The Lost Gnomes

Crash

Difficulty 8/10

Atmosphere 6/10

Vocabulary 5/10

Logic 7/10

Debugging 10/10

Overall Value 6/10

Derek Brewster 6/10

DEREK BREWSTER'S ADVENTURE TRAIL This month programmer and adventurer Derek Brewster launches properly into his quest for the perfect adventure. It's going to be a long trail, but in its course there will be many gems to uncover and doubtless many less than useful objects too. Although this issue of Crash has a few adventure games which are included although not reviewed by Derek, we will be incorporating most reviewed adventures in future within the Adventure Trail. Letters which have been pouring in from frustrated, bewildered and stuck adventurers are being sorted out even now, and hopefully Derek will be able to cope with some of them in time For the next month's issue. Derek has also devised his own rating system for reviewed adventure games, which he feels is more suitable - it is explained below. Adventure hints and help requests should be addressed to: Adventure Trail, Crash Magazine, [redacted]. This month: Fantasia Diamond - a new offering from Hewson Consultants: Here Comes The Sun (Alligata); Temple Of Vran - the second in the Incentive Ket Trilogy; Incredible Adventure from CRL: a murder inquiry called Mystery Manor from Bamby; and The Lost Gnomes from Eric Bean Adventures. THE SEARCH FOR REALISM PUSH, PULL, EXAMINE HIT, GET, MOVE... STATUE - it often ends up with you entering expletives. If your input is designed simply to match the words in the computer's memory, is this what adventuring is all about? What you need, surely, is a sense of reality in the otherwise fabulous world of the adventure. When engrossed in a good adventure you are aware of the computer as an aid only. It is a good sign when the program responds to as much of the input as possible. It is infuriating when attacking and leaving a character for dead he returns fit and active enough to give you considerable problems only a few frames later. Never mind, he's carrying some food this time and it'll be worth it but on examining the dead body you discover no food. Where has it gone? The way in which a landscape is mapped out is a moot point. Many well-known adventures have vast regions where it is impossible to chart your progress (or retreat). Although this may add atmosphere in a misty swamp or the (unfortunately) ubiquitous maze. In the long run it makes you acutely aware of the data in the computer - as would a seemingly random selection ruin the storyline behind a set of holiday snaps. A realistic combat scenario is important to any adventure - assuming the adventure is sophisticated enough to support one. A small defenceless creature should be easily dealt with without much loss of face whereas a warrior may well force upon you an early exit from the game. Something that becomes clear after much adventuring is the absurdly linear and singular pre-eminence of the route you must take. An example is when you have some food, say gooseberries, that you are incapable of eating since they can only be eaten by their rightful consumant. Strange gooseberries! EXAMINE, SEARCH and LOOK are becoming popular in adventuring since they allow you to take a more active role. I can only encourage such developments since the more active the part you play the more likely you are to become enveloped within the adventure. Isn't this what the whole thing's about? Two adventures stand out above all others this month - Temple of Vran, which features a good combat scenario, and Fantasia Diamond, a superb graphic adventure with a very intelligent and friendly vocabulary. ADVENTURE TRAIL REVIEW RATINGS The kind of headings used for ratings in the rest of Crash are not entirely suitable for adventures. You may feel that the headings listed below require some additions - we would be interested to hear your views. DIFFICULTY: The likely level of difficulty experienced by an average adventurer. ATMOSPHERE: This rating reflects the quality of location descriptions and graphics, and how credibly the characters you meet behave. VOCABULARY: Here we are looking for completeness of vocabulary and the friendliness of its response. A program should contain in its vocabulary all objects which are described in its locations, and all obvious words associated with these objects. If a tree appears in a location then the vocabulary should contain the word 'tree' as well as the associated word 'climb', otherwise the rating will suffer. LOGIC: This rating reflects the logic of the problems encountered in an adventure and whether or not you are likely to be killed without warning or chance of escape. Chopping down a tree to cross the forest river is very logical throwing a rope into a boat which is described in no location description is certainly not logical. DEBUGGING: This indicates the level of crashproofing and debugging of the program. A program should not be crashed simply by making an incorrect entry or by pressing an unfortunate combination of keys (including BREAK!). This rating will also suffer from bugs within the program and spelling errors. OVERALL VALUE: A general rating based on price and the other ratings BUT NOT AN AVERAGE OF THE OTHER RATING FIGURES as is the case in all other Crash reviews. THE LOST GNOMES Producer: Eric Bean Adventures Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £5.95 Author: C. R. Bozicek The Lost Gnomes, by Eric Bean Adventures is another in the long line of text-only adventures written with the aid of Gilsoft's Quill. You take the part of the wily gnome Eric Bean (makes a change from Brawny Barbarian) master adventurer and potential hero. Returning home to the valley of the gnomes, you find the place strangely deserted apart from the curious Snort. But this companion is no animated character - he can neither move or talk. Where have all the gnomes gone? Have they returned gnome or are things much more sinister? I've a sneeking suspicion that those goblins in Murgar Mountains are not totally innocent. Your first task is to find the elusive ferret who may hold the key to the quest. This in itself is not easy as the valley above ground consists of over 30 locations and the ferret is hidden within a maze. A tricky problem when you are equipped with only a torch. The normal abbreviations for directions are accepted and the response is instantaneous. Talking about speed, the save facility is the fastest I've seen, taking only a few seconds. This was very convenient as I regularly ended up on the sharp end of a goblin knife. Entry is restricted to verb/noun, not necessarily bad in itself but unfortunately the vocabulary also proved rather limited. Neither of the verbs EXAMINE or SEARCH are accepted, which is a shame since they help to create atmosphere. DI would have liked to have checked out the waterfall, cave drawings or the shell-like rock but sadly that was not to be. I think it's fair to say that these verbs make or break adventures because without them the game becomes no more than a problem solving exercise. The Lost Gnomes is not a bad adventure, but it's nothing special. I look forward to seeing further Eric Bean Adventures with much improved vocabulary.

Micro Adventurer

Noel Williams

FINDING THE LOST GNOMES MICRO: Spectrum 48K PRICE: £5.95 FORMAT: Cassette SUPPLIER: Eric Bean Adventures, [redacted] This is the first adventure I've seen that was written with the aid of Gilsoft's Quill. It is probably a fair representation of what can be achieved with this program, being well constructed and bug free, but not all that exciting. You have to discover the whereabouts of the lost gnomes and you do so in the standard way, by typing in two-word commands and wandering through a network of rooms, some underground and some above. The map and the room descriptions show the limitations of the compiling program: they are generally rather short descriptions and you can tell from 95% of them whether there is a clue held there or not. As this is so easy the non-clue rooms seem a waste of time, as in most adventures where locations are added without even giving a maze to the map. After a while they begin to feel like padding. So the map also seems reasonably average. The mazes, such as they are, are extremely easy to solve and there is hardly any difficulty at all in wandering around from place to place. It seems that The Quill enables the construction of competent average adventures but the only originality can come in the plot, the clues and the objects. In these areas I found the adventure more impressive. None of the clues are very tortuous, but some are quite difficult, and care has been taken to provide a reasonable outcome for some of the more likely mistakes. I especially like the ferret that turns out to be a major treasure. (I'm not giving anything away here). So all in all this is a reasonable but unremarkable game. I've certainly seen worse and this does have the advantage of being completely self contained and error free (apart from the usual misspelling). You should get a pleasant evening's entertainment from this game, or a fair introduction to the nature of adventures if you are new to the field. But anyone seeking the latest thrill or mind-twisting complexity will be sadly disappointed by the Lost Gnomes.