Producer: Rainbird
Retail Price: £14.95
Author: Magnetic Scrolls

The Pawn will already be known to many, as it has been doing well on the larger computers (including the QL and the Atari ST). However, it looked like there was little chance of it filtering its way down to the smaller home micros. Well, before we've even had time to think about The Pawn and anticipate it, here it is on the 128K Spectrum, albeit without the graphics which have so prettily decorated its reviews for other computers. Text-only on the 128, The Pawn still provides all the entertainment of its sister versions.

Unless you've been an adventuring ostrich, you'll already know that The Pawn has received many accolades. Opening up the typically glossy Rainbird package quite a jumble of parts comes tumbling out. The largest, most glossy booklet is the novella, A Tale of Kerovnia by G Sinclair, which shows a map of Kerovnia on its back cover and includes a cypheric help section towards the end. This set of numbers and letters, when typed into the computer after the input HINT, is digested by the program itself and are regurgitated as plain English phrases. As the number of letter and number combinations are long in order to answer such questions as How Do I Cross the Red Line? and How Do I Drop the Wristband?, the instructions give you two examples to try your hand which I can reveal bring up these two comments: 'Congratulations' and 'one two, one two, testing'. Also in the package are two smaller booklets, one a general guide to gameplay and the other a more specific set of notes directed at the 128K Spectrum. To complete the pack is a good poster displaying the picture featured on the novella cover.

The screen layout, being full of text, is necessarily restricted in the ways in can offer diversions from a large sheet of words, but the program has made some attempts to provide interest. The top contains a band which bears the name of the current location, along with your score and the number of locations visited (you'll know which is which, as one of these figures increases rather more easily than the other!). What's below is light-coloured, superbly redesigned and readable text against a dark background. Cleverly, the program allows the intensity of the text colour to be raised or lowered by just pressing the GRAPH key, so you can keep the text readable as light conditions falling upon the screen vary (perhaps midday to midnight with a game as involved as this!). The GRAPH key is listed, along with some others which greatly assist editing your input during play. Apart from the usual delete one character to the left key (DELETE) you can also employ the left and right arrows to move through the text, the up and down arrows to jump one word left or right through the text, or delete one word to either left or right with TRUE VIDEO and INV VIDEO. Were this not enough, EDIT pulls down your last entry after the program has acknowledged it and found it wanting. These features, along with the 42 character lines (giving an almost word processor neatness to the display) and the up to two-and-a-half line input lengths, give the game a feel far removed from the old Spectrum fonts and faces.

The storyline and gameplay are truly enthralling, although you might take its boast of accepting everything you input lightly, as on many occasions the parser seems to ignore the second logical part of a long construction.

The story concerns a King Erik whose popularity has slid in the polls due to his condoning the banishment of the Roobikyoub dwarfs. The puzzle of the Roobikyoub lies in their supposed assassination of Queen Jendah II and their vital economic importance as they produced the smoothest, strongest malt whisky. Now the economy is literally depressed, with the gap in the drinks market filled by the Farthington Real Ale Company and the spring water-bottling Romni gnomes, interest groups who have no desire to see Roobikyoub in any new alignment (groan!). But people still hanker for the old whisky.

Play is fully explained in the booklet in a fashion which indeed, as the programmers hoped, goes a long way to enticing new adventurers to the game while still retaining the respect of old hands. The number of variations to achieve even a simple task are great as in LEAVE SHOP, where you can enter just that or:- GO SOUTH, S, GO S, OUT, O, EXIT, EXIT SHOP, or EXIT SOUTH. Similarly, the rather more complicated area of picking up items in a crowded location allows the likes of GET ALL FROM THE SCHOOL BAG EXCEPT THE ERASER or GET ALL EXCEPT THE CASES BUT NOT THE VIOLIN CASE which if you follow the logic, actually means you will get the violin case along with all the objects except the other cases! More impressive still, the instructions weigh in with KILL THE MAN EATING SHREW WITH THE CONTENTS OF THE VIOLIN CASE (a sentence which is even ambiguous in plain English!) AND REMOVE THE SHREW'S TAIL, an example of possessive construction I can't remember seeing before in an adventure (SYMB SHIFT and 7 brings up the raised apostrophe). AND, THEN, punctuation and IT are catered for as well but rounding off the vocabulary with another impressive feature is the intelligent way the program deals with input as when it asks a question to clarify the player's aims. For example, when dropping a hat the program might wonder which one should you be carrying two. Many programs inquire 'Which hat?' or 'Which one?', but this program not only is more specific with the query (say, 'Which hat, the small hat or the spotted hat?') but also allows the player to just quickly type in which hat without the need to repeat the initial input. Friendly indeed, mighty friendly.

Getting quite a way into the adventure there are some areas which suggest some largess on the part of the instructions. I have already mentioned the occasional relapse by the program when it chooses to ignore the second part of a complex sentence. The examine command (where, like most words, EXAMINE must be spelled out fully, along with long words such as floorboards) can be helpful, as in EXAMINE GRAVEL, 'The gravel is small pieces of black stone', can miss entirely as with 'What black stones?', or give a reply which may or may not be comical, 'The arms are quite long for the time of year.' It's worth noting here that EXAMINE and LOOK IN are subtly different commands, bringing about fundamental changes in your fortunes should you learn how to use them properly. On another occasion you are told how you cannot see a tree when you are in a forest while, despite the instructions boasting many weird and wonderful adjective recognitions, the program does not comprehend LOOSE in the command EXAMINE LOOSE FLOORBOARD. Let's stay with this one to lead me into one or two misgivings I have with the plot. EXAMINE FLOORBOARD replies 'large and very solid' yet levering the board with the hoe achieves nothing but doing something a lot simpler gets the result. However, more worrying in terms of a credible plot is the pouch which doesn't seem to exist until you have fetched the guru his water, an act totally unconcerned with the appearance of the pouch. Such inconsistencies pull the plot into an ever tightening feel of linearity.

The Pawn is a major addition to the Spectrum game player's library of fine games. As an adventure it is a most traditional fantasy affair with fewer unusual additions than you might expect, making little effort to probe new problems or find original solutions. No-one could be blamed for looking enviously at the superlative pictures seen on the Atari ST version (as on the box) but this text-only Spectrum game is still a fascinating trip into the imagination where all avid adventurers, fresh-faced or wizened, long to dwell.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: not difficult
Graphics: none
Presentation: neat character set, adjustable text intensity
Input facility: complex sentences
Response: fast

FAX BOX
Title: The Pawn
Publisher: Rainbird
Price: £14.95

This is the one we've all been impatiently waiting for, the game that first appeared on the QL, then staggered everyone with stunning graphics in its Atari ST version. At last it's been squeezed (sadly minus the graphics) into a 128K Spectrum, though who needs graphics when you've got lovely text to read?

The package includes a novella to set the scene and also act as an anti-piracy device, the story being A Tale Of Kerovnia. This is the land where you find yourself one day, having originally set out just to do your supermarket shopping! A mysterious glance from a mysterious stranger, a sudden blow to the back of the neck and there you are waking up in a grassy clearing with nothing but a pair of jeans and a shirt... and what's this? A silver wristband covering your forearm? That wasn't there before. The aim of the game is to escape from Kerovnia, and removing that mysterious wristband will no doubt have some part to play in this if you read the signs properly.

Apart from the lengthy text, The Pawn has gained its notoriety (and various 'Adventure-of-the-Year' awards) by its complexity, clever interaction between the player and other characters, and its sense of humour. There are many people you'll meet wandering round Kerovnia, such as Honest John (Kerovnia's Arthur Daley), King Erik, Kronos the Magician, an adventurer riding a horse and a guru who's highly amused by something about you. You should soon be able to stop him laughing, though, and when you do you'll be set one of the sub-quests that make up the adventure, which can be played in various ways. Mind you, the quest that Kronos sets you leads to all kinds of trouble, and you'd be advised to ask everyone about everyone to discover who can be trusted and who can't.

One complaint about the game is that some of the problems are devious above and beyond the call of adventuring, while others are blindingly simple, and some machine versions haven't been totally bugless either, though I've yet to encounter one in playing this conversion. Despite a few quibbles, this is the first adventure that'll give Speccy owners a hint of what it's like to play an Infocom game, so buy this.

Label: Rainbird
Author: Magnetic Scrolls
Price: £14.95
Memory: 128K
Reviewer: Graham Taylor

The Pawn, it cannot have escaped your attention, has had some pretty good reviews. Actually on every one of its editions from the QL original, through the Amiga and Atari ST to the Commodore 64 it's had the sort of reactions that caused the prefix mega to be invented.

What is it? Well it's a graphics adventure except that on the Spectrum 128K it doesn't have any graphics.

This is a shame because the graphics on ST were staggering, even the graphics on the C64 were good. Blame the fact that the 128 doesn't have a disc.

What are you left with when you take away the graphics from The Pawn? Probably the only adventure to seriously compete with the best Infocom offerings in terms of sentence analysis (all that 'put the small frog in my pocket under the tree trunk then insert the gold key, open the box and keep all except the cuddly toy'stuff) and, let us not forget, wit. That's all.

You see there are serious adventures and there are funny adventures.

Serious adventures seriously depict serious battles between good and evil and have characters, places and objects with names that are either a) stolen from very bad fantasy novels or b) apparently based on names of kitchen cleaning materials.

Funny adventures, with the exception of most (but not all) of Fergus McNeil's stuff aren't funny. Funny adventures that aren't funny are even worse than serious adventures.

The Pawn, however, is serious and funny at the same time. That is, it maintains a constant balance between being an adventure that you can play as a serious challenge and also being an adventure that is aware of the pitfalls and cliches and avoids and/or twists them.

Take Princesses for example. Princess are for rescuing (being poor weak women and all that, facing fates worse than death). There is a Princess in The Pawn but... well... she's a bit of a pain actually.

The plot. Well there isn't actually a plot - there's more of an overall concept. Kerovnia (as names for mystic lands go this is not too bad since it merely sounds like some Slavic state currently under Soviet control) is politically wobbly and King Erik looks to be on the way out (who can respect a king called Erik) partly because of his having made the Roobikyoub dwarfs persona non gratis.

The dwarfs are notoriously unsound but brew excellent whisky and... well... I think you get the idea. You arrive in time to steer events a number of different ways, it's just that some actions will result in your death.

The Pawn, is obviously considerably more sophisticated than the usual Go North, Eat Frog stuff. I remember Anita Sinclair (Magnetic Scroll's quazi-femme fatale) demonstrating the various ways of referring to different keys that could be either in her pocket or a tree trunk. Her enthusiasm was not so much contagious as exhausting. What it all means and why it matters is simply that you can come that little bit closer with The Pawn to actually typing normal English sentences. You are also less likely to get idiotic responses to perfectly reasonably (if incorrect) instructions.

There are a lot of ways of playing The Pawn. It is possible to wander around quite a wide area not having solved much but just enjoying the text comments and ludicrous set pieces. Try having a sensible conversation with the guru to kick off with. It can get pretty unsettling. You could go straight for the serious problem solving, or you could just opt for some of the offers you get to take on minor quests from assorted dubious characters you meet on your travels. Some of these quests sound simple (delivering the odd sealed letter), although usually there is a problem that means it isn't as simple as it seems.

What else? The Pawn has an in-built clue system where, by entering codes from the back of the manual, you can get hints on particular problems.

It's very expensive but worth it. And it is also one of the very few programs which will only work on the 128K machine, so its a nice treat if you've just invested in a 128K +2.

GORDON HAMLOTT TAKES HIS 128 INTO THE MYSTICAL LAND OF KEROVNIA.

Rainbird
£14.95

Owners of 128K Spectrums (Spectra?) must be beginning to wonder if software houses actually take them seriously. The best games that they have had so far are reworkings of old 48K standards, perhaps with some extra rooms or better music to keep them happy.

Fear not! All that has now changed with the release of The Pawn - a superb adventure written by Magnetic Scrolls and released by Rainbird. Even so, you are not getting all the game I am afraid, as even with all the extra memory available, there is still no room for the pictures that made this game famous on machines like the ST and Amiga.

The Pawn has had a somewhat strange development, Originally written as a text only game for the QL. It was then instantly forgotten about, like most QL software. It next appeared on the Atari ST complete with some stunning graphics - the best ever seen in an adventure by several orders of magnitude. Conversions were then written for most disk based systems as the illustrations could be loaded in separately where necessary. But there is simply not enough room in the 128, so it's back to text only.

This is not necessarily a cause for gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair, for even in this form, the game knocks spots off any other Spectrum adventure.

KEROVNIA

The game is set in the magical land of Kerovnia. The old King, Erik, is losing his grip on the country. There have been assassination plots and rumours of insider trading within the Farthington Real Ale Company. This is an attempt to stop a take over by the Roobikyoub Dwarfs who are distillers of the finest whisky around. On top of all that, there is a general election in the offing with one of the main candidates being Gringo Baconburger, a dwarf violently opposed to the royal family. Into the middle of this political turmoil comes you.

Your first problem is that you are wearing a wrist band which, try as you may, you cannot remove. This is unfortunate since it prevents you from crossing a thin red line that surrounds Kerovnia. You haven't got the slightest idea at this stage what on earth is going on or what you are supposed to be trying to do. As you travel about, so you get a message to deliver, meet a guru who falls about laughing whenever he sees you, find a snowman standing guard outside a tower, some alchemists arguing about whose turn it is to get the supper and of course, you have the chance to vote.

Location descriptions are long and vivid, so much so that the lack of illustrations doesn't seem to matter too much. The problems are both both original and difficult - don't expect to complete this one in one sitting.

The main thing that sets The Pawn apart from other adventures is its parser, which can quite justifiably claim to be state of the art - even better than the legendary Infocom parser. This may seem like a small point to pay so much attention to but it soon becomes apparent that playing the game is a lot easier than most adventures. Not because the problems are easy but because you can enter commands as you would say them naturally. There is no need to go searching for exactly the right combination of words.

One example taken from the instruction booklet, and not I hasten, to add part of the game, shows how powerful commands can be strung together. "Get all except the cases but not the violin case then kill the man eating shrew with the contents of the violin case. Remove the shrew's tail and use it to tie the pole and the noose together."

Pretty impressive stuff even if the command is a load of gibberish.

The game comes beautifully packaged - a box containing two booklets, a map and a 64 page novella written with the tongue never once leaving the cheek. This serves two purposes. Firstly as an anti-piracy device, as you need to look up certain words and secondly as a help section. A number of clues are available to you but only if you are prepared to type in a lengthy cipher. Even then, you may not be allowed access to the clue if you have not solved enough of the game and the answers that you get can be downright misleading at times. You have been warned.

It's a pity about the pictures but you can't have everything! Perhaps if Alan Sugar does get round to launching his Spectrum disk system they will eventually materialise but don't let that thought stop you buying a copy of the game now. If you enjoy adventures, then The Pawn is a must for your collection. Even if you are not a fan, buy a copy and see what state of the art adventuring is all about.