Twin Kingdom Valley

Crash

Atmosphere 9/10

Vocabulary 7/10

Logic 7/10

Debugging 7/10

Overall Value 8/10

Derek Brewster 8/10

DEREK BREWSTER'S ADVENTURE TRAIL YOU'VE NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD If you glance through the marks for this months reviews you will notice one 9 is awarded and all the rest have 8 marks as an Overall Value. This, I think you will agree, is an exceptionally high standard, and is remarkable in that every game reviewed here could be recommended without hesitation, as each has some quality that makes it stand out from the crowd. Clearly the microcomputer software market is seasonal to some extent (ie, the run up to Christmas represents a huge sales potential) but perhaps in the case of the adventure market, where the games take a very considerable time to develop, it is even more so. So, have I gone soft with seasonal spirit this month? No. I think not, for these games really are good. What this all adds up to is that if you know anyone who packed away their Spectrums over the summer then you should now tell them to extract it from its box and fill its place with a cushion of straw and a tortoise, because, when it comes to Spectrum software, you've never had it so good. TWIN KINGDOM VALLEY Producer: Bug-Byte Retail Price: £7.95 Twin Kingdom Valley was launched almost a year ago on the BBC/Electron and Commodore computers and became a best seller. Hence it is not surprising Bug-Byte should attempt a conversion to the Spectrum, but 'conversion to the Spectrum was considered impossible' due to its 'more restricted graphical capabilities'. It is in the graphics department where this otherwise excellent adventure disappoints, but the only reason I can forward is poor artistic design within the limitations imposed by the microcomputer. The Spectrum adventure market is now quite sophisticated and shows few signs of these 'restricted graphical capabilities' - far from it. In every other respect Twin Kingdom Valley is a very good adventure, especially for the novice. The name of the program is unusual and you would be right to think it had some story behind it. It is not a valley you might have seen on one of those terrible Sunday afternoon films, no, it is a mythical place where two kings live. Since monarchy generally like it their own way, these two royals hate each other. As you roam the valley other creatures will live their lives perfectly naturally, only stopping a while to attack the occasional explorer - that's you. You play a typical adventurous and greedy human and your aim is to finish the game with as much wealth as possible. The gossip circulating around the valley is supplied to you at the touch of a button at the beginning. Twin Kingdom Valley is one of many valleys surrounding the vast lake of Watersmeet said to have mystical properties derived from the many witches' potions spilled into its rivers and streams down the ages. It is said a wise man may look upon the secret of life located nearby (at No. 42?). You have rented a small hut from the innkeeper of The Sword Inn where your ill gotten gains may be stashed. Your strength will fall if stabbed or dubbed too often by the assorted belligerent creatures, but you will gradually recover if you can find a quiet patch. The authors reckon you'll find some of the clues in the pictures. I hope this doesn't entail scurrying around for books on Picasso and Cubism because, man! are some of these pics groovy (can anyone tell me what on earth the picture of the bar represents? But keep it sober, man). The game has many features which give some indication of its high class pedigree. The first is a choice between six options to control how the game runs for you. These range from Draw picture if room unvisited, give long description to Don't draw picture, give short description. The option can be changed to suit during play by simply typing OPTION. The next feature to impress is the use of view directions where you are told the direction in which you are looking out from a location and can actually see your progress towards castles, inns, caves, and waterfalls. Also, a list of verbs is provided and a refinement allows the speed of printing to be controlled via *TEXT. These features do not necessarily make a better adventure but they certainly show a willingness to please and is a sign that someone cares about craftmanship of the program - always a good sign. You begin on a road by a wooden cabin. The hut fills the view to the north and so NORTH takes you inside. A deep solid beep accompanies each input but you must be careful with that confounded auto-repeat which, although being worse than useless, seemingly gets everywhere. This first location is a veritable store of goodies and it's good to see an adventure which presents the explorer with a few easy first steps to ease him into the swing of things. You are even given a fnendly companion - an elf - who may beat you to some of the goodies if you're slow off the mark but will kindly give them over if you ask him politely. Being one who can smell a rancid beer pot at thirty hydrometers, I made my way east to The Sword Inn to quaff a beer in palatial surroundings. I was a little surprised to see the 'Work Ethic' currently sweeping the nation (well, Surbiton) making a stand in the computer games world - a fraternity more renowned for growing hair and perihperals (after typesetting, this will no doubt read 'growing hair on peripherals'). But there was evidence - as I sat refreshed after downing a pitcher of ale I happened to check my score (still 0) but what is this? My strength is reduced from 190 to 160. Fiendish! Your pilgrimage to the Inn is made that bit lighter by some strange and certainly colourful graphics of the inn which grow in perspective as you approach, rather like the famous scenes in Lords of Midnight. Most of your early game will be spent finding the weapons to ward off Trolls and Gorillas who lunge at you with broad swords and wooden clubs. These assailants apart, it's a simple enough matter to wander around a great many locations although of course you'll often get the feeling you're too far down the line with not enough weapons or gadgets to support you. The graphics, should you choose an option with them, are not too slow and it is clear when the program is ready to proceed as the picture becomes sharp and clear. Twin Kingdom Valley is an adventure import from the BBC/Electron and Commodore computers and like all conversions has some peculiarities in style, in this case - the graphics. On its own merits, the Spectrum version is very responsive and friendly and has many superb qualities. Well worth exploring by any adventurer. COMMENTS Difficulty: hard to say. This is a long and involved game but probably not too difficult Graphics: full screen graphics in 150 locations although many are repeated Presentation: excellent Input facility: very good Response: interactive characters acting somewhat like those in Valhalla Special features: Currah Microspeech

Personal Computer Games

Atmosphere 8/10

Complexity 7/10

Interaction 8/10

Overall 8/10

Steve Cooke 8/10

SHERLOCK IS HERE! The White Wizard was rudely awoken the other morning by an ill-mannered dwarf clutching a small parcel, which contained - No! It cannot be! It is! The legendary Sherlock from Melbourne House has finally arrived. Drop wand, grab Spectrum, and here we go... You are in your sitting room. There is no graphic display because, to tell the truth, there aren't many graphics in the game - just the occasional 'illustration'. Watson is sitting in his armchair. You attempt to follow Watson's example, but the program tells you that it can't see a chair for you to sit in. You enter 'armchair', your entry is accepted, and you settle down bra nap. At this point, Watson usually pipes up with a story from the paper he's reading. It appears that a couple of ladies in Leatherhead have been rubbed out by a mysterious villain and the police are baffled. Sherlock Holmes to the rescue! Yes, it looks as if Melbourne House have done it again. Sherlock is an excellent adventure, bursting with atmosphere, challenge, and inventiveness. It's extremely difficult to solve, but the joy of it is that there is enough scope within the game for the player to enjoy failing in his quest almost as much as succeeding. Take getting to Leatherhead for example. To reach your destination you'll have to first get a cab, then a train - and make sure it's the right one! Otherwise you could end up at Aldersgate, Victoria, or even Paddington. And of course, you'll have to have enough money to pay your fare. What's more, everything in the game, including travelling, takes just as long to do as it would in real life - and in the case of travelling to Leatherhead that's quite a time, believe me. You can however speed up the passage of time by typing WAIT or WAIT UNTIL followed by a particular time. Because Sherlock is so complex, it takes some time to get used to. This is particularly the case with minor actions, like getting in and out of trains for example. The program won't understand 'Get into train' or 'Board train' - you have to 'Climb into train'. You also have to climb into your armchair (not your chair, please note) and be similarly energetic about getting into cabs. Once you've got the hang of it you can talk to other characters, but in a more comprehensive fashion than in any other game. Not only can you tell them to do things, but you can also ask them questions about what they know, and even tell them things about the case you're working on if you feel the information would be valuable to them. All the characters are entirely independent of you and play a much more active role in other games. It has to be said that this degree of complexity has its drawbacks. All too often you'll ask a character to 'Tell me about so-and-so' and the character will reply 'I'm afraid I can't help you with that'. Watson also has a strange habit of telling you how brilliant you are when you merely happen to be passing the time of day with him. One intriguing feature mentioned in earlier publicity by Melbourne House was the ability to send notes to other characters. This has unfortunately been left out of the finished program, but the new methods of communication outlined above are still very impressive. The game comes with a 20 page booklet of instructions and a train-timetable. The vocabulary is claimed to be in the region of 800 words and you can enter complex instructions using commas and full stops up to 128 characters long. Yes, the White Wizard can heartily recommend Sherlock. This is a complex adventure that will challenge you, frustrate you, and reward you for long after you've bought it. What's more, unlike The Hobbit, it doesn't matter a jot if you've read the Sherlock Holmes stories or not. For once, here's a game that was really worth waiting for. TKV Spectrum owners have been particularly fortunate this month, since in addition to Sherlock, Bug-Byte's Twin Kingdom Valley is now available for the Sinclair machine, Incredibly this new version is every bit as good as the Commodore original. The graphics are astounding - considering that there are over 150 full-screen illustrations (even MORE than on the 64). If you haven't had a crack at this game, then it's a must. Interactive characters (of Hobbit standard), tricky puzzles, good vocabulary and an assortment of varied challenges to keep you interested right through to the very end. The graphics draw extremely quickly, and there are a number of control options to select different location descriptions/illustrations. For those of you who don't know, TKV has you searching for treasure and, ultimately for the Secret of Life. Definitely not to be missed. KENTILLA Also this month for the Spectrum, a very impressive offering from Micromega of Code Name Mat and Full Throttle fame. This is their first adventure, called Kentilla, and it is well worth a place on anyone's shelf. Armed with the legendary sword Kentilla, you must destroy Grako and rid the land of evil. There are some very attractive (though rather small) graphics, and you will be accompanied by at least one other character on your travels. Kentilla has a reasonable vocabulary, simple input that nevertheless stretches occasionally to allow interaction with other characters, and a very good feel to the game. You'll meet some unusual creatures (well, their names are pretty unusual) and have to do quite a bit of sword-wielding to get anywhere. You'll also have to be very cautious because death is never very far away. It's good to see another company entering the adventure market, and Kentilla is a very worthwhile first attempt - come on, Micromega, let's have another. GATEWAY TO KAROS Meanwhile, Acornsoft have been busy on behalf of Beeb owners, and come up with Gateway to Karos. This is a traditional text-only treasure hunt in which you explore the legendary land of Karos hunting for the Talisman which you must then return to your starting point. As with Gisburne's Castle (reviewed last issue), the size of this game makes up for a lot of shortcomings. There are 250 locations to explore, not all of which are easily mappable, and visiting each one will take you quite a while. While you're roaming the countryside. however, you rapidly become aware of the program's deficiencies. First, the vocabulary is extremely limited. You can't even EXAMINE objects, let alone do anything like WAIT in a location. Furthermore the program does not tell you which word it doesn't understand when it rejects an input. For the most part this is a lonely adventure. The few other characters you'll come across can't leave their locations and have very limited roles. You can QUESTION a character or ASK simple questions and sometimes they'll answer you. In essence, the characters function as occasional HELP commands who will give you a hint if asked. The word HELP itself is not understood by the program. This isn't a bad game as Beeb adventures go. The puzzles aren't difficult but the game will keep you busy for a few hours and location descriptions are detailed enough to generate an atmosphere of exploration and discovery. QL GAMES The White Wizard was particularly intrigued to receive two adventures for the QL recently from talent Software. This machine is obviously a promising candidate for some impressive adventure software because of its memory and advanced processing capabilities, so I was interested to see whether these new arrivals lived up to my expectations. West is a conversion of Talent's existing game (reviewed in the September issue) and is made no more impressive by being on the QL. It's fast real-time action if you can keep up with it, but handy 128K blockbuster. Zkul is a much more promising program and while still in real time is much more a game for hardened adventurers. Your task is to find the Domed City of an ancient dwarf civilisation in which a wizard has hidden the last secret of its people. Along the way you explore the mountain domain of the dwarves picking up treasures and trying to find your ultimate goal. It is not just a matter of exploring, though. since there are problems to be solved and real-time battles with the occasional dwarf or adventurer who pops up. The game has obviously been some while in production and this is demonstrated by the size and complexity of both the locations and the vocabulary. There are, unfortunately, no graphics. One original touch is the ability to save a message when stopping the game so that you can remind yourself of where you had got to, and how, when you reload it, For QL owners starved of software it was a welcome relief to see such a good adventure to start the machines software career. Far from being a rushed-out conversion or an inferior game it is an excellent adventure likely to sell well and perhaps become a classic as the first great QL program. Sadly, the cost of microdrives is going to put a premium on QL software, so expect to pay between £15 and £20 for Zkul, although the exact price has yet to be announced. ZIM SALA BIM Finally a brief word about Zim Sala Bim for the Commodore 64. This unusual offering from Melbourne House is an arcade adventure where you use a joystick to control an animated figure on the screen as he wanders about a horizontally scrolling landscape. When I first saw Zim Sala Bim I was inclined to dismiss the program as a gimmick, but having played it more I'm not so sure. First, unlike most arcade adventures, there are some decent puzzles to he solved and the program generated a considerable atmosphere by the clever use of some excellent music. Playing the game you guide your figure from side to side and enter appropriate but limited instructions via the keyboard. Different locations have different tunes, all with a delicious oriental flavour, and although the graphics aren't exactly bursting at the seams with detail they are of a quite acceptable standard. My only complaint about ZSB was the way the pace of the game was dictated by the speed with which you could move the character about Moving from one place to another takes some time. However there are some very nice touches - enter LOOK for example and the figure looks all about him before the program tells you what he's seen. I doubt whether ZSB will appeal to hardened traditionalists, but I expect that newcomers to adventuring - and certainly younger children - will get a lot out of it. Melbourne House are planning another game along similar lines, so possibly the 'joy-stick adventure' is here to stay. Meanwhile it's worth noting that Kyle Hodgetts, the Australian author of Zim Sala Bim, is also bringing out games in conjunction with Interdisc (who produced the arcade hit Hercules). We'll be looking at one of these in the next issue. The next couple of months look like being a gold-mine for adventurers, so make sure you don't miss out on December's issue. In the meantime, the White Wizard wishes you a charmed life and keen blade in all your adventuring. GAME: Sherlock MACHINE: Spectrum 48K Atmosphere: 9/10 Complexity: 10/10 Interaction: 8/10 Overall: 9/10 GAME: Twin Kingdom Valley MACHINE: Spectrum 48K Atmosphere: 8/10 Complexity: 7/10 Interaction: 8/10 Overall: 8/10 GAME: Kentilla MACHINE: Spectrum 48K Atmosphere: 7/10 Complexity: 8/10 Interaction: 7/10 Overall: 8/10 GAME: Gateway To Karos MACHINE: BBC B Atmosphere: 6/10 Complexity: 7/10 Interaction: 5/10 Overall: 6/10 GAME: Zkul MACHINE: QL Atmosphere: 8/10 Complexity: 8/10 Interaction: 7/10 Overall: 8/10 GAME: Zim Sala Bim MACHINE: CBM 64 Atmosphere: 7/10 Complexity: 6/10 Interaction: 3/10 Overall: 6/10

Astounding graphics in Twin Kingdom Valley.

Sherlock to the rescue in this great, challenging adventure.

Zim Sala Bim: not just a gimmick.

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 8/10

John Gilbert 8/10

GET PAST THE GORILLA Memory: 48K Price: £7.95 Enter the domain of the two kings who rule Twin Valley Kingdom. Explore the forests, the mountain paths and the caverns of the land where eternal life is possible. You will meet other creatures which may have objects, such as broadswords, which you need. Those monsters are a motley crew and include rolls and gorillas. They have a nasty habit of throwing things at you and do not behave as intelligently as Bug-Byte claims. The location pictures are colourful and drawn at a speed which beats that of The Hobbit graphics. There are 180 locations of which 150 have corresponding screen pictures. Bug-Byte claims that it has crammed more locations and pictures into the Spectrum than any other company. That is a matter of opinion. Another attraction is the addition of speech if you have a Currah Microspeech unit. The game is excellent value for money. The only criticism is that little seems to happen until you have been playing it for some time and have found some of the objects which you need. That is all part of the simulation and dedicated adventure players should not be put off.

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