Producer: Adventure International
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £9.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Scott Adams, Conversion by Brian Howarth

The inlay which drops out of the case when you open it lists thirteen games starting with No. 1, Adventureland and ending with No. 13, The Sorcerer of Claymorgue Castle. Under the heading 'The Adventures' it extols the virtues of adventure No. 1, Adventureland. There is so little of it I may as well quote ,'Wander through an enchanted realm and try to uncover the 13 lost treasures. There are wild animals and magical beings to reckon with as well as many perils and mysteries. The Adams Classic that started it all! Difficulty level: Moderate.'

Hardly a deep plot (find 13 treasures) and no theme to speak of. This adventure is not bad in the sense that it is well-programmed with the unmistakable Brian Howarth style made famous in the Digital Fantasia series, but I can't help but think this game will polarise opinion; if you're a Scott Adams fanatic you'll buy it as a collectors' piece, if not, you might wonder what all the fuss is about for this adventure offers you nothing that you haven't seen before and offers one or two things you would rather not see again. Yes, it features a wonderfully convoluted and totally unnecessary maze.

If you have been anaesthetized by the countless dream factory TV films and soap operas emanating from across the Atlantic, the American spelling in this adventure may not irritate you in the slightest (ax for axe) but I'll doubt whether many people will know what chiggers are without consulting a good dictionary (they are parasitic larva mites). If the program doesn't like what you've input it comes up with 'I must be stupid, but I don't understand what you mean.' At the edge of a bottomless hole you see a large outdoor advertisement. If you then READ ADVERT you get 'Check with your computer dealer for the next adventure program: Pirate Adventure. If they don't carry Adventureland have them call' what looks like a Birmingham number.

As with Digital Fantasia's programs you are offered the choice between graphics and seeing which objects are present, and for that matter, what location you are in. It's very tempting to play without the graphics which to be honest are nothing special, just average. The location descriptions are short and unimaginative.

Humour is evident when for all your efforts you end up in memory chip in a computer. Adventure/and is a competent work with fast responses, a good, sound, input routine and a famous name, Scott Adams. Since this was, or is, the first game in the series it would be a little unfair to say something like 'beats me what all the fuss is about,' so I won't say it.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: easy
Graphics: all locations, mostly good
Presentation: rather messy, black on white, hard on the eyes
Input facility: two word input
Responses: very fast but the substance is often stupid

Publisher: Adventure International
Price: £9.95
Memory: 48K

Lastly this month there are two games from Adventure International. Those are packed together in a Value Pack and are two of the earlier Scott Adams text adventures, Adventureland and Secret Mission.

Adventureland is an archetypal game. It's set in a fantasy world of dragons, magic carpets, lamp genies and the like. The aim is to discover and store a number of treasures, 13 in this case.

The action moves rapidly from forests to underground caverns and dismal swamps and there are magical beings to encounter along your way. Descriptions are not vast but they're very much to the point and contain all the information you'll need.

Useful hints are provided in response to some inputs and objects can be used by means of prepositions - if you say 'Throw Axe' the interpreter will tell you to 'tell me at what... like: AT TREE'. That is a handy routine and gets round the limitations of the normal verb/noun input system.

The game is fun even if its style and storyline are now a bit dated.

OK - admit it! How many of you, like me, started to play Adventures because of Keith's pages? Keith's column, in the first issue of C&VG, started off a series of programming tips on how to write Adventure games. It also featured his first review - of the first ever Adventure to be written on a micro, Adventureland.

This changed my whole outlook towards computers and I started to play computer games for the first time in my life instead of trying to make my ZX81 play music through the radio! So I went out and brought a copy of Espionage island - and got stuck in the swamp!

Some years later I was delighted to discover that Adventureland had been converted for a computer I had - a Spectrum. So in September, at the PCW Show, I asked if I could have a copy. Scott Adams actually went over to his own stand and BOUGHT me a copy of his own game! I've since wondered if I have the only copy of Adventureland that Scott himself paid for!

Well, at last I had the game whose review made me start playing Adventures! But there was a snag! A few weeks later, Keith phoned and said: "How about a review of Adventureland - you know, a sort of new boy's approach to the game for people who haven't been able to play it before, and who hadn't read that early review of mine?"

"OK boss, will do!" said I, bowing reverently in a southerly direction.

Enough of history - on with the reviews! Adventureland is seven years old now and I did not expect such an old game to compare with the likes of The Hobbit (Ugh!) and Sherlock (brill) with their all-singing, all-dancing, multi-word Inglish input. Well, we can all make mistakes and I made a huge one. This game is THE best ever to find its way into the memory of my computer and is, without a doubt, my all-time favourite.

You start off in a forest with nothing but trees for company, but you will soon be collecting such things as a rusty axe and a bladder (I had some very strange ideas about this object).

The total number of locations is not large, but their layout makes you feel you are in a very large Adventure. There are no lengthy descriptions, but even though short they are very atmospheric. Along with the tight plot and logic involved within this game, these go to make the scenes very believable.

The object is to collect 13 treasures. To do this you must outwit beasts like the dragon, who's a pain in the arm, and chiggers who are a pain all over! When you first come across him, the dragon is sleeping. If you ask for help here, a voice booms out 'There are only three ways to wake the dragon!' Finding even one is difficult enough and the chances are that you will have got him out of bed the wrong side, anyway!

This is the game with the famous evil smelling mud and a sign in a meadow proclaims 'In some places mud is good, in others...' This is typical of the air of mystery and intrigue built up in the game.

A simple verb-noun input system is all that is used in Adventureland, but is more useful than you could imagine and in no way loses out in comparison with more sophisticated routines.

Even after seven years on the market, Adventureland rates tops with me on playing it for the first time. If you haven't tried it, go out and buy it now! I'm sure you'll agree with me! By the way, the graphics are great too!