Producer: Incentive
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.50
Language: Machine code
Author: R.A. McCormack

Mountains of Ket is the first part of the Ket Trilogy. Each adventure is complete in itself, although one follows on from the other. The next two parts are to be released later.

Just two weeks ago you were framed with a murder and sentenced to death, but pardoned as long as you undertook a dangerous mission. To ensure your loyalty a magic assassin bug has been implanted in your neck which will kill you at the first sign of doing a bunk. It's called Edgar (or Spectrum to you)! Your mission is to reach the far side of the mountains alive and to do this you must locate the secret entrance at the base of the Mountains of Ket. These lie a short horse ride east of the small village. Naturally, lots have gone before, but none have ever returned.

This is a text adventure, where your constant companion, the implanted killer bug Edgar, is none other than your favourite Spectrum. So all the descriptions come couched in terms of 'we, us'. If you dally too long, Edgar will get impatient and tick you off. The problems are traditional in as much as the village and its inhabitants can provide you with essential equipment, such as weapons, food and a horse. The initial problems are to discover how to get them to part with all this gear. I managed to buy an axe from a shopkeeper, but when I wanted the lamp there was no money left, so I tried using the axe! Adventure characters seem to have got very used to the bloodthirsty ways of Spectrum users who wander into their lives - this shopkeeper was more than ready for me! The statistics told me the sad story - my prowess and energy levels were all less than his and whereas my luck level was high his said 'not applicable' which I thought sounded very ominous! He won.

The text is all nicely laid out and the program has what seems to be a reasonably large vocabulary. Entries are processed instantly, so there's no waiting about. If you get into a fight the statistics appear at the top telling you your chances of winning, and the text is very lively in describing the blows, offering you fast options on continuing or running. Otherwise it continues round by round until one of you runs or snuffs it. I haven't got all that far yet, but there certainly seems to be a large number of locations contained in the program. A map helps. This is certainly one to ponder over and come back to. It can be saved fortunately so you can cogitate in bed at night. Looks like more sleepless nights!

Producer: Incentive, 48K
£5.50 (2)

This is part one of the 'Ket Trilogy'. Each part is a separate adventure in itself. Two weeks ago you were framed for murder and sentenced to death unless you undertook a dangerous mission - locate the secret entrance which lies at the base of the Mountains of Ket and which will let you reach the far side of the mountains. Many have tried none returned. The computer takes the part of Edgar, an assassin bug which has been implanted in your neck to ensure your loyalty. The game starts on the edge of a village, some way from the mountains, where you may be able to collect some of the implements which will help ensure your survival, weapons, a horse and some food. Not much money hs been provided you, so the first adventuring tasks are discovering ways of getting the stolid villagers to part with the things you need. This is a text-only game in which any battles are described blow-by-blow, with your choice to break off it isn't going well. Instant response times, excellent descriptions and a sense of humour make this a very entertaining adventure with an overall CRASH ratingof 73%, machine code.

MAGIC AND MAYHEM AT START OF TRILOGY

Memory: 48K
Price: £5.50

the Lords of Ket rule a strife-torn land where magic and mayhem are normal. Raiders from the east sweep in and devastate the countryside, spurred by the villainous priest-king Vran Verusbel, arch-mage of the cult of Mad Monks, and by the beautiful though utterly evil priestess Delphia.

You know little of that as you languish on Death Row awaiting execution for a crime you did not commit. Suddenly, on the eve of your demise you are summoned before the Lords who give you a stark choice - die tomorrow or travel east through the perilous Mountains of Ket. Your mission is to destroy Vran and Delphia and thus end the troublesome raiding. Of course you accept but, in case you were thinking of running away, the lords have placed a magic assassin bug call Edgar on your neck to ensure loyalty to the cause.

That is the setting for Mountains of Ket by Incentive Software, billed as the first in a trilogy of interlinking but independent adventures. Mountains of Ket is a text-only game which features combat, creature interaction and a monetary system. Your prowess, energy and luck determine your likelihood of surviving in combat and it is wisest to steer clear of fights wherever possible. You do not begin as a very expert swordsman and you will get further by cunning and commonsense than by chopping away at even creature you bump into, and once you get into the mysterious mountain there are many unpleasant characters roaming the caverns.

As in The Hobbit, your score is calculated on a percentage basis and there is a save-game facility. The creature interaction is somewhat limited, however, and talking to the characters can be difficult. Edgar will not give you much help if you are being lazy but has useful suggestions at crucial points.

You would be wise to keep a map as you progress; the path is long and there are many perils as well as rewards in the form of treasure, false beards, magic wands and the like. Mountains of Ket is a stimulating adventure which will keep you busy for some time.

Ket is the first in a trilogy and, whilst the tape was loading into the Spectrum under a bold and colourful title page, I read the leaflet folded inside the inlay.

Within this was a short but comprehensive rundown of the scenario, the objectives of the trilogy and of part 1. The background of information was plausible without being unbelievably elaborate and, in short, in this game you must reach the far side of the mountain.

A slight problem is Edgar, a bug implanted in your neck, following your acceptance of a do or die challenge.

Edgar will sink his poisoned fangs into you at the slightest sign of you making a run for it! Otherwise he will restrict his activities to commenting somewhat sarcastically on your progress and complain if you aren't making any!

The instructions in the accompanying leaflet convey the scenario effectively, are easily legible, give examples of input commands and, most importantly, a definitive list of special commands and abbreviations.

Among these are LOOK to redisplay location and STAT. The latter briefs you on your current level of Prowess, Energy and Luck, because in this game you will inevitably decide to go into combat mode, when these factors will crucial.

The combat mode allows you to try to kill any of the characters you come across which makes for an unusual Adventure.

If you dodge a hit, you use a luck point. The higher your luck rating, the greater chance of a dodged blow costing you one energy point. If your luck is poor, you lose three energy points, but if you don't dodge, your luck level is retained and you lose two points.

The prowess ratings determine the ratio of your hits to that of your opponent and the first one out of energy is a gonner.

Be warned, though! If you win, you may encounter an enraged villager out to avenge his compatriot.

Once out of the way, you can make off with your victim's possessions, some of which you will need to start on your journey to and across the mountain.

A fast response and clearly laid out screen enhance this adventure with a difference. Full marks to Incentive Software for Mountains of Ket, for 48k Spectrum and modestly priced at £5.50.

Currently causing much consternation on the Big K campus is a deceptively tricky adventure called Mountains of Ket, from Incentive Software, which runs on a 48K Spectrum. This traditional text-only epic is the first of a proposed trilogy set in the mythical land of Ket, a familiar-sounding suburb full of Orcs, Ogres and other routine 'Obgoblins.

It boasts both a commendably strong plot and a pot full of puzzles that run a gamut of difficulty. Apparently Ket, long troubled by feuding warlords and the like, has been thrust into uncharacteristic unity by some attacks from beyond the mountains; the work, it seems, of a band of mad, marauding monks. You've been summoned by the Lords of Ket to sort these beggars out. Some task! To ensure that you at least try to complete this hazardous mission, the Lords have kindly grafted Edgar, an assassin bug, into your neck. Try and do a bunk and the little devil will sink his poisoned pegs into your tender parts.

Despite the standard Sword & Sorcery format, Ket offers up a number of refreshing twists. Take the opening sequence f'rinstance. As you saunter into the local village it's a fair bet that most players, conditioned by the senseless slaughter of similar games, will draw their swords and begin hacking away at the earliest opportunity. Here, however, such antisocial behaviour reaps its own rewards. The inhabitants will, as a man, set about you with ill-disguised glee. Better by far to sheathe your sword and attempt to barter. There are a number of items that can be bought, all of which will prove of use once you've entered the mountains. Although it must be said that with what appears to be a village inhabited solely by grumpy pensioners ("Speak up sonny, I'm a little deaf!" and "I've no time for idle chatter!" being typical replies) it's extremely tempting to swing that sword and remove a few heads.

Although primarily a puzzle adventure the game features an effective combat routine based on the Dungeons and Dragons slugger system. Upon starting the game you'll be allocated points for Prowess, Energy and Luck, and these, come a punch-up, are compared against the statistics of your opponent. The 'puter then plays out the battle in a series of rounds. You're given a running commentary on the slashes and thrusts along with opportunities to either dodge or run. It's an effective and well presented routine that adds considerable punch (no pun intended) to the proceedings. As a general rule it's best to avoid crossing swords with those with a higher prowess rating. Just swallow your pride and do a runner; that way you'll get to see more of the game.

I'm currently stuck before a wall which I'm told is in 'mint condition'. The clue here is presumably 'Polo', so obviously (?) there's a hole in the wall somewhere. Just a question of sussing out where, I guess...

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
SUPPLIER: Incentive Software
PRICE: £5.50

Recent months also saw the launch of the first game in another text-only series, a trilogy this time, Mountains of Ket from Incentive Software Ltd. From the blurb supplied with the cassette you'd expect this to be something really special - 'A giant of an adventure program featuring Combat, Interactive Beings, Monetary system...' Unfortunately the game itself doesn't quite live up to expectations.

Mountains of Ket is nicely presented on the screen with good use of boxes and colour to make the text more readable. Input is in the two-word verb/ noun format which places a few limitations on the player, especially since the vocabulary isn't that large.

There are some good combat sequences, and the angry reaction of passersby when you decide to kill someone is a welcome disincentive to mindless violence. However the locations are very scantily described and the atmosphere of the game suffers as a result.

OFF TO A GOOD START

MICRO: Spectrum 48K
PRICE: £5.50
FORMAT: Cassette
SUPPLIER: Incentive Software Ltd, 54 London St, Reading

What would you do with a crimson fish? My bet is that it's a red herring, but then maybe the goblin needs a herring aid?

I'm stuck in the middle of the Mountains of Ket. I'm desperate to get through because on the other side are two more games in the trilogy allowing me to stop the vicious raids from over the mountains by gently, but firmly disposing of King Vran Verusbel, leader of the cult of Mad Monks, and the high priestess Delphia.

I've a score of 58%, I've been in 48 different places, found umpteen helpful objects (and another umpteen which don't seem quite as helpful), fought villagers and orcs (and nearly won) but I just can't find the door to the other side.

This is a standard text adventure. It is not the most difficult I've played but it is very well designed. Expert adventures will probably find it a little too easy, but I've found it has exactly the right blend of Eureka! and frustration.

The further you go the harder it gets and it took me about 12 hours play to get to half way though.

Some of the puzzles have a nice originality, the text is quite humorous and, though there is none of the artificial intelligence of Valhalla or The Hobbit there are some clever little conversation routines.

Unusually, for the puzzle-type adventure there is also a combat option allowing you to fight almost every creature you meet. This is not, however, a very good idea.

The combat system is heavily weighted against the player and uses up energy very rapidly. And even if you win you'll probably find that you've killed the only solution to the next problem.

The game is well designed with no bugs that I could discover. Help messages generally do, if you think about them long enough, and there are several nice touches which make play just that bit more interesting, such as the user defined graphics identifying some objects, the number of different error messages, the cleverness of some clues and the SAVE function.

All in all an excellent introduction for novice adventurers, a challenge for those with some experience, and a pleasant couple of evenings for the expert.

So get started. You could win a video cassette recorder if you complete the trilogy.

THE LAND OF KET

MICRO: Spectrum 48K
PRICE: £x.95
FORMAT: Cassette
SUPPLIER: Incentive Software

Mountains of Ket, Temple of Vran and a third adventure, entitled The Final Mission, comprise The Ket Trilogy, for which there is the incentive of £400 worth of video equipment. This prize is for the first adventurer to identify a message, a short part of which is revealed only on successful completion of each adventure.

Prizes for computer games are not new, but this time it would appear that the identification of a winner is a decided possibility. The ridiculously high rewards offered by Pimania and Krakit are protected by equally ridiculous and, to date, impossible to solve puzzles. The Ket Trilogy offers a more modest prize and, on the evidence of the first two adventures, a hope of eventual success. Mountains of Ket opens the trilogy as a modest challenge with several interesting features, followed by the more difficult Temple of Vran. It is to be expected that the final adventure will continue this progression but remain within the bounds of possibility.

In the trilogy you assume the role of a wrongly-convicted murderer, offered a reprieve in return for the destruction of Vran Verusbel and Delphia, the leader and priestess of a cult of mad monks who are terrorising the Land of Ket. In order to ensure your loyalty, a magic assassin bug accompanies you and also provides details of anything you may encounter.

Before you set out you are informed of the value of some vital attributes under the categories of Prowess, Strength and Luck. In any fight these attributes are compared with those of your opponent, over a series of rounds, in order to determine the victor. This combat feature injects a flavour of Dungeons and Dragons into basically standard two word input text adventures, and enhances the atmosphere of hidden danger.

With a sword in your possession, and this combat routine to be used, it is tempting to kill in order to obtain possession of vital objects. However, such indiscriminate use of your prowess is to be discouraged, unless there is no alternative.

RIDING ALONG

In part one, the objective is to find your way to, and finally through, the mountains. The action begins on a road leading into a small village. You are informed that the mountains are a short horse-ride to the east. From this information, it is logical to assume that you will never reach the mountains without a horse. A short stroll around the village soon identifies the presence of a stable where the stableman demands four coins for the purchase of a horse. But you have only two coins! An increase in your wealth can be obtained by considering the shopkeeper as a friendly trader and providing the cartographer with the means to fight off the cold. A nice gentle start to the task, but the response to SCORE indicates that this initial success has barely scratched the surface.

A short horse-ride does take you to the mountains and, once inside, the action gets more furious with many obstacles to overcome. In certain instances here, the sequence of commands is quite precise and in particular the problem of the hungry dog is inexorably tied to further progress.

The puzzles to be solved in the mountain caves are often inter-related, with some objects having a dual purpose. The empty bottle, for instance, can be filled with oil and magic elixir but what to do with either? Both have a purpose and the "spring in your step" after drinking the elixir wears off after a short time, making the choice of location for imbibing one plateau which must be scaled very precisely.

Bribery and gambling are both encountered and, although the former is quite newsworthy, the latter really is a gamble, so that before entering into the dice game it is wise to exercise the SAVE option.

Delphia eventually proves to be a rather tame opponent, disappearing in a cloud of green smoke, only to re-appear in Temple of Vran.

The exit from the mountains is eventually discovered by dressing up as a wizard and solving the final HELP clue that wizards are totally magical. The word totally is the clue here for an action foreign to all underground adventurers.

Mountains of Ket is an enjoyable, not too difficult adventure, which should certainly encourage successful adventurers to move on to Temple of Vran. This can be played independently of Mountains of Ket but it is possible to carry forward your attributes if you so wish. Now on the other side of the mountains, your objective is to seek out and kill the occupants of the castle. The format is substantially similar to the first part, and again it is important to preserve your vital strength and luck points.

Initial exploration reveals a large number of locations and strange objects with interesting possibilities. For instance, will the mouse waken the sleeping kitten or perhaps frighten the elephant into motion? Will the trampoline enable you to jump on to the elephant or up to a hole high in a wall? The kitten and mouse both ignore the offer of food but the elephant will follow you to the cliff top to get it.

As with Mountains of Ket, several items perform a dual purpose but after only a few false starts you should be swinging across a quicksand pit to meet the delightful Aphrodite. The reward of a key for the castle is offered for successful completion of tasks in two different time zones to which she sends you. The first is 1940 where you are subjected to exploding bombs and to the indignity of wearing a moustache (are all adventurers male?).

The second time zone is 2300 and, as with 1940, this should pose no serious problems as success is obtained by simply picking up, using, or wearing all of the easily found objects. However, it is imperative to return to the present time zone with any other objects for which there was no apparent use.

Rewarded with the key it only remains to find the castle. You know where it is and can see it across a stream of lava, but how to reach it? Once across the lava (no clues for how) you will discover one vital puzzle thrown at you. Final success depends on having eight objects with you but you can carry only seven and cannot re-cross the lava. Nice one.

A QUESTION OF LOGIC

As with most good adventures the solutions to all the puzzles are maddeningly logical when they are finally discovered, although the two time zone sections of Temple of Vran are not of the high standard of the rest of the adventures.

Two minor criticisms are perhaps worthy of mention. The noun vocabulary could be more extensive - it does not even recognise the existence of your travelling companion, Edgar, and on a few occasions the response to an input (always a fatal one) is only fleetingly displayed on screen.

Due to the prize on offer no HELP sheet is available yet from Incentive Software, but a careful re-read of this article may provide a few clues. The third part of the trilogy is due to appear in Autumn 1984. All those with the first two parts of the apparently meaningless message should be eager to explore The Final Mission.

AFTER THE KET PRIZE HAD BEEN WON, CATHY FOOT FELT FREE TO LOOK AT THE MOUNTAIN IN DETAIL

The Mountains of Ket should be a straightforward enough adventure game. So? Why isn't it? Try it my way.

I feel like a quick adventure and dig out my copy of Ket. It loads safely and a map is begun, but it doesn't get very far, since no-one present can break out of the immediate environs of the village. Re-read such instructions as come with the game. Ah, yes, the mountains are a day's journey away by horseback and there is a horse in the village. Buy horse? Naw - the horse costs twice what I have in my pocket.

If I cannot buy a horse, can I steal one?

The following document was discovered in a cairn at the loot of the cliff. Nothing has been seen of that particular stupid female adventurer since:- "Swear to God, Mister, I never meant to kill the stableman, all I wanted was his horse. I meant to knock him out, not kill him, but he wouldn't give up. I was forced to kill him. I know Edgar keeps telling me "Don't just kill everything" but horse-thieving is notoriously difficult to get away with, and with my record, deserved or not, I cannot afford to be caught.

"Honest, Mister, I was innocent of that first murder, it was just that the evidence pointed in my direction - if only I had spent that night sober and in my own inn, instead of playing dice and drinking bad beer in that crooked bar down by the waterfront... Innocent, but proved guilty as sin. Sure, I took the mission, who wants to die? But I didn't expect to have to kill to get my job done.

"After I had stolen a horse, I could hardly stay in the village, could I? So off into the wide blue yonder, heading east as fast as the horse can go, only to come to a series of dead-ends. The valley is blocked; the cliff face unclimbable and there is no way out of the field full of boulders. I used the tried and true 'put something down, look, move, look' system and I just had not moved.

"I write these few words and leave them where whoever comes after me will find them. If I return from this mission I will pay bloodgeld !or the stableman and also pay for the horse I stole. "Let whoever finds this message pray for me and my continued survival until I have paid for these my acknowledged misdeeds."

Shall we try again? What went wrong? Yes, I DO know what went wrong. Trust only to your own efforts. If someone tries to convince you that something is useless, pointless or boring, especially boring, and you then get stuck on the horns of a dilemma, the point where this helpful person misdirected you is a useful point to return to. My son was to blame for the earlier fiasco - he wanted to load Doomdark's Revenge and had no patience for Ket. His idea of fun and games has loads of blood, murder and mayhem in it. And, let you not forget, we had not found the way into the mountain, where the level of bloodshed fast reaches his high standards.

If you are reading this you may well have played some or all of the Ket trilogy. If you have, you will know where I went wrong. Yeah, I left the cartographer before finding out that he needed wood to keep warm with and was willing to pay for firewood.

Yes, I have enjoyed a good adventure in Ket. It must rank as one of the better adventures on the market, but I am left a little bewildered as to how the average player manages to break into the real game before going round the bend in utter boredom and despair. I admit quite cheerfully that, without the aid of the Landlord of the Dancing Ogre, I would still be stuck in the village and its environs even though I had decided that more attention should be paid to the cartographer.

In our house, my son got as far in one direction as to buy the axe in the village shop and cut up the log. He failed to make any use of the firewood so made, and, after a few desultory wanderings in and around the village, the game was put away for a few months as uninteresting. When I came to play the game we had forgotten that the log could be chopped up, and thus lost a clue, so it was all to do from scratch.

Another clue which reached me in a somewhat garbled format was The Voices. This is another very important clue. Those voices give you the password which allows you to pass the sentry ores and goblins without having to fight, so this clue can save you from having to fight your way past the nasties, thus keeping luck and power for more important and necessary battles. As I remember the published form of the clue it says "listen to the voices," which we tried. In my discussion with Mine Host of the Dancing Ogre. I was given the same advice, but I still cannot find the right word to convince the computer that I AM LISTENING. If you have the same problem, the password, suitably encoded, is "SZKOR" (move the letters one further forward in the alphabet to make use of this clue), and is the name of another computer game writ backwards. That ought to be some help to you.

Once you pass into the mountain, the game really takes off. The pace becomes fast and furious. Some of the characters with you in there ignore you, some talk to you and some will fight whatever you do. The guard dog will guard your treasure from those pesky pack rats - while the breed of rats is not specified, they MUST be pack rats, else why would they grab anything you drop almost before you drop it? Perhaps that should have been a guard CAT?

Mind you, there is more to the above statement than that you should drop all your treasure in the room with the dog. Did you remember to take the chain from the field to the west of the village? How can you chain the dog up without it? Too bad, if you left it in the field, it will have to stay there now. You will have to get out or die without it this time.

If you want him to be your guard dog, perhaps you had better feed him - and where better to find food in this Godforsaken place than in the barracks? A few orcs and goblins bother you? Why ever did you take on this mission, then?

Take it from me - EVERYTHING is important somewhere. That pair of dice on which I spent so much time and effort, which can be discovered at the base of the cliff, comes into its own after you discover a copy of the Goblin Gazette which includes a report on an ogre who loves to gamble. If you lose, you lose the dice, but if you win, you win a magic sword.

Oh, yes, I hope you can swim. If not, forget the ogre, you have to swim to get there, but not among piranha fish, this time.

This is a game with the wall in mint condition when you reach it. I'm sure you remember what to do to pass through the wall with ease and grace, but if you have forgotten - oops, what brand was it again? Never mind, you will remember if you try, you want a hole, don't you?

I am very impressed with the combat system. It is both neat and, once you get used to the fact that it only ever expects two inputs from you, very fast. If you keep a finger on the y and one on the n you can keep that combat moving so fast, you will wonder what hit you as luck and energy run out before your very eyes, especially if you are up against an orc or a goblin. In the village, I made a very good horsethief and murderer, but those orcs and goblins are mean fighters!

Go to it and win!

The first of a trilogy of text-only adventures in which the player must fight through dangerous situations coping with the characters who are intent on doing the most damage.

The game involves a novel combat system which has been loosely constructed around the Dungeons and Dragons method of scoring in which character is determined by using a points system. The game is incredibly detailed in plot and atmosphere and even contains a monetary system. The author has included interactive characters which, whilst not especially intelligent, react of their own volition to decisions taken by the player.

Position 32/50