| mind games |
Quentin Heath's Christmas round-up
CHRISTMAS will be different this year for parents and children alike as they embark on Christmas shopping. The software market has reached such a state that parents will have even more difficulty when trying to choose a present. Instead of a Lego set, The Hobbit will be 'in-thing'. Action Man is out and The Wrath of Magra or Black Crystal is 'in'.
For this reason I am giving parents some hints on the best buys where the new adventure and strategy games are concerned. I also want to give children some ideas of what the new games are like.
One of the best sellers this year has been The Hobbit and it is still selling well. It has managed to stay, in the W H Smith Top Ten for about eight months, except for a short time in September when seasonal factors were called into play.
The reason for its success is its apparent intelligence at communicating with the player, and the graphics which have also featured as a main selling point.
The so-called intelligence of the game results from an operating system in the program. It allows the player to type-in more than the usual verb-noun replies which are available to most other adventure games.
The other intelligent factor is that the characters continue to 'live out their lives' even when the player is away from the keyboard.
Artic Computing has caused more consternation and bafflement with the release of its adventures A, B, C and D for the Spectrum and ZX-81 through Sinclair Research. Many people have had intellectual trouble with the games, mainly because they could not solve them.
The adventures are difficult to get to grips with but Artic assures me that they are solvable.
The new Artic release, Adventure E, is called the Golden Apple. It centres on the quest for the Golden Apple on which you travel extensively, especially across the sea to an island where all kinds of mythical mayhem takes place. I will be dealing with the new adventure early next year.
The popular mail order selection this Christmas includes three adventures from Carnell Software. They are Volcanic Dungeon, Black Crystal and The Wrath of Magra. Those three games form a set, The Wrath of Magra being the newest. They form a world of myth and mystery which should be of interest to most adventure game players.
Both Black Crystal and The Wrath of Magra are graphics adventures and they give some idea of the type of world which Carnell has created. Black Crystal is in Basic but, far from slowing the game, it provides just the level of speed with which the player can cope. I dealt with Black Crystal in September and no doubt The Wrath of Magra will prove of sufficient interest for me to include next year.
No Christmas round-up would be complete without the spawn of Automata. The creator of Pimania, the only game in the universe which does not seem to have a solution, has a follow-up called My Name is Uncle Groucho, You Win A Fat Cigar. It is another adventure game starring the Piman and Groucho. It has the same type of wacky humour sickeningly apparent in Pimania.
If you decide to buy it you will he able to enter a competition which includes a trip on the QEII for the winner.
Enough of adventure games. Christmas is a time of dark evenings, a time when children and adults get into the mood to play, games or solve puzzles. There are plenty of puzzles for both ZX-81 and Spectrum to occupy the mind and two of the best are the 'L' Game and a new release from Sinclair Research, Flippit.
I hope that I have provided you with some ideas about the mind games on the market, especially those suitable as Christmas presents. You should not have too much difficulty deciding what to buy even though there is a wide area to cover.