[{"TitleName":"Waxworks","Publisher":"Digital Fantasia","Author":"Brian Howarth, Cliff J. Ogden","YearOfRelease":"1983","ZxDbId":"0007174","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 6, Jul 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-06-21","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":112,"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\nAdventure Editor: Derek Brewster\r\nStaff Writer: Lloyd Mangram\r\nContributing Writers: Matthew Uffindel, Chris Passey\r\nSubscription Manager: Denise Roberts\r\n\r\nTelephone numbers\r\nGeneral office [redacted]\r\nEditorial/studio [redacted]\r\nAdvertising [redacted]\r\n\r\nHot Line [redacted]\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nPhotosetting by SIOS [redacted]\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios, [redacted]\r\nPrinted in England by Carlisle Web Offset Ltd (Member of the BPCC Group), [redacted].\r\nDistribution by COMAG, [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":"WAXWORKS\r\n\r\nProducer: Digital Fantasia\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\nRetail Price: £9.95\r\nAuthor: B. Howarth and C. Ogden\r\n\r\nA large box houses this Mysterious Adventure; a sticker tells you have the right version - it requires a ZX Spectrum 48K rame and one cassette recorder.\r\n\r\nInside you find a booklet filled mostly with general hints on solving adventures which, leaving aside the exercise in speed reading, wil not warrant much attention from experienced adventurers. Conversely, fresh adventurers may learn something of the creed. By far the most useful information is on the first page where you see the Spectrum Version has some special features (don't say the BBC looses out again!). Pressing ENTER gives you a pictorial view of your current location and pressing again puts back the text. The story line tells of a day at the seaside spent stuffing yourself with junk food whereupon you are in need of a long snooze in the cool and quiet of the waxworks. You endeavour to escape the nightmare that ensues.\r\n\r\nThe screen is split into two areas. The upper hall displays what you see graphically, or in words with the name of the location and a fist of the items there. The lower has prompts, input and brief comments.\r\n\r\nYou're in the leisure lounge of the waxworks and moving north gives you the washroom. Examining the toilet door and reading the bottom half of the screen you are informed of an object. If you're used to playing the adventures I've been playing (lots!) you may be caught out since the identity of the object is inserted, almost hidden, amongst the list of items in the top half of the screen. This can be a little disorientating at first but what is more, had you been in graphics mode - and who could blame you as the graphics are superb -you would not notice the identity of the object at all. Not necessarily a bad thing, I point it out only because it strikes me as non-standard.\r\n\r\nSet within the washroom floor is a grid but after unlocking it you can't simply go down and it is quite a struggle to find the right words. The vocabulary is not far removed from Verb/Noun (take off gloves must be entered remove gloves) but combines the surefootedness of this style with some noteworthy flexibility. Commas are used as in 'QUICKLY GET THE LAMP, SWORD, CLOAK AND STAFF' and the word THEN or a full stop is used as in 'GO NORTH THEN CLIMB THE TREE. EXAMINE HOLE THEN GO DOWN.' Single word entries include help, score, quit, save, inventory, run, jump, shout and the increasingly popular wait.\r\n\r\nThe eccentricity of the language often adds to the game but one solution is only invoked with the curious command 'GO AIRLOCK'. The examine command must be used with care. Examining the jacket reveals nothing - until it is picked up. One innovative feature is found on searching the pile of junk in the workshop which is well worth examining twice.\r\n\r\nThe waxworks of your dreams can become tricky to map and the solutions to some of the problems, perhaps in keeping with this theme, are a little unreal. Rising from the treehouse takes you into the main hall but no matter how you descend leads you back into the leisure room. Indeed, in many places the game sends you back to this main area.\r\n\r\nIn the grand hall, up from the leisure room, north gives you the Everest and west the Undersea World display. If you answer the display bedecked with Jacques Cousteau and his scuba gear correctly the aqualung decides to appear in the hall of mirrors. It's worth noting that when answering these questions you must type 'SAY ANSWER' and not just the answer. There are two mazes in the game - one being easily enough for my tastes - in the hall of mirrors and the other in the sewer (both six location mazes) which is painstakingly mapped out for the sake of a rat-trap.\r\n\r\nWaxworks has excellent graphics and a good vocabulary and has all the makings of a good adventure. The absence of long location descriptions is more than compensated by the detailed pictures.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"77,78","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Derek Brewster","Score":"7","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Difficulty","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Atmosphere","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Vocabulary","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Logic","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Debugging","Score":"10/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall Value","Score":"7/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 36, Oct 1984","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1984-09-16","Editor":"Tim Metcalfe","TotalPages":164,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"CREDITS\r\n\r\nEditor: Tim Metcalfe\r\nAssistant Editor: Eugene Lacey\r\nEditorial Assistant: Clare Edgeley\r\nStaff Writers/Reader Services: Robert Schifreen, Seamus St. John\r\nArt Editor: Linda Freeman\r\nDesigner: Lynda Skerry\r\nProduction Editor: Mary Morton\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Rob Cameron\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Louise Matthews\r\nAdvertising Executives: Bernard Dugdale, Sean Brennan, Phil Godsell\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Melanie Paulo\r\nProduction Assistant: Roy Stephens\r\nPublisher: Rita Lewis\r\n\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES POSTAL SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE. By using the special Postal Subscription Service, copies of COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES can be mailed direct from our offices each month to any address throughout the world. All subscription applications should be sent for processing to COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES (Subscription Department), [redacted]. All orders should include the appropriate remittance made payable to COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES. Annual subscription rates (12 issues): UK and Eire: £14. Additional service information including individual overseas airmail rates available upon request. Circulation Department: EMAP National Publications. Published and distributed by EMAP National Publications Ltd. Printed by Eden Fisher (Southend) Ltd, [redacted]. Typeset by Camden Typesetters Ltd.\r\n\r\nCover: We'd like to thank Andy Airfix for his help."},"MainText":"Meanwhile, Waxworks is the last in the series of Mysterious Adventures and comes from the keyboard of Brian Howarth and Cliff Ogden.\r\n\r\nThe setting is a waxworks, complete with hall mirrors, in which you have dozed off and awake to find yourself locked in.\r\n\r\nBeing locked in after closing time means you have the freedom to wander around behind the scenes. It pays to examine things closely as you do. Guy Fawkes, Hillary and Tensing, and Jacques Cousteau are among the exhibits and you are posed questions by them as you wander past.\r\n\r\nIf you get them right, it may be to your advantage later, but discovering how is part of the game!\r\n\r\nI visited a toilet and washroom which revealed an unexpected and sinister secret. But I thought it was a bit off, being called a rapscallion for trying to make use of the facilities!\r\n\r\nHow you deal with the sewer rats, how you survive a rather large fish and what use is a vandalised telephone are among the many questions you'll have to find answers for on your quest to leave the premises.\r\n\r\nI played on a BBC micro which had split screen display with coloured text and a fast response speed.\r\n\r\nWaxworks is available or many micros, some versions with graphics, and costs £9.95, The game is supplied by Digital Fantasia for BBC and Spectrum versions and by Channel 8 Software for others.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"135","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Keith Campbell","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer Games Issue 8, Jul 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-06-21","Editor":"Chris Anderson","TotalPages":132,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Chris Anderson\r\nProduction Editor: Roderick George\r\nArt Editor: Ian Findlay\r\nTechnical Editor: Stuart Cooke\r\nStaff Writers: Steve Cooke, Peter Connor\r\nEditorial Assistant: Samantha Hemens\r\nSoftware Consultant: Tony Takoushi\r\nCartoons: Kipper Williams\r\nScreenshots: Chris Bell\r\nCover Illustration: Jeff Riddle\r\nGame-of-the-month poster: Mark Watkinson\r\nGroup Editor: Cyndy Miles\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nGroup Publisher: John Cade\r\nPublisher: Mark Eisen\r\nAssistant Publishing Manager: Jenny Dunne\r\nAdvertising Manager: Sara Green\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Jan Martin\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Mike Caroll\r\nAdvertisement Production: Simon Carter\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Coraline Turner\r\nSales Executives: Ian Cross, Marion O'Neill\r\n\r\nPublished by VNU Business Publications, [redacted]. Typesetting by Spectrum Typesetting, [redacted] Origination by Fourmost Colour [redacted]. Printed and bound by Chase Web Offset [redacted]. © VNU Business Publications 1984."},"MainText":"MACHINE: Spectrum 48K, BBC, Oric, Atari, Dragon\r\nPRICE: £9.95 (BBC £9.95; Oric £9.95; Atari £9.95; Dragon £9.95)\r\n\r\nWaxworks is the new mysterious adventure distributed by Digital Fantasia and Channel 8, and available on most machines for £9.95. It's the latest in a long series that includes Arrow of Death, Circus, and The Wizard Akyrz. In Waxworks, you wake up to find yourself locked inside the building - but you are not alone.!\r\n\r\nGood graphics which you can skip if you want to - just as well because they take a while to draw. Your commands are entered on a scrolling text window as in The Hobbit, and the responses are nice and fast.\r\n\r\nWaxworks looks like becoming as much of a favourite as the other titles in the series. There are a couple of tricky mazes to negotiate, so the White Wizard advises you to stock up with as many useless items as possible. You can then drop them in the mazes and use them as landmarks to find your way about.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"91","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Steve Cooke","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Waxworks."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Complexity","Score":"7/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Atmosphere","Score":"6/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Interest","Score":"5/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Value","Score":"6/10","Text":""}],"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":[]}]}]