[{"TitleName":"Blade the Warrior","Publisher":"Cable Software","Author":"Shaun Watts","YearOfRelease":"1984","ZxDbId":"0009547","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 9, Oct 1984","Price":"£0.85","ReleaseDate":"1984-09-27","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\nAdventure Editor: Derek Brewster\r\nStaff Writer: Lloyd Mangram\r\nContributing Writers: Matthew Uffindel, Chris Passey\r\nClient Liaison: John Edwards\r\nSubscription Manager: Denise Roberts\r\nCirculation Manager: Tom Hamilton\r\nAll circulation enquiries should ring [redacted]\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Limited.\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nGeneral correspondence to: [redacted]\r\n\r\nTelephone numbers\r\nGeneral office [redacted]\r\nEditorial/studio [redacted]\r\nAdvertising [redacted]\r\nHot Line [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 £10.50 (UK Mainland post free)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £17.50 (post free).\r\n\r\nWe cannot undertake to return any written or photographic material sent to CRASH Magazine unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"BLADE THE WARRIOR\r\n\r\nProducer: Cable Software\r\nRetail Price:\r\nAuthor: Shaun Watts\r\n\r\nYou are Blade The Warrior renown for your prowess with weapons and your quest is to find and destroy the Black Witch who rules the land of Sayell far to the north. You follow the trail of Mazar the Wizard who carries with him magic strong enough to defeat the witch. The game is riddled with magic and an early sign tells you to seek gold to buy spells.\r\n\r\nCable tell us that the game is written entirely in machine code. The layout of the screen and the characteristic Have a Nice Day! when you quit the game leave me in no doubt as to the pedigree of this game.\r\n\r\nAt the first location you at once sense the rich atmosphere that pervades the whole game. In your haste to escape a large band of orcs you have lost all your possessions. Hence this game has provided a good reason for your lack of worldly goods that marks the start of all adventures.\r\n\r\nThe first problem is logical and it s solution sets you off nicely. The door is locked between you and the orcs and reassuringly you see the word LOCKED blocked with inverse print to help it stand proud within the description. Similarly later, AN UNLIT TORCH is blocked red and A LIT TORCH, yellow. When you've collected a few items the inventory looks super with all the different colours. These attractive features help the game break away from the confines placed upon it by the mother Quill. A few paces east and then south brings you to a trail of blood and on through a dense thicket to a savaged body. You examine the body and it looks like a fresh kill. The word KILL is blocked out in red for emphasis should its connotations momentarily escape you.\r\n\r\nThe game really impresses after a very little time for its brave departure from the conventions of the Quilled adventure. EXAMINE is not much used in this type of adventure yet here it is dynamic and helps create atmosphere. But further, the game condenses around an immensely enjoyable plot; suspense builds and subsides as in a novel. Here a trail of blood leads to a body. Later a money sack lies looted - after all, how long does loose money usually last? Smoke meets your senses before you reach the hut in the forest. Wolves are heard howling before you meet them. A troglodyte stares at you and you would be wise to heed the warning. These evocative descriptions are the very soul of a text only adventure.\r\n\r\nWhat is amiss is minor. The logic behind finding a torch, for example, just lying around on a leafy path strikes a flat note with me. Its funny how people and creatures are always dropping useful things in this way. It might be better, in the interests of a more believable plot, to find the torch on a dead creature or hanging up in his dwelling place. Just finding it in the middle of nowhere makes it look as if it's been planted - by the programmer. Also, that annoying adventure syndrome, the instant death, is evident when you pick up the black axe which then reveals itself, without prior warning, to be an enchanted evil weapon that turns upon the hapless victim.\r\n\r\nBlade The Warrior is a very interesting text only adventure with an enjoyable plot. Well worth taking a look at.\r\n\r\nDifficulty: Average-Difficult\r\nGraphics: None\r\nPresentation: Good\r\nResponse: Instantaneous\r\nSpecial Features: None","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: Good.","Page":"70","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Derek Brewster","Score":"7","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Atmosphere","Score":"9/10","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":"Your Computer Issue 2, Feb 1985","Price":"£0.9","ReleaseDate":"1985-01-17","Editor":"Toby Wolpe","TotalPages":156,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Toby Wolpe\r\nAssistant Editor: Meirion Jones\r\nProduction Editor: Ian Vallely\r\nSoftware Editor: Simon Beesley\r\nSub-Editor: Paul Bond\r\nEditorial Assistant: Lee Paddon\r\nEditorial Secretary: Lynn Dawson\r\nEditorial: [redacted]\r\nSubscriptions: U.K. £12.50 for 12 issues.\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Nick Ratnieks\r\nSenior Sales Executive: Julian Bidlake\r\nAdvertisement Executives: Nigel Borrell, Kay Filbin\r\nNorthern Office: Geoff Parker\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Maxine Gill\r\nClassified: Lucy O'Sullivan\r\nPublishing Director: Chris Hipwell\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Shobhan Gajjar\r\n\r\nYour Computer, [redacted]\r\n©Business Press International Ltd 1985\r\n\r\nPrinted in Great Britain for the proprietors of Business Press International Ltd, [redacted].\r\nISSN 0263-0885\r\nPrinted by Riverside Press Ltd, [redacted], and typeset by Instep Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nABC 154,334 January-June, 1984."},"MainText":"Spectrum\r\nCable Software\r\n\r\nThis is a text adventure, written with the aid of Gilsoft's ubiquitous Quill. The game has a largish vocabulary - over 140 verbs, fast response and an interesting plot. Your job is to hunt down the Black Witch, following in the footsteps of Mazar the Wizard who went before but has not been heard of in many moons.\r\n\r\nThe game has one of the best openings I can remember seeing in an adventure. You have been chased by a large band of Orcs and in your anxiety to escape have lost all your possessions. You now stand at a dead end, a wall at your back. There is a solid door in the wall but the Orcs are closing in for the kill.\r\n\r\nThe wall is unclimbable and if you think that simply rushing through the door is going to help, think again - the Orcs charge through and tear you to pieces. As they say on TV, now get out of that!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"43","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Hugo North","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]