Label: Gilsoft
Author: Phil Wade
Price: £6.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: John Gilbert

Put the squeeze on your Quill adventure databases with yet another addition to the Gilsoft adventure generator stable.

The main function of The Press is to compact and compile the code created by Quill or Illustrator so that you can put more text and graphics into your games - 48K worth.

There are two compilation modes. The first, compile and compress, generates the code for an adventure and compresses that code simultaneously. It can be used by loading The Press into memory on its own and loading the Quill database. Once the database has been loaded select 'fast' or 'slow' compression. Fast can take up to an hour to do its work while slow crunches code ten times more slowly.

Alternatively you can use the utility in conjunction with Quill. Load The Press into Quill using the Load Database option. Compile the code using the in-built Quill commands and select Use Dictionary from The Press. It'll compress code in one to two minutes.

The Press package also contains a utility called Expander, which works on text-only adventures. It compiles and compresses your code so that you can continually add locations and messages to it on-line. Expander optimises your adventure code and can make room for up to 11K more code. The Press also adds several new facilities to your adventures. You can now switch between graphics and text-only mode, use a Ram disc, and switch between two user-defined character sets at any point during a game.

A pre-defined set of sound effects can be accessed using some of the 23 utility routines within The Press. Each routine - numbered between zero and 23 is set up by entering its number into a status file within memory. You can create sound effects such as telephones, electric shocks and white noise, crash the computer. Pause, increase the number of objects a player can carry and even change the click of the keyboard into a Beep.

The Press puts the 'super' into an already fabulous system of adventure writing utilities. It is the final brick in a professional quality programming system. If you already have Quill, Illustrator and Patch, go out and buy The Press - if you haven't buy them all or wait till Gilsoft's PAW comes out.

You won't regret it.

Gilsoft
£6.95

The Press is an adventure utility to complement the ever-popular Quill and Illustrator programs. So don't expect this review to be technical. I firmly believe adventures should be written not by programmers, but by authors, who have little need for technical jargon.

Primary feature of The Press is the text-compressor, which reduces the amount of memory used up by location description and messages in your Quilled game. The program is loaded in from The Quill while your database is present. A short menu appears, the new feature of which is the 'Compile and Compress' option. On selection of this, you are given the choice of fast or slow compression. Fast will probably take around an hour, while Slow can take ten. You are also given the choice of selecting a bias for mostly message or location compression, or an even split.

Does the compression work? I tried The Press on a fairly standard text only game that used all but two bytes of the Quill's standard approximately 30K free memory. On fast compression, I managed to free 9677 bytes, and the process took just half an hour. Slow compression was not noticeably better, saving 9936 bytes but taking eight hours to do so. However, with more complex and varied prose, and careful bias selection, Slow should be more impressive (Gilsoft say 50% is possible on some texts). Most people - particularly commercial writers - will always use Slow I expect, unless the compression is being carried out to cram in just a little that couldn't previously be fitted in. There is an option to use a compressor 'dictionary' prepared with a previous adventure; this is faster than normal 'fast', though to most people memory will be more important than speed.

The compressor has useful implications. You can now write a full length text adventure, compress it and add previously impossible graphics. Or you can produce relatively massive text adventures by compressing, adding more with The Quill, recompressing etc. Using The Expander on the cassette's reverse, you can make even larger games by using memory normally taken up with the main Quill program. However, you cannot add new locations or messages with it, you can only 'amend' them. You must include blank files in your original which can be filled in after compression so your adventure should be precisely planned.

The Press includes numerous other helpful additions to The Quill, most of which previously formed 'The Patch'. The functions, which are controlled using a flag and a PAUSE statement in your original Quill program, include; split screen graphics of any size you wish (which they scroll up with the text), single command graphics on/off control, a single command restart, some sound effects. RAM SAVE/LOAD facility, the ability to incorporate different typefaces, and a few features which make including your own routines and loading game data between parts of a multi-part adventure easier. All of these are extremely useful and most are vital to use if you wish to market your adventure.

If you're already a user of The Quill, this package is a powerful and easy to use expansion. However, if you intend to write commercially, or you don't have the Quill yet, wait until Gilsoft launch their new, Professional Adventure Writer.