★ AMSTRAD CPC ★ GAMESLIST ★ ST. JIVES (c) THE ADVENTURE WORKSHOP ★ |
Adventure Probe |
The object of your quest is to destroy a mad scientist, who, if left unchecked, will no doubt wreak untold chaos on St Jives, and on all the known world, too, I should think I haven't been given a synopsis of the plot, so my understanding of it is limited to what I could glean from playing the game, and that wasn't much No doubt, by the time this is published Phil Reynolds will have produced suitable inlays/information files, so you will have the relevant information at your fingertips. The game has been converted to Amstrad format using the Quill, and so is available on disc or tape and has a very basic verb/noun parser. As to the game itself, the problems which have been set are not very difficult and their solutions are pretty obvious. Having said that, it is very much a case of wandering the town and finding the right object(s) which will enable you to solve one problem and to open up a way into another section of the map where more problems await you. There are several doors which need various coloured keys before you can go through them. One thing that I liked about the programming here is that it you have the correct key in your inventory, you simply have to type UNLOCK DOOR at the correct location You don't have to fiddle about specifying which colour key you want to use There are several characters within the game, but with whom no interaction is possible With this lack of interaction the characters are just not convincing and it tends to give the impression that little or no thought had been given to this aspect of the game. The majority of the problems are of the tried and trusted type carry an object to enable you to perform some action which will then either yield important information or lead to discovering another object of importance. There are one or two red herrings knocking about the game, but they soon become obvious There is a very irritating weight limit. If you solve the problems in the wrong order, you'll soon find that you can't carry all the objects which you discover, and you have to start leaving items all over the place to pick up the other items which might be of use. Indeed, now I think of it, there has been a similar type of restnctive weight limit in all of the Dorothy Millard games which I have played. I don't know whether she simply likes realistic weight limits, or whether this is done to make the game last longer and disguise the fact that there isn't a great deal to it One of the sub-quests which you have to undertake is delivering a letter to the Lord of the castle. Further on, you are expecting to brew a potion of sorts - but you will find that it's not possible to carry all the ingredients plus the letter and a light source I ended up going back to areas of the map I'd already been to to pick up Hems which I needed and then retracing my steps back to the castle to drop the missing ingredients with the rest Some people may like this kind of toing and froing, personally, it bored me, since all I was doing was transporting objects from A to B. There were no additional problems to solve which justified being made to retrace your steps. It simply seems to be a convenient way of padding the game out a little. As to the difficulty level of the game, I have to put it firmly at novice level More advanced adventurers will solve the game with ease, zoom through it, and find themselves disappointed at the end by the sheer lack of a challenge. The version of the game which I played contained several grammatical errors, and several bugs (although these did not prevent completion of the game). When I tell you that the most entertaining aspect of the game was, for me, the various bugs within it, you may understand that St Jives contained little to encourage me to continue playing it However, on the other hand, novices should be rubbing their hands with delight at the thought that here is one of those rare games - one that novices may attempt with more than an even chance of completing it unaided St. Jives and Harboro are available together from The Adventure Workshop. Price : Amstrad £2 (tape), £4 (disc), C64 £2 (disc or tape) Cheque/postal order payable to PM Reynolds Reviewed by Phill Ramsay on an Amstrad CPC |
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Page créée en 057 millisecondes et consultée 592 fois L'Amstrad CPC est une machine 8 bits à base d'un Z80 à 4MHz. Le premier de la gamme fut le CPC 464 en 1984, équipé d'un lecteur de cassettes intégré il se plaçait en concurrent du Commodore C64 beaucoup plus compliqué à utiliser et plus cher. Ce fut un réel succès et sorti cette même années le CPC 664 équipé d'un lecteur de disquettes trois pouces intégré. Sa vie fut de courte durée puisqu'en 1985 il fut remplacé par le CPC 6128 qui était plus compact, plus soigné et surtout qui avait 128Ko de RAM au lieu de 64Ko. |