<Author>James Horsler, Mike Austin, Nick Austin, Pete Austin, Godfrey Dowson, Tim Noyce, Chris Queen</Author><Publisher>Level 9 Computing Ltd</Publisher><Reviews><Review><Award>Not Awarded</Award><BlurbText /><CompilationReviewScores /><Denied>false</Denied><Issue><Editor>Roger Kean</Editor><HasCoverTape>false</HasCoverTape><Name>Crash Issue 11, Dec 1984</Name><Price>£0.85</Price><ReleaseDate></ReleaseDate><TotalPages>164</TotalPages></Issue><MainText>RETURN TO EDEN Producer: Level 9 Computing Retail Price: £9.95 The Silicon Dream Trilogy consists of Snowball, Return to Eden and the yet to be released The Worm in Paradise. This, the second adventure in the trilogy, starts where Snowball left off, and has been written using Level 9's ever increasing library of compression techniques to give a full-bodied, more complete narrative with about 250 locations and 240 pictures. As with Artic, Level 9 have deemed that all truly commercial adventures must accommodate graphics from now on, and I am pleased to report that in this particular case the graphics, far from being a distraction, actually add to the quality and flavour of the game. The locations are exotic and the scenes psychedelic. If Level 9 have a boffin image they've done themselves no harm with their latest technological breakthrough, the type-ahead. This idea allows you to carry on typing commands even when the program isn't ready for them, so you can type a whole series of short instructions and then watch as the program carries them out. Recent notoriety and fame have not ruined a cottage industry; Level 9 still provide clue sheet forms with each 'Welcome to Eden' booklet. Snowball 9 carries two million sleeping colonists to Eden, the only habitable planet in the Eriadni A binary starsystem. Eden's plant life is legendary and was probably seeded by long-vanished aliens. City building on the planet at first went well but problems developed as the myriad plants and cunning creatures adapted to fight bask. Robots have been making all important decisions since the late 2100s and run the colonisation program. Within a wall built to protect the city, the robots work ceaselessly to perfect the environment for its fragile and vulnerable human colonists. The city still looks new but impressions are misleading; its foundations are broken by a million root cracks and vermin infest the lower levels. What may be worse, the robot army has been fighting too long. You play Kim Kimberley who has just saved the interstellar transport, Snowball 9, from disaster. Unfortunately the control room vidcoms show how you enter and hurl a bomb engulfing the room in flames. The resulting trial finds you guilty and you are summarily sentenced to death. The waldroids close in and, rather than stay to argue your case, you think it wiser to flee in the stratoglider lifeboat to become the first human to land on the planet Eden. Crewed by people who think you are a murderer, Snowball 9 orbits far above you. But alas, the interstellar transport itself is in danger, as it has entered orbit off schedule and, due to damage, ignores all attempts at radio contact. The robots on the planet below, unable to chance a hostile presence in orbit, are wary... Playing the game is made all the easier by Level 9's type-ahead, sure-footed input and friendly vocabulary, Including WEAR which has you wearing clothing without first having to GET it, an A(GAIN) command which repeats the last entry, and another innovation - IT to mean the previous specified object, eg. LIGHT LAMP, then MINE IT. The redefined character set gives a futuristic flavour (as does, of course, the myriad technological artifacts - vidcoms, traddads, skyhooks) but it can be difficult to read when more than one Level 9 fanatic crowds around a small TV screen. Could this be the beginning of the monitor boom? I won't say too much concerning the plot itself having given away too much of Snowball in the CRASH July issue, well worth checking up if you're interested in how the trilogy began (and for some appallingly heavy-handed clues). Let me just say this of the game, it isn't just the graphics which are peculiar and psychedelic. Return to Eden is a very worthy successor to the highly acclaimed Snowball. Far from being just another follow up, it is a new and exciting program in its own right and has many features which keep Level 9 at the top of intelligent science fiction computer exploration. COMMENTS Difficulty: very difficult Graphics: most locations and very good Presentation: quite good, but a little cramped Input facility: good, even with graphics Response: good Special features: type-ahead</MainText><OverallSummary>General Ratin: Very good.</OverallSummary><Page>105,106</Page><ReviewScores><ReviewScore><Header>Atmosphere</Header><Score>9/10</Score><Text></Text></ReviewScore><ReviewScore><Header>Vocabulary</Header><Score>8/10</Score><Text></Text></ReviewScore><ReviewScore><Header>Logic</Header><Score>7/10</Score><Text></Text></ReviewScore><ReviewScore><Header>Debugging</Header><Score>9/10</Score><Text></Text></ReviewScore><ReviewScore><Header>Overall Value</Header><Score>8/10</Score><Text></Text></ReviewScore></ReviewScores><ReviewerComments xmlns:d5p1="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/Arrays" /><Reviewers><Reviewer><Name>Derek Brewster</Name><Score>8</Score><ScoreSuffix>/10</ScoreSuffix></Reviewer></Reviewers><ScreenshotText /><TranscriptBy>Chris Bourne</TranscriptBy></Review><Review><Award>Not Awarded</Award><BlurbText /><CompilationReviewScores /><Denied>false</Denied><Issue><Editor>Bill Scolding</Editor><HasCoverTape>false</HasCoverTape><Name>Sinclair User Issue 34, Jan 1985</Name><Price>£0.85</Price><ReleaseDate></ReleaseDate><TotalPages>212</TotalPages></Issue><MainText>SNOWBOUND IN EDEN Memory: 48K Price: £9.95 Down to earth at last, Kim Kimberley, secret agent extraordinaire and saviour of the starship Snowball, has been framed for an act of sabotage. Fleeing the wrath of the woken colonists she steals a stratoglider and enters the atmosphere of Eden, the Snowball's destination. Condemned to death she has only a short time to hide in the luxuriant and bizarre undergrowth of the planet. The ship need only turn its engines towards her to fry her to a crisp. So begins Return to Eden, another brain scrambling adventure from Level 9 and sequel to Snowball. The presentation has changed - the game includes location graphics, yellow word display on a black background and 'write ahead'. That feature allows you to input text in a continuous flow without waiting for the cursor to reappear. There are around 250 locations and Level 9 claims that the use of graphics has not adversely affected the amount of description or the general quality. Initial exploration seems to back that up. If you find the graphics too slow they can be switched out. Once safe in the jungle you must head out for the robot-manned city in the east. You must survive amongst the beautiful but lethal flora and fauna and avoid the robot devices which protect the city. Problems and puzzles abound; this is a world unknown to humans and many plants or creatures have odd properties. Just trying to survive ten minutes is difficult - Level 9 keep rolling those heavy dice on you but give you a few resurrections before finishing you off. Exhausted compulsives of the firm's other works may just as well admit to themselves now that they probably won't be sleeping much for the next few months. Atmospheric and original.</MainText><OverallSummary></OverallSummary><Page>50</Page><ReviewScores><ReviewScore><Header>Gilbert Factor</Header><Score>8/10</Score><Text></Text></ReviewScore></ReviewScores><ReviewerComments xmlns:d5p1="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/Arrays" /><Reviewers><Reviewer><Name>Richard Price</Name><Score>8</Score><ScoreSuffix>/10</ScoreSuffix></Reviewer></Reviewers><ScreenshotText /><TranscriptBy>Chris Bourne</TranscriptBy></Review><Review><Award>Not Awarded</Award><BlurbText /><CompilationReviewScores /><Denied>false</Denied><Issue><Editor>Tim Metcalfe</Editor><HasCoverTape>false</HasCoverTape><Name>C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 39, Jan 1985</Name><Price>£0.95</Price><ReleaseDate></ReleaseDate><TotalPages>164</TotalPages></Issue><MainText>Well, I'm glad I'm not really Kim Kimberley! After all that trouble saving the Snowball from certain doom, what thanks does it get? I say "it" because Kim is a bit of a unisex type, designed, presumably, so that everybody can identify with her. Could be that very few will - know what I mean? But I digress. After all that trouble saving the Snowball, overcoming waldroids, nightingales and the rest, the colonists aboard repay her by finding her guilty of murder! So there she is, on Eden, having escaped in a Stratoglider and no means of protecting herself against the wrath of the ungrateful colonists! Snowball will take its revenge, blasting its engines towards the "it-type" Kim. That, course, is our first problem. Then you must save the planet Eden from the robots who have made it habitable and are now doing their own thing! This is the first Level 9 game under their own label that has graphics. I wish it wasn't, for on the Spectrum version that I played, they did nothing to enhance the game. They certainly didn't reach the standard of the graphics in Erik the Viking, although they are just as fast in displaying. I was soon typing "words" - the command that turns them off. I wasn't altogether impressed with the text either - not the content, but the appearance. Level 9 has created their own character set in the image of those computer-readable characters you see at the bottom of cheques. I found them rather painful to read. So it was with relief that I turned to the Commodore version. In this, the graphics are quicker to display, more attractive and have a "wide screen" look in contrast with the Spectrums "square screen" pictures. In addition, the text hadn't been messed around and was far more readable! Once out of danger from the Snowball, your journey takes you through the countryside, with its alien flora and fauna, to save Eden from its robots who have gone slightly bananas. From that, you will probably guess that I haven't yet got very far into the game - you are right! But would you have wanted to wait another couple of months to read about the game?? Return from Eden is littered with new trendy words from Level 9's imaginative but self-explanatory sci-fi vocabulary, such as Tradclads, the (unisex?) costume you find yourself wearing. There are also a number of random messages that tend to get a bit tedious at times, such as "a helicopter gunship clatters overhead". Predictably, perhaps, I would have preferred graphics and more variety of text, as even the Commodore graphics do little to enhance the game. For some reason, nearly everyone has gone off the idea of releasing text-only Adventures any more. This is a pity in the case of Level 9, for they built their excellent reputation on text Adventures. So it seems purist text adventurers must suffer to accommodate sales-intensive casual buyer who is to be lured by pretty pictures. Nevertheless, Return to Eden is of a high standard and will, I think, turn out to have the same depth as its forerunner, Snowball. Return to Eden is available for a wide range of machines and is published by Level 9 Computing at £9.95.</MainText><OverallSummary></OverallSummary><Page>97</Page><ReviewScores><ReviewScore><Header>Personal Rating</Header><Score>8/10</Score><Text></Text></ReviewScore></ReviewScores><ReviewerComments xmlns:d5p1="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/Arrays" /><Reviewers><Reviewer><Name>Keith Campbell</Name><Score>8</Score><ScoreSuffix>/10</ScoreSuffix></Reviewer></Reviewers><ScreenshotText /><TranscriptBy>Chris Bourne</TranscriptBy></Review><Review><Award>Not Awarded</Award><BlurbText /><CompilationReviewScores /><Denied>false</Denied><Issue><Editor>Chris Anderson</Editor><HasCoverTape>false</HasCoverTape><Name>Personal Computer Games Issue 13, Dec 1984</Name><Price>£0.95</Price><ReleaseDate></ReleaseDate><TotalPages>172</TotalPages></Issue><MainText>SPOILT FOR CHOICE The White Wizard investiagtes the latest releases. GAME: Return To Eden PRICE: £9.95 MACHINE: Amstrad, Atari, BBC, CBM64, Nascom, Memotech, Spectrum GAME: Sorceror of Claymorgue Castle PRICE: N/A MACHINE: Apple, Atari, BBC, CBM64, Dragon, Electron, Tandy, Spectrum GAME: Fire on the Water PRICE: £6.95 MACHINE: Spectrum GAME: The Prince PRICE: N/A MACHINE: Spectrum GAME: Macbeth PRICE: £14.95 MACHINE: CBM 64 Anyone know of a secluded retreat, with ample supplies of tinned owls livers and lettuce opium? So much software has flooded into the White Wizard's cave this month that he is at his wits' end and badly in need of a very long holiday. However, the good news is that there are some hot new releases out this month. Level 9's Return to Eden hits the streets and, of course, there's the Sorceror of Claymorgue Castle from Scott Adams. Not only that, but there are also one or two new games that offer the adventurer something quite different from any programs that have come before. First, however, let's Return to Eden with Level 9. This is the eagerly-awaited sequel to Snowball and will be available on the usual extensive Level 9 range of machines, from the Memotech right through to the Amstrad. You don't, by the way, need to have played Snowball to enjoy Return To Eden. This game marks a radical departure from Level 9 tradition by including gasp - GRAPHICS. Have the die-hard, text-only gents from L9 taken leave of their senses?? No, mein wizardlings, zay haf zimply produced a better game, ja! (Yes, the White Wizard is proficient in all languages including Numenorean Provincial). Frankly, the White Wizard found Snowball a very trying game and wore out at least a dozen wands exploring its secrets. Return to Eden is rather easier in my opinion and certainly as enjoyable as its predecessor. The only thing about the graphics, is that some of them are rather poor... Sacrilege, I know, to speak ill of a Level 9 game but really they aren't that hot with the pastels. Even the old Mysterious Adventure range comes out on top here. However, this game oozes with atmosphere as you explore a distant planet populated by some very strange creatures, including the invaluable See Bee, the very necessary Ouija bird, and the undesirable leviathan. You can jump off cliffs, fight squirrels (well, be attacked by squirrels), and die of radiation. This is the sort of thing Wizards enjoy and that's only the beginning. From the exotic forest you move on to the daunting task of penetrating the different zones surrounding a robot constructed city. Very hazardous this, and I guarantee you'll need to spend at least a week driving yourself round the bend before you reach the city - by which time you'll be only about halfway through the game! 200 locations, the usual extensive vocabulary, and a great scenario make this every bit as good as previous Level 9 games. Don't expect the locations to be quite so fully described as other Level 9 games - after all you do get the graphics which take up a lot of memory. There's a strong 'conservationist' slant to the story, centring on the moral questions surrounding the destruction of alien life forms. No, I'm not kidding, and the White Wizard very much approves of this sort of thing. The more adventures we have that reflect real-life problems like this the better in my view. The only slight reservation I have about Return to Eden (and all other Level 9 games) is that it doesn't tell you which words it fails to understand. It simply replies with the famous 'Arfle Barfle Gloop?' which isn't much help when you are trying to unravel vocabulary problems. It has to be said, however, that one doesn't often have vocabulary problems in a Level 9 game. Another important recent release is Scott Adams' Sorceror of Claymorgue Castle. This is available for the Commodore, Spectrum, Apple, Atari, BBC, Dragon, Electron, and Tandy... phew! Quite a list. The White Wizard has dabbled enjoyably in the Spectrum version, which features some very pretty graphics indeed. It's worth noting that the Spectrum conversion was done by Brian Howarth who writes the Mysterious Adventures, to which this program bears some superficial resemblance. Well, what can one say about Scott Adams' adventures? They've been around for a very long time now in one form or another, but the fact is that whenever a new one comes out it is always a good buy. Sorceror of Claymorgue Castle is no exception. As in most Scott Adams' games, the object of the game is simple - you must collect a certain number of readily identifiable treasures and store them in a particular location. The challenge of the games is in overcoming the different puzzles, most of which are encountered when you try to move from location to location. None of Scott's games have that many places to visit, but that doesn't mean they're a doddle by any means. Sorceror is definitely a case in point here. You start off behind a castle and I guarantee that you won't enter it inside ten minutes of cursing, howling, and (as it happens) holding your breath. Once you get inside, you'll still have to try every trick in the book to explore more than about six locations. Just to tantalise you, one of the treasures is plonked almost right in front of your nose at the beginning - but try picking it up and you'll see that all is not as easy as it seems. So that's two new games for your shelves - and both available on a wide range of machines. Now let's take a look at something quite different - three releases each of which offers something rather unusual. LONE WOLF The first is the Lone Wolf series for the Spectrum, though I imagine that there will soon be similar offerings for other machines. There are two games in the series so far - Escape from the Dark and Fire on the Water. Both titles offer excellent animated graphics and a very unusual format. The cassettes come either on then own or with an accompanying book that gives some idea of what to expect from the games themselves. The books are split up into numbered sections each of which contains a stage in the development of the plots. I say plots rather than plot, because the story changes as you read. This is because whenever you come to a crucial point in the story, you have to make a decision. Depending on the decision you make you are then directed to another numbered section where you continue reading. This, of course, is very much like playing an adventure game on a computer, so it's only natural that Arrow, the publishers, have decided to offer a game as well. The format is as follows - there's a graphics screen surrounded by an attractive border and a scrolling text window below. You place a keyboard overlay on top of your Spectrum. The storyline scrolls on the screen, and whenever you have to make a decision you press the appropriate key and the program jumps to the next stage in the story. There are also extensive fight routines, requiring diligent pressing of Parry, Thrust, Chop, and Swipe keys. Your fighting skill and energy are monitored on the screen, and when you run out of energy Lone Wolf (that's you) bites the dust. The fight sequences are well-animated, and after a couple of hours playing I decided that there really was a tactical element which made them much more satisfying than the usual 'You-stab-the-Dire-Wolf' routines that other games tend to offer. Escape from the Dark and Fire on the Water are consecutive games, and a character developed in the first can be loaded into the second ready for action. So what's different about these games? The first thing to notice is that the program itself dictates your movements. For instance, you can't type in 'Go West' unless that is presented to you as an option to be selected. In this respect the game is more limited than a traditional adventure. However, all the space saved by the absence of complex 'parsing' routines (the bits of the program in a normal adventure that scan your inputs and generate appropriate responses) means more room for graphics and animation. There is still a good deal of scope for the player to shape the game - you can sometimes run away rather than fight. You can choose your own routes to your destination, and investigate a number of dead-ends, some of which are more rewarding than others. The White Wizard gives these games the thumbs-up and looks forward to more along the same lines. They are very different in feel to the traditional text/graphics games, but I think they have at value all of their own. It is, incidentally, worth getting the books as well as the games - you can then use them as crib-sheets if you find the going too tough! THE PRINCE If you think Lone Wolf sounds different, wait 'till you get a LOAD of the next game an interactive program for four players from CCS called The Prince. This game apparently won the Cambridge Award 1984, though I'm a hit hazy as to what exactly that means. However, it is a very interesting piece of software that should be carefully examined by adventurers and particularly those with a D&D background. The scenario is as follows: in Castle Ravencrag the Lore-Master has disappeared and is believed dead. By law, succession to this desirable post is by 'presentation of the tokens' - a ritual ceremony in which the applicant begs an audience with the Prince of Ravencrag and hands over the tokens. Your task, and that of your three human opponents, is to find out what the 'tokens' are, get hold of them, and present them to the Prince. You then become Lore Master and win the game. Each player takes on one of four characters - Grasper, a landlord; Ambrose, a cleric; Porcus, the merchant; and Fernandon, the tipstaff (magistrate to you and me). Each player has certain advantages related to his profession - money, for example, in the case of Porcus. Having chosen characters the players then take it in turns to recruit help from the Castle retinue and purchase items from Gump, the Castle trader. During this phase only one player at a time looks at the screen, so other players will not know who is working for you or what you possess. Occasionally, for example, a servant may serve two masters and knowledge of his double-dealings could benefit either player. Each player has a passcode which he must enter during the game in order to play. This stops other players from cheating when you pop out for a slice of toast and honey - or whatever you fancy. During your turn you find yourself inside the castle as in a traditional text adventure. You have only 10 inputs in each turn and must find out as much as possible. You can call your spies and ask them to report, or get your less desirable -helpers ('henches') to attack your opponents servants. During this phase you will find that the vocabulary of the game is rather limited but, of course, it's the same for all four players. What's special about The Prince, however, is that it is one of the first computer games I've come across that permits intelligent and enjoyable collaboration between the human players. As in D &D you will find yourself involved in complex negotiations with your opponents (or allies, depending on how you deal with them). Nothing is too fair or too foul to be considered - you could, for example, ally yourself with Fernando, find out who his spies are under pretence of helping him, then have your spies knock them all out! You unscrupulous devil you, of course you wouldn't do a thing like that, would you? Oh yes you would... Like the Lone Wolf games The Prince is very far from being a trad adventure. It is, however, a game that will appeal to adventurers who enjoy a get together and the chance to outwit each other. Again, the White Wizard, while granting this game a place on his now crowded shelf, would be pleased to hear from other adventurers as to what they think of this new breed. MACBETH Finally - in the 'New Trends' department - we have Macbeth from Creative Sparks for the Commodore 64. This is quite a handful, this one. Two tapes, four games, plus a copy of the Shakespeare play. Each of the four games is related to part of the play, and each is in a different style. All four games feature graphics to a greater or lesser extent and the standard of these is extremely high. In each game you must achieve certain objectives that will allow you to achieve the goals of the character you are playing. In the first and last games you play Macbeth, in the second game you are Lady Macbeth, and in the third you are one of the Three Witches' assistants. With the exception of game number 3, these are all text-games with graphics added in places. Unfortunately, they rely very heavily on your ability to phrase your inputs correctly. Although they will tell you which words are not understood (by highlighting them in red) they are not very hot on understanding the traditional vocabulary. This is particularly true in game 3, which is almost entirely graphics based and doesn't understand words like 'North' or 'South', The display plays a very important role here and you must pick out items in the picture and use them as appropriate, although you may not have been told explicitly that they are there. I'm not sure that Macbeth will appeal to many adventurers unless you have a particular interest in Shakespeare or Scottish history. Some of the sequences are very good, but of 14.95 seems a lot to pay for them. The other drawback with the game - and this applies to one or two other book-based adventures - is that you can't succeed without reading the play, and having read the play, you know what's going to happen. The whole program is rather lacking in the excitement of discovery that makes a good adventure. However, there is one very interesting innovation that is worth a mention. At the end of each game the program gives you the opportunity to load a program called 'Psycho'. This is a very novel routine in which the computer poses as a psychiatrist and questions you in your role as the character you have just been playing. 'Remember that session we had years ago when we got rid of your meat phobia?' enquires the computer of Lady Macbeth (i.e. you) and then goes on to find out just why you behaved as you did in the play - or the program. Computer buffs will no doubt realise a similarity here between Psycho and Eliza - a program that simulated a psychiatrist and gave apparently intelligent replies to the questions put to it. Psycho isn't nearly as complex, but it's still good fun. But why does the White Wizard mention this curiosity, I hear you cry. Well, I reckon it's only a matter of time before we see more variations on the traditional adventure theme. Using a routine like 'Psycho', for example, you could carry on an enjoyable - even if perfectly meaningless - conversation with Thorin in The Hobbit, for example... and just look at Sherlock, where you can 'Tell...' a character things you think they ought to know. Well, that's all for this month my friends. Next month's issue will be absolutely packed to the brim, and will include a couple of goodies that I've had to leave out in this issue because of lack of space. In the meantime, I have a special favour to ask of you all, in recent months we've had a number of new games that one can't really call adventures, but still seem to have some sort of claim to a mention on these pages. I'm thinking particularly of so-called 'arcade adventures' like Gisburne's Castle, or novelties like the Lone Wolf games I've mentioned above. Well, what do YOU think? Are these games worthy of our attention? What do you think is the definition of an 'adventure game'? Shall we stick to the straight and narrow path of the traditional adventure, my fellow explorers of the unknown lands, or shall we allow ourselves to sally forth into new realms? The White Wizard humbly awaits your reply, and will how to your judgement.</MainText><OverallSummary></OverallSummary><Page>109</Page><ReviewScores><ReviewScore><Header>Atmosphere</Header><Score>8/10</Score><Text></Text></ReviewScore><ReviewScore><Header>Complexity</Header><Score>9/10</Score><Text></Text></ReviewScore><ReviewScore><Header>Interaction</Header><Score>7/10</Score><Text></Text></ReviewScore><ReviewScore><Header>Overall</Header><Score>9/10</Score><Text></Text></ReviewScore></ReviewScores><ReviewerComments xmlns:d5p1="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/Arrays" /><Reviewers><Reviewer><Name>Steve Cooke</Name><Score>9</Score><ScoreSuffix>/10</ScoreSuffix></Reviewer></Reviewers><ScreenshotText><ScreenshotAndBlurbText><Text>Superbly animated fight sequences make Fire on the Water a cut (and thrust!) above the ordinary.</Text></ScreenshotAndBlurbText><ScreenshotAndBlurbText><Text>D&D-style interaction for four players in The Prince from CCS.</Text></ScreenshotAndBlurbText></ScreenshotText><TranscriptBy>Chris Bourne</TranscriptBy></Review><Review><Award>Not Awarded</Award><BlurbText /><CompilationReviewScores /><Denied>false</Denied><Issue><Editor>Rebecca Ferguson</Editor><HasCoverTape>false</HasCoverTape><Name>Sinclair Programs Issue 28, Feb 1985</Name><Price>£0.95</Price><ReleaseDate></ReleaseDate><TotalPages>68</TotalPages></Issue><MainText>GAME TYPE: Adventure Where game enthusiasts are bound to have tales of dangerous and inescapable situations in which they have been caught. The plight of Kim Kimberley in Return to Eden must win some sort of prize for being absolutely the worst situation in which anybody could find themselves. Even if we forget that Kim has just emerged from the earlier Level 9 adventure Snowball, and if we take into account that if we were Kim we would be able to see around us and thus avoid trying eight directions and in, out, up and down in all locations, the situation does not improve. There Kim is, unprotected, in the wreckage of a stratoglider lifeboat. In a limited amount of time a spaceship's rockets will be turned on Kim, and she has no hope of survival unless she can overcome two puzzles, untangle a maze and find one specific location before the rockets are switched on. If this game was for real, Kim would probably be fried while exploring the lifeboat. Level Nine adventures are always outstanding, and Return to Eden is a joy to play. Quickly-drawn pictures are optional, and it is possible to change from text-only adventure to text and graphics at any point. All input receives a sensible answer, and it is by no means always the same answer. Even pressing every key, one after another, while not producing the same useful results as this did in Snowball, will elicit a wide variety of responses. Perhaps most user-friendly of all is the program's text acceptance. On most adventures the program will deal with one piece of text, ponder it at length, and then print a response. If you have already started typing your next move, only half of it will appear and this must either be edited or entered. Return from Eden will deal with an enormous number of phrases at one time. Typing in eleven instructions in close succession will not confuse it at all. An excellent, user-friendly, fiendishly difficult adventure, Return to Eden is produced by Level 9 Computing.</MainText><OverallSummary></OverallSummary><Page>14</Page><ReviewScores><ReviewScore><Header>Rating</Header><Score>90%</Score><Text></Text></ReviewScore></ReviewScores><ReviewerComments xmlns:d5p1="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/Arrays" /><Reviewers><Reviewer><Name>June Mortimer</Name><Score>90</Score><ScoreSuffix>%</ScoreSuffix></Reviewer></Reviewers><ScreenshotText /><TranscriptBy>Chris Bourne</TranscriptBy></Review><Review><Award>Not Awarded</Award><BlurbText /><CompilationReviewScores /><Denied>false</Denied><Issue><Editor>Toby Wolpe</Editor><HasCoverTape>false</HasCoverTape><Name>Your Computer Issue 1, Jan 1985</Name><Price>£0.9</Price><ReleaseDate></ReleaseDate><TotalPages>212</TotalPages></Issue><MainText>Various £9.95 Level 9 This is Level 9's sequel to the smash-hit Snowball. As ever with this company's adventures, the plot is exciting, the prose detailed and imaginative, the locations numerous - over 250 - and the adventure awash with stimulating puzzles. Forced by damning evidence to flee from the interstar transport Snowball 9, Kim Kimberley is the first human to land on the Planet Eden. However, Eden is not uninhabited but populated by robots who live in an eastern city which is constantly under attack from hostile beings of all types. Will the good name of Kim Kimberley be cleared? Will Kim even survive? Play on! For the first time, Level 9 have included graphics but only if you've got a Commodore 64, Spectrum or Amstrad. For the rest it's text only, though the BBC B version has a separate program displaying the picture. Not being a company to stint on quality or quantity, they have crammed in about 240 first rate and fast drawn pictures. If you buy no other adventure, you must buy this - Level 9 have come up trumps again.</MainText><OverallSummary></OverallSummary><Page>67</Page><ReviewScores i:nil="true" /><ReviewerComments xmlns:d5p1="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/Arrays" /><Reviewers><Reviewer><Name>Hugo North</Name><Score></Score><ScoreSuffix></ScoreSuffix></Reviewer></Reviewers><ScreenshotText /><TranscriptBy>Chris Bourne</TranscriptBy></Review><Review><Award>Not Awarded</Award><BlurbText /><CompilationReviewScores /><Denied>false</Denied><Issue><Editor></Editor><HasCoverTape>false</HasCoverTape><Name>Sinclair User Issue 44, Nov 1985</Name><Price></Price><ReleaseDate></ReleaseDate><TotalPages>0</TotalPages></Issue><MainText>The second in the Silicon Dreams trilogy, Return to Eden takes off where Snowball finished, finding heroine Kim Kimberley lost on a planet overrun with lethal plant life and rogue robots. Displaying all the hallmarks of Level 9 - intricate plotting, fine attention to detail, atmospheric scene-setting, and brain scrambling problems - Return to Eden also features graphics for each of the 250 locations, created using a compressor technique written by author Pete Austin. When the third part, Worm in Paradise, is released, Level 9 will have completed what is, to date, the only serious amalgam of computer adventure and science fiction.</MainText><OverallSummary></OverallSummary><Page>36</Page><ReviewScores i:nil="true" /><ReviewerComments xmlns:d5p1="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/Arrays" /><Reviewers /><ScreenshotText /><TranscriptBy>Chris Bourne</TranscriptBy></Review><Review><Award>Not Awarded</Award><BlurbText /><CompilationReviewScores /><Denied>false</Denied><Issue><Editor>Brendon Gore</Editor><HasCoverTape>false</HasCoverTape><Name>Micro Adventurer Issue 14, Dec 1984</Name><Price>£0.75</Price><ReleaseDate></ReleaseDate><TotalPages>60</TotalPages></Issue><MainText>[ZXSR: Although this is a Commodore 64 review, it could easily have been written for the Spectrum version.] Ken Matthews ignores the angel with the fiery sword and visits Level 9's Eden. Adventure: Return to Eden Micro: Commodore 64 Format: Cassette Price: £9.95 Supplier: Level 9 At last! A follow up to the brilliant Snowball. For those who can't wait to read the rest - yes, this one's brilliant too! The game, Level 9's sixth epic, even has graphics, although, being the thoughtful people they are, Level 9 gives you the option of turning them off. Even BBC owners don't lose out because, since even Level 9 can't compress 240 locations and graphics into 32K (yet!) the text-only adventure is followed by the file containing the 200+ pictures to view at your leisure just like your own gallery. The background material is, as usual, superb and briefly describes the events of Snowball so you can get a feel for the trilogy without having played the first part. The colony ship Snowball has entered the orbit of Eden off schedule, and without responding to the robot scouts who defend the city of Enoch which they have built to await the arrival of the colonists. The city is linked to a robot space station above the planet, responsible for planetary defence. To you, in your guise of Kim Kimberley, this seems the least of your worries since videos of the saving of the Snowball seem to show you as the villain of the piece! The sentence is death but you manage to escape to Eden bemoaning the regrettable error. Unfortunately the enterprising crew of Snowball turn their engines on the spot you Ken Matthews ignores the angel with the fiery sword and visits Level 9's Eden landed and you must act quickly to avoid being burned to a crisp. More bad news - this act seems hostile to the besieged robots of Enoch and the Snowball becomes enemy to them as well as you. Acting with true forgiveness, or just in an attempt to set the record straight, it appears you must find and enter the city of Enoch and convince both robots and colonists of their respective errors. The first part of the adventure is based on Harry Harrison's Deathworld 1 in which the hero is taken to the world of Pyrrus where every single plant and animal has set itself against the human city and mutates almost daily to produce deadlier creatures. Outside the city live the human "Grubbers" disdained by the city dwellers but seemingly at peace with the Pyrran wildlife - this provides a good clue as to how to survive in the wild. Once you have survived the attempt on your life from the ship and learned how to become at one with nature, you'll find plenty to do before you can collect all the items you will need to ferry you to the next part of the adventure. Characters in the early part include the helpful see-bee, a familiar if rather large parrot, and the mysterious Ouija bird (usually seen flying at great speed up its own I/O port!). These shouldn't prove too much of a problem to the seasoned Level 9'er. The problems I've encountered so far are typical Level 9 - diverse and cunning! The puns are just as amusing and the plot is one of the best. There's nothing I can say about Return to Eden that hasn't been said about other Level 9 classics, so go out and buy it - it's another winner from the Austins.</MainText><OverallSummary></OverallSummary><Page>13</Page><ReviewScores i:nil="true" /><ReviewerComments xmlns:d5p1="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/Arrays" /><Reviewers><Reviewer><Name>Ken Matthews</Name><Score></Score><ScoreSuffix></ScoreSuffix></Reviewer></Reviewers><ScreenshotText /><TranscriptBy>Chris Bourne</TranscriptBy></Review><Review><Award>Not Awarded</Award><BlurbText /><CompilationReviewScores /><Denied>false</Denied><Issue><Editor>Peter Worlock</Editor><HasCoverTape>false</HasCoverTape><Name>Personal Computer News Issue 91, Dec 1984</Name><Price></Price><ReleaseDate></ReleaseDate><TotalPages>74</TotalPages></Issue><MainText>SNOWBALL EFFECT Mike Gerrard tangles with software parrots and threats of death in the latest Level 9 adventure, the sequel to Snowball. It's a sign of the number of excellent adventures appearing in the build-up to Christmas that even Level 9 has to queue for review space, but at least it gives you a chance to try to get to grips with the complexities of Return to Eden, the follow-up to Snowball, and available at £9.95 on tape for the Amstrad, BBC, CBM 64, Spectrum, Atari and Memotech. There's an £11.95 disk version for BBC and Commodore only. The Amstrad, Commodore and Spectrum have graphics, for the first time in a Level 9 game, about 240 pictures in all, while all those poor old BBC owners with their failing memories get only a glimpse of the pictures by using a separate demo program. Mind you, good as the pictures are they do take ages to draw, so Commodore owners will be pleased to know that their version includes two additional commands that don't need explaining: WORDS and PICTURES. PRETTY PICTURES The picture takes up roughly the top two-thirds of the screen, and with the bottom line flickering it suggests that the picture is being constantly re, drawn. This seems to be con, firmed if you switch to text-only, in which the bottom nine lines scroll up through the area where the picture would have been. The adventure places you once more in the male or female role of Kim Kimberley, who has escaped from the Snowball in the stratoglider and landed on the planet Eden, which is in orbit round the yellow star, Eridani A. Unfortunately the Snowball has just entered orbit around Eden, and on board there is visual evidence that you tried to destroy the ship. In your absence you have been found guilty and condemned to death. It's no good sitting there in the stratoglider's control room muttering - you have a limited number of moves to make your escape. There are only two other rooms on the stratoglider, a padded room and a walk-in cupboard, which contains six interesting items. Sadly, you can carry only four, and while the radsuit and compass seem to be obvious choices, will the tent prove more useful than the geiger counter? While you're busy thinking a message comes through: 'Kim Kimberley, you are guilty of murder. Your sentence will now be carried out. Prepare to die.' In fact, you still have a few more moves. Of course surviving a nuclear explosion is nothing compared to what follows, is surviving the Level 9 sense of humour. Would you believe a thieving parrot (must be one of these software Knots we're always hearing about) that turns up at random, squawks 'Har, Har,' steals your goodies and hides them in the maize? Yes, there's a maize maze in this one, and if that doesn't make you groan just wait till you wander into the Keystone Coppice. As you roam the parts of the Eden landscape unaffected by the blast from the Snowball (why isn't there a second attempt? Do they assume they've killed you?) you glean evidence of other beings - a low droning noise, a helicopter gunship clattering past - as well as the plants and wildlife on this strange planet. You are heading for the robot city of Enoch, and all that you know is that it is on an equatorial shore where four rivers meet. And all that you know about the adventure is that you must solve it. The adventure is thorough and professional and a must for every adventurer It's a shame to see an otherwise promising adventure from a new company, Sterling Software, marred by a sloppy and confusing screen layout. The game is Assignment East Berlin and is for the 48K Spectrum at only £5.95. The main problem is that after the location description and visible objects are printed, and you respond to the prompt, you must wait while the description and objects are listed again beneath your input and the computer's response, the whole lot scrolling upwards. This usually results in two location descriptions on screen at the same time, one at the top and one at the bottom. Also, you enter commands and objects in full. No problem most of the time, but it can result in some hair-tearing frustrating exchanges. You begin at Checkpoint Charlie intent on returning from East Berlin with the new Russian cypher machine, its code book, a list of Russian agents in the west, and so on. Trying Help at any point only confirms that 'HMG does not recognise any agent in difficulty and you are on your own'. While it has some intriguing problems, I'm afraid Assignment East Berlin is amateurish compared to many other excellent Spectrum adventures. A brief mention for a new release for Commodore owners, The Search for King Solomon's Mines from Severn Software at £9.95. It's a two-part graphics adventure from the company behind The Mystery of Munro Manor, and an excellent example of the recent trend for adapting books. A reader with a pressing problem is Eve Lear of Torquay, Devon. Eve claims she's being driven mad, to the extent of now seeing her analyst twice a week. Her difficulty lies in Twin Kingdom Valley. You must kill the dragon to get the Master Key, and Eve says she's tried everything including HIT DRAGON WITH SWORD. What she can't have tried, as it's the only solution is (reading backwards): FFAT SNED OOWG NOLH TIWN OGAR DTIH. Just send the analyst's fees to me.</MainText><OverallSummary></OverallSummary><Page>23</Page><ReviewScores i:nil="true" /><ReviewerComments xmlns:d5p1="http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/10/Serialization/Arrays" /><Reviewers><Reviewer><Name>Mike Gerrard</Name><Score></Score><ScoreSuffix></ScoreSuffix></Reviewer></Reviewers><ScreenshotText><ScreenshotAndBlurbText><Text>Return To Eden has 240 screens altogether - if you have the right machine.</Text></ScreenshotAndBlurbText><ScreenshotAndBlurbText><Text>A clear screen presentation is something Level 9 takes for granted.</Text></ScreenshotAndBlurbText></ScreenshotText><TranscriptBy>Chris Bourne</TranscriptBy></Review></Reviews><TitleName>Return to Eden</TitleName><YearOfRelease>1984</YearOfRelease><ZxDbId>0006887</ZxDbId>