Producer: Richard Shepherd Software
Retail Price: £6.50
Author: P. Cooke

Richard Shepherd have always had a good reputation for high class packaging of software but more recently have created interest in the program on the tape as well. After playing and thoroughly enjoying Urban Upstart I eagerly loaded up The Inferno.

The program closely follows the plan of Dante's Inferno which depicts the thirteenth centure concept of Hell. In you quest there are nine circles through which you must pass to reach to centre and escape.

The style and formal mimics that first seen in The Hobbit but the graphics are very simple, although to be fair every location has a graphic. The graphic depiction of a scene scrolls up on pressing a key - in this case the ENTER key - to reveal all the text at the bottom. The word ENTER appears in the bottom right hand corner and the border changes colour when the program is ready. Were this the only distraction when playing the game there would be little cause for complaint but this constant need to press enter is coupled with the most infuriating input routine ever devised.

Every so often a key depression repeats a letter and if you are not meticulous you can spend a lot of time deleting back to correct these mistakes. As it turns out this game is quite enjoyable and long delays are rare as it has a fast response time but an awful input routine is a major setback for any adventure to overcome.

Sometimes the action becomes too fast to read without the foresight to switch off the graphics, for example, when getting Cerbus to limp aside to let you down to the next level.

After only a few scenes you become aware of the independent characters featured in the game though they wander backwards and forwards like zombies. Virgil, like Thorin in The Hobbit, has a limited patois and generally comes out with such gems as THIS IS A DANGEROUS PLACE or WE MUST HURRY.

To tell a character to do something you must begin the command with the character's name; you can also ask Virgil for his inventory by entering VIRGIL LIST. Vocabulary moves quite some way from simple verb/noun but you might be surprised at TAKE with no GET option. However T is a very useful abbreviation for TAKE.

The Inferno is an adventure let down by an infuriating input routing. On the plus side the game features graphics at every location, an interesting and enjoyable storyline and the puzzles, lightened with a useful HELP command are not too difficult.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: Easy-average
Graphics: In all locations. Scroll off. Can be turned off. Average
Presentation: Black text on white. Average
Input facility: Poor. Accepts full sentences
Response: Normally fast, some graphics a little slow
Special features: Independent characters

HELL AND DAMNATION

Memory: 48K
Price: £6.50

In the fifth circle of Hell the damned stare glassy-eyed from the depths of gelid marches. Not in the imagination of the latest swords n'sorcery film director but in the great religious epic poem Inferno by 15th Century Italian poet Dante. Dante's symbolic world of hellfire and lost souls is the setting of Inferno from Richard Shepherd Software.

You take the role Dante wrote for himself - a pilgrim to the underworld, with the Roman poet Virgil as your guide. Inferno is a text adventure with graphics depicting each location, somewhat in the style of The Hobbit. As you travel deeper into Hell, you will meet the damned and the monsters which guard and torment them. You will have to find a way into the City of Dis and pass through the Forest of Despair before you finally reach your goal.

With such an imaginative idea for a game and the works of the great poet as a source of images it is a pity the graphics are not more inspiring. One can only assume that Richard Shepherd Software felt the true picture might be too horrific for gentle Spectrum owners. That said, the game moves at a fair pace and, although there are not so many problems to be solved as in some adventures, the atmosphere is maintained well and provides some compensation for a simple plot.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
FROM: Richard Shepherd Software, £6.95

In Inferno you must penetrate the nine circles of Hell to escape. The usual Richard Shepherd split-screen format has some rather average graphics and a scrolling text-window below.

Commands can be joined together by 'and' and other characters can be addressed by prefacing a command with their name. For example, 'Virgil go south' may persuade Virgil to go south, provided he is in the right mood.

There are ten characters in the plot, each of whom may help or hinder you, though to be honest only one of them, Virgil, plays a major role. You cannot solve the adventure without Virgil's help, and his disposition towards you depends to a certain degree on what you do.

Both of these games provide good value for money for Spectrum owners, but, strangely, I enjoyed Artic's game rather more than Richard Shepherd's. Somehow the relevance of the theme to the present day gave it a more compelling atmosphere than Inferno, though the latter is undoubtedly the more complex program.

DANTE'S VISION

MICRO: Spectrum 48K
PRICE: £6.50
FORMAT: Cassette
SUPPLIER: Richard Shepherd Software, Elm House, 23-25 Elmshott Lane, Chippenham

It's surprising where some people get their ideas from. Who would have thought, for instance, that a 13th century epic poem concerning the medieval concept of Hell would make an addictive adventure? Well, Richard Shepherd Software certainly did and have followed the plot of Dante's Inferno quite closely. Now for those of you who don't happen to have a degree in medieval literature (and I'm one) this classic work forms part of the Divine Comedy which describes the poet's search for an escape from the Underworld.

In the poem, Dante imagines himself lost in a dark forest and meets up with Virgil who promises to lead him out of it. They come to Hell, a deep pit in the ground with nine levels, or circles, where individuals suffer torment from monsters and devils. To escape they must pass through each circle until they come to the centre. Along the way they meet all sorts of mythical and historical characters: Cerebus, the three headed dog, Monos, Judge of the Underworld and so on.

The nine circles are not particularly inviting places. There is Limbo, followed by the Plain of Howling Winds, then the Circle of the Greedy and later on a River of Boiling Blood. In marked contrast the ninth circle is where traitors are frozen in ice. Not a bad scenario for an adventure is it?

The game is somewhat reminiscent of The Hobbit, with castles, rivers to cross and several characters who appear to have minds of their own. Such comparisons are almost unavoidable - even more so when you consider the behaviour of Virgil, your guide and friend, who repeatedly tells you to hurry up and often replies with a blunt 'no' when you ask him a favour. I seem to recall someone in The Hobbit doing exactly the same thing.

One major difference, though, is that the real-time element which contributed greatly to the realism of Middle Earth, is lacking in this adventure. It does mean you can take as long as you like before entering your next instruction.

The game has one novel feature. You can switch the graphics off if you so wish, which saves time waiting for the pretty pictures to appear.

Unfortunately, the descriptions are inadequate on their own and you might just as well be reading a road map: "You wade across the river. You are in the first circle of Hell, limbo. The castle is here."

Nevertheless, you do face some tricky situations, which I could only resolve by referring to the hints sheet accompanying the publicity material. The help facility is also useful, although inputs which seemed obvious to me were often incomprehensible to the computer.

I had no luck trying to kill Cerebus who stands stubbornly guarding the pathway to the Circle of Hoarders and Wasters. 'Throw stone' merely brought the response 'throw where?' and whatever I keyed in wasn't understood. And attacking Cerebus with the stone is no good either; a long snake-like tail hurls me back to the entrance to Hell and the game begins again.

This is an adventure which will no doubt keep me occupied for some time yet; without the sophisticated animation of The Hobbit, it may not have such lasting appeal.

We look at the best and the worst releases in a month which offers new games from top software houses Fantasy and Ultimate.

The Inferno is an adventure game with an ambitious theme, a screen layout similar to that employed in The Hobbit, and a character with whom conversations can be held in much the same way as they can be with Gandalf in The Hobbit. The scenario is the 13th century European image of hell, through which the player must travel to escape. Unfortunately the adventure is too easy. The first seven rings can be crossed quickly with the aid of the help facility and there is little difficulty in visiting every location and collecting all necessary objects.

Produced for the 48K Spectrum by Richard Shepherd Software, Elm House, 23-25 Elmshott Lane, Chippenham, Slough, Berkshire, The Inferno costs £6.50.

This is the latest graphic program from the well-known Shepherd stable. It has extremely fast, colourful and quite pretty graphics which can be switched off. The game is based on Dante's 13th century book "Inferno".

Your quest is to explore the underworld, travelling through the nine circles of Hell, to reach the centre and finally escape.

Some of the areas to be explored include: The city of Dis, the marsh of Styx, plains of ice and many others. Your actions can influence the behaviour of other characters, but I found that I didn't use this interaction feature much. You must try not to be too violent as most other characters are stronger than you are.

The SAVE routine is incredibly fast and can be used often, without boredom. There is no (%)SCORE routine as such, although occasional humour can be found: EXA(mine) your shield and you get, "You can see something horrible, no, it's just your reflection!"

Seasoned adventurers should have little problem with this program. However, the boat can be tricky to use in crossing the Styx. In conclusion, an impressive looking game, but somewhat lacking in text substance to make it totally enthralling. It can be recommended with some reservations.

FROM: Richard Shepherd Software
FORMAT: cassette
PRICE: £6.50

What The Hobbit is to Tolkien's novel, The Inferno is, I suppose, to Dante's epic of the same name. Not that I've actually read the thing, you understand. And comprising as it does three volumes of rather murky medieval Italian verse, only a nutter would start looking in it for help with an adventure like this.

Anyway, tat traditional guide to the Underworld, Virgil, acts as a sort of Thorin except that he does actually lead the way sometimes and mercifully never once sits down and starts signing about gold, Meanwhile, you descend into the several circles of Hell, beat off harpies, lob bricks at Cerberus the three-headed dog, wade through foetid swamps and crawl across windswept plains. All very gloomy but, as far as it goes, pretty entertaining.

The trouble is, as with a lot of adventures these days, the problems you're presented with seem to be either pathetically simple or so subtle you don't even guess there's something there to be solved. Whatever, despite having descended to the fifth circle a few times, I still can't work out how I've got past Minos in the Hall of Judgement (an early obstacle) each time. Seems if you just hand around long enough he lets you through.

Otherwise, a graphic adventure with a smallish vocabulary that's neither duff nor particularly revolutionary. And if I can't work out how to get into the devilish Castle of Dis…