Title: Dead End
Price: £7.95
Publisher: Interactive Technology, PO Box 146, Sheffield S13 7TY
Reviewer: Mike Gerrard

I remembered that old motto' 'Adventure players do it without the instructions, so I plunged in headfirst. A Speccyfication of a Commodore (ptui!) original, text-only and GAC'd, the game began at 5.06pm on the afternoon of Wednesday September 15th 1941. I was in my office - "A window behind my desk blinked a neon message for a moment then dulled, the office pausing in darkness only to reappear like a rabbit pulled out of a magicians (sic) top hat as the neon blinked again." Blinkin' 'eck.

I was carrying a watch, a gun and a photograph. I examined the watch. It was 5.08pm already. Better get a move on. But where, and for why? Damn it, where did I put those instructions? I examined the gun. A .38 automatic, six bullets. The photo? Three people standing before a large log fire - a distinguished man in his early '30s (sounded like me), a very attractive brunette (sounded like my kind of dame) and Alverson (sounded like no-one I'd ever met before in my life - where were those instructions??). The back of the photo provided an address, 237 Bluehills, so I decided to go take a visit. But hang on, which way? That rabbit about the rabbit in the hat had been all very well, but where was the damn door? N, S, E, and W all produced the same interesting response - "I wouldn't do that!. No? So what would you do? OPEN THE WINDOW?. Nope. OPEN THE DOOR, LEAVE THE OFFICE? Not understood. NORTH, NORTH-EAST (and all the rest)? No. JUMP THROUGH WINDOW?. No, not understood either. This was getting serious.

And then I found the instructions. A glossy, very handsomely produced booklet which, God be my witness, fell open at the very page which said "Interactive Technology stories incorporate an advanced interpreter (parser) that can understand not just two word commands but also complex sentence structures.' Oh yeah? So how come I got one that understood sweet FA?

Then, inspiration... O-U-T spells... OUT. I stepped straight from my office and into my car, burning rubber to 237 Bluehills. A butler opened the door, asked me my name. Well hell, who was I? Oh yeah, Philip Marlowe, of course, so I typed in MARLOWE and he slammed the door in my face, muttering something about reporters. So I tried PHILIP MARLOWE instead. That got me in. It was that goddamned advanced interpreter again - just too advanced.

Inside I met Marcia. She said "I suppose your (sic) here to ask questions? So I asked her some questions. But that was a drag because Marcia's answers always prompted me for the next question 'til she let on about some folders on her husband's desk. So I went to the study. EXAMINE THE DESK. Sure enough there they were, lying on the top. GET FOLDERS. "I couldn't see that," came the reply. Mmm. Things were shaping up for another grey day in Tinseltown.

Dead End is based on the film of Farewell My Lovely, from the Raymond Chandler novel, and I wonder whether the author's obtained permission to do it. He certainly hasn't done it very well - typical GAC faults of missing full stops and closing quotes sitting on their own at the start of the following line. For £7.95 you could probably get the complete works of Chandler in paperback, and I recommend you do that instead.

HOME GROWN

It is my practice not to include reviews of home grown adventures that are of poor quality, and thus, when about a year ago I received a copy of an adventure entitled Dead End, written by Martyn Westwood, I returned it to him. There were a couple of basic faults with the way the game worked, and I enclosed some suggestions that might make it more playable.

Thinking it was unlikely I would hear any more of the game, I was slightly surprised when it resurfaced just a few weeks ago. And on playing it, I was amazed!

From the sort of game adventure enthusiasts would contemptuously switch off after just five minutes of play, Martyn has turned Dead End into a highly playable adventure, full of atmosphere.

Inspired by the 1944 RKO film Farewell My Lovely, the game has all the atmosphere of an old black and white private eye movie, particularly on the ST version, which includes digitised stills from the film itself. There are other differences between the versions too, notably the much faster response time on the ST (even when displaying graphics) and in the structure itself. For example, on the 8 bit versions your gun is in your inventory at the start, whilst on the ST, you must pick up your raincoat (non-existent on 8 bit) to reveal your holster with gun in it underneath.

With the cassette or disk comes a professionally printed handbook with glossy cover, containing loading and playing instructions, together with the background to the story. The whole package is so well executed and presented, that in happier times for the adventure market, Dead End would undoubtedly have been snatched up by a publisher and be on sale in the shops.

As it is, Martyn has set up his own company, Interactive Technology, through which to sell the game. And already two more titles are planned: A Dark Sky Over Paradise, and the first of a fantasy series, Doom, due in March.

A little pricey for the 8 bit versions, but superb value for what you get on the ST, Dead End is available on cassette for 48k Spectrum, Commodore 64, at 7.95, and on disk for Atari ST at 9.95. Order by mail direct from interactive Technology, PO Box 146, Sheffield S13 7TY.

Note: The ST version comes on double sided disk. It MUST be run from Drive A, and the computer MUST NOT be connected to a hi-res monitor, or it will cause a system crash when executed. If you have an internal single sided drive plus an external double sided drive, you will not be able to run the game without a utility that enables Drive B to become Drive A.