[{"TitleName":"Africa Gardens","Publisher":"Gilsoft International","Author":"Terry Greer, The Design Studio, Tom Davies","YearOfRelease":"1984","ZxDbId":"0005932","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 4, May 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-04-19","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":128,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nProduction Designer: David Western\r\nArt Editor: Oliver Frey\r\nClient Liaison: John Edwards\r\nStaff Writer: Lloyd Mangram\r\nContributing Writers: Matthew Uffindel, Chris Passey\r\nSubscription Manager: Denise Roberts\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nTelephone numbers\r\nEditorial [redacted]\r\nSubscriptions [redacted]\r\nAdvertising [redacted]\r\nHot Line [redacted]\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nColour origination by Scan Studio, [redacted]\r\nPrinted in England by Plymouth Web Offset Ltd, [redacted].\r\nDistribution by Comag, [redacted]\r\nAdditional setting and process work by The Tortoise Shell Press, [redacted].\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £9.00 UK Mainland (post free)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post free).\r\n\r\nWe cannot undertake to return any written or photographic material sent to CRASH MICRO unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Gilsoft\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\nRetail Price: £5.95\r\nLanguage: Machine code\r\nAuthor: Tom Davies\r\n\r\nUnder the general trading of The Gold Collection, Africa Gardens is one of Gilsoft's new adventure games which has been written with The Quill adventure writing utility. While the game loads, there is a very detailed title-page to admire, showing a low wall, topped with luxuriant foliage and split by a large stairway leading up to the colonial-looking mansion which tops the hill. A board in the garden says, Africa Gardens Hotel.\r\n\r\nAfter a long journey you find yourself standing outside the faded Victorian guest house under a cold, wintry sky. Evening is closing in with misty rain adding its eerily swirling touch to the Hammer horror film-like scene-setter. You are told, 'Mr Robinson insists on your every comfort in the hope that you will extend your stay. Indeed, Mr Robinson hopes that you may be amongst his many guests who feel they can never leave.'\r\n\r\nWith this chilling formal courtesy, the player is led into a deceptively quiet, elegant and respectable mansion redolent of past guests and their comfortable stays. The mechanics of the game are what we are used to. You can get objects, drop them and 'spell' them, which releases any latent magical powers or breaks other spells. Some objects may help, others may hinder or not be needed until later - and as yet unknown - locations. Africa Gardens uses the Quill's inbuilt objects conveyable figure, which means you may only carry four at a time. A lit candle may be a boon for this murky hotel's upper reaches, and to have the Book of Spells is sheer magic (power to your elbow). Needless to say, Africa Gardens has its very own secret room, a few priest-holes and its hidden treasure that is very well hidden! Unlike many hotels, this one has only one exit, and the management sincerely hope you don't get to use it!\r\n\r\nAlthough very largely text only, the author has dropped into a few sudden graphics here and there.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nResponse: instant\r\nGraphics: simple text in coloured boxes, some object graphics and a few location graphics all instantly generated","ReviewerComments":["Quilled adventures have an instant response to input, so there's no waiting around. The text is very clear, with usable objects tagged by coloured bars, some of which flash. Using Inventory, when you are carrying four objects, can make for a veritable fireworks display of colours and flashing! There are numerous locations and a map is an essential, especially when you have to keep dropping objects in order to pick others up. You can then note on the map where exactly you left them. The hotel's rooms echo with sounds of people never quite seen, cigar smoke lingers in the air, warm food is still on the dining-room table - some of it not very nice at all. The descriptions are excellent, detailed and dripping with atmosphere. The normal horrors of grammar and mix-spelling so common in many adventures seem to have been winkled out in this one, apart from the spalshing water in the fountain - but perhaps that's a clue?\r\r\nUnknown","I think this game has the best atmosphere created by the location descriptions in any adventure yet. You can literally picture the rooms in your mind's eye, even smell them. So, even if you never get anywhere near a solution, exploring the house is an experience in itself. And there's always this nagging feeling that if you start again you might just find that overlooked little room that will make all the difference. It's very addictive.\r\r\nUnknown","In most adventures some form of LOOK, SEARCH or EXAMINE seems to work, but not in this one. This leaves you bereft of the usual options for discovering more about an object or a situation, and forces you to be even more ingenious than usual. If you're a sucker for a supernatural challenge then a visit to Africa Gardens may well be beneficial for your health (meals apart - tasty-looking dishes can make you throw up when you discover what they really are). The pets, too, can take against you for no apparent reason. Despite your inability to EXAMINE or EXPLORE, exploration or the house and the gloomy gardens with their freshly turned soft earth results in descriptions that might have come from a Dennis Wheatley novel and quitting could well be more to do with having to keep looking over your shoulder while playing than a failure to find the exit - and don't forget, Mr Robinson returns at three...\r\nUnknown"],"OverallSummary":"General rating: Excellent, addictive and very good value for money.","Page":"51","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Use of Computer","Score":"80%","Text":""},{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"60%","Text":""},{"Header":"Playability","Score":"86%","Text":""},{"Header":"Getting Started","Score":"90%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Qualities","Score":"93%","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"94%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"84%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 28, Jul 1984","Price":"£0.85","ReleaseDate":"1984-06-21","Editor":"Bill Scolding","TotalPages":148,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Bill Scolding\r\nDeputy Editor: John Gilbert\r\nConsultant Editor: Mike Johnston\r\nManaging Production Editor: Harold Mayes MBE\r\nStaff Writer: Chris Bourne\r\nIllustrator/Designer: Craig Kennedy\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: John Ross\r\nProduction Assistant: Dezi Epaminondou\r\nEditorial Assistant: Colette McDermott\r\nManaging Editor: Nigel Clark\r\nAssistant Managing Director: Barry Hazel\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 Sinclair User 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":"IMAGINATION UNLIMITED\r\n\r\nIs Gilsoft weak Quilled? Quentin Heath thinks not.\r\n\r\nThe Quill, an adventure game generator from Gilsoft, has evoked a mixed reaction from critics. The technical excellence of the program is not disputed but its spawn, the games compiled using it, have been treated with suspicion by both seasoned adventure players and critics.\r\n\r\nThe critics have been quick to say that the plethora of games generated by The Quill, and released by Gilsoft and others, are almost identical in structure and, in many cases, futile and uninventive. The argument is that anything which has been cloned from another program will be inferior to a program which has been handwritten from beginning to end.\r\n\r\nRather than taking the well-worn path and examining The Quill again, I decided to look at the final products from that program which Gilsoft has called the Gold Collection.\r\n\r\nThe adventures in the Gold series are varied in content and complexity. The six titles are Spyplane, a story of espionage; Magic Castle and Barsak the Dwarf, which lie in the Dungeons and Dragons field; Mindbender, for science fiction enthusiasts, African Gardens, an adventure for lovers of mystery; and Diamond Trail, for the specialist in detection and whodunnits.\r\n\r\nMost of the adventures are easy to play but in an irritating way. A case in point is Barsak the Dwarf. You play Barsak, who must search an ancient castle for nine treasures and a visitors' book which you must sign to leave alive. According to the critics the game would be simply a case of wandering round a maze of locations, built around a standard structure, but The Quill is so versatile that it allows a designer to build extra facilities into an adventure.\r\n\r\nFor instance, in Barsak the author has created a sttuat ion where the main character will die unless he can find food within 17 moves. Once food has been found, in a lar of pickles, a quest for water must begin.\r\n\r\nBarsak contains a quest within a quest. The dwarf must look continually for food while searching for treasure. There is no end, except for the limitations of memory space, to the number of quests which can be built into one package.\r\n\r\nOne criticism of The Quill which can be sustained is that the program has to put some restrictions on the way in which an adventure runs so that it can operate. The Quill limits input to a compiled program to one line at a time. For most entries needing one verb and a noun, that would be sufficient but if, for instance, you want to pick up more than two objects you must select the first two and press 'ENTER', then the second two, and follow the same process until all the objects have been collected. That seems to be the only instance in which The Quill affects an adventure in an adverse way.\r\n\r\nTo show the types of adventure The Quill can produce I compared Barsak to another adventure from the Gold series, Spyplane. The plot is certainly different and concerns a search for submarines which you see from your aircraft. By comparing the HELP and INVENTORY functions with those of Barsak you can see the differences between the two programs instantly.\r\n\r\nSpyplane is more developed as an adventure. The descriptions are lengthy and the INVENTORY has been used more as an additional HELP sheet than as a list of equipment. For instance, you are told about the state of the instruments on that page.\r\n\r\nThe author has also built in an instructions option which gives hints on how to play a particular part of the game. With HELP you must take pot luck on a reply but INSTRUCTIONS is more informative.\r\n\r\nSpyplane is more difficult to play than Barsak as you find yourself in an aircraft and are told very little about what you have to do. By using the instruments you will learn more about your task but at the risk of alerting the enemy.\r\n\r\nThe descriptions of the terrain are evocative but not over-long. There are no spelling mistakes in the text, which is more than can be said for some handwritten textual adventures.\r\n\r\nSpyplane is also supplied with a leaflet showing a map of the area in which your aircraft is flying. That is a necessity, as you cannot use graphics, a growing area in adventure games, with The Quill. No doubt some people would find the lack of graphics, where necessary, a fault with the program. It could, however, be argued that setting-up graphics occupies much space within memory which could be used for more text and locations. The lack of graphics facilities in The Quill is therefore, a benefit to users in the long run.\r\n\r\nLooking at The Quill it may be possible to see the way in which an adventure is fitted over a pre-defined grid of locations each time a game is created but the games produced by it hide the mechanical creation process well. It is a case of not being able to see the seams of an adventure, because of the way the author has the imagination to create something different. It is, after all, the programmer and not the program which controls the way a game progresses.\r\n\r\nThe limitations of The Quill are only those of formatting the screen and the way responses are put into the computer. The Quill is adaptable enough to cope with new ideas of the programmer, such as an instruction function in Spylane or the continual quests for food and drink in Barsak the Dwarf. Neither are there restrictions on the storyline. Games could be set in fictional or realistic surroundings - the program does not differentiate.\r\n\r\nEssentially The Quill offers the programmer a new high-level language rather like Basic. Although Basic has only a set number of statements, the number of applications to which you can apply the language are endless and restricted only imagination.\r\n\r\nIn the proper hands, The Quill produces programs on a par with handwritten commercial programs and it is that qualification which has to be made clear. The Quill is a tool, just as is Basic. With skilled use it can do wonders.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"127","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Quentin Heath","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Big K Issue 5, Aug 1984","Price":"£0.85","ReleaseDate":"1984-07-20","Editor":"Tony Tyler","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Tony Tyler\r\nAssisted By: Richard Burton\r\nArt Editor: Ian Stead\r\nFeatures: Nicky Xikluna\r\nContributors: Andy Green; Kim Aldis; Paul Walton; Steve Keaton; Patrick Martin; Richard Taylor; Bernard Turner; David Rimmer; Richard Cook\r\nCartoons: Tony Benyon\r\nGroup Art Editor: Doug Church\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Robin Johnson [redacted]\r\nPublisher: Barry Leverett\r\nEditorial Address: [redacted]\r\nTelephone: [redacted]\r\n\r\nPublished approximately on the 20th of each month by IPC Magazines Ltd. [redacted]. Monotone and colour origination by G.M. Litho Ltd [redacted]. Printed in England by Chase Web Offset, Cornwall. Sole Agents: Australia and New Zealand, Gordon& Gotch (A/sia) Ltd.; South Africa, Central News Agency Ltd. BIG K is sold subject to the following conditions, namely that it shall not, without the written consent of the Publishers first given, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise disposed of by way of trade at more than the recommended selling price shown on the cover, and that it shall not be lent, resold or hired out or otherwise disposed of in a mutilated constitute or any unauthorised cover by way of trade or affixed to as part of any publication or advertising, literary or pictorial matter whatsoever. IPC MAGAZINES 1984."},"MainText":"QUILL AT THE SHARP END\r\n\r\nSome months ago, the appearance of The Quill adventure-writing tool threatened to revolutionise this arcane skill. The first 'official' batch of Quill-generated progs has just arrived - the Quill Gold collection. our Man Keaton gives them the twice-over...\r\n\r\nMAKER: Gilsoft\r\nMACHINE: 48K Spectrum\r\nPRICE: £5.95\r\n\r\nIt was with a disgruntled grimace that I finally admitted defeat. I'd tried until my paws were numb and my eyes radish-red, but all to no avail. The Gold collection remained intact. An arrogant pile of unyielding plastic. Quietly I wished a plague of German tourists would descend upon Gilsoft's Glamorgan H.Q.\r\n\r\nI'd fully intended to fly through the first official (sic) collection of Quill adventures, despatching both praise and potatoes to all in equal amounts, but t'was not to be. Your humble adventurer (I use the term loosely) was soon bogged down in mire of mystery. Defeat was inevitable. I went down smiling.\r\n\r\nThe Quill is clearly the single most useful utility currently available for the potential Spectrum games designer (although with both Scope2 and The Dungeon Creator awaiting appraisal company could be on the way). Almost single-handedly it's rescued would-be authors from the rigours of stone and chisel programming and delivered unto them a remarkable writing tool. Its creative potential is enormous. The CBM 64 version, to be available shortly, is even more exciting as it offers greater use of colour and sound as well as some much needed access to the interpreter (what I wouldn't do to dump that 'Have a nice day!' tag line). Interestingly while the entire collection has been compiled on The Quill, none look alike. They're all infuriatingly individual. All run on the 48K Spectrum.\r\n\r\nThe Adventures Of Barsak The Dwarf is probably the least interesting of the bunch. Assuming the role of a squat, axewielding dwarf (no great stretch of the imagination needed there. eh Burton?) you must attempt to recover some fabled treasures of the underworld. Original indeed! The treatment is generally lacklustre and the gameplay dull. Even worse there's the dreaded 'starvation' routine to contend with. You can barely open a door before being confronted by some dumb \"I'm awful hungry! (rumble)\" message. Fail to find some eats by the 17th turn and you unceremoniously kick the can. This exact same routine is detailed in the Quill tutorial which can only indicate an immense lack of imagination on the part of the authors. It bodes ill for the rest of the piece.\r\n\r\nDevil's Island also appears to crib heavily from the Quill manual. Indeed the first location almost duplicates the utility's built in example! However such cheek is forgiven as it quickly becomes obvious that author Colin Smith has crafted an ingenious and devious adventure here. You begin incarcerated in some dark dank cell on the legendary penal colony and must gamely break jail and bid for freedom through the treacherous tropical rain forest. Neatly scripted with some humorous asides and ferocious puzzles, Island threatens to become a major headache. It appears to be the toughest adventure in the collection.\r\n\r\nMindbender is another riot in cell block 11 opus. Having been warped through a telephone wire by a unintelligible Welshman (painful), you're casually entombed in an underground prison complex, captive of a dastardly bunch intent on world domination. Streaked with humour and free sudden death routines and cheap-shot mazes, Mindbender is quite a lark. For example those that dare ask for help are chastised with a terse: \"What do think this is The Hobbit?\" message. Expect more info as I wade deeper.\r\n\r\nOLDER GOLD\r\n\r\nAn older program now repackaged in the distinctive Gold livery is Magic Castle. The title of course promises all manner of hackneyed cliches. You load up expecting the usual potpourri of trolls, demi-demons, monsters and maidens but (surprise) find only exploding footballs, grouchy coppers and obstinate suitcases. It's hardly a serious affair. There's a certain amount of sudden death involved and not one but two exasperating mazes so to avoid total frustration save your position frequently. Something of a dark horse I'd say.\r\n\r\nAnother elder relative is Diamond Trail, in which you hunt down the missing Sinclive diamond. Like Castle it's a little quirky and only really distinguished by a puritanical swear routine. All in all overtly zany and unremarkable.\r\n\r\nAfrica Gardens on the other hand is something of a gem. Ignore the breezy summer hols cover artwork and prepare yourself for an excellent old dark house mystery, full of creaking doors and reeking cobwebs. Beautifully written and garishly coloured it's to my mind the best game in the collection. Indeed it looks set to be fave of the year, which is no mean feat considering the competition. Author Tom Davies has even used the Quill to build up some quite respectable graphics! Yes, it can be done folks! Trapped inside an old dark hotel you must solve the mystery of the missing guests before joining their forgotten ranks! While creeping tremulously about the ground floor I fully expected to bump into a deranged Norman Bates and his flock of screeching violinists! I dread to think what waits upstairs once I light the candle...\r\n\r\nSpyplane is another remarkable effort. This time the adventure system has been used to create, of all things, a flight simulator! In it you become captain of a long range reconnaissance plane intent on gathering information on an enemy battle fleet bobbing about some 15000 feet below. On hand there's a brace of equipment to help including sonar, radar, camera and ionisation detectors. Thankfully there's an accompanying leaflet detailing the use of this hi-tech junk. You even get a map although this proved of little use - I spend the majority of my air time careering in to fog enshrouded mountains. It's all incredibly inventive and rather puzzling. Which I guess is the idea.\r\n\r\nAnd so goes Gilsoft's Volume one. A truly creditable collection of pure text adventures which'll no doubt see me pulling out nostril hairs for many months to come.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"44","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Steve Keaton","Score":"1","ScoreSuffix":"/3"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"3/3","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair Programs Issue 23, Sep 1984","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1984-08-16","Editor":"Rebecca Ferguson","TotalPages":60,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Rebecca Ferguson\r\nConsultant Editor: John Campbell\r\nStaff Writer: June Mortimer\r\nDesign: Elaine Bishop\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Howard Rosen\r\nProduction Assistant: Jim McClure\r\nEditorial Assistant: Colette McDermott\r\nSubscription Manager: Carl Dunne\r\nAssistant Publisher: Neil Wood\r\nPublisher: Gerry Murray\r\n\r\nSinclair Programs is published monthly by EMAP Business and Computer Publications.\r\n\r\nTelephone [redacted]\r\n\r\nIf you would like your original programs to be published in Sinclair Programs, please send your contributions, which must not have appeared elsewhere, to\r\nSinclair Programs\r\nEEC Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nPrograms should be on cassette. We cannot undertake to return them unless a stamped-addressed envelope is included. We pay £10 for the copyright of each program published.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1984 Sinclair Programs\r\nISSN No. 0263-0265\r\n\r\nPrinted and typeset by: Cradley Print PLC, [redacted]\r\n\r\nDistributed by Spotlight Magazine Distribution Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll subscription enquiries:\r\nMagazine Services,\r\nEMAP Business and Computer Publications\r\n[redcated]\r\n\r\nCover Design: Ivan Hissey"},"MainText":"Gilsoft has demonstrated its faith in its adventure designer program, The Quill, by producing a series of adventures which have been written with its help. Each adventure is excellent and there is great variety in the series.\r\n\r\nAfrica Gardens is set in a haunted hotel, where voices can be heard in the next room but people can never be seen. Each unnerving location is described in depth and certain sections are illustrated. It is largely an adventure of exploration in which objects found help with movement to other locations.\r\n\r\nMindbender runs along very different lines. The player begins in an office notable only for its lack of interest. One movement, though, sends the bemused player into an intricate Welsh adventure.\r\n\r\nBarsak the Dwarf demonstrates the ability of The Quill to set a time limit on an action. Soon after the game begins the player becomes hungry and must find a jar of pickles before starving. Once that problem has been overcome, thirst rears its ugly bead. Again, it is a good adventure but it does not reach the standard of Castle Blackstar, to which it is remarkably similar.\r\n\r\nDiamond Trail is possibly the tightest-written adventure on the market. Every object has a use and every location must be visited at least once. Once again, hunger sets in early and there is also a homicidal maniac chasing you with a gun.\r\n\r\nAnother problem is that taking certain objects results in your being arrested. Can you survive to eat the hamburger, let alone solve the quest? One difficulty occurs late in the game. The author has been unfairly sneaky inside the railway station and once you are there you have almost finished the adventure. Save the game before presenting your ticker or you may find yourself having to repeat the entire adventure.\r\n\r\nAll in all, an excellent series of very different adventures, produced by Gilsoft, [redacted], price £5.95 each.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"33","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"June Mortimer","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Micro Adventurer Issue 10, Aug 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-07-19","Editor":"Brendon Gore","TotalPages":48,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Brendon Gore\r\nAssistant Editor: Martin Croft\r\nSoftware Editor: Graham Taylor\r\nMaster Adventurers: Tony Bridge, Mike Grace\r\nEditorial Secretary: Geraldine Smyth\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":"RIFLING RHE FEATHERS IN THE QUILL'S CAP\r\n\r\nTony Bridge dips into adventure ink and Gilsoft Gold\r\n\r\nGilsoft Gold Collection\r\nSpectrum 48K £5.95 each\r\nGilsoft\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nI have been extolling the virtues of Gilsoft's Adventure Generator since the Quill was first released. Using this program, anyone with a Spectrum or a CBM64 can compose a machine-coded Adventure. There are a lot of people with the imagination to write absorbing scenarios, but coding these into a fully-fledged program usually proves too great a barrier. The Quill frees the user from the hard work of writing, debugging and so on, allowing full attention to be devoted to crafting the plot.\r\n\r\nThere is, however, a drawback to all this: the structure of all these Quill'd programs will necessarily be the same. The general layout of the screen and many of the responses (for example, DO YOU WANT ANOTHER GAME?) are recognisably Quill and nobody seems to have found a way round the final \"OK HAVE A NICE DAY. BYE\" So, while The Quill allows the author's imagination full rein, the scenario really has to be special to stand out from the rest.\r\n\r\nThis month, I am going to look at a new collection of adventures from Gilsoft, the publishers of The Quill, and see how different writers handle the generator. Other software houses have released Quill'd Adventures in the past couple of months - in fact a flood of them! Some of them have gone to great lengths to make their programs look less like the result of an adventure factory. How do Gilsoft's own attempts differ?\r\n\r\nUnder the inclusive banner of The Gold Collection, the release consists of seven adventures, two of which, Magic Castle and Diamond Trail, have been with us for some while.\r\n\r\nCLIVE'S PROBLEM\r\n\r\nDiamond Trail is probably the very first Quill'd adventure, written by Tim Gilbert, one of the founders of Gilsoft. Released in 1983, it starts off with a nice title page, featuring a 3D Diamond (and Mr Gilbert's dog?), and then goes into the scenario. This consists of the usual groan-inducing play on poor old Sir Clive's name: \"The Sinclive Diamond has been stolen from the Jewel Room of Spectraisia's Capital, Microdrivia. You must restore it in as short a time as possible, before the public begin to doubt its existence.\" Hello, a very subtle in-joke about the QL (and a year before its launch!).\r\n\r\nThe instructions that follow this opening are repeated in a fairly similar form in many of the Gold Collection Adventures: the player is reminded of the Verb/Noun convention, and that the program will accept the first four letters of an object's name, thus saving the player's poor little digits!\r\n\r\nThe screen layout in this Adventure is rather restrained - the default colours of white-on-blue are replaced by white text on black paper. The responses, as is usual with any Quill'd adventure, are immediate. Almost straight away, the player is told that he feels hungry. In just about every adventure, this means that you have only a very limited number of moves before you die, and this concentrates the mind wonderfully! If you find a way of staving off the hunger, a man appears at every move to shoot you (this will eventually prove fatal), or you may get run over by a car, while standing, meditating your next move, in the middle of a road. Try stealing the church collection (but you wouldn't think of that, would you?), and you will be unceremoniously dumped into jail, where the local police have a unique way of dealing with petty criminals!\r\n\r\nDiamond Trail is one of those adventures in which almost every move depends on what the player did in the previous move - be prepared to keep going back to the beginning time and again while finding the best route through the puzzles.\r\n\r\nCASTLING\r\n\r\nMagic Castle is written by Graeme Yeandle, and was the second Quill Adventure to be released. Oddly, there is no title screen, as with all the others in this collection. This adventure has a pretty succinct scenario - \"You have to rescue the Princess who is imprisoned in the Magic. Castle\". Not exactly atmospheric, is it? Then follow the same instructions as in Diamond Trail, highlighting the fact that many of the Quill'd adventures can appear the same - but this one doesn't hold the attention like its predecessor. The same sort of hazards abound (beware the booby traps and vampires, says the blurb): minefields can easily be stepped into, with fatal results, and this time, the player gets thirsty, rather than hungry. That takes care of the booby traps - I'm afraid that I can imagine the Vampires!\r\n\r\nIt's a rather pedestrian adventure; that is, nothing really adventuresome happens (at least in the first stages - Gilsoft didn't supply any maps or playsequences with this collection), and the player will die of sheer boredom. Besides, who wants to rescue another Princess? Let them stew, says I!\r\n\r\nOne of the newer programs in the Gold Collection is Devil's Island, (author: Colin Smith). After the title page (a lovingly-drawn skull set against a menacing prison block), we see again those instructions that we have come to know from the other Quill adventures - Verb/ Noun, first four letters of the Noun etc. Somewhere in the two or three pages of instructions, the program tells you to refer to the cassette inlay for further instructions; but the inlay only tells you how to load the program, and that has presumably been accomplished by this time.\r\n\r\nCRUEL\r\n\r\n\"Briefly, your task is to escape from the infamous prison on Devil's Island... Then, if you survive the perils of the surrounding jungle, to reach the mainland and freedom!\" The first location is \"a grim prison cell.\" You can see a filthy bed, a barred window, and a closed door. The door can easily be opened, and then it is out into the corridor, at the end of which is a clutch of cruel guards. One of these will shoot you without the slightest provocation, as I found to my cost.\r\n\r\nThere are one or two things to be found in the cell before you leave - these may or may not be of help to you later in your bid for freedom. The Guards will plague you at the start, as they are rather trigger-happy (although the Tasty Pie may keep their attention diverted for a moment!). Sound is also used in Devil's Island, even though it is the pitiful BEEP.\r\n\r\nAlthough I didn't get very far with this one, I have the feeling that the later stages will prove to be v-e-r-y interesting!\r\n\r\nBarsak The Dwarf seems to be suffering an identity crisis, with his name spelt in two different ways throughout the packaging. This adventure, Written by P & V Napolitana, seems to be the first part of a series. The title page announces \"Earlydays loading,\" which would seem to point to a follow up. The scenario of this PG-rated adventure goes like this: \"In ancient days of the mythological underworld, the dwarves held the Nine Treasures. Now Barsak seeks the lost Treasure again. To complete the Adventure you must wear or carry all nine of the Treasures and sign the book at the end.\"\r\n\r\nCONAN\r\n\r\nThe design of the screen is rather nice - bright white text on a blue paper for the location descriptions, and dull white for WHAT NOW and the player's commands. Responses are in various hues, which all makes for a rather colourful display. Again, the player will start to feel hungry after a few moves, but it is a fairly simple task to find food to allay this feeling. Once hunger is overcome, thirst almost immediately becomes a problem, and one that is not quite so easy to overcome (well, I haven't managed it yet). There is a lot of tramping around the castle to do, and many of the objects lying around will put you in mind of a Conan-style novel - in fact, the player starts off with a broadsword.\r\n\r\nThe descriptions are fairly sparse, which makes it difficult for the player to feel involved - and when hunger or thirst set in for the umpteenth time, it's easy just to give up. As in all Quill'd adventures, of course, there is a SAVE-game feature, which may come in handy, just this week, I received a letter which relates to this very adventure:\r\n\r\n\"Dear Sirs,\r\n\r\nHere is a cryptic clue for those of you still pulling your hair out trying to find the water:\r\n\r\nLight will be needed and bones be heeded, to succeed you find what you keep delving in the deep,\r\nPray tell Charon's river is the spell\r\nto change bones to treasures.\r\nThank the Gods for the pleasures!\r\n\r\nAfter this part, the Adventure is quite pleasurable to play, with some both funny and hard puzzles to solve. I can't get past the Zombie yet, But I will, given time! Count your steps carefully, the path is a narrow one!\r\n\r\nA Dungeon Delver, Barsak the Dwarf\r\n\r\nPS Try entering these commands: Elves, Dwarves and Barsak\"\r\n\r\nThank you for the inside information, Barsak. I haven't worked out the clues yet, but it is quite amusing to enter those commands - this is the sign of a caring author!\r\n\r\nCRAZY\r\n\r\nMindbender, by Paul Styles, is a very stylish adventure, written with a great deal of panache, and belying the underlying \"sameness\" of Quill'd adventures. Sitting peacefully in your office one day, you hear the phone ring. This starts you off on another escapade through a prison complex. There are a lot of humorous remarks made by the computer, and the player will end up in a lot of crazy situations. Again, one of those adventures which require careful planning, and one through which you will have to plot every step on the way to the finish.\r\n\r\nSpyplane (David Brammer) is a brave attempt to apply the Quill system to a different scenario. Spyplane is not a regular adventure - in contrast to the others in this review, it is more of a strategy game than a traditional adventure. You are the captain of a Long Range Maritime Aircraft flying at 15000 feet over the Arzelean Sea. \"You are on patrol, with the objective of obtaining as much intelligence as you can about Turyan military equipment. The main objective revolves around either photographing naval vessels or recording other items encountered during the flight.\" So runs the scenario - a map is supplied, which is a bit of a change for an adventure game!\r\n\r\nAnother surprise is the inventory, which takes the form of a detailed list of electronic equipment, the uses of which you will have to discover. For one thing, injudicious use of the radio will alert the enemy to your presence, and I haven't worked out how to use it to full advantage.\r\n\r\nThis does mean, though, that not only the usual N, S, E, W and so on are recognised as direction commands, but also compass bearings, to be found from the radio. The plane that you are controlling can easily, it seems, get lost in the cloud, although it is possible to descend to a lower height. Too much of this, of course, and your plane attempts to become a metal raft - not recommended!\r\n\r\nA long list of words is given in the documentation, so the novice is not completely in the dark, but there are many more to be discovered during the course of the \"adventure\". As pilot of the plane, you may land the aircraft, but it is rather difficult (you wouldn't want it easy, would you?), as the enemy is on the alert. The puzzles in this adventure would seem to consist of how to avoid the enemy's unwanted attentions, how to land, and how to find the submarines which are skulking about as they tend to do!\r\n\r\nFinally, to Africa Gardens, by T. Davids (or Davis - again, both spellings are included for luck!). Right from the title screens (the majority of title screen in this collection are by Terry Green, who also designed the cover artwork) the player is plunged into a very atmospheric game. Of all these adventures, only Mindbender approaches Africa Gardens in evoking a believable and tension-ridden atmosphere. This is achieved through descriptive passages filled with \"soft chimes\" and \"whispering voices\" and so on.\r\n\r\nAfrica Gardens is an hotel - but, of course, no ordinary hotel! The program starts with: \"A MESSAGE FROM THE MANAGEMENT. WELCOME TO Africa Gardens, I DO HOPE YOU ENJOY YOUR STAY. MR ROBINSON INSISTS ON YOUR EVERY COMFORT IN THE HOPE THAT YOU EXTEND YOUR VISIT. INDEED, MR ROBINSON HOPES THAT YOU MAY BE AMONGST HIS MANY GUESTS WHO NEVER FEEL THAT THEY CAN LEAVE!\"\" What a way to instill confidence!\r\n\r\nThere is treasure to be found in the old Hotel, but it is well hidden - there is even a Book of Spells, which, when found and used, will give you magic powers. The screen display is very colourful, with text and responses being given multi-coloured boxes, though the over-use of BRIGHT and FLASH becomes a bit wearing on the eyes. Unusually for a Quill'd program, graphics, albeit very simple block graphics, are used in many locations (they are very quickly drawn), and these serve to heighten the atmosphere. The puzzles contained in Africa Gardens are difficult, though logical enough, to hold the attention throughout the course of the game.\r\n\r\nWhich one would I recommend? Well, I have always believed that a good adventure relies more on atmosphere than on tough puzzles - though if it can combine the two, so much the better. It is difficult to convey atmosphere at the best of times, but an Adventure Generator can be an insurmountable barrier; once a couple of programs written with The Quill have been seen, others become instantly recognisable, and then the program has to deliver a little bit more. It's almost as if the player says to himself: \"If the author had to sit down and write all the code, as well as the plot, I could forgive him the occasional lapse in tension and storyline. With the help of THE QUILL, however, he ought to be producing perfect stories!\".\r\n\r\nOf the present batch, I would not, condemn any out of hand - Barsak, for example, will appeal to the bodybuilders amongst us, and the players who like a good Sword-and-Sorcery romp. Spyplane will be the choice of Flight Simulator fans (though, be warned, there are no on-screen instruments!). Mindbender is, as its title suggests, full of tough puzzles and humour and is probably the best \"straight\" adventure here - this is my joint favourite with Africa Gardens; the latter for sheer atmosphere, which makes up for slightly less troublesome puzzles.\r\n\r\nCOFFIN\r\n\r\nThe price of £5.95 is about the most that anyone could charge for these rather mainstream programs - 50p less would be better! None of them live up to the standard of presentation set by, for example, Nosferatu from Omni, with its superb documentation and packaging, including a page from a Diary, an old theatre ticket and so on, in the tradition of the best from Infocom. The cassette of this last adventure even comes nestling in a coffin! Now that's the way to make a Quill-written adventure a little different!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"20,21,23","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Tony Bridge","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Howard Gill of Gilsoft - giving you the opportunity to design your own adventures."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer News Issue 76, Sep 1984","Price":"","ReleaseDate":"1984-08-24","Editor":"Peter Worlock","TotalPages":50,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editorial\r\nEditor: Peter Worlock\r\nSub-Editors: Harriet Arnold, Leah Batham\r\nNews Editor: David Guest\r\nNews Writer: Ralph Bancroft\r\nNews Writer/Sub Editor: Sandra Grandison\r\nFeatures Editor: John Lettice\r\nSoftware Editor: Bryan Skinner\r\nPeripherals Editor: Ken Garroch\r\nHardware Editor: Stuart Cooke\r\nPrograms Editor: Nickie Robinson\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nArt Editor: David Alexander\r\nLayout Artists: Tim Brown, Paul Clarkson\r\nPublisher: Cyndy Miles\r\nPublishing Assistant: Tobe Bendeth\r\n\r\nAdvertising\r\nGroup Advertising Manager: Peter Goldstein\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Bettina Williams\r\nAssistant Advertisement Managers: Sarah Barron, Phil Pratt\r\nSenior Sales Executives: Laura Cade, Claire Rowbottom\r\nSales Executives: Claire Barnes, Phil Benson, Mike Blackman, Paul Evans, Tony Keefe, Christian McCarthy, Amanda Moore, Sarah Musgrave, Tony O'Reilly\r\nProduction: Noel O'Sullivan\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Karen Isaac\r\nSubscription Enquiries: Gill Stevens\r\nSubscription Address: [redacted]\r\nEditorial Address: [redacted]\r\nAdvertising Address: [redacted]\r\n\r\nPublished by VNU Business Publications, [redacted]\r\n© VNU 1983. No material maybe reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\nPhotoset by Quickset, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Chase Web Offset, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Seymour Press, [redacted]\r\nRegistered at the PO as a newspaper"},"MainText":"ADVENTURES CAPITAL\r\n\r\nBob Chappell surveys the scene to evaluate the influence of  new crop of innovative adventures.\r\n\r\nMelbourne House's The Hobbit and Legend's Valhalla were both important watersheds in the development of the adventure, but how much has the adventure moved on since their launch?\r\n\r\nLike them or not, these two games set new standards in two fields, most obviously in graphics, but also in popularising semi-intelligent characters (in addition to the one usually found sitting at the keyboard).\r\n\r\nSo, post Hobbit and Valhalla, you might have expected the floodgates to open for a new breed of adventures. A look at a representative sample of some of the latest releases should give us an indication of the state of this particular art.\r\n\r\nFANTASIA DIAMOND\r\nSpectrum\r\n£8.95\r\nHewson Consultants, [redacted]\r\n\r\nThis one is Hewson's follow-up to Quest. The plot is hardly original, being littered with stolen treasure, elves, castles and the like, but there's no doubt that Fantasia Diamond is one of the most sophisticated of the current wave.\r\n\r\nIt shows clear signs of the influence the Hobbit has had on the genre. The command analyser is powerful, allowing the player to enter compound commands such as 'OPEN THE DOOR AND GO EAST', 'GET THE FOOD AND THE WINE' or 'LOOK THROUGH THE WOODEN DOOR'. You can also communicate with the various characters in the adventure with the syntax 'SAY TO THE GNOME \"GET THE ROD\"'. The characters themselves lead separate lives, and will go about their business as you go about yours.\r\n\r\nMany of the locations also include simple graphics, and if you know the Hobbit, they will seem fairly familiar. Hewson has obviously taken the lessons of the Hobbit to heart by combining a powerful command parser, character communication, independent characters, graphics and a large scale mission. The end result is a fantasy adventure that is both sophisticated and stimulating, and offers a great challenge.\r\n\r\nWAXWORKS\r\nCommodore 64 and others\r\n£9.95\r\nChannel 8, [redacted]\r\n\r\nFresh from the fertile mind of Brian Howarth comes yet another in the popular Mysterious Adventure series. Originally these adventures were text only, but they've been updated, in keeping with the trend towards graphically depicted locations.\r\n\r\nOne excellent feature of this particular series - apart from the fact that it is available for a wide range of micros - is that you can switch the graphics on or off at any time during the adventure.\r\n\r\nWaxworks follows a theme beloved of devotees of spook stories. You've been visiting a waxworks museum and you've fallen asleep - in this respect it's a bit like visiting the House of Lords - and you wake up to find you've been locked in for the night.\r\n\r\nThe adventure breaks no new ground in terms of technical development - apart from the graphics it's a traditional verb/ noun command driven game - but, nevertheless, like its predecessors it's a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining adventure.\r\n\r\nGENESIS II\r\nSpectrum\r\n£6.95\r\nMikro-Gen, [redacted]\r\n\r\nSince the days of Noah, 'ark' has generally been what passes for intelligent conversation among ravens. But no more: MikroGen's Genesis II is the biblical tale of survival on board a galactic Noah's ark.\r\n\r\nIt has a good analyser, instant response and graphics, and a vocabulary of some 300 words. There are over 100 locations to explore, and 60 objects to play around with - more than enough to satisfy the most inquisitive and acquisitive of explorers.\r\n\r\nWhat next, one asks? Exodus II, where the children of Israel pass through a black hole into the promised galaxy? The sky quite clearly isn't the limit ...\r\n\r\nTHE INFERNO\r\nSpectrum\r\n£6.50\r\nRIchard Shepherd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nMoving right along, we fall like Lucifer into - with apologies to Richard Shepherd Software - the pits. This latest from the Shepherd stable also exhibits signs of progress. It has a command analyser which allows the entry of compound commands, communication and interaction with the characters, and has graphics which can be switched on or off.\r\n\r\nThe plot is unusual, being modeled around a plan of Dante's vision of Hell, with the adventurer having to pass through nine circles of Hell to reach the centre and escape. The theme is unusual, and overall it's an attractively presented adventure.\r\n\r\nSPOOF\r\nSpectrum\r\n£6.95\r\nRunesoft, [redacted]\r\n\r\nProgram generators are just starting to have an effect on the market, and Gilsoft's Quill is certainly the most popular of them. Since its appearance the Quill has been used to produce a goodly number of commercial adventures for the Spectrum. With its release on the Commodore 64, we can expect to see a similar outpouring of adventures for that machine.\r\n\r\nSpoof is a Quill-generated adventure, but what makes it worth special attention is its humour. There are already of a number of humorous adventures to be had, the most notable being Supersoft's Streets of London (Commodore 64), Salamander's similar Cricklewood incident (Dragon) and Infocom's superb Planetfall (various micros).\r\n\r\nBut Spoof stands out from these because it is a parody of the standard adventure. In it you will come across such exotic locations as the Obligatory Mountains, the Secret Mysterious Hidden Cavern (clearly signposted) and the Necessary Forest. You will also encounter a three-headed vulture who wants a bit more than the usual food to let you pass. If you happen to have on you a bottle of wart remover, the dress of a princess, a magic rope and the ring from a pig's nose, you're in business.\r\n\r\nAFRICA GARDENS\r\nSpectrum\r\nGilsoft, [redacted]\r\n\r\nThis is one of Gilsoft's own Quill-produced adventures, marketed under the title of The Gold Collection. It's a particularly good example of the series, and is set in a mysterious hotel. It's reasonably detailed and its atmospheric text descriptions ensure the player's imagination is caught.\r\n\r\nMINDBENDER\r\nAfrica Gardens, Mindbender\r\nSpectrum\r\n£5.95\r\nGilsoft, [redacted]\r\n\r\nThe Gold Collection's contribution to mind-bending is named, aptly enough, Mindbender. It's crammed with testing puzzles and action, and starts as it means to go on by forcing you to stretch your imagination if you want to progress beyond the first couple of locations. A good sense of humour in the text helps keep you from biting the carpet when you're stuck - great stuff.\r\n\r\nWHAT'S NEXT?\r\n\r\nCertainly adventures have improved in the long term, but as yet it doesn't seem that there have been any material developments since the Hobbit and Valhalla. The standard of these two is, however, being matched regularly.\r\n\r\nAnd as if Movisoft (the graphics system used by Valhalla) wasn't enough, Legend is currently working on Movisoft 2 for the follow-up, to be called The Great Space Race, and due for release later in the year. The next great leap forward? We'll see...","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"18,19","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Bob Chappell","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]