[{"TitleName":"The Korth Trilogy 1: Escape from Arkaron","Publisher":"Penguin Books Ltd","Author":"Peter K. McBride","YearOfRelease":"1983","ZxDbId":"0002748","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 24, Mar 1984","Price":"£0.85","ReleaseDate":"1984-02-16","Editor":"Bill Scolding","TotalPages":148,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Bill Scolding\r\nDeputy Editor: Nicole Segre\r\nConsultant Editor: Mike Johnston\r\nManaging Production Editor: Harold Mayes MBE\r\nSoftware Editor: John Gilbert\r\nProgram Reviewer: June Mortimer\r\nIllustrator/Designer: Brian King\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: John Ross\r\nSales Executive: Annette Burrows\r\nProduction Assistant: Dezi Epaminondou\r\nEditorial Assistant: Colette McDermott\r\nManaging Editor: Nigel Clark\r\nManaging Director: Terry Cartwright\r\nChairman: Richard Hease\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by ECC Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\nTelephone\r\nAll departments\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to any of the Sinclair User group of publications please send programs, articles or ideas for hardware projects to:\r\nSinclair User and Programs\r\nECC Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nPrograms should be on cassette and articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless a stamped-addressed envelope is included.\r\n\r\nWe will pay £10 for the copyright of each program published and £50 per 1,000 words for each article used.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1984\r\nSinclair User\r\nISSN NO. 0262-5458\r\n\r\nPrinted and typeset by Cradley Print PLC, [redacted]\r\n\r\nDistributed by Spotlight Magazine Distribution Ltd, [redacted]"},"MainText":"ROLL UP, ROLL UP! CIRCUS HAS COME TO TOWN\r\n\r\nQuentin Heath investigates the secret of the Big Top.\r\n\r\nAs the number of Spectrum adventures on the market increases, it is difficult to find one which is different in either concept or content. Adventures are usually graphics or text only and take place in underground locations, mysterious fantasy worlds, on battle fields, or in outer space.\r\n\r\nThat is not true of the Mysterious Adventure series from Digital Fantasia. One adventure from the company shows the differences from other adventures and the advances in both plot and quality the company has brought to the adventure market. The game is called Circus and it is for the 48K Spectrum.\r\n\r\nCircus is slightly different in format from other adventures, as you can switch between high-resolution graphics and text with an extra push of the ENTER key. The plot is unusual, as it takes place in and around a shadowy circus ground.\r\n\r\nFew hints are given as to what you should do in the circus or what you are seeking, but that is as it should be. The packaging gives some hints as to what to do when it indicates that you have become stranded near a circus when your car runs out of petrol.\r\n\r\nThe car is not the starting-point of the adventure and that could confuse you. It is a deliberate ruse to convince you that the car contains nothing of interest. First, you will find yourself in a field with only a few compass-point directional movements, such as south, east and west, from which to choose.\r\n\r\nAt the start it may seem as if you are limited in the moves you can make and to get anywhere into the game you need to discover an arcane secret of great difficulty. Nothing could be further from the truth. All you have to do is think of a different and more specific type of movement command, such as go, and then specify the direction in which you want to move. That makes the game very complex, as you will have to name the sites you want to visit in different sectors.\r\n\r\nThe main sectors in Circus are the field in which you start, the road and car which you can reach, using Go road followed by Go car, and the circus exterior and interior where much of the action will take place. Each of those sectors is discussed in the hints and tips panel.\r\n\r\nOne of the quests you will have to undertake is to find the petrol with which to fill your car to make your getaway. It could be in the generator which you will find near the circus or it could be in the dark depths of the tent. The generator is not working, so there is no power to go exploring in the tent. You will have to find your own, with a little help from hints and tips.\r\n\r\nThe secret of the petrol lies in the tent but you might like to explore the traps and pitfalls before you start to be involved with the quest. Learning from experience is usually the name of the game but there are some problems you can avoid with commonsense.\r\n\r\nYou may make a reasonable guess that most of the circus act equipment you find is in the tent and in the circus ring. The ladder you find hanging in mid-air. It seems to go up to the roof of the tent and is a temptation - if you ever wanted to swing on the trapeze you will find your wish granted if you can find the proper words to swing up to the top beams and canvas of the roof. If you jump from the trapeze you will land on the canvas of the roof and find nothing.\r\n\r\nIf you have a knife you could become a vandal, as the computer will accept the command to cut the canvas. Not much else seems to be possible from that vantage point and it is at that point, when you want to return to the ground, that you may have difficulty.\r\n\r\nYou may wish you had a map of the steps you took to get up to your precarious position. If you have not made a map you will become confused between ladders and swings. What you must not do is take out your rope, if you have it, and throw it. You might expect to find a quick way to the ground but the only thing you will get is a lost rope.\r\n\r\nOne other place to avoid is the human canon, unless you are trying to escape from the clown who keeps appearing. That character does little damage but he is difficult to follow.\r\n\r\nOne last strange, but useful, tip which can be given is that you should try and dig with your spade at every opportunity. No more said but you never know what you might discover.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately not all software companies have the definition of an adventure game, in the computer sense, completely correct. Penguin Books calls its Korth Trilogy an adventure consisting of three separate cassette-and-book packages.\r\n\r\nThe packages contain only a series of arcade games based on all-too-familiar concepts. Many of them seem to have been written first, with the story-line slotted around them afterwards.\r\n\r\nThe saddest aspect is that the concept of this series of packages, based on traditional adventure lines, is fascinating and more software companies should try it.\r\n\r\nThe only advice I can give if you still intend to buy Korth Trilogy is to keep the science fiction story-book with the package and throw away the cassette. The relationship between the two is thin and you would be much less embarrassed if you did not look at the software. Penguin is, on the whole, better as a publisher of literature and might be advised to stay in that field.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"131","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Quentin Heath","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"HINTS AND TIPS\r\n\r\nUseful items hidden close to the hand.\r\nDig with a spade in a field.\r\nYour car is not as useless as it seems.\r\nLook in the boot before you scream."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 31, May 1984","Price":"£0.85","ReleaseDate":"1984-04-16","Editor":"Tim Metcalfe","TotalPages":172,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"CREDITS\r\n\r\nEditor: Tim Metcalfe\r\nAssistant Editor: Eugene Lacey\r\nEditorial Assistant: Clare Edgeley\r\nStaff Writers/Reader Services: Robert Schifreen, Seamus St. John\r\nArt Editor: Linda Freeman\r\nDesigner: Lynda Skerry\r\nProduction Editor: Mary Morton\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Rob Cameron\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Louise Matthews\r\nAdvertising Executives: Bernard Dugdale, Sean Brennan\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Melanie Paulo\r\nProduction Assistant: Roy Stephens\r\nPublisher: Rita Lewis\r\n\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES POSTAL SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE. By using the special Postal Subscription Service, copies of COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES can be mailed direct from our offices each month to any address throughout the world. All subscription applications should be sent for processing to COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES (Subscription Department), [redacted]. All orders should include the appropriate remittance made payable to COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES. Annual subscription rates (12 issues): UK and Eire: £14. Additional service information including individual overseas airmail rates available upon request. Circulation Department: EMAP National Publications. Published and distributed by EMAP National Publications Ltd. Printed by Eden Fisher (Southend) Ltd.\r\n\r\nSpiderman TM and The Hulk TM copyright ©1984 by Marvel Comics Group, a division of Cadence Industries Corporation.\r\n\r\nCover Illustration and Lettering: Jerry Paris"},"MainText":"The Korth Trilogy is a set of three science fiction books from Puffin, each with a computer tape enclosed. On each tape three games are to be found, and each game relates to a part of the appropriate book.\r\n\r\nThe games are not Adventures, repeat NOT, adventure games. This rather upset me, as the packaging that comes with each implies the opposite. Instead, they are arcade/strategy games but are being reviewed here because the packaging suggests otherwise.\r\n\r\nI felt that the books are aimed at the eight to twelve year age group. Thus, if like me, you are out of that category, the stories seem rather boring.\r\n\r\nEach member of the trilogy is priced at £4.95 which is good value for money if you are in the appropriate age group and own either a 16k or 48k Spectrum. Of course, for the price, one cannot expect the games to give Ultimate any sleepless nights, but as a package they are superb. So here is a mini-review of each.\r\n\r\nThe first, Escape from Arkron is about three members of Interplanetary Patrol who go to Sirius and find the evil Korth Empire at work. The best game on this tape is Prisoner, where you lead four men on a mission to free Louis and escape, avoiding the deadly robot guards. I found this quite like a Berserk game, but with more robots.\r\n\r\nBesieged has only one game really worth playing and that is called Alpha. The aim is to reach the control room of Alpha base and solve the problem of trinary maths to re-program the Korth computer.\r\n\r\nAlpha is in many ways a graphical adventure, but as there is no proper vocabulary, and only graphical monster-bashing, it is not worth much more than to say it is great fun.\r\n\r\nThe last book is Into the Empire and the last game on the tape with it is, in my opinion, the best in the trilogy. The game is called Empire, and is one of the oldest games available for micros, being a simulation of the Empire's economy. You have to control the destiny of thirty planets, quell revolts and supply the empire's needs etc.\r\n\r\nOverall, I feel that Puffin did really well with this trilogy. Although it is true that the games are not the best in the world for the Spectrum, they are value for money. You may find the books worth a read too - but do not expect Asimov!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"129","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Simon Marsh","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Micro Adventurer Issue 4, Feb 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-01-19","Editor":"Graham Cunningham","TotalPages":52,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Graham Cunningham\r\nAssistant Editor: Carmel Anderson\r\nSoftware Editor: Graham Taylor\r\nMaster Adventurers: Tony Bridge, Mike Grace\r\nEditorial Secretary: Cleo Cherry\r\nAdvertisement Manager: David Lake\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Simon Langston\r\nAdministration: Theresa Lacy\r\nManaging Editor: Brendon Gore\r\nPublishing Director: Jenny Ireland\r\nTelephone number (all departments): [redacted]\r\nUK Address: [redacted]\r\nUS Address: [redacted]\r\nSubscriptions: UK £10.00 for 12 issues, overseas surface (excluding US and Canada) £16 for 12 issues, US and Canada air-lifted US$33.95 for 12 issues.\r\n\r\nMicro Adventurer is published monthly by Sunshine Books, Scot Press Ltd. Typesetting by In-Step Ltd, [redacted]. Printed by Eden Fisher (Southend) Ltd, [redacted]. Distributed by SM Distribution, [redacted].\r\n\r\nISSN 0265-4156\r\n\r\nRegistered at the Post Office as a newspaper.\r\n\r\n© Sunshine Books 1984"},"MainText":"TRILOGY SCORES ON STRATEGY AND LOGIC\r\n\r\nMICRO: Spectrum 16K or 48K\r\nPRICE: £4.95 each\r\nFORMAT: Cassette\r\nSUPPLIER: Puffin Books, Penguin Books Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nThis trilogy is of the zap and strategy variety. The Korth Empire is invading; can you repel it?\r\n\r\nThe programs contain one or two nice touches, such as choice of your control keys on the zap games and choice of objective on the strategy game in Escape from Arkaron.\r\n\r\nI must say that 'shoot 'em up' games leave me somewhat colder than Skegness on a wet Whit-Monday, but kids seem to like them.\r\n\r\nBut where the Korth Trilogy really scores is its strategy programs, with at least one on each tape. I'm a great fan of strategy games, and the logic required for kids has got to be educational.\r\n\r\nThe raid game in part one lets you enter your moves up to six turns in advance, not easy when you don't know what the enemy is doing to do.\r\n\r\nI particularly enjoyed Empire, the final program of part three, which is easily the best version I have seen of the Hamurabi genre.\r\n\r\nThe idea is that the Empire computer has broken down and you have to control production of three essential commodities on 30 individual planets. Full information is available on all 30 planets and overall performance is updated in bar graph form.\r\n\r\nI would say that Korth is aimed mainly at the eight to 14 years age group, although there are a couple of programs I shall do again.\r\n\r\nThe trilogy is presented as a series of program packs. It was released by Puffin Books for the Spectrum, which easily has the biggest market for young computer addicts.\r\n\r\nI ought to add that these packages are not adventures. For £4.95 you get a 50 page paperback book which, as you would expect from Puffin, is of excellent quality. You also get a cassette (surprise, surprise), which contains three programs, and both these items come inside a nice plastic display wallet.\r\n\r\nThe idea is that you read the book and then play the three games which are related to it.\r\n\r\nIt is not essential to buy all three packages, or even to buy them in order, as they are self-contained. The second and third books give a brief resume of what has gone before. Neither is it essential to read the book before doing the game.\r\n\r\nBy no stretch of my vivid imagination could I class myself in the age group at which Korth is aimed so my views have to be based accordingly.\r\n\r\nMy conclusions are that you shouldn't buy Korth if you are expecting a true adventure and, that you shouldn't expect the earth for £4.95. However, at this price they do represent good value.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"25","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Phil McDonald","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Micro Adventurer Issue 8, Jun 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-05-17","Editor":"Graham Cunningham","TotalPages":48,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Graham Cunningham\r\nAssistant Editor: Carmel Anderson\r\nSoftware Editor: Graham Taylor\r\nMaster Adventurers: Tony Bridge, Mike Grace\r\nEditorial Secretary: Cleo Cherry\r\nAdvertisement Manager: David Lake\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Simon Langston\r\nAdministration: Theresa Lacy\r\nManaging Editor: Brendon Gore\r\nPublishing Director: Jenny Ireland\r\nTelephone number (all departments): [redacted]\r\nUK Address: [redacted]\r\nUS Address: [redacted]\r\nSubscriptions: UK £10.00 for 12 issues, overseas surface (excluding US and Canada) £16 for 12 issues, US and Canada air-lifted US$33.95 for 12 issues.\r\n\r\nMicro Adventurer is published monthly by Sunshine Books, Scot Press Ltd. Typesetting by In-Step Ltd, [redacted]. Printed by Eden Fisher (Southend) Ltd, [redacted]. Distributed by SM Distribution, [redacted].\r\n\r\nISSN 0265-4156\r\n\r\nRegistered at the Post Office as a newspaper.\r\n\r\n© Sunshine Books 1984"},"MainText":"BOOKING-UP SOFTWARE GAMES\r\n\r\nJohn Fraser evaluates the book and software packages currently available.\r\n\r\n\"You've read the book, now play the game\" seems to becoming an increasingly popular slogan in advertisements for adventure games. Since the spectacular success of The Hobbit several other companies have moved into producing bookware, books combined with software cassettes in one package.\r\n\r\nSometimes, however, the games bear little resemblance to the books on which they are supposed to be based and the attractive packaging can be quite misleading. Indeed, the diversity of approaches, not only to the games but even to the books, makes choosing a suitable package all rather confusing for the new enthusiast.\r\n\r\nAlmost all the currently available bookware falls into the general categories of science fiction or fantasy, which raises several interesting questions. For example how suitable are these genres for translating into micro adventures? How closely do the games follow the books? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these to mediums? Are such packages all that they claim to be?\r\n\r\nFirst of all there are several obvious but nevertheless fundamental differences between books and software which concern their physical formats alone. For one thing a book is portable. You can read a book anywhere, whereas you cannot - at least not yet - take your micro on a train journey and play adventure games, except with printed versions such as The Warlock of Firetop Mountain and subsequent titles.\r\n\r\nESCAPE\r\n\r\nNor do you have to wait before you can read a book. A long adventure like The Hobbit takes several minutes to load and even then you may experience loading difficulties or find that the game does not always do what it should. My copy of The Hobbit for example, crashes when I try to escape through the trap door in the Elvenking's cellar and this has been known to happen with other copies.\r\n\r\nIt is easy, too, to keep your place in a book. If you wish to return to a particular page you can do so almost instantaneously. Although you can save your current game position in many adventures, the process is time consuming and much less convenient. Nevertheless, it is a useful option if you have just spent several hours exploring the farthest reaches of Middle Earth and dread the thought of having to start all over again the following night.\r\n\r\nFor those with printers, The Hobbit enables you to obtain print-outs of the adventure windows so that you can examine your progress at any time. Effectively, you have your own program-generated story in which you decide the course of the action. One wonders whether fiction writers will eventually be churning out best selling novels with special novel-writing programs?\r\n\r\nWith the memory limitations of home micros full length novels or, for that matter, text adventures of a similar size, are out of the question, although Gilsoft's new adventure-writing program The Quill, now means that anyone can write their own adventures without any previous experience of programming.\r\n\r\nFrom what has just been said it might appear that adventure games are too much of a hassle to be worth playing. As I hope to show, however, this is certainly not the case since the different formats that the games can take are extremely varied.\r\n\r\nThe book may be a straightforward novel or story such as Colin Kapp's The Pen and the Dark or may be arranged, as in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, in the manner of a programmed learning course whereby the reader selects different options at each stage of the narrative and so becomes an active participant in the adventure.\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, the games may be pure text adventures which follow the story closely (The Pen and the Dark); text and graphic adventures (The Hobbit); arcade maze games which bear little resemblance to the book (Warlock); or adventures offering selected incidents from the story with strategy or arcade type games (Korth Trilogy).\r\n\r\nThe imaginary worlds of science fiction and fantasy are natural choices for software writers. One of the advantages of producing a game based on a previously published novel or story is that you have a ready-made scenario and here there is no shortage. The Hobbit was an early classic which has inspired fantasy writers ever since. Originally published in 1937, the book appeared well before the first mainframe computer became operational, but if ever there was a ready-made scenario this was it.\r\n\r\nHEROES\r\n\r\nThe plot is virtually a blueprint for fantasy adventures: a journey across a vast and often inhospitable land in search of precious gold. Along the way Bilbo, a hobbit, in the company of dwarfs meets all sorts of creatures - goblins, elves, trolls and ultimately the evil dragon, Smaug.\r\n\r\nWarlock concerns a similar quest, although in this case you take on the role of the hero and have to locate the Warlock's treasure, hidden deep within the dungeons of Firetop mountain.\r\n\r\nThe Pen and the Dark and the Korth Trilogy represent two ends of the science fiction spectrum. The Pen and the Dark is the only one to be based on a strictly scientific premise and is one of five stories by Colin Kapp, about the various anomalies investigated by Fritz Van Noon of the Unorthodox Engineers. In this story he attempts to solve the mystery of the Dark, a vast mushroom-shaped artefact left by an alien intelligence. The Dark appears to be indestructible, absorbing all the energy that the Unorthodox Engineers can unleash. Surrounding the Dark itself is the Pen, the region which negates all energy.\r\n\r\nThe Korth Trilogy tells of how three young heroes eventually save the earth from repeated attacks by the mighty Korth empire. This is sheer space opera, cowboys and Indians among the stars following in the wake of Star Wars and the kind of simple scenario one finds in so many arcade games.\r\n\r\nEven though all these books are quite different from each other they nevertheless have one common feature. They describe imaginary worlds that are subject to the same laws that govern our own or else possess an internal consistency which the reader can believe in. Even in Middle Earth, where magic rings and fire-breathing dragons are taken for granted, logical limitations are imposed. Bilbo has very human weaknesses and emotions, and is the sort of reluctant hero the readers can readily identify with.\r\n\r\nThere are several factors which ought to be considered whether you are setting out to convert your favourite book into a mammoth adventure or merely trying to decide which package to spend your money on first. Clearly, if you happen to be familiar with any of the books you are on surer ground. Although these considerations inevitably overlap to some degree, they fall roughly into three main areas which I shall look at in turn.\r\n\r\nATTACK\r\n\r\nBelievability: is the fictional world so credible that the reader becomes thoroughly immersed in the events, characters and places in the book? The Hobbit is one of those rare books that people read again and again, and yet the story remains the same each time. So does the game add anything to the reader's enjoyment of the book? And what about those games which only portray selected incidents from a story? if the book is not essential to playing the game is it of any value?\r\n\r\nInterest: are some games so complex that you would rather just sit down with the book and passively absorb the story, leaving the game alone? In The Hobbit events proceed slightly differently each time you play the game. There is an element of the unexpected, with the possibility of being attacked at any moment. It is also possible to interact with the main characters so that the story becomes more your own creation.\r\n\r\nThe Pen and the Dark, in contrast, is a fixed adventure, but the problems raised in the game are sufficiently complex to sustain your interest for hours. Warlock and the Korth Trilogy are graphic adventures only and cannot really be compared to the text from which they are derived.\r\n\r\nEase of Play: this overlaps to some extent with the need to capture the player's interest. Without clear and complete documentation you are only going to find the game too frustrating to play. With some packages fairly comprehensive booklets are included that offer advice on such things as communicating with the other characters, crossing rivers and so on.\r\n\r\nWith others you can obtain a sheet of hints for solving most of the problems that you encounter, although without giving too much away. The graphic adventures such as Warlock and the Korth Trilogy are self-contained, with full instructions appearing on the screen.\r\n\r\nHaving now established some criteria for assessing bookware, let us take a closer look at each package in turn and see how the software writers have tackled the problem of converting a book into an adventure game. Each combination of book and software cassete illustrates different features which I shall focus on.\r\n\r\nThe obvious example to begin with is The Hobbit, since the game has been a bestseller for some time and is often regarded as the adventure by which all others should be judged. It also contains several innovations which are either difficult or quite impossible to reproduce in book form.\r\n\r\nIt is not difficult to see why The Hobbit has been so highly praised, even though more recent examples, such as Valhalla, have extended the possibilities of adventures still further, so that you can now actually see the characters moving in accordance with your instructions. But The Hobbit was revolutionary because it not only combined a text adventure with high-resolution graphics, but also displayed some degree of artificial intelligence.\r\n\r\nThe player could communicate with the characters in the story using plain English, or Inglish, as the publishers have chosen to call it. Naturally there were limitations to the Inglish language but this novel feature was a considerable advance.\r\n\r\nThe ability of the characters to lead independent lives also enhanced the appeal of the game enormously. Elrond invariably gives you different directions each time you ask him to read the map. Often Thorin refuses to co-operate when you ask him to help you escape from the goblin's dungeon.\r\n\r\nAnd, on rare occasions, you may be captured in Beorn's house and find yourself in the Elvenking's Hall. In fact, there is no one solution to The Hobbit. As anyone who claims to have finished the game will know, you may still be making new discoveries each time you play it.\r\n\r\nREPRODUCED\r\n\r\nThe textual descriptions are concise and, unlike pure text adventures, there are no lengthy descriptive passages. You are not told what Gollum or a vicious warg looks like because all that is in the book. What you do get is a basic description of your location, such as \"You are in a dark dungeon in the Elvenking's Hall. To the south west there is a red door...\" and there is an attractive picture of the dungeon on the screen. The book fills you in on the atmosphere of the place and describes Bilbo's predicament and his reactions to it, in a way which no text and graphics could hope to do.\r\n\r\nThe real time element, however, cannot be reproduced in book form. As you ponder over your next move all the other characters are going about their business, which means you cannot spend too long hanging around. Thorin will soon tell you to hurry up or he will sit down and start singing about gold.\r\n\r\nThe game also allows you to explore various locations. You may look through doors and windows to see what lies beyond or who might be waiting for you. You can follow characters, examine objects, eat and drink. In fact live out a surprisingly real existence.\r\n\r\nThere are some slight departures from the book, though the sequence of events are much the same. One significant difference is that Bilbo has lost 13 dwarfs and only has the chief dwarf, Thorin, and the wizard, Gandalf, to accompany him. Another is that the answer to Gollum's riddle is not the same as it is in the book. Then again, you may find objects which do not appear in the book at all, such as the golden key in the Misty Valley.\r\n\r\nOPTIONS\r\n\r\nThe success of the game has a good deal to do with how much it involves the player in the action. But it is equally due to Tolkien's own fertile imagination which created the evocative land of Middle Earth and its host of characters in such convincing detail. Tolkien's world has long had a steady stream of visitors and now newcomers, or already hardened travellers, have the opportunity to become in a sense part of that creation.\r\n\r\nWith The Warlock of Firetop Mountain we are on somewhat different ground, although the invented worlds of Middle Earth and the Warlock's lair have a good deal in common. It was first published in 1982 and since then more than one million copies have been sold. The book offers a comparatively cheap means of adventure gaming, which has more in common with dungeons and dragons type role-playing games: your initial characteristics are determined beforehand by rolling die and recording the results on an adventure sheet.\r\n\r\nYou start with the minimum of equipment - a sword, rucksack with food and drink and a shield. You may find other objects along the way. To restore your skill, stamina or luck points you can take a magic potion at any time. Whenever you have to fight a creature there is an elaborate combat system and escape options are sometimes provided.\r\n\r\nThe book attempts to simulate a degree of randomness by continually providing different options for the player and facilities whereby he can test his luck and so on. While this is a demanding and time-consuming adventure, you do get the satisfaction of being able to deal with all sorts of nasty creatures yourself and, should you succeed, the additional enjoyment in having discovered the treasure. Unlike Bilbo's quest there is only one route to your journey's end, although it can take you several attempts before you find the correct one.\r\n\r\nAs a marked contrast the game is an arcade type in which you manoeuvre a figure through a complex maze and have to collect 15 keys to unlock the treasure chest and find the way out. All manner of creatures may attack you, but you have to react quickly for this is a very fast game. Often, there are lengthy periods when little happens at all.\r\n\r\nThe book conveys far more of the atmosphere of the place than the game does. You cannot really imagine the dark dungeons and slimy walls when zapping around the maze; nor do you have much time to think things over. The book does not fall victim to the memory limitations of many home micros and so can afford to devote far more space to description. As in an exciting novel you feel compelled to read on, only here you take on the role of the hero which adds greatly to the suspense. Will some loathsome creature be waiting for you behind the door? Will you manage to cross the fast-flowing river? Will you even survive the journey to the Warlock's treasure?\r\n\r\nThe element of suspense is lacking in the game. The emphasis falls more on fast reactions and good co-ordination. For the experience of being involved in a fully realised world of fantasy you need the book, but at least the combination offers a choice of formats for less than the price of many adventures.\r\n\r\nThe Korth Trilogy consists of three book/software packages. There are three games on each tape representing episodes from the narrative. While some of the games are of the arcade variety, others are strategic with layouts that resemble board games on which the player moves his men around usually in an attempt to infiltrate the alien base.\r\n\r\nThe inside cover of each book gives notes on the accompanying programs, together with page references to the incidents in the story. But the games can quite easily be played without having to read the books. Sufficient information is provided on the screen. It is best, though, to make notes before trying to play them because there is a good deal to remember.\r\n\r\nIn the first book, Escape from Arkaron, the heroes test-fly a newly developed ultra light ship. When tests prove successful they venture out to an inner planet of the Sirius system, where they make their first contact with the Korth empire.\r\n\r\nThe related games tape contains Testrun, an uninspiring game which shows the simulator developed after the first test run. The object is to fly either to Sirius or Pluto, avoiding the continuous stream of meteors that scroll jerkily down an oblong window in the centre of the screen. There is a similar simulation game on the second tape, which is a lunar lander type and adding little to your enjoyment of the book.\r\n\r\nThere are other games which allow the player to participate in the more exciting incidents, such as Prisoner in which your mission is to rescue one of your men from the Korth prison and have to fight your way along a maze of corridors to free him from the cell. In Alpha, on the second tape, you must find and reprogram the computer responsible for sending unmanned Korth ships towards the solar system. You can move up the floors via lifts or stairs, though you do have to watch out for unfriendly guards along the way.\r\n\r\nOne game even portrays events which supposedly occurred before the story opens. In Empire you must have to run the empire while the computer is being repaired. You must deal with uprisings, shortages, overproduction and so on. This is perhaps the most interesting game in the trilogy although, as the situation does not arise in the story, the books are of no help at all.\r\n\r\nCONTRIVED\r\n\r\nFor your children these packages are worthwhile. The games will doubtless encourage the child to read the books and vice versa. Sometimes, however, the pace of the story momentarily slackens. When the trio is testing the revolutionary space drive, for example, the reader is bombarded with technical data which might have been better relegated to an appendix for all the good it does in advancing the plot. It is almost as if the stories were written after the games and the incidents slotted into place around them.\r\n\r\nBooks written specifically for computer games are more likely to be contrived, because the writer has written to a predetermined formula rather than sought inspiration from his imagination. In the case of the Korth Trilogy the same writer was responsible for the books and the games.\r\n\r\nBut effective characterisation, literary style makes for entertaining fiction which can so easily be discarded as the player presses on with the action. An exciting story, though, is what children generally want to read and, on the whole, this is just what the Korth Trilogy, with its intergalactic battles and desperate missions and character development, provides in abundance.\r\n\r\nFRUSTRATING\r\n\r\nFor a more intellectually demanding adventure you may prefer The Pen and the Dark, which follows the main events in Colin Kapp's ingenious story: the engineers' investigations of the Pen and their attempts to gain entry into the Dark.\r\n\r\nThe game introduces new problems concerning how to obtain and use the equipment necessary to complete your objective.\r\n\r\nFortunately a hints sheet is available from the publisher, although even then, you may well find yourself in extremely frustrating situations. You can spend much of the time trying to open doors which cannot be opened until you have completed some other task, if only you knew what that other task was.\r\n\r\nAt least there is no real time element to contend with, so you can take as long as you like over a problem without feeling threatened.\r\n\r\nThe instructions recommended that you read only the first section of the story before playing the game, otherwise your enjoyment of finding out the secrets of the quest and perhaps the conclusion of the story for yourself may be considerably reduced.\r\n\r\nLike The Hobbit the text is minimal, but often the program will respond to meaningless inputs in a rather more humorous vein. At the same time the responses can be irritating when you have tried everything you can think of and do not seem to be making any headway.\r\n\r\nWhile The Pen and the Dark lacks the innovative features of The Hobbit, it certainly throws out a challenge to anyone who delights in problem-solving. It is very much a matter of personal taste which sort of game is to be preferred. And, of course, as with literary awards, no two players will agree on what they consider to be the best package.\r\n\r\nCOMPLEMENT\r\n\r\nIn any case it is not a question of whether one is better than another; the games are simply different.\r\n\r\nWhich is not to say that book/software packages cannot be evaluated at all. At least we can affirm a general principle: that adventures, whether text, graphics or both, should not be a substitute for the book, but that one should complement the other. Ideally, playing the game will lead to a greater appreciation of the book, while reading the book at the appropriate stage leads to a greater understanding of the game.\r\n\r\nBook/software packages are becoming increasingly popular with software writers and publishers. While taking plots from existing books may be less work for programmers short on original ideas, established book publishers are recognising the enormous potential that such packages can have.\r\n\r\nREVOLUTION\r\n\r\nNumerous projects are reported to be under development, among them Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat from Mosaic, a Tolkienesque fantasy from Century and, for the BBC micro, The War of the Worlds from CRL.\r\n\r\nAnd Quicksilva's recent release based on Raymond Briggs children's book The Snowman is bound to be a great success. Like the Korth Triology this is not an adventure game, although it does involve the child in ways that are unusual.\r\n\r\nWhether we are heading for the software revolution that some writers are forecasting remains to be seen. But certainly bookware shows all the signs of being a growth area, and the sort of combinations likely to be dreamed up over the next few months is very much open to speculation.\r\n\r\n((c) Sunshine Books for UK magazine rights - otherwise ((c) John Fraser).","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"32,33,35,36","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"John Fraser","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]