Marlin Games
£2.95
Author: Linda Wright

Life is all romance and roses for Amora. Daughter of Lord Senidea and heiress to the kingdom of Nulom, she is engaged to her childhood sweetheart Amanton. Fiancé and father haven't exactly been on the best of terms so when the evil sorceror Mallumo indicates that he is about to declare war, Amanton rushes off in a valiant attempt to sort him out. Amanton is no he-man - in fact he's a bit of a wimp and it's not much of a surprise when the ransom note arrives. While the enraged Senidea rallies his army and charges off, the aged Sajo suggests that Amora seek help from the magical powers of the legendary Jade Stone.

Amora's journey, which is divided into two parts, begins in the comparative comfort of her father's palace and winds via a couple of villages, a forest, a marsh and a seemingly impassable canyon to the final showdown in Mallumo's castle. To fit all the text into 48K, only some of the locations have graphics. Although carefully drawn, they're hardly elaborate but definitely contribute that little extra to the atmosphere of the game.

The descriptions are characterised by a wry, humorous tone. The EXAMINE command is particularly rewarding and very often initiates a pithy, light-hearted response. Your dad turns out to be 'plump, short-tempered but generally harmless and extremely thick' while before your very eyes, the white-haired Sajo is 'getting older by the minute'.

Amora encounters many travellers on her intrepid quest and a little measure of interaction is necessary with all of them. This is where the casting of a woman as the hero becomes particularly interesting. Success depends on a strange mixture of feminism and femininity. Unlike Amanton, Amora isn't afraid of a little sword-play (she can more than hold her own when it comes to fighting a battle) but she lives in a world where (quite realistically) brain is as important as brawn: she often has to fall back on qualities of intelligence and compassion - what some people might call feminine intuition! Suffice it to say that it's a good idea to take a needle as well as a sword on your travels…

In fact, the puzzles are fairly straightforward (with some rather complex plot twisting towards the end) and very suitable for beginners. Typing HELP often provides you with a useful clue and if you're on the right track to a solution but haven't got it quite right, the Program almost always tells you. Time and co-operation arc of the essence. Dither for too long over a problem and you may find that both lover and dad have been crushed before you've even had a chance to save them.

The PAWed parser accepts complex input and responds fairly well to different wordings of a particular command. There are the odd limitations but they're hardly the sort to bring you to a grinding halt as you flounder for the right words. Interesting use has been made of adverbs. Rush into action without a moment's thought and you may not succeed: behave with a little more care and, who knows, all your problems may be solved?

Like Cloud 99, which gained 75% last month, The Jade Stone (which has been around for a while now but for various reasons never reviewed) is an extremely refreshing and playable adventure. Its unusual and light-hearted tone should appeal to beginners and veteran adventurers alike. At £2.95 it's the sort of bargain you can't afford to miss. Contact Marlin Games at 19 Briar Close, Nailsea, Bristol, BS19 1QG.

FAX BOX
Game: The Jade Stone, The
Publisher: Marlin Games, 19 Briar Close, Nailsea, Bristol BS19 1QG
Price: £2.95
Reviewer: Mike Gerrard

There seem to be very few poor efforts among the PAW'd adventures now starting to pour out - a sign that most of the authors are already familiar with the Quill way of working. Someone who's certainly familiar with all utilities is Linda Wright, as some of her GAC'd games have been published by Incentive, but for the Amstrad only. You know the Amstrad. It's a computer. One or two people bought them.

Anyway, Linda's seen fit to make the star of her Spectrum game a female character - and quite right too. Far too many blokes bashing about the place. The heroine of the two-part tale is Amara, from the Kingdom of Nulom, and her task is to rescue her fiance, Amanton, who's a bit of a wimp and has gone and got himself captured by the dastardly Mallumo of Kradoom, a sorceror. The game may have several things going for it, but good names isn't one of them. They sound like they've come from an Adventure Name Generator program. The other drawback is the character set that's been chosen, which I found very hard to read, so lose a few Brownie Points there.

On the other hand, the adventure itself is first rate. PAW's screen-handling has been used well - a graphic quickly drawn at the top, followed by a fixed location description; then a bar of a different colour which both lists the visible exits and divides the screen nicely from the scrolling messages and inputs beneath. The text is well written, and I like the way that objects in the location descriptions sometimes have to be used if you're to make any progress - an innocent piece of furniture could be concealing something that might have a point to it... or might not. And don't forget to use your feminine charms - if you can make a guard blush you're thinking along the right lines.

PAW's parser can cope with most inputs of course, provided the author's thought to cater for everything, and that certainly seems to be the case here. I noticed little things, like acceptance of both EXAM and EXAMI as abbreviations for EXAMINE; TAKE and GET both accepted; and even PURCHASE is in there as an alternative to BUY. You can COUNT MONEY, that's assuming you work out how to get some in the first place. It's also a very moral adventure: good deeds earn their rewards.

My advice on The Jade Stone is that there's no need to EXAMINE IT first, just get out and PURCHASE IT pronto - though don't try swearing at it if you get stuck. Not unless you've saved the game first as no un-ladylike language will be tolerated in this home-grown goodie.

Jade Stone is a two part PAW'd adventure costing £2.95 from Linda Wright. Linda has set up her own software company, Marlin Games, 19 Briar Close, Nailsea, Bristol BS19 1QG.

In jade Stone you get to play the adventure as a woman - makes a nice change! You are Amanda, the lovely daughter of Lord Senides from the Kingdom of Nulom. You recently became engaged to your childhood sweetheart, Amanton, who is a likeable, kindhearted guy... but a wimp!

You have to rescue Amanton and your father from the clutches of the evil Mallumo and only the legendary jade stone will defeat him.

You would do well to examine everything within the reams of text. There are lots of puzzles - some easy, some not so easy - but all of them are fairly logical. A well conceived adventure, very well written, and it contains lots of humour.

Spectrum Cassette:: £2.95

Every so often an adventure comes my way which, although having been written using a utility such as GAC or the PAW, stands head and shoulders above the rest of the normally non-inspirational efforts I get to peruse. One such game is The Jade Stone by Linda Wright of Marlin Games, if this lady's name sounds familiar it is probably because her previous adventures include Black Fountain and Sharpe's Deed, both of which were written with GAC and both achieved some success for Incentive Software. Linda has decided to market this particular game herself and so far it is only available direct from her company - the address is at the end of this review.

The Jade Stone - a PAW adventure - tells the story of a Princess and her attempts to rescue her lover (Amanton) and at the same time (probably during lunch breaks) save her father's kingdom of Nulom. It transpires that the evil sorcerer, Mallumo of Kradoom, is about to declare war on Nulom and, wishing to impress the princess's father, Amanton sets off in an attempt to thwart his dastardly plans. Unfortunately it is not long before news of Amanton's progress ceases, and indeed all knowledge of his whereabouts is lost. The reason soon becomes clear; Mallumo sends a ransom note to the king demanding an exchange: either give up Nulom or the princess in return for Amanton's freedom.

The k in g is enraged. He immediately orders his army to venture forth and put an end to the evil sorcerer's insolence. However, the princess does not quite share her father's confidence in the army and decides to lend a helping hand. She learns of the existence of the Jade Stone, a magic gem which may have the power to stop Mallumo... if only she can find it.

The first element in The Jade Stone to impress me was the obvious thought that has gone into its creation. Most inputs have been anticipated and the player usually gets some sort of coherent answer to valid commands. The parser on the PAW is fairly versatile, and Linda appears to have used it extensively so that quite complex sentences may be input and understood. There is also a speech-mode which allows you to talk to most of the other characters - and there are many - you may meet during the quest, and a reply is often forthcoming for most commands.

Location descriptions are a little sparse but are well written, and obviously memory, or the lack of it, must be a factor to be taken into consideration. It's no good having dripping prose if there is nothing to actually do in the game, while on the other hand plenty of puzzles and no atmosphere (which seems to be the norm with adventures created on this type of utility) can make a game very dull to play. The Jade Stone has the balance about right, although from a personal point of view I think the graphics within the game are wasted space, they add nothing to the game, but from the marketing angle adventures with graphics tend to sell better than those without. Why this should be is, and probably will remain a mystery to me.

A FOUL

While in winge-mode I'll just mention the swearing syndrome; if you input a four-letter word into The Jade Stone, the game replies by quitting and restarting. I've never understood why people do this - by making the game react to a foul input surely the author is recognising, even hoping, that players will try out these words when playing, after all authors obviously go through the effort to input the words into the vocabulary in the first place and then program the game to react appropriately. Why not just ignore the fact that these unnecessary words exist at least in the world of adventuring. Before any clever dick writes to ask why I don't ignore such words myself and not input them, every game has to be thoroughly playtested, and all avenues must be attempted to get a fair idea of how they work.

The Jade Stone comes in two parts and consists of some clever puzzles and some obscure ones, sufficient ambience and lots of user-friendliness. For the meagre sum of under three pounds this game is a must for adventurers who fancy being a princess for a while, and are fed up With being ripped off by over-priced, utility written games.

The Jade Stone may be purchased from Marlin Games, 19 Briar Close, Nailsea, Bristol BS19 1QG.