputer hardware, but out there in the sunshine and sudden summer rain. Why not base an adventure on this very park? This got me thinking about adventuring and microcomputing and where it was all going. Why indeed had adventures come to be based upon myth, legend and fantasy when they could concern themselves with the real world and all its infinite variety and natural abundance. I noticed a little while ago an artist featured in Crash went to all the trouble of obtaining a real specimen before attempting to draw an ant. Rightly, the artist judged no better feel for the subject could be infused into his work than that derived from the real thing. So it is with novelists. Authors, even when they can't visit the real location which provides the backdrop to their book rely upon the most authentic second-hand accounts they can find, such as tourist guides, street maps and other novels, and by so doing, enrich the final draft. Adventures, until greater memory and perhaps finer resolution can produce more meaningful graphics, are closely related to the short novel and it is nothing short of amazing that no-one has attempted to write an adventure which deals with a real life structure or situation. Surely there is an area between frivolous amusement and erudite education where microcomputing can play a part in broadening our whole perception of where studying and work finish and leisure and relaxation begin? It seems only fair that microcomputers should cushion the bumps along the road of social upheaval which leads to the revolutionary world of computers and robots (remember them? They were all the rage on Afternoon Plus about two years ago when discussing the future seemed like a good idea). How about an adventure where the subject matter concerns itself with a real Scottish castle and a story which gives an authentic rendition of its history? Or perhaps it could traverse a real park (say Hyde Park in London, Central Park in New York or your local Jesmond Dene) whereby at the end of the adventure the player has not only enjoyed an entertaining game but has also picked up the rudiments of some tourist spot. Two games this month had me thinking even more about the possibilities. Although I do not know for certain, I think an Arendarvon Castle does not truly exist in NW Scotland, and when considering the layout of the submarine in Sub Sunk I find it hard to believe the author has consulted any reputable works on the subject of submarines or their internal design. It is hard to imagine indeed any author embarking on a novel concerning submarine warfare without first consulting the facts so freely available to anyone with the time and tenacity to unearth them. By and large, considering the high standard of published novels, most authors look on research as an essential prelude to writing itself. It is my hope that adventure authors will consider carefully their subject matter and what relevance it might have. THE HELM Producer: Firebird Retail Price: £2.50 Language: Quill Author: Simon Jay The Helm, a text-only Quilled adventure, is another Firebird game on offer at a budget price. The game's chief characteristic is a curiously verbose approach to the business of communicating with the player. These witty distractions dominate and dictate the character of the game and it is to the extent that you can stomach such incessant loquacity which will decide your opinions on this game. It is a little unfortunate the game combines such a windy style with a redefined character set which is so difficult to read along with curious colour combinations (like the dreaded red on black) as this slows the proceedings to a snail's pace. Whatever the criticism that can be levelled at the long-windedness of the dialogue it must be said this game has a distinctive flavour and it would be wrong to assume everyone will find it too much to take. As in all comedy, some lines are really funny while others leave you non-plussed. To give you some idea of what you can expect here is a fair representation of some of the lines you will meet. 'Upon further opticular contemplation of the immediate surrounding environment I find the following', What would you have me do next your Brillianceness?'. 'Thy wish is my command your most eminent eminence. The task has been completely completed Sire'. 'Give me your next wondrous command oh all intelligent one'. On cutting a rope loose you are greeted with, 'It drops to the floor with the distinctive sound that only a rope hitting the ground can make. Hit me with another gem!'. When attempting something foolish, like picking up an object you already have you meet, 'Far be it for me, a mere servant to criticise such an omnipotent one as you, but I've got that!' or, 'Although your last command was intellectually superior, I was unable to comply with it'. You see what I mean it either drives you potty or you secretly find it rather amusing. It's not just the replies which get this treatment, how about this location description? 'I am standing on a vast mountain plateau with barely anything in sight worth mentioning except an old cigar butt (probably from the same not-so-litter conscious native as found elsewhere), and one tree (probably not the same one as mentioned in the Covenant Chronicles)'. A lesser, but no less unusual feature of this game, is the sound, where typing a letter creates a noise not unlike that emanating when a pacman gobbles a pep-pill while ENTER finishes it off with one reminiscent of a pacman catching and munching a fleeing ghost. All part of the humour. There is a bit of the cheap game syndrome about this one which was not so apparent in Sub Sunk which keeps itself to the very precise task of escaping from a sunk sub. The Helm has a small sleepy village adjacent to a barren desert and all the environs occupy just the one location. The overall impression is of an old fashioned game, the sort that was once play3d in order to gain experience of adventuring with the sure knowledge that better was soon to follow. COMMENTS Difficulty: quite difficult Graphics: none Input facility: verb/noun Response: instant