Eighth Day Software
£5.50

Well-known mail-order software house Eighth Day is launching a new line in adventures this month. But the new Detective Tales series from the Wirral software house is, sadly, only for 128K adventurers at the moment - and here's why.

The first game in the series, The Rates, features the inimitable Sherlock Holmes - and as the famous Victorian detective you must solve a complicated mystery.

An invitation from that eminent though controversial physician of the criminally insane, Doctor Vybes, leads the master investigator to a small and remote English village just as darkness is about to fall.

There, in a quiet bookshop, Holmes learns more of the doctor and his work.

But soon after Holmes reaches the doctor's home, murder is committed. And the seeds of confusion are sown as Holmes searches for the real villain of the piece, avoiding obvious conclusions and attempting not to become a corpse himself.

The Raven, written using Gilsoft's PAW, recognises not only the standard verb-and-noun combinations but also adverbs and prepositions. Words can often he abbreviated, and the vocabulary is fairly flexible, supporting both SEARCH and EXAMINE commands. Every character remembers what you have done - one even has a 10K memory!

Each location is graphically illustrated, and the text descriptions are atmospheric and informative.

The Raven is extremely sophisticated and brings together all the humourous and horrible elements of the 19th century. Order it from Eighth Day Software, 18 Flaxhill, Moreton, Wirral, Merseyside L46 7UH.

FAX BOX
Game: The Raven
Publisher: Eighth Day Software, 18 Flaxhill, Moreton, Wirral, Merseyside L46 7UH
Price: £5.50
Mini-Rating: 8/10
Reviewer: Mike Gerrard

Those 8th Day adventurists are here again, with their usual value-for-money package. Apart from a 20-page booklet and the main game in its two 128K parts, you get two separate playable demo's of forthcoming titles (Ardonicus III and The Weaver Of Her Dreams) and a bonus program. 'How to Play Adventure Games.' New players with a 128K machine start here.

The Raven is the first of a promised series of "Detective Tales", and in this you get a chance to play Sherlock Holmes yet again. As the latest Infocom game also features a Sherlock story, there's obviously life in the old 'tec yet. And he's conveniently out of copyright, of course! (I wonder, when Holmes indulges in his notorious opium habit, does that makes him a high tec?)

This story begins with Holmes at home in Baker Street, when the inevitable letter arrives. This one's from a Professor Vybes, known for his interest in the criminal mind, and he's invited Holmes to be present at the announcement of a remarkable new method for treating the criminally insane (though it doesn't specifically mention YS readers). The announcement is to take place at The Manor, Claxton Grove, on Friday at 7 o'clock. The letter's dated Wednesday 11, 1893, and is conveniently reprinted in the booklet.

The game is played against the clock, and you can switch between two time modes using FAST and SLOW commands. You'll really need to study the booklet as The Raven is a pretty complex game. FAST can be used when not much is happening, and SLOW when things get a bit chaotic, but of course you'll have to experiment first to discover which is best. The day and time are displayed on-screen, and you'll find out right at the start how things work, as you're in a bookshop just before 6 pm on Friday. If you wait around too long you see the clock tick away, till at six the proprietor politely turfs you out and locks the door so you can't get back in. But where's that cloaked stranger who entered and left the bookshop in that short space of time? if you follow him he seems to disappear in the graveyard. Is this an early glimpse of the Raven?

The game is written with PAW and so the parser copes with most things you can throw at it, like GET THE BLACK BOMB AND OPEN THE MATCHBOX AND GET THE MATCH THEN LIGHT THE BOMB WITH THE MATCH AND THROW THE BOMB AT THE AARDVARK THEN QUICKLY RUN WEST. You can, indeed must, talk to the other characters in the adventure, and the scale of a 128K game is shown by the fact that one of these characters has 10K set aside just for himself. To think that whole adventures have been written in less space than that!

Price: £5.50
Machine: 128K Spectrum only
Publisher: Eighth Day Software, 18 Flaxhill, Moreton, Wirral, Merseyside LA6 7UH

We enthused about Ronnie Goes to Holly,wood, so in the latest Eighth Day release it is good to see it ignoring commercial considerations and getting its teeth into a massive adventure available only for Plus-2 and Plus-3 Spectrums. What is more, as well as a 20-page booklet it is essential to read, you also get a program telling you how to play adventures and two playable snippets of future Eighth Day releases, the intriguingly titled The Weaver of her Dreams and Ardonicus III. Full marks for value.

The Raven is a graphics adventure written using Gllsoft PAW, the first of a series of planned detective tales. In it you play Sherlock Holmes and the game seems to have all the complexity and none of the bugs of the Melbourne House Sherlock, the program greeted with such acclaim in its day. For me The Raven is better.

The year is 1893 and Holmes has received a letter from Professor Vybes, a man known for his interest in the criminal mind. He has invited Holmes and others to his house on Friday evening at 7pm to hear the announcement of what Vybes claims to be a remarkable new method of treating hardened criminals. When the game begins it is 6pm and Holmes is in a bookshop collecting a copy of Vybes' latest tome prior to making his way to the meeting.

It is just a little before six and the time and day are displayed on-screen at each location. The time clement is vital, as the game is in a very convincing simulation of real-time. At six o'clock sharp the bookseller shows you the door and shuts the shop if you have not left by then. The door is closed promptly and this and other locations will be barred to you at night-time.

Similarly, certain characters have fixed movements and, as happens in many an Infocom detective tale, you have to be in particular locations at particular times to listen to conversations to meet other people and question them.

As the tale unfolds - and the text is authentic and mostly well done - you meet Vybes' latest experimentee, Edgar, a hardened criminal whom Vybes claims to have cured by his new method, that night at Vybes' home, though two murders are committed. It would have been three but Holmes, the intended third victim, was alerted by an ally. The first task is to clear Edgar, whom you know to be innocent, and then find and prove the case against the real murderer.

You can switch between two speeds: the FAST mode is suitable for times when nothing much is happening and you are perhaps waiting for someone to arrive at a particular place. You can use the speech facility to talk to other characters and elicit information, perhaps even illicit information - who can you trust?

A few errors in the text mar the presentation a little and some of the messages scroll up behind the graphics much too fast but, quibbles apart, this is an entertaining and enterprising adventure no 128K owner should be without.