Catching a cold

Archimedes adventures are at last coming on to the market steadily and Plague Planet is available for the Archimedes as well as the BBC Micro. Initially, I played both versions simultaneously in order to make comparisons, but abandoned this technique as soon as I had made sure that the essential plot of the adventure was the same for both machines.

The Archimedes version I have seen runs under the 6502 emulator, and thus is a trifle slow - nice loading screen, though - but versions for sale are now written in ARM code and players will have the option of using keyboard or mouse to select input.

Good documentation and packaging include the offer of a well thought out sheet providing a choice between sensible hints and outright answers to puzzles.

Far in the future, mankind has spread among the stars and subsequent strife meant that planets became isolated until political stability returned once more, centred on Rigel IV. Now agents from there wander far and wide in attempt to reconstruct the Empire.

One such agent crash-lands on your own planet not far from where you, an enterprising rural type, just happen to be.

The opening sequence includes an interesting chaining puzzle and a maze. You won't be able to map this one by dropping objects, but the solution is clearly signposted for the discriminating adventurer.

After wandering to and fro, collecting essential equipment and data, you are free to examine the crashed spacecraft in its crater - always provided you have put in the necessary spadework, that is.

The task modules involved are as follows: Visit the village area to collect equipment, visit the crater to discover the ship, visit the village to collect information and then return to the spaceship.

I'm giving this additional help so that even beginners will have a stab at this entertaining and humourous adventure and get well on the way before facing any serious tasks.

Once you explore the spaceship seriously you will soon find that you are the unwitting agent of disaster - opening the ship released a deadly virus that will destroy you, and your whole planet in ten days - unless, you can locate the essential ingredients of the antidote from the planets Arboreta, Zenthar. Aquaria and Vulcania.

I had to go back to the beginning on more than one occasion as I worked out the correct sequence of events and once I was well into the adventure before I found that I lacked the necessary esprit-de-corps to put a stop to inimical activity. I must be too tidy minded.

This adventure was written using ALPS - the Adventure Language Programming System Rom and the ALPS Extension disc. The parser is certainly workmanlike, allowing input such as EXAMINE THE DOOR AND THEN OPEN IT or DROP EVERYTHING AND GO NORTH THEN WEST.

However. I found one or two slight niggles - for instance, it is essential to throw a rope at a certain location if you are to rise above your problems. Having done so, I read "You can see a strong fence post with a rope tied to it and a coiled up rope", where in fact there was only one rope. A status flag had not been properly reset, and I almost got into trouble.

Similarly, at one point when a piece of paper fluttered to the ground, I couldn't GET PAPER - but the item was there - and was described accurately (but differently) as I discovered on entering LOOK. Don't let these niggles put you off though. A product well worth buying for either micro.

Mad Hatter