The Ring of Darkness

Crash

Difficulty 6/10

Atmosphere 6/10

Vocabulary N/A

Logic 6/10

Debugging 9/10

Overall Value 6/10

Derek Brewster 6/10

DEREK BREWSTER'S ADVENTURE TRAIL This month Derek Brewster takes a close look at a space adventure and some games for girls among others. But before that, he discusses some points on presentation... PRESENTING THE ADVENTURE The format an adventure uses for display is important since it shows you where you are, what items and monsters you see, and how you might leave a location. It is surprising when well-coded games involving many hours of concerted effort are let down by a cluttered display with all the information jumbled together in a confusing way. An untidy, scrolling list of mixed description and input barely separated from the last location's mess is hardly the manner in which to present a complex adventure. An improved format can make use of different colours for objects you come across, the monsters you meet, and especially when in a rush, the exits. Similarly, capital letters, BRIGHT and FLASH could be used more for emphasis. Temple of Vran has gone some way in tackling these problems with neatly boxed-in location descriptions presented upon a freshly cleared screen and your input bearing a different colour. These are simple changes indeed yet add much to your enjoyment of the game. The more complicated and involved the game the more important the input routine. Snowball has a very poor, sluggish input routine which hinders fast typing and has no audible confirmation of key depressions; this in an otherwise highly sophisticated game. Many adventures only use delete when it would be a simple matter to use the Spectrum input routine that allows full cursor control. A game with a broad and friendly language that goes beyond simple verb/noun couplings needs to make full use of the editing facilities of the Spectrum. It would be a useful feature, particularly with those games requiring long, intricate inputs, to enable the rescue of an incorrect input line so it can be brought back on to the screen and corrected. Fantasia Diamond and The Hobbit don't allow cursor movement through the input characters - only delete is used, in a more straightforward verb/noun adventure this would not be such a drawback but certainly is when dealing with the highly complex sentence analyses featured in these games. Long sentences are often used when communicating with other characters; it would be useful to recall the previous input were it not understood. Valhalla has complex syntax checking which commendably doesn't allow the entry of sentence structures It doesn't understand. Before leading you through the maze of this month's adventures let me just point out the simplest advance in presentation - white, or even better yellow, text on a black background which is much easier on the eyes around midnight! THE RING OF DARKNESS Producer: Wintersoft Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £9.95 Author: J. K. Humphreys, D. A. Briskham The Ring of Darkness was a highly successful game on the Dragon 32 and has now been converted for the Spectrum. Your first task is to develop a character to represent you on yourquest and this is achieved via a program on side 'A' of the cassette. After choosing your character name 40 points are distributed to determine your intelligence, strength and agility. In keeping with true roleplaying vogue the adventure is enacted within a midworld, your race can be Dwarf, Elf or Human and character classes include Wizard, Warrior and Thief. The game sees you moving through a scene with simple representations of rivers, mountains and forests. In effect your token remains in the central area of the screen and the map scrolls in the opposite direction to your apparent movement. On first playing you are unable to cross the rivers or climb the mountains and the forests are the home of deadly accurate and seemingly unassailable archers. At almost regular intervals you are confronted by bandits and evil rangers and, since it is difficult to escape, a simple battle scenario begins. Although you can be resurrected three times, on each occasion one of the objects you were carrying is mislaid. Every now and then a settlement appears though Borderton looks remarkably similar to Port Stillwater with a Smiths, Arms, Pubs, and Magic and King's domains. Buying and selling items at Will's Weapon Store is a nice part of the game. One quest had me searching for a jelly cube (curious - but similar forms are not unknown to the role-playing fraternity) and on another I was searching for the Sinclair sign. The game consists of several programs that must be loaded consecutively but to be honest I could only reach the second level (a 3D maze) before an untimely end at the hand of a skeleton. If only I'd started out as a warrior, and not a wizard whose character is blighted by his inability to cast spells unless ensconced within the underground caverns. The game is in real time to the extent that if you leave the game the word PASS will appear every 20 seconds. A more conscientious approach will see you gaining experience with progressive increases in the technology and the variety of goods available to you. Hence a little patience in the early stages, when experiences are mostly of a violent nature, is probably what's needed. It's a good idea to keep up to date with your status, hit points (a measure of your mortality) and food units (with each movement using up food) as starvation can be an embarrassing end to first attempts. The Ring of Darkness will take a long time to solve because it is a relatively long and complex adventure and there is too little information provided at the start with the effect that you set off having no idea of what exactly it is that you must do. The choice of keys for the Spectrum version are very poor - QW & P - mixing up and down with left and right (much like the syncopation exercise where you circle your head with one hand and pat your stomach with the other) and the painfully slow movement of the figure through the adventure becomes monotonous after a short time. The game falls between the two stools of arcade and adventure without the addictive qualities of either but marks an interesting adaptation of the role-playing theme.

Micro Adventurer

BP

DRAGON REPUTATION RINGS TRUE MICRO: Spectrum 48K PRICE: £9.95 FORMAT: Cassette SUPPLIER: Wintersoft, [redacted] Although Wintersoft is a relative newcomer to the computing field, it has made quite a name for itself with Ring of Darkness for the Dragon micro. It has now been enlarged and modified for the Spectrum market, and includes a fairly comprehensive instruction booklet (though no cassette insert). The Ring is a role-playing adventure - you create your own character and this affects your progress in the game. There is a separate character generation program for this which is simple and easy to use. After choosing a name for your character you are given 40 points to distribute between the attributes intelligence, strength, and agility. You then select character type: elf, dwarf, or human, and choose a suitable skill, either thief, warrior, or wizard. The program then displays all the chosen attributes, giving you a chance to change anything you don't like. The game takes place on a high-resolution map showing rivers, forests, and mountains, towns and mazes, which are represented by castles. My character appeared in the middle of the screen and I went east. The map scrolled in the direction of movement and although the program has a lot of Basic, the response was fairly fast. After only a couple of moves. I was attacked by bandits who appeared from nowhere. As well as leather armour and a dagger, I had some magic zappers so I tried casting a spell. The computer told me that I could only use spells in dungeons, and while reading the combat instructions, I was beaten to a pulp. You get attacked about every fourth move, which can become annoying after a while, though it was vital for gaining gold and experience points. Enemies vary from bandits, which are quite easily dealt with (if you read the instructions properly first) to hidden archers, who are almost impossible to hit. Sometimes you can run away from attackers although often they will try to block your path. On entering a town, Borderton, the land map disappeared and was replaced by a high-resolution map of the town. There was a pub, a magic shop, a smithy and armourers and the palace, with cells beside it. Guards stood at every corner and a jester ran about the town yelling "I've got the key." In the next game, I visited another town, Port Stillwater, and was disappointed to find that it was the same as Borderton. Ignoring the jester this time (I learn quickly don't I) I went into the palace to have a chat with the king. After offering my services, he gave me a quest to complete: "Go forth and kill a Jelly Cube. Return when thy quest is done." After scouring the countryside for a Jelly Cube, I gave up and soon afterwards came across the Maze of Minos. This had to be loaded from tape, annoying but to be expected since it is your favourite and mine, the three-D maze. Complete with high-resolution drawings, ladders, and ropes, and with a fast response, it was too much for this adventurer, who lost his way quite quickly. A lot of hard work has obviously gone into producing this program. The map is very large - 10,000 moves according to the blurb, and there is a large variety or objects, weapons, spells and places to explore (it would spell the game to give any more away). For the role-playing enthusiast, it is quite good value.