Producer: Gilsoft
Retail Price: £5.50
Language: Quill
Author: T Davies

If you are impressed by official endorsements then perhaps you might like to take a look at this latest Quilled game which is marketed by non-other than the originators of the adventure aid themselves - Gilsoft. It's not long after loading that you see why Gilsoft had a high regard for this particular attempt: the presentation is very distinctive with good use of all the Spectrum colours and using flash to distinguish those objects which may offer the most assistance. The location descriptions are long, detailed and full of atmosphere and interest and, at a time when adventures increasingly appear more awkward and demanding, this one merrily flows along.

Walking along a cliff-top path back to your holiday hotel you wonder at the length of a so-called shortcut from the beach. As you enter a hollow the hot summer breeze turns cool and as you clamber out things have changed around you so markedly, well, you must have chanced upon a time warp and an adventure quest thence the title).

You are transported long ago to the time of wizards and magicians following a war between an uncaring Lord of the Lands and its people. The Magician the People turned to was no better than the Lord, casting a spell over the land imprisoning all light and darkness within a perfectly round stone. Splitting the stone into two, the Magician placed the Darkness into the larger fragment and the Light into the smaller. Finding where each lies and joining them would break the spell. Not only must you find these two parts of the stone but also the seven fragments of a magical medallion hidden in the mysterious land of Moylan, to be joined with the 3 fragments given you at the very start. Then you can enter the Wizard's Tower and free the land of Moylan from the Wizard's spell and so return to your own time.

There are two aspects of this game which are unusual, but pleasantly so. You meet the first very quickly from the start whereby you pick up the three fragments of the Moylan Medallion automatically on visiting the location and this sort of automatic action occurs in one or two other locations further into the adventure. This I feel is a good point as it saves typing time involved with the obvious and it gives the game a racy feel. The other surprise is the length of the descriptions resulting from the examine command whose power is enhanced throughout leading to all sorts of sudden and unexpected happenings. (As a let down from the continual stream of happenings EXAM DOG brings about a delightful non-event).

Heading south from the hollow you enter a woodland to the east side of which is a well and a message. Curiously, perhaps due to a shortcoming in The Quill itself, you cannot read the message and the program is left to direct your efforts towards examining the message. More curious still is on examination a sudden breeze blows the message away! Offshoots lead to the ancient town of Moylan, and a location described thus,'Every wall in this dingy room is covered by shelves. Bottles containing differently coloured liquids sit on the shelves and on the floor beside a stained work bench'. There are also some bars of gold just waiting to be picked up.

The Hollow is a very fast-paced adventure with the fast response time taking you rapidly to useful objects which flash invitingly. The examine command is powerful and leads deeper into the plot. The instructions and storyline are full, coherent and imaginative. One of the better Quilled games from the plethora of look-alikes.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: quite easy
Graphics: none
Presentation: very good
Input facility: verb/noun
Response: instantaneous

Publisher: Gilsoft
Price: £5.50
Memory: 48K

This is one of Gilsoft's back-to-back Quilled adventures, text-only on one side and graphic version on the other.

Although both games have the same title they're different enough to make you feel you've bought two games for the price of one - it's not simply a matter of repeating the same commands with each program.

First the text game. Long ago in the land of Moylan a wizard took power by imprisoning Light and Dark inside a single perfect stone. Then he split the stone and put the Darkness inside the greater part. The Light he banished to a far corner of Moylan and used his dark power to rule without mercy or humanity.

Time lost its grip over the kingdom and a changeless decay set in. Only the joining of the two pieces of the perfect stone will return the land to life and health.

Your aim is to discover both parts of the stone and also to collect the seven remaining pieces of a magical medallion. Three are in your possession when you begin your quest. When all ten are united you may have enough mystic power to confront the wizard in his lair at the heart of Moylan's endless twilight, and thus take back the stone of Darkness.

The adventure begins on a cliff path somewhere in the west country. You are heading back to your holiday hotel, anxious no doubt to consume vast quantities of grub and lashings of ginger beer. Suddenly the path becomes unfamiliar and a strange cold seeps through your anorak. At your feet are the three fragments of a medallion.

Stranger still is the message nearby which tells you that magic can open every door and, if you gaze over the cliff, you will see weird riders with hunting trophies slung from their belts.

The opening sequence leads you into a derelict house. Careful examination of the door will give you magical powers which will be sorely needed on your journey. The stone of light is also here and you can now cross the threshold of reality into Moylan itself. "For as far as you can see a smooth, featureless wall encircles the ancient town of Moylan. A large iron gate has been set into the wall. Above the gate a dragon, cast in rough metal, looks down as guardian of the town."

Descriptions like this give the game a highly charged and dreamlike quality, and help to create a desolate landscape of shifting, ominous shadows where lethal surprises are commonplace. Almost everything seems threatening - pools ripple without wind, flowers have overpowering scents.

As you move in towards the centre of the evil the darkness increases and perils multiply. Snakes writhe, undergrowth rustles, volcanoes rend the earth and wolves scavenge in graveyards. And what desperation created this object: "At the meeting place of the roads a huge crystal lens stands on a plinth. The rays of the sun are fainter here but the power of the lens intensifies them so much that the point of focus glows with heat. You shade your eyes and look into the glow"?

In the second, graphic game the plot and presentation are quite different - to vanquish the Magician you must find and take his Sword of judgement as well as collect the many items of treasure placed around the landscape. This adventure is pre-Patch and the location graphics are full-screen, drawn with the Illustrator.

Play commences in another derelict house but it has now become a major location. Through it you can enter another enchanted land complete with stone circles, giant worms, underground caverns and dying vegetation. There are familiar objects like a lamp, flint and so on but there are also items whose uses are enigmatic - pruning shears, flies, salt, ice. Whatever their uses you must travel on into the undying darkness, into unnatural evil and magic.

In this version the text is obviously less full and the pictures draw and redraw fairly slowly. Newer Quilled games, which use The Patch, have now overcome this problem to a considerable degree but the pictures here do tend to intrude.

Both games are well-constructed with evocative and intelligent descriptions and puzzles. The Quill interpreter is as fast as ever and help is provided. In both games you will need to explore widely before solving the major problems and neither are likely to be solved in an afternoon.