Your Sinclair


Corporal Stone

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

 
Published in Your Sinclair #87

Corporal Stone

Despite having the full complement of game notes, author's hand-scrawled help-sheet and storyline to go on, the actual point of this game remains well hidden 'til at least the halfway mark. Suffice it to say that you are the central character, some sort of secret agent/law enforcer. You receive a message from your boss telling you to hurry over to the Hexagon Centre in District Four and start investigating the incredibly strange goings-on that have been reported.

So off you go, and once you arrive (a few key-presses from the intro screen is all it takes) you discover a body slumped by a van... it's your best pal and ex-partner. He's got just enough breath left to say "They got me... Kill the little people... Squaaa..." and that's it! ["Squaaa"? - Ed] Not a lot to go on.

You won't need an immense amount of brain power to get started, which is never a bad thing. Thanks to a really useful help command, it won't be long before you have entered the building where some (okay, most) of the strange events are taking place.

As this is a good old-fashioned text only "Quilled" adventure you'll see that good old-fashioned verb/noun input, and plenty of examining and searching is the order of the day. And there's plenty of bizarre objects to examine I can tell you. It's best if I leave most of the surprises that you'll come across in the game for you to discover, but just brace yourself for some thrilling escapades with a lion, talking aphids, a language course, Satan and - horror of horrors - Dickie Davies! [You what? - Ed]

The problems come thick and fast and there's hardly a break in the action. And - yes! - part of the fun is finding out who you are and what you've got to do, so I'll say no more about the game - except that it's pretty unusual, uses objects in a very imaginative way and even has its fair share of aliens!