Producer: Lumpsoft
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Quill
Author:

The Key To Time is Lumpsoft's first adventure and is all about a time traveller who was all the rage when people used to watch television. The loading screen shows a picture of a police box and funny little robots with a bad case of metallic pimples and tunnel vision compounded by the position of their only eye on the end of a stalk.

Apparently it is a bad time for time travellers what with time storms distorting travel coordinates which might lead anywhere and it proves imperative that someone recovers the object that can dispel the storms for good. At a meeting of the High Council of Time Lords one senior member asked, 'Who can dispel the' time storms?' But this was taken as a command by the others and so you, The Doctor, ended up with the job.

On your first attempt at the game it's better to ask for HELP rather than STARTing straight off so you can gather some useful information. 'In this adventure you must guide your earlier persona by sending him messages through this Time Lord telepathic controller, cunningly disguised as a Sinclair Spectrum.' Here you are told of the game's intricacies including a timely list of recommended verbs including a general HELP, a more specific HELP (TIMESCANNER) and WAIT. The HELP is not as useful as it could be because it only results in a random selection from three or four phrases, one of which reads 'Never eat anything bigger than your head,' a saying reminiscent of the work parodied by Lumpsoft's next program to be released, Malice in Wonderland. The other, more specific help command is very useful in that constructions like HELP (DALEK) give encyclopaedic information information concerning a certain object or creature, eg. cybermen are allergic to gold. I really do like this kind of encyclopaedic reference material as it was what we all thought computers were about, indeed what they are good at, until the limitations of micro memory become apparent. In this respect, I can't wait to see what adventure games the QL can produce. The WAIT command begins mimicking The Hobbit but soon departs with an amusingly prolonged diversion.

The vocabulary is very friendly with constructions such as GO (TARDIS) and ENTER (CRACK) equally helpful and the plot is similarly responsive; everything can be examined and if you look at the screen you find 'The Tardis materialised. Atmosphere: breathable.' Swearing will bring the wrath of Mary Whitehouse down upon your head leaving you to regenerate into your next persona, perhaps this time the chap who is a trifle absent-minded and plays a pipe.

Time travel is the core of the game and if you find play relatively easy as I did, then you will proceed quite quickly through the five time zones, although you may well use up a few of the Doctor's characters. Moving through the likes of Daleks and Cybermen you arrive at Gallifrey where you enter, presumably, the final stages around the president's office. If the game's tricky moments hinder progress then you may have time to ponder on the difficulty of getting any score higher than 0 or how to travel from one time zone to another in the Tardis, an operation which involves a tricky combination of lever pulling and button pressing.

The Key To Time is a very worthy effort from Lumpsoft combining a friendly response with an interesting plot and amusing interludes. A text-only Quilled game with a familiar theme but very well executed.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: mostly easy
Graphics: none
Presentation: very good
Input facility: verb/noun, pretends to be more complex but other words are ignored
Response: very fast

HAVE TARDIS WILL TRAVEL

Memory: 48K
Price: £5.95

Knock, knock, Who's here. The Doctor's back, in search of The Key to Time.

This new text adventure from Lumpsoft features the veteran time traveller and many of his oldest enemies, battling it out through time and space. Davros, Daleks, Cybermen and fellow time-lords all show up as you steer your Tardis through the ages.

With the aid of a timescanner you must discover the scattered pieces of the great key and presumably save the universe into the bargain. Before you can begin the quest you will have to learn how to operate the Tardis.

Addicts of the TV series will find themselves in a well-known environment but the program is very friendly and will give considerable help to those who are less familiar with the bumbling doctor.

The program is responsive and versatile whilst the riddles are by no means obvious. It will get you zipping back and forth through time like nobody's business.

The Key to Time is good-humoured, well written and a joy to play.

The Key to Time, dedicated to the memory of William Hartnell, is a Dr Who game that should please all fans of the series. Looking very Quilled, but a worthwhile game for all that, it comes from Lumpsoft and runs on a Spectrum.

You will first have to learn to operate the Tardis, and a few devices within it, and then you can begin to explore in search of the pieces of the lost key to time.

What endeared the game to me was the response when I typed WAIT:

Time passes.
The infinite sounds of time trickle through the cosmic hourglass.
I can't keep this up all night.
I never wanted to be an Adventure game.
I wanted to be an arcade game.
I wanted to be... A Lumberjack!
(music starts!)

48K Spectrum
£5.95
Lumpsoft

Dr. Who addicts will welcome this Quilled adventure from quirkily named Lumpsoft - the logo is the 'uneven road ahead' sign.

This textual quest centres around the popular television series and features characters that will be welt familiar to all Tardis watchers. The Doctor must seek out the parts of the Key To Time and save the universe - a trivial task, eh? There are plenty of puzzles and the adventure has a good cohesive feel to it. The vocabulary is quite comprehensive and response time is fast.

Hint facilities are built into the program - typing "Help object" may reveal a clue for that specific item. Good humoured and attractively presented, TKTT is certainly worth your consideration. Their next release sounds even more interesting - it's called Malice in Wonderland!