Level 9
£14.95 cass, £19.95 disk

Contrary to popular belief (the whole of my sheep flock), this is not the sequel to Ingrid's Front, but instead to the very humorous Gnome Ranger (for some strange reason never reviewed in CRASH). If you've played that game you'll know its star, Ingrid Bottomlow, is one of those brainy people always trying to fix what ain't broke. In the first game her folks gave her a one-way teleport scroll in the futile hope of losing her.

Upon her return the accident-prone gnome is soon driving her family to distraction again - not to mention attempted murder. Unfortunately for Jasper Quickbuck she survives to become the biggest, not to say the ugliest, opponent to his plans to steamroller her village so as to make room for some yuppie homes! (A hanging offence if there ever was one!)

The adventure is split into three separately-loaded sections. In the first section Ingrid. with the help of her dog Flopsy, must get the villagers to sign a petition to block Quickbuck's planned eviction order. Finding people is no problem as the special FIND command can be used: Ingrid then takes the shortest route to the relevant character. This is just as well, as the characters independently move around the countryside. But getting some of them to sign the petition is a little more difficult. Ingrid's windmill-owning Uncle Dusty, for instance, is suspicious of her since she demolished his last mill! Then there are Quickbuck's minions, who, if offered the petition, will sign silly names like Mickey Mouse. Nevertheless experienced adventurers shouldn't take too long to finish the petition.

Section two is called The Steamroller - so much for the power of petitions. The Bottomlows are just enjoying breakfast when a strange sound suddenly erupts from nearby. It is the chugging and spluttering of a steamroller being driven towards the Bottomlows' farm by Silas Crawley, one of Quickbuck's unscrupulous employees.

Now if it was my house that was about to be flattened, I'd just set my pet Tory MP on them. Ingrid's more into passive resistance, though; ie, lying down in front of the steamroller. This delays the destruction of the farm - not because Silas is worried about hurting anyone, but because the steamroller might get damaged by running over such a substantial gnome! However, this is only a temporary solution; the permanent one requires a lot more thought and puzzle-solving. Part three is equally difficult and involves infiltrating Quickbuck's manor disguised as a maid.

Just as in Gnome Ranger, every situation in the sequel is laced with a characteristic type of humour which, depending on taste, will either have you splitting your sides or scratching your head in bewilderment. To he honest I didn't much like the continual use of 'gn' instead of 'n', particularly as you have to spell inputs that way as well. It's not too much to put up with though, and there are some brilliantly-funny scenes, such as where a travelling salesgnome is making a feeble attempt at playing darts. Some of the solutions also require lateral, whimsical thinking, so the humour isn't wholly superficial.

Interaction with characters is mainly limited to ordering them around, eg GNOAH, LIE DOWN. But a good atmosphere is created by the hilarious descriptions of the various gnomes and trolls you meet. The typically-refined Level 9 parser understands virtually all sensible input and includes the useful commands GO TO a location, FOLLOW a character, and on 128K machines, UNDO and RAMSAVE.

The triple format (+3, Amstrad CPC and PCW) disk also contains about thirty black and white pictures on the B-side. As in Lancelot, the size of the picture may he altered by scrolling it up to increase the size of the text window below.

Littered with puns, Ingrid's Back! is a fine adventure as well as a funny one, and should provide welcome light relief for weary adventurers. Indeed, Level 9 are so sure of her continued popularity that another Ingrid game is planned for release in May, titled Gnome Free!

Title: Ingrid's Back
Publisher: Level 9, PO Box 39, Weston-Super-Mare, Avon BS24 9VR.
Price: £14.95 cass/£19.95 disk
Reviewer: Mike Gerrard

This is the gnome o'clock gnews, and the gnews is that Ingrid's Back! with a vengeance, and with an exclamation mark as well. We all know that gnome gnews is good gnews, and if you enjoyed Gnome Ranger the first thing you'll want to know is whether the follow-up is in the same class? The bad news is that it isn't. The good news is that it's even better! More bad news is that the graphics are awful. But the good news is that there are no graphics in the tape versions anyway. And the goodest news of all is that the text is lengthy, funny and totally right for the game. In a word: brillicando! (This is a word I've just invented as nothing else is suitable.)

The +3 disk version has about 30 monochrome piccies on side two, but you can switch them off if you like or simply not turn the disk over in the drive. You can also slide them up and down with the cursor keys, if that's what turns you on. There are full editing facilities if you mistype anything, which I'm always doing on the +3 keyboard; a multiple UNDO command (lets you go back several moves); RAM SAVE and RESTORE; and save to disk (natch!) with room for up to 15 different positions on one disk.

Tape owners get three cassettes (one for each part of the three-part game) with 48K versions on one side and 128K on t'other. The 48K version lax pix, UNDO and RAM SAVE/RESTORE, while the 128K version merely lax pix and has expanded text. What more could you ask? What, you want a good adventure as well? Hang on, hang on, I'm coming to that.

First you'll be delighted to know that Ingrid's Back! returns to the familiar Level 9 packaging that we all know and love from the days of Snowball and before. In other words, it's all in a big black box with the "L9" logo written across it in white. And in the box is The Second Gnettlefield Journal, containing loading instructions, advice for beginners, a few hints and a copy of Ingrid's diary from Airsday the 16th of Gnovigour through to Fireday the 21st of Deadembers: a significant period in the annals of Little Moaning, Ingrid's home village.

In Gnome Ranger the very willing but exceedingly disaster-prone Ingrid was accidentally (on purpose) banished to the wilderness by her family. Now she's found her way back, and discovered that Little Moaning is about to be yuppified by Jasper Quickbuck, the new Lord of Ridley's Manor. This involves turfing all the gnomes out of their homes so the area can be 'improved', but if anyone can do something about it then Ingrid can, so to begin with she starts a petition against the planned evictions. Don't worry if you haven't played Gnome Rangerfirst, as you can go straight into Ingrid's Back! without playing the previous game.

The first part of the adventure shows how much Level 9 has come on since it introduced its new super-system with Knight Orc. That game gave the player a simple goal to begin with but had lots of wasted locations and any number of characters wandering round doing a very limited range of actions. Now Level 9 has added what it calls a 'racetrack' system for controlling other characters, giving them a much wider range of movements and greater interaction between them and the player. Locations are fewer but far more detailed, and you've only got to call in at the Green Gnome Inn to get a glimpse of what life is like on a busy day at Little Moaning. Characters wander in and out, talking to each other, ordering drinks, and very convincing it all is too They also serve a good Ploughgnome's Lunch here - a raw turnip with the mud left on. Yummy!

What's retained from Knight Orc is the 'simple' initial quest, which is that Ingrid must get ten signatures on the petition that she's carrying at the start. Some of the signatures are straightforward, and beginners will get a sense of achievement as their score grows and they get used to the many sophisticated commands within the game. Old hands (and they don't come any older than me) should whizz through in a few hours, chuckling all the while and only having to strain the grey matter over getting the last few signatures. Then the trouble really starts...

The text is cracking stuff, and Level 9 has been sensible enough to let Peter McBride loose on the whole game instead of limiting him to Ingrid's Diary as happened last time. There were some who said the diary was funnier than the adventure - not this time! I loved the fisherman, Boney Spratt - well actually he's the ferryman. But he spends a lot of time fishing in order to supply food to the Inn to feed the increasing number of travellers who stay there. This increase in inn dwellers is due to the fact that people can't get across the river due to the ferryman spending hours fishing to provide... you get the idea. You also get Boney's signature on your petition if you can get him his boat back. This is marooned on the other side of the river, and the bridge across is broken. The problem of getting over the bridge has a neat, original and very funny solution.

If you climb a ladder up to Mrs Tackhammer's bedroom window you discover her looking a bit flustered and red in the face. There are also creaking sounds coming from the wardrobe - an ideal time to give her your petition to sign I'd have thought! After you've got the first few names you're reminded which gnomes haven't yet signed, which is a good idea.

You can play all three parts independently if you like, but I've been trying to do them in the right order, so I can't tell you much about part three yet, except that it involves Ingrid infiltrating Ridley's Manor to try to put a final stop to Quickbuck's evil schemes. Petitions aren't very effective you see, which you discover at the start of part two when you're back with your family at Gnettlefield Farm. A steamroller's beating down on your house you see - shades of the start of Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy here, except that lying down in front of the steamroller doesn't do much good at all. Diversion works, though, and you'll have to make full use of commands like FOLLOW, FIND and so on. Pleasing to see that adventure-writers are getting to grips with sensible ways of using these features, instead of just implementing more sophisticated commands and then wondering what to do with them.

Not that the program's faultless, and that's the only thing preventing me from awarding it my first-ever personal mark of 10/10. At one point you have to enter a dogless carriage, but CLIMB IN/CLIMB INTO/ENTER/BOARD CARRIAGE all fail to work, and only the last one I tried, GET INTO CARRIAGE, is understood. Elsewhere I typed FIND MISTRESS SPRATT, which took me to Mr Spratt, and FIND MRS SPRATT took me to Mrs Tuckhammer. Oh well, nobody's perfect.

All in all, though, I've had more fun with Ingrid's Back! than with any adventure for ages, and it even pips the excellent Lancelot as being in my opinion... wait for it... the best Level 9 release ever. That'll set the gnome among the pigeons, but there can't be any denying the quality of this game. An ideal gnome exhibition if ever there was one.

MACHINES: Disks with graphics £19.95, Atari ST, Amiga, Amstrad OPC/PPOW, Spectrum +3, IBM and Macintosh, Disks with graphics £14.95, BBC 128/Master, c64, Disks without graphics £14.95

Village of Little Moaning has come under the Cloud of Jasper Quickbuck's plans to turn into into a vast housing estate for yuppies. Eviction notices have been served on the residents, and demolition teams of trolls are poised to move in.

Ingrid is back, that indefatigable Gnome Ranger and she is unperturbed. In part one of this three-parter, she is getting up a petition against the development. The trouble is the scruffy piece of paper she is carrying, has no names written on it.

Still, not to worry, you are there to help her. So how about popping in for a glass of scrumpy, and collect a few signatures at the Green Gnome? Perhaps the landlord, Jumbo Butterrface, will oblige, and some of his customers too - there's Mrs Underlay, and Silas Crawley having a few for a start.

Along the road at Terry Cottage, Boney Spratt is not having a very good day's fishing.

Somedays he fishes, and somedays he ferrys, but these days he is nearly always fishing, to feed the growing number of customers waiting at the Green Gnome for a ferry. What can be done to cheer him up and persuade him to sign?

Then there's your uncle, Dundee Halfyard, at the Mill. Nice little place, only recently built, and well-sheltered from the wind, it would be such a shame to knock that down for yuppies!

But Dusty is certainly well guarded against intruders. What with a yard full of killer Chickens, and that baracade he's putting up inside the mill... collecting signatures for a petition can be very rewarding, but some signatures are worse than useless. In fact they are worth ten negative points, so it pays to examine each prospect, and think a bit before showing the petition.

When complete, and with the petition presented, the game moves onto part 2, and you're family home in nearby Gnettlefield. Quickbuck's agent is on the prowl, intent on stealing the deeds to the farm. What's more, a steam roller manned by ugly trolls is heading inexorably up the track, and they cat call and wolf-whistle you as you arrive to investigate. The object of this part is to stop the steam roller and steal the plans.

In part 3, you have obtained a position as maid at the Quickbuck residence and report to the mansion for duty. In reality, with help of your Consim Daisy, you are searching for evidence that will put Quickbuck behind bars for a long time to come!

I have often found difficulty in deciding what to try to do in recent Level 9 adventures, since the plots have been very open, with Ingrid's Back, Pete Austin told me, they have introduced a new policy in adventure design. That is, to make them much easier at the start with a gradual progression to more and more difficult puzzles. In part 1, the player's objective is a treasure hunt in disguise, and the beginner will find no great difficulty in making progress. Not that it is all plain sailing, for there are a couple of quite tricky puzzles that will have the more experienced player scratching his head.

The game becomes much more open in part 3, with the old problem of how to go about things. You will need to get Daisy to help you, you are told. But it is not at all obvious what you should be telling the ever-grinning Daisy to do. However, some sharp observations should give you a few ideas, however false things seem,

Ingrid's Back comes in a new design of package. Similar in construction to the Infocom Packaging and similar in looks to the artwork of earlier level 9 classics such as Emerald Isles. We see the return of the attractive white-on-black 'L9' motif bordering a full colour picture of Ingrid. Inside, in addition to the appropriate disk or cassette, lies the Second Gnettlefield Journal, a forty page booklet complete with loading and playing instruction as well as some further extracts from Ingrid's diary. Worth a read in its own right, it can also give you a few ideas about some of the problems in Ingrid without actually giving the game away.

The rustic setting of ingrid's Back is enhanced with a complete change of graphic design: out are misty digitised pictures of Gnome Ranger and Knight Orc, and in are some wonderful artist drawn pictures. There are fairy tale country cottages, pubs full of drunken gnomes, and idyllic country scenes, that all really add atmosphere to the game. The screen shot shown here comes from the Atari ST version which also supports mono graphics on a high-res monitor.

Note, however, that not all versions have graphics (see above list) and don't expect 8-bit machines to achieve quite the same standard. There are many advanced features built into the Level 9 adventure system, that make he mechanics of playing the game easier. RAM save is available on all but 48K Spectrum, Amstrad PC, and small BBC's.

OOPS takes you back one more, and is available on all disk versions, with multiple OOPS on Atari ST. Picture sliding to reveal the text hidden behind it, previous command editing, and picture off to avoid unnecessary disk loads during play, are available on a number of versions.

Ingrid's Back has the funniest humour of any LEvel 9 game yet! What is Seamus Sosmall doing in Mrs Tackhammer's wardrobe, when you break into her bedroom and find her lying red-faced on the bed? Begorrah, he isn't having trouble with his teleport spell and shouldn't he be somewhere else altogether? As you leave the house together he suddenly remembers he's left his magic wand upstairs, and goes back, insisting that you do not wait for him...

Without a doubt, this is the most enjoyable Level 9 adventure I have played to date. Go out and buy a copy!

Ingrid'S BACK ... AND ARE LEVEL 9 BACK ON TOP?

Ingrid's Back is the latest in Level 9's series of attempts to to retain (some would say 'get back') their position as the major British adventure publisher. Readers of this column will know that, in the Pilg's opinion, the company have been struggling ever since they launched Knight Orc - the first program using their new system and, alas, something of a disappointment. Gnome Ranger followed, but this too received a rather luke-warm reception, though undoubtedly better than its predecessor.

So, in the light of releases such as Corruption and (from Infocom) Lurking Honor, the Level 9 reputation has been sadly slipping. Can Ingrid's Back and Lancelot fill the bill and put them back in the limelight?

As far as Ingrid's Back is concerned, the answer is a tentative yes. It's not the most exciting game on earth, but it does make one very important point: Level 9 are beginning to get to grips with the use of characters in their games and to program them very effectively.

The plot goes like this: Young Ingrid has returned home, to find that her fellow gnomes are (a) anxious to avoid her whenever possible and (b) blithely ignorant of that fact that they are all about to be evicted by absentee landlord Jasper Quickbuck.

Ingrid decides to take action and does so in three separate loads. The first game sees her attempting to get signatures for her petition against the eviction. The second sees a domestic battleground scenario as the gnomes attempt to defend their homes against the invading developers. In the final game, Ingrid attempts to turn the tables on Quickbuck and infiltrate his manor stronghold.

PRETTY PRETTY

The first thing you notice about this game are the graphics. They may not be as technically accomplished as the Magnetic Scrolls screens, but they are leagues ahead of earlier Level 9 titles and are bursting with warmth. They add a great deal to enjoyment of the game and. because of limited 'multi-tasking', do not hold up the action too much while they're loading.

The next thing you notice is the implementation of the characters. In Knight Orc, there were people everywhere, causing general confusion and seriously detracting from the enjoyment of the game. In Gnome Ranger, things were better, but the characters - although powerfully implemented - were still rather dull. Ingrid's Back puts all that to eights.

First, in this game the characters are well depicted and full of... well... character. Secondly, they have excellent programmed behaviour patterns that can easily be observed and add to the atmosphere of the game without being a burden on the player. Finally, where they are involved in puzzles, the solutions are logical and satisfying.

The chief NPC (non-player character) is your dog Flopsy - a very useful hound who can carry out some surprisingly complex chains of command. However, if you bother to read the scenario that comes with the game you'll also get a lot of enjoyment out of the other gnomes, most of whom have convincing personalities of their own. In this respect the game has moved away from the rather vacuous 'tweeness' of Gnome Ranger and the meaningless goings-on in Knight Orc.

There's no doubt that the Pilg is just a teensy-wheensy bit browned off with gnomes, orcs, and the like. That said, this game succeeds better than most in putting them in a contemporary and engaging scenario. I can't wait to get my hands on Lancelot...

RELEASE BOX
C64/128, £14.95dk/cs, Imminent
Spectrum, £14.95cs, £19.95dk Imminent
ST, £19.95dk, Out Now
IBM PC, £19.95dk, Imminent
Ams, £14.95cs, £19.95dk, Imminent
Mac £19.95dk, Imminent
Amiga, £19.99dk, Imminent