In Search of Angels

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Personal Rating 5/10

Keith Campbell 5/10

MORE GAMES WITHOUT FRONTIERS 8th Day Software is one of the new breed of "cottage" software houses that have grown since the advent of the Quill. What makes the company different from most of the rest is that their games, once priced at £1.75, still cost only £2.50 each. The co-directors of the company are Michael White and Gary Kelbrick, who also write all the games using the Quill. I asked them why their games cost so little compared with other Adventures, and their answer was quite controversial. Gary and Michael both think that 99 percent of Adventure games on the market are overpriced for what they contain and feel, to a certain extent, that many games are written badly, story-wise, with unoriginal problems. Naturally, they also feel that their games are always original and worth every penny. So I thought I'd take a look at this series, to see if it is all that its producers claim. FOUR MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT This game was written by Michael White and is concerned with events after a deadly virus is released into the atmosphere from a high security research station in America. The virus has killed most of the world's population and only a few, seemingly immune, have survived, including you. You must learn the skills of the old technology and recruit five members to form a team to travel across the States to disarm nuclear weapons which have been left unguarded and still threaten the remaining population. This game is well thought out, and quite difficult. At the start, you are standing at a petrol station. A few seconds later a car crashes into it and explodes. From inside the car you hear screams. If you manage to rescue the occupant, he will help you with your mission. The game continues along these lines and is quite fun to play. Personal Rating: 7 QUANN TULLA Without doubt, the best game of the series is Quann Tuna, and I think this should be picked up by a major company. The story is of an evil empire that has fought a long and bloody war with the Just Foundation. The Foundation is losing, and your mission is to destroy some top secret manuals, kill a traitor and destroy a crippled space ship. The game takes place aboard your flagship and progresses through space to a far distant alien world. This may prove too difficult for beginners, but the experienced Adventure nut will love it, especially its weird objects such as the lead ball and lighter-than-air docking badge! Great stuff! Personal Rating: 9 ICE STATION ZERO In this one, you are cast as a secret service agent who must defeat the evil genius Stirling. Stirling, it seems, has planted a nuclear bomb somewhere near the south pole. Setting off, you find yourself standing in the freezing snow, from where you move on to discover ice floes, yetis etc., which must be overcome before killing the maniacal Stirling. Personal Rating: 7 IN SEARCH OF ANGELS This is one of the easiest of the series and is based upon Ian Fleming's early novels. You are cast as a rather poor man's version of James Bond and you find a dead CIA agent floating face-down in the Thames. From there you progress around the world trying to stop an organisation known as "The Company" from taking over. Personal Rating: 5 FAERIE This has to be one of the most spine-chilling games available! It has nothing whatsoever to do with the notorious "Pink Fairy"! The plot is, to say the least, complicated with many sub-divisions. You are sent off into the underworld to find the three treasures of Isi-Tunn, and it's not easy! Personal Rating: 8 CUDDLES Finally, Keith had a look at Cuddles, another of the 8th Day series, and after being cut by a "broach" on his Nanny's dress and finding he had to refer to it as a "broach", and that all subsequent text referred to it as a "broach" he says he could not bear to bring himself to continue with the game, let alone review it! "Games Without Frontiers" are for the 48k Spectrum, priced £2.50, and available from 8th Day Software at [redacted].

Micro Adventurer

John Fraser

003 1/2 MICRO: Spectrum 48K PRICE: £1.75 FORMAT: Cassette SUPPLIER: Eighth Day Software, [redacted] In Search of Angels is a spy thriller set in the near future of 1986. It begins, like all good thrillers, with a mysterious and potentially catastrophic incident: "You are in a communication centre somewhere in London. A panel suddenly lights up indicating that an early attack warning satellite has been destroyed." You are secret agent Cobol, who rapidly becomes involved in a life-and-death drama of international espionage, car chases, assassinations and so on. The discovery of a body in the Thames leads you to the headquarters of British intelligence and from there to Brazil, Berlin, Casablanca and Tokyo. While on your travels you gradually uncover evidence of an evil organisation which is intent on world domination. I spent several afternoons engrossed in this game, trying to deal with enemies who invariably proved to be smarter than I was. In three particular incidents I was killed off repeatedly. When I left Rio airport in my 007 style Ferrari I was pursued by two other cars and careered off the road several times until I discovered an omission in the hints sheet. Then when I stopped in the city to take a look around, as soon as I returned to my car and got inside, it blew up and the game was over. Later, in Casablanca, I whispered the password to the girl with the spider web necklace but was promptly grabbed from behind and thrown down a hole. Groping about in the dark, I was stung by a tarantula that had slipped down my shirt. In marked contrast, some locations are far too easy to explore. You can steal the secret dossier from the bank without anyone apparently noticing anything suspicious, which strikes me as being a little unrealistic. The text is often extremely detailed, with full screens of conversations, the contents of a KGB report and so on. To add to the atmosphere, whenever you are killed off the Spectrum launches into the 007 theme music as the 'end of game' message appears. Although described as a moderately difficult game, that is really an exaggeration. It should, however, appeal to the beginner who wants something different from the usual fantasy or science fiction scenarios but doesn't want to spend very much. At least it's as cheap as many paperback thrillers and has the added bonus of putting you in full charge.

Personal Computer Games

Atmosphere 7/10

Complexity 5/10

Interaction 5/10

Overall 7/10

Steve Cooke 7/10

MACHINE: Spectrum PRICE: £1.75 Mastertronics haven't got the budget end of the market all to themselves, however. A company called 8th Day Software are currently bringing out a range of adventures at the very attractive price of £1.75 each. The company currently have around six games in their catalogue, labelled from 'beginner's game' up to 'advanced difficulty'. I haven't had time to try them all, but I did enjoy In Search of Angels. Like the rest of the 8th Day range, this is a Quilled adventure, text-only, and with some original touches. I'm sorry to see that 8th Day haven't given Gilsoft much credit for their use of the Quill. In fact, there doesn't seem to be any mention of it at all on the cassettes or in the programs. Naughty, naughty - you may be selling your games for £1.75, but the only reason you can afford to do so, I suspect, is because Gilsoft have done most of the hard work, so why not give them a bit more credit? Back to In Search of Angels, which sends you on an international chase after enemy agents. Original sequences include a 'car chase', where entering the wrong tactics will send you and your specially-equipped auto to the graveyard. You will also have to keep on the right side of your secret service boss, not to mention the members of the 'other side'. Despite a certain similarity of appearance due to the use of the Quill and the limitations of the Gilsoft interpreter, these games are really excellent value. In fact, the White Wizard reckons that they're substantially better value than the Mastervision offering reviewed above, but they are, of course, text-only. Still, in these hard times it has to be hats off to both Mastertronics and 8th Day for lowering software prices.

Big K

Graphics N/A

Playability 3/3

Addictiveness 3/3

Overall 3/3

Fin Fahey 3/3

MAKER: 8th Day Software FORMAT: cassette PRICE: £1.99 each Pure text adventures seem to be becoming a threatened species of late. There seems to be a general feeling that to sell, a program has to contain graphics. Doesn't matter how tacky, how irrelevant to the plot line, how much memory is wasted, we gotta have them pictures. A good counter to what I, for one, see as a pernicious trend is this collection of six pocket-money programs from 8th Day, a new Merseyside outfit. The packaging is understandably minimal, a plain black wrapper in every case, although you do get a natty plastic rack if you purchase all six. There's nothing cut-price about the quality however. as far as I could see, each of these is a well-thought out, properly plotted adventure. Better still, every one is on a different theme. The nearest to the hackneyed old Sword-and-Sorcery schlock is Faerie, but this rests more on Celtic whimsy than conquering barbarians. The vital thing is to keep the fairies happy, one way being to swap a human baby for their changeling, a bit naughty this. Four Minutes to Midnight seems to be the most advanced program, and pits you against a post-catastrophe world. The object is to rebuild civilisation from the ruins by assembling a team of capable and technically-skilled people. To my mind this goes one better than The Hobbit in terms of human interaction, and displays genuine originality. Cuddles is a bit on the cute side - you are a bored toddler and you have to escape from your cot and get past nanny to sample the delights of the outside world. Ice Station Zero owes something to the dreadful Alistair Maclean story - for Zero read Zebra - it's a thriller set on the Arctic Icepack. The obligatory space adventure is represented in the form of Quann Tulla in which you have to get a crippled starship working again. In Search of Angels is a Fleming-style spy story full of the obligatory souped-up sportsters full of gadgetry. A lot of ground has been covered here, all six packages taken together cost the same as two normally-priced Spectrum programs, but represent months of playing time. This is the first time I've encountered software at a reasonable price which sacrifices nothing in the way of quality. Surely this, and not peculiar security devices, is the answer to piracy?

Personal Computer News

Mike Gerrard

It's been quite a day, let me tell you. Fortified by just a bowl of cornflakes I had to start by saving America which had been devastated by a bacteriological disaster. Then, after a short break for coffee, I was wrestling with Stirling, the international terrorist, who was threatening to wipe out New York if he didn't get his billion dollar ransom. As this exceeded my limit at the NatWest Service till I left him to it, only to find that one of Britain's early warning attack satellites had gone missing. Of course I had to step into the breach and deal with that before I felt I'd earned my lunch time pie and pint. The afternoon, if anything, was worse. I had to battle with the might of the evil corrupt Empire on behalf of the Federation, though this was as nothing compared to doing battle with the might of my nanny in order to break out of the playpen and find a new arm for tattered old teddy. Finally, I entered a magical world of fairies and grottoes in the traditional hunt for treasure, without which no adventurer's day is complete. The blame for my day of mayhem and monsters lies fair and square with 8th Day Software, which has just released the first six in its series called 'Games Without Frontiers', all written with The Quill for the 48K Spectrum and all selling at the incredible price of £1.75 (including postage, from 8th Day Software, [redacted]). CHEAP BUT GOOD As with the recent batch of cut-rate arcade software, cheap prices don't necessarily mean inferior quality. It was heartening to load these adventures up and discover that the general standard was very high indeed, catering for a range of preferences and ability levels. Don't expect glossy packaging for that price, though the cassette covers look smart with their uniform black background and silver lettering. Another standard feature is the inclusion on the B-side of each cassette of the storyline for the adventure you've bought, and of the others in the series, with a few pages on the playing of adventure games in general. Each adventure is graded as beginner's, moderate or advanced, and hint sheets or individual clues are available from 8th Day. This thorough and professional approach would be wasted, of course, if the adventures themselves were dismal efforts, but they're far from being that. Even the beginner's game proved pretty tough going in places. FLOE AND THE KIDS This is Ice Station Zero, whose loading screen for some reason shows a pterodactyl flying over an iceberg. I could understand a polar bear, huskies and even a Yeti in the icy wastes, but a pterodactyl? This is the one with mad Stirling and the billion dollar ransom, and you have to cross the Arctic ice-cap to get to him. You begin outside a small snow-covered tent on the western edge of an immense ice-field with a pack of wolves howling across the frozen plains. Though there are a few items in the tent, the means to defend yourself against the wolves (and their newly acquired striker) is carefully hidden away somewhere for you to find. Little graphics touches are possible when using The Quill, such as when you EXAMINE GUN which shows you the number of bullets remaining, while FIRE GUN produces a couple of bullet-holes either side of the screen. Can you escape the polar bear and the Yeti, what happens if you remove your clothing (known as losing your Kagool) and how do you make the air turn blue? The storyline of this one is full of healthy nonsense but the standard of the text is very high, as with most of this series. From Yeti to Nanny and the moderately difficult Cuddles, described as an adventure for big kids. Pack the nappies, examine the potty and plot your route for finding a new arm for teddy, who you thoughtlessly left up a tree. As you move round the nursery you find coloured building blocks, each with a different letter on it - and no, they don't spell out a rude word. But woe betide the player who searches the nappy cupboard without nasal protection. NUCLEAR 'N NAUGHTY From the nursery to nuclear war with Four Minutes to Midnight, which opens in dramatic style. 'You are on the forecourt of a small gas station beside several neglected gasoline pumps. There is a small road waning to the east while the garage fronting is west. You can also see a dusty mini-bus. A car is careering down the road towards the station.' Needless to say you don't have many turns before 'The car hits the pumps! With a massive explosion the station erupts in a ball of flames!' You too, of course. Unfortunately a slight lack of care over the inputs means that it's virtually impossible to get through the first few moves properly. You can step the car exploding but it still burns, and you have to respond to the driver's pleas for help by somehow rescuing him. You're told his name is Dave, but GET DAVE, CARRY DAVE, HELP DAVE and so on all fail to work. Eventually my patience ran out and I cheated to discover I should have typed RECRUIT DAVE. Hmmmm... bit naughty, that. Also naughty is a routine in in Search of Angels, an espionage thriller. You very soon find yourself at an airport where the girl on the desk asks you for your destination. Only by looking at the Hint Sheet can you discover your possible destinations of exotic locations - such as Rio, Casablanca, Berlin, Tokyo and London. Once you know where you can go, however, you can move around the world trying to piece together clues about the lost early warning satellite and the dead CIA agent floating in the River Thames. SPACE 'N FAERIS Naturally there had to be a sci-fi story in this batch. Quann Tulla is vaguely in the Snowball tradition of space ships, robots, security doors, secret manuals and so on. 'The fate of the Universe is in your hands!' My reaction to that was blunt and brief, and I was promptly told: 'Hygiene Clone II appears from nowhere with a bar of soap to clean out your mouth!' Finally Faeri, an advanced difficulty game whose plot twists and turns so much that it's hard to describe. You're in a fantasy world, looking for treasure, with the guardians of the Underworld and Overworld out to prevent you from doing that. There are 30 main treasures and an additional three Sacred Treasures. 8th Day reckons this one will keep you busy for the next six months.

In Ice Station you leave your tent to fight hungry wolves.

Your Spectrum

AND ON THE 8TH DAY... Yet another Liverpudlian software house has just programmed itself into existence. Called 8th Day Software, the company's opening its range with six text adventures, ranging in difficulty from beginner's stuff to 'jolly difficult'. All have a low price of £1.75, but 8th Day is quick to disclaim the "you-get-what-you-pay-for' syndrome. The six new titles, all launched under the 'Games Without Frontiers' banner, are all Quilled adventures and your measly £1.75 even includes postage, packing and VAT. How they can do it at such a low price and still make a profit defeats us. Unwrapping the first six packages, we have Four Minutes to Midnight (an advanced strategy adventure), Cuddles (a moderately difficult adventure for 'big' kids), Quann Tulla (a science fiction adventure), Ice Station Zero (a beginner's crime solving adventure), In Search of Angels (another crime adventure) and Faerie (an advanced fantasy adventure). All the games can be ordered direct from 8th Day Software, so give them a ring on [redacted].

In Search of Angels - one of six packages priced at £1.75!