Project-X: The Micro Man

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Personal Rating 7/10

Paul Coppins 7/10

At £2.99 Project X looks too good to be true. Not only is it good - it's great! The final screen of this adventure is a real killer. To keep a straight face when you see it for the first time, you would need to be suffering from rigor mortis! The storyline tells that in an accident in your lab you suffer a large dose of radiation and, realising the danger, you jump into your car and race off for help. Unfortunately, as you are speeding along a large object decides to step out in front of you and in the resulting pile-up you black out. On coming to, you find you have shrunk to about one inch in eight and you are on what seems to be a giant's car seat. You try to make your way to a friend's house hoping he may help or suggest a cure. The game was written by C+VG reader Tim Kemp using the Quill and Illustrator, but as seems to have become customary now, the screen format has been changed and machine code sound effects have been added. Thirty or so of the illustrations have been given graphics, and are some of the best I've seen using this method. There is a new feature that I really like: STORE and RECALL, this enables the same position to be stored in memory and recalled at any time - so you can get back from a fatal move without all that mucking about with tapes. While playing the game, it is vital to examine all the objects mentioned in the location text and to try all the possible exits. But seasoned adventurers do that as a matter of course anyway - don't we? Having said that, there is one point that lets the game down slightly. After carrying out an action, the location description is not always redisplayed. This means that it is possible to miss an object that might have appeared as a result of that action - easy enough if you rush off before typing LOOK. Project X - Micro Man is a game I can recommend to all, and a must at just £2.99. It's for the 48k Spectrum - with versions due for the Amstrad and DBM464 - and is available by mail order from [redacted].

Crash

Atmosphere 7/10

Vocabulary 5/10

Logic 6/10

Addictive Quality 6/10

Overall Value 6/10

Derek Brewster 6/10

DEREK BREWSTER'S ADVENTURE TRAIL ARE YOU BEING SERVED? If you were to sit down and try and write a TV comedy show you would no doubt find it difficult. To make the task a little easier you would be wise to consider who the main characters in the comedy were, how they were likely to behave in any given situation, and what relationship they had to each other. Watch any TV comedy program (Taxi, say) and see this writing skill in action. If the characters are too wooden, or the characters behave too often in an uncharacteristic manner, the comedy will fail. In adventuring the same rules apply. The Hobbit attempted to bring some different characters into its plot, but too often Thorin can only sing about gold and Gandalf is generally found making a nuisance of himself closing doors and taking useful items from you. This is largely due to The Hobbit concerning itself more with complex vocabulary and graphics, leaving a small amount of memory for real characterization. Sherlock, on the other hand, devoted itself more fully to meaningful characters but I couldn't help thinking the complex vocabulary was not so much a help than a hindrance. A standardised vocabulary would have removed the need for substantial amounts of memory to be devoted to word analysis and would have smoothed considerably the player's introduction to the intricacies of the game. Playing word games should only be a small part of adventuring. So where might characterization in adventuring lead? Clearly, some method of supplying additional memory to the Spectrum is needed. Once this problem is solved, the adventure author must carefully consider each character before the main code is written. What are the character's temperament, skills (eg archery, climbing, lock-picking) and allegiances? This should remove most of the discrepancies which creep into games attempting complex character development. What will result from good planning are believable, intelligent characters - the sort woefully absent from the likes of Are You Being Served? PROJECT X - THE MICRO MAN Producer: Compass Retail Price: £2.99 Language: Quill & Illustrator Author: T Kemp & J Lemmon This game uses every programming aid in the book but looking at the result this may not be such a bad thing. The loading screen acknowledges the use of Melbourne Draw (and very nice the screen looks too) and the use of the Quill and Illustrator, along with the curious 'Patch' for the main program. As with most things it's not what you've got but what you do with it and in this instance what Compass have done isn't at all bad with some additional features not normally found on such games. Machine code screen and sound effects are much in evidence. Telephones ring, sirens wail and the exploding screen effect which greets your untimely exit from a game will have you jumping out of your seat with fright. Should you be beaten in this way not all is lost due to a feature which greatly impressed me. This game boasts a STORE/RECALL from memory facility which allows you to save your position using STORE before attempting anything dangerous (or silly). If the inevitable happens and you die a death then you can simply type RECALL to return you instantly to the state of play before you died. When I say entering something silly I do not include swear words which unceremoniously crash the program with no recourse to the type of joke seen in Ramjam's Valkyrie 17. The game has 130 locations (30 of which are split screen graphics), 80 objects (many illustrated by UDC's), 80 messages and a 150 word vocabulary. You play a Professor Neil Richards who, whilst working in his laboratory at home, irradiates himself in a freak accident. Panicking, he runs out of the house and drives off down the road to his colleague's laboratory a few miles away. While speeding down the road a tyre bursts and the car swerves into a tree. Your task is to get to your colleague's house but this is made all the more difficult by two almost insurmountable obstacles. One is your size which has apparently been reduced to about that of a pen, which must be as a result of the animal miniaturization experiments you were carrying out at the time of the accident. The second difficulty is the COM 2 high-tech computer controlling your colleagues lab security. Its main task is to stop you from entering the lab, something you must do to attain the solution to your problem. Though I liked the theme of this adventure a lot, and the presentation of the text is very smart and helpful, its vocabulary left a lot to be desired. Generally only one word set will work in any one situation (take entering the shed where all verbose attempts ended in failure while the almost idiotic IN does the trick). This can make things very difficult when the program chooses strange words (take crossing a crevasse with a twig, where CROSS TWIG is not accepted while CROSS BRIDGE is, this when there has been no mention of a bridge!). A limited and inconsistent vocabulary need not ring the death knell for a game if it makes good use of prompts (perhaps 'The twig now forms a bridge across the gap' ) but, sadly, this game makes little use of prompts. To compensate for these shortcomings the game does offer one or two refinements. Take a handle early on where TURN HANDLE gives a slightly open window, WIND HANDLE does the full job - very clever I thought. The story of this adventure is dominated by your small size and on the whole the game gives a realistic feeling of being small, for example, using an egg cosy to wrap around yourself and a thimble for a helmet, but in other areas it left me wondering. Would it be possible for such a diminutive chappie to loosen the belt from a scarecrow without first climbing up, or to cut glass with a diamond ring a feat difficult even for a normal sized person. Project X is a fine game with a different storyline. Its screen presentation is super with different text colours to break up the screen. Where it falls down is in its vocabulary, which is unfriendly, and with its graphics, which are simple and generally poor. For just under three pounds, though, it is not a bad buy and is available from Compass Software, 63 Cozens Rd, Norwich NR1 1JP. COMMENTS Difficulty: many tricky points due to unfriendly vocabulary Graphics: some, generally poor Presentation: good use of colour in redefined text Input facility: verb/noun Response: instant Quill response Special features: store/recall within memory without recourse to tape (although has save tape also)

Your Computer

Hugo North

48K Spectrum £3.25 Compass Software A novel and enjoyable Quilled adventure. An accident has miniaturised you and the quest concerns your attempts to return to normal. You'll battle with a mole - but what, given your diminutive dimensions, will you use for weapons? Over 150 locations, 80 objects and original puzzles ensure good value for money.

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 7/10

Richard Price 7/10

PROJECT-X Compass Software Memory: 48K Price: £3.25 inc. p&p Project X casts you as a scientist doing experiments in miniaturisation. As you work there is a blinding flash and a burst of powerful radiation. You already know what effect that dose of rays will have and you rush to the car hoping that you can reach you friend's house a few miles away. As a fellow researcher he should be able to save you. The car crashes. When you wake you have shrunk and the journey becomes a test of endurance, full of threats to your survival. Small creatures have become vast predators and haystacks intricate warrens of passage ways. A button becomes a shield, a needle a sword. The game is a Quilled text adventure - it looks as if there is no credit for Gilsoft but play for a little while and they get their mention. It is a friendly game with some useful abbreviations over and above the usual Quill set and small graphic characters for objects. The programmers have taken care over their presentation and not slavishly followed the utility's layout. Project X is a real change from goblin-bashing scenarios, showing originality in its plot and care in its design. It may not be one of the all time greats but you'll find it aggravatingly entertaining. Available by mail order from Compass Software, 63 Cozens Road, Norwich.

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