Four New Fields To Conquer...	Visit The Scan Section
Originally published in Electron User 4.06

HOT news this month includes an announcement from Adventure Soft UK that it has just released four new adventures for the Electron.

The titles are KAYLETH, TEMPLE OF TERROR, SWORD OF THE SAMURAI and SUPER ADVENTURE. They are available at £7.99 each either direct from Adventure Soft or from your usual supplier.

I am also in receipt of an apology from Robico that their western adventure, BLAZING STAR, won't be available on general release until the beginning of May.

Just Out: KAYLETH

This is apparently due to the high demand for the bargain-priced RICK HANSON TRILOGY.

A pigeon from Essex tells me that May is also the time to look out for the new Shards adventure - a sequel to MYSTERY OF THE JAVA STAR. Sounds promising.

The new Lever/Jones extravaganza, DODGY GEEZERS, has now been released by Melbourne House for the Electron. If you thought HAMPSTEAD and TERRORMOLINOS were a good wheeze, try this!

My database of adventures for the Electron and BBC Micro is nearly completed and hopefully will be ready for publication very soon.

If any of you have last minute details about newly-formed adventure software companies please let me know quickly.

To continue with Sheila Beattie's idea of listing when help has been given for specific adventures, this month it is the turn of WHEEL OF FORTUNE.

The following back copies with furnish you with useful information: August, October, November and December 1985, January, February, April, May, June, July, August, September and December 1986.

HAMPSTEAD Map 3 - Click To Enlarge

You Will Find A Hints Utility To FERRYMAN On The Companion Cassette

Now on to the promised special on Kansas City Systems' THE FERRYMAN AWAITS.

I am grateful to Colin Rothery and Sheila Beattie for their routes around the game.

I am also deeply indebted to Bill Trevelyan for his most detailed solution to the adventure and explanation of its inner workings.

A hints program specially written by him for this adventure can be found on this month's tape and it's essential reading for anyone having difficulty.

FERRYMAN must be the most macabre and one of the most difficult adventures I have come across.

Its complexity is partly due to some obscure problems and a sneaking suspicion that I have that it was originally much longer and was shortened for the Electron. Perhaps the author, John Nevins, can put me right on that one.

The verb list is an important tool as in FERRYMAN it is essential to give correctly worded instructions, otherwise odd things may happen. For instance try entering NORTH WEST (NW) in the Valley of the Shadow of Death!

It has about 90 evocatively described locations which on occasions give a chill of horror... "The smell of the air reminds you of places where mould grows on rotting flesh."

In other places, the atmosphere is quite haunting... "Towering above you is a stone tree, its roots dive into the rock and its trunk holds its vast branches high into the sunless sky".

There are also 30 interesting objects which perform a variety of peculiar functions.

Bill Trevelyan tells me that the adventure uses Page D, so it is best to disable your Plus 1 before CHAINing.

You begin the adventure as a ready-made sacrifice: "You have been magically paralysed from the neck down... the Priest raises a small yellow stone above your head."

Your actions now must be quick and decisive: SAY NIMLAX, DOWN, PUSH PRIEST, DOWN, SOUTH, DOWN.

Here are some of the objects you will find:

Amulet: In the secret chamber west of the altar hall - needed to work the horn.
Bar: With the rope - used first to ascend to tower roof from the temple, then to climb up gravel slope.
Chalk: Receive this from the old man in the stone tree in exchange for the rod. Use it to draw the pentagram.
Cube: Hallucinogenic drug - don't eat it, but a lick might defy time!
Door: The cell door is "Light but strong". It is useful as a bridge over the gap.
Fungus: Will be found growing on the dead guard's body. GET FUNGUS and drop it in the mud lake to eliminate the weed creature.
Horn: Use with the mouthpiece and amulet - SAY MOLD to be transported to the chamber.
Jerkin: Wear it to enter the pirate's cave.
Keg: In the storeroom. Exchange it for a lump of sticky tar in the pirate's cave.
Mirror: Found in the temple. EXAM MIRROR shows what you are.
Mouthpiece: At the mound. This is needed for the horn.
Parrot: Carry the dead parrot when you visit the pirate's cave. (Shades of Monty Python, I think!)
Pie: It is poisoned. Eat for quick passage to the valley of the shadow of death.
Rags:: You are wearing them. They may be changed for the robe or pirate garb.
Rob: Exchange for the chalk at the stone tree.
Spear: Left at the bridge. Throw it at the parrot.
Sulphur: Yellow disc or slaying stone. Operated by SAY NIMLAX.
Sword: Given to you in exchange for the flint at the pool.
Tar: Given by the pirate in exchange for the keg.
Tricorn: To be found at the end of the passage. Must be worn to get the tar.

As with the opening sequence, in the final conflict it is essential that each action is carried out correctly and that no moves are wasted: N, DRAW PENTAGRAM, SMASH BOTTLE, THROW TAR, SAY NAGROGORGGA, SAY NIMLAX, KILL.

I hope I have left enough undone to still make THE FERRYMAN AWAITS a challenge to the most seasoned campaigner.

Overture And Beginners Last month I began to explain some simple mapping procedures for text adventures. I further mentioned that the grid map - although the most widely used - comes undone when adventures do not follow logical routes. An alternative is to produce a random mapping diagram. This is similiar to a grid map in that it displays the adventure in a series of boxes and lines. The main difference is the random map usually drawn on plain paper and the room connections do not necessarily follow compass directions. To make a random map draw a box or circle in the middle of a piece of paper and mark it as the starting point. Now draw your connecting arrows to other locations in any direction which leads to a blank piece of paper. Follow compass directions only when convenient. Directions which are not natural are annotated The insert in Micro Power's ADVENTURE gives an example of a random map in use. This method may require lines curving in directions which have no relation to compass locations and the finished result may look like something of which Pablo Picasso would be proud. However a random map does enable you to come to terms with adventures which twist and turn in many directions, have confusing mazes of equally, like SPHINX ADVENTURE, have a number of Up and Down routes. Secondly, a random map will last much longer than its grid equivalent as it will not need re-writing as often - as those of you who have experimented with grid maps have found out. Next month we will look at a non-pictorial approach to mapping.