ZX Computing


An Everyday Tale Of A Seeker Of Gold

Categories: Review: Software
Publisher: Zenobi Software
Machine: Spectrum 48K/128K

 
Published in ZX Computing #30

An Everyday Tale Of A Seeker Of Gold

The author of this game is John Wilson, an extremely accomplished adventurer who supplies many of the Helpline solutions. He's used all his experience to create an excellent game. John is a great Fergus McNeil fan, and became so fed up waiting for The Boggit that he wrote his own version. This isn't to say that this is a rip-off of that game (It reached me some time before CRL's was released); it is much less derivative of the original as well.

An Everyday Tale is text only and "Quilled", but nicely presented. The text is quite lengthy, and like in Mcneil games is not really description but humorous statements. In John's game the humour is much more gentle, with a clever idea or sentence causing a smile, as opposed to the complex set-up of jokes in The Boggit. This makes a pleasant change.

You face numerous problems on your way; several confront you immediately, and you are unsure which to try to tackle first, in the hope that it will enable you to solve the others. Mostly the puzzles are fun, though requiring much thought. Vocabulary is, with some exceptions, friendly; and the game is pleasingly responsive to a range of commands.

An Everyday Tale is not a classic adventure but is the best I've seen at the price - for two pounds it's exceptionally good value. Virtually a must for all but novice adventurers.