[{"TitleName":"Shrewsbury Key","Publisher":"Players Software","Author":"Mark Gipson, ROB","YearOfRelease":"1986","ZxDbId":"0006973","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 36, Jan 1987","Price":"£1.95","ReleaseDate":"1986-12-10","Editor":"Graeme Kidd","TotalPages":196,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Publishers: Roger Kean, Oliver Frey, Franco Frey\r\nPublishing Executive/Editor: Graeme Kidd\r\nAssistant Editor: Lee Paddon\r\nSub Editor: Ciaran Brennan\r\nStaff Writers: Lloyd Mangram, Hannah Smith\r\nAdventure Editor: Derek Brewster\r\nTech Tipster: Simon Goodwin\r\nContributing Writers: Jon Bates, Brendon Kavanagh, John Minson\r\nProduction Controller: David Western\r\nArt Director: Dick Shiner\r\nAssistant Art Director: Gordon Druce\r\nIllustrators: Ian Craig, Oliver Frey\r\nProduction: Seb Clare, Tim Croton, Mark Kendrick, Tony Lorton, Nick Orchard, Michael Parkinson, Cameron Pound, Jonathan Rignall, Matthew Uffindell\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Nick Wild\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nEditorial and Production: [redacted]\r\n\r\nMail Order and Subscriptions: [redacted]\r\n\r\nADVERTISING\r\nBookings [redacted]\r\n\r\nPrinted in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistributed by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced whole or in part without written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return any written material sent to CRASH Magazine unless accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material which may be used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates.\r\n\r\n©1986 Newsfield Limited\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey\r\n\r\nCRASH ABC FIGURE:\r\n101,843 Total\r\n97,992 UK and EIRE"},"MainText":"SHREWSBURY KEY\r\n\r\nProducer: Players\r\nRetail Price: £1.99\r\nAuthor: Mark Gipson\r\n\r\nShrewsbury Key is a reasonable graphic adventure with a novel storyline. The game has you start at York Railway Station and it's up to you to navigate your way to Shrewsbury, making use of the train 'The Shrewsbury Key ' to start your journey. The reason for going to Shrewsbury is to find the fabled, diamond encrusted Golden Key which lies there.\r\n\r\nThere are two things I'd like to point out straight away about this game, in order to save a lot of frustration. In the instructions the game warns that it is verb/noun only, and you'd better believe it. At one stage when I was told to catch a lift, I tried CATCH A LIFT with no success, but CATCH LIFT did the trick. The second thing to be aware of is the exacting requirements set on input. You can get away with EXAM for EXAMINE, but words like TICKET must be spelt out in full, although thankfully, words such as WHEELBARROW can be shortened to WHEEL.\r\n\r\nIf an awkwardness in language wasn't enough, then the plot can be pretty confusing too. At the rough wooden fence outside York station. Examining the fence gives 'The fence has a small hole which could easily be made bigger', and on KICKing the fence, ' The fence has a hole big enough to squeeze through'. But try as you might there is no way the program is going to let you through it, even after all that encouragement.\r\n\r\nIt is in fact possible to complete the game without going this way, and if this is true then I take a very dim view of the tease which had me almost smashing my computer in frustration. Of the two bins in the story, the first bin can be SEARCHed, but the second cannot for some unknown reason. On this occasion, as in so many others, the replies are less than helpful.\r\n\r\nThe logic of gamesplay is not good either, what with a storekeeper accepting a sneaker in exchange for a trowel. Or how about the Wheelbarrow which you buy for £30, which should leave a £20 cheque for the store (a curious way of receiving change from a store in the first place). But on checking your inventory the cheque is £30 - with no explanation as to why it should have suddenly increased in value. There are many examples of where the plot isn't quite zany enough to be amusing, but it is annoyingly quirksome enough to get you irritated.\r\n\r\nShrewsbury Key isn't too bad for the asking price, although the pictures are simple, they are at least colourful, and the character set has been redesigned. Slightly annoying is the program's insistence on the first key entry being used as a signal for the rest of the location description to scroll up, therefore you sometimes look up to the screen to see the first letter of your input missing. Even when you learn to avoid this the program still runs more slowly because of it. The story is a bit thin, as is gamesplay.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nDifficulty: easy\r\nGraphics: cheap but colourful\r\nPresentation: alright\r\nInput facility: verb/noun\r\nResponse: average","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: Cheap.","Page":"151","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Derek Brewster","Score":"68","ScoreSuffix":"%"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Atmosphere","Score":"72%","Text":""},{"Header":"Vocabulary","Score":"68%","Text":""},{"Header":"Logic","Score":"65%","Text":""},{"Header":"Addictive Quality","Score":"70%","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"68%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 56, Nov 1986","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1986-10-18","Editor":"David Kelly","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: David Kelly\r\nDeputy Editor: John Gilbert\r\nSenior Staff Writer: Graham Taylor\r\nStaff Writer: Jim Douglas\r\nDesigner: Gareth Jones\r\nEditorial Secretary: Norisah Fenn\r\nAdventure Writers: Gordo Greatbelly\r\nZapchat: Jon Riglar\r\nHelpline: Andrew Hewson\r\nHardware Correspondent: John Lambert\r\nContributors: Brendon Gore, Richard Price, Rupert Goodwins, Andy Moss, Gary Rook, John Pope\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Louise Fanthorpe\r\nSenior Sales Executive: Jacqui Pope\r\nProduction Assistant: Alison Morton\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Linda Everest\r\nSubscriptions Manager: Carl Dunne\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nTelephone [redacted]\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Stewart Hughes\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to Sinclair User please send programs or articles to:\r\nSinclair User\r\nEMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nOriginal programs should be on cassette and articles should be typed. Please write Program Printout on the envelopes of all cassettes submitted. We cannot undertake to return cassettes unless an SAE is enclosed. We pay £20 for each program printed and £50 for star programs.\r\n\r\nTypeset by Saffron Graphics Ltd, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1986 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\nABC 90,215 July-Dec 1985"},"MainText":"Label: Players\r\nAuthor: Mark Gibson\r\nPrice: £1.99\r\nMemory: 48K/128K\r\nReviewer: Gary Rook\r\n\r\nShrewsbury Key is a second budget adventure from Players - and unfortunately this one does show its budget origins a little too clearly.\r\n\r\nAdventure games are renowned for having weird and wonderful plots that mix ideas taken form diverse sources, science fiction, fantasy etc. But Shrewsbury Key has one of the strangest plots I've ever come across.\r\n\r\nYou live in York and have somehow discovered that there is a wonderful jewelled key hidden somewhere in the city of Shrewsbury. Travel there - by British Rail - and find the key. Why? Greed, I suppose - no other reason seems to be given. Me, I like a little more explanation to my plots.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, far too much memory has been devoted to providing the game with some of the most simplistic graphics it has been my misfortune to see. They're terrible. It would have been far better for all concerned had the author just forgotten about the pictures and used the memory space they take up to improve the text adventure.\r\n\r\nYou begin outside York British Rail station trying to get on the 12.30 train to Shrewsbury. If you go in the only direction you can at the start of the game, you find yourself in the station lobby. Search everything - don't be afraid of getting your fingers dirty. They say money is filthy.\r\n\r\nWhile the obvious next step, after having found the filthy lucre, is to buy a ticket, I suspect that you will need the money for something else later in the game. So why don't you try and sneak on to the platform through the fence?\r\n\r\nDon't worry about not finding the right train or the right platform - York, it would seem, only has one of each.\r\n\r\nOnce you're on the train, sit down quick. If you are still on your feet when the train starts, you fall over, break you neck. and have to restart the game.\r\n\r\nDon't be too afraid of the drunken yobbos who get on the train at Leeds: they won't hurt you. They are just a convenient plot mechanism the author can use to have you thrown off the train in Huddersfield. Strange place, Huddersfield. Interesting graffiti in the toilets, but they drive like maniacs.\r\n\r\nAnyway, that was about where I gave up on this less than scenic tour of northern England. I admit I've had better train journeys, I wonder. Could British Rail sue?","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"Cheap and not cheerful. Very disappointing - a rainy day adventure at best. Enough to put you off Shrewsbury for life.","Page":"93","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Gary Rook","Score":"2","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"2/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 12, Dec 1986","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1986-11-13","Editor":"Kevin Cox","TotalPages":122,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Kevin Cox\r\nArt Editors: Martin Dixon, Caroline Clayton\r\nDeputy Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nProduction Editor: Sara Biggs\r\nStaff Writer: Phil South\r\nTechnical Consultant: Peter Shaw\r\nContributors: Stephen Adams, Mike Gerrard, Ian Hoare, Gwyn Hughes, ZZKJ, Steve Marsden, Tommy Nash, Chris Palmer, Max Phillips, Rick Robson, Rachael Smith\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Mark Salmon\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Julian Harriott\r\nProduction Managers: Sonia Hunt, Judith Middleton\r\nPublishing Manager: Roger Munford\r\nPublishing Director: Stephen England\r\n\r\nPublished by Sportscene Specialist Press Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England.\r\nTypesetters: Carlinpoint [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinters: Chase Web Offset [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Sinclair ©1986 Felden Productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Sinclair is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"Wish I could say the same for Shrewsbury Key from Players at the same price. Your aim here is to travel from York to Shrewsbury and find the jewel-trimmed treasure chest hidden in the abbey church. You begin outside York station and must first do exciting things like examine a rubbish bin and buy a ticket, the major problem initially being the fussy vocabulary. Finding yourself with a train to catch, what command would you enter? GET TRAIN, CATCH TRAlN, ENTER TRAIN, GO TRAIN, ENTER CARRIAGE, ENTER DOOR... something along those lines? No, what the program wants is CLIMB ABOARD, which took me quite a bit of finding. The train's about to leave, but if you type WAIT before you SIT DOWN you fall over and break your neck as it moves out. Ho-ho-ho, end of game. Football hooligans climb aboard and you all get flung off at Huddersfield, and from there you should be able to get to Oldham, Stockport and Manchester. The game comes across as a pale imitation of Urban Upstart, and even a British Rail train journey's got more excitement than this adventure.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"83","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Mike Gerrard","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]