There and back again

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Receiving a package from certain software houses always sets my pulse racing, and I invariably have to stop what I'm doing so that I can make apreliminary inspection of the goodies - early evaluation is what I kid myself I'm doing.

Peter Killworth adventures get better all the time, and the degree of sophistication shown in the parser in Return To Doom is in telling contrast to that of the lamentable Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less. Specimen commands include GO NORTH THEN EAT THE PIG, E, SW, IN or GET ALL BUT THE DUCK AND GOBLET, and LEAVE.

You will normally receive a full location description on your first visit and an abbreviated one subsequently - such a help in mapping - but if you enter the command VERBOSE, you always receive a full description.

I notice that the BBC Micro implementation has been done by Jon (Acheton) Thackray. There is the usual excellent back-up in the form of on-line help from the disc itself, prompted by the problems indicated on the back of the inlay. And if *these* aren't enough you can send a SAE to Topologika with full details of your problem and proof of purchase.

Booting the disc reveals the story: You are flying through the universe, minding your own business, when a desperate distress call hits your transceiver:

"Mayday! Mayday! The Galapoxi taking the ambassador of Regina on an important mission to Fluxo, has just crashed on Doom! Ship disintegrating fast!

"We have left the ship for safety - there are only three of us, plus the ambassador, left alive. Rescue needed imminently. Please hurry...heading for cleft..."

Return To Doom is a big adventure, full of the amusing touches you expect from Peter Killworth. Your task is straightforward enough: Find and rescue the ambassador before she gets turned into a robot.

However, as you might expect, completing the task successfully is not straightforward at all. Once you have left your ship you find yourself in a jungle and you'll have to jump to it smartly if you are to avoid being mumbled to death.

A little further on, you can gain entry through a closed door by means far more conventional than merely uttering OPEN SESAME - but when you do - you'll find further problems down below.

The fact that I was once seen emptying saucepans full of *nothing* out of the bilges of a yacht by pouring them over the side may be an indication of the solution rather than my lack of sanity.

There are plenty of excellent descriptions and the text is larded with clues that help the careful player to work out how to proceed. This means that you needn't examine everything you come across, but don't ignore this command entirely.

Return To Doom has got to be the major contender for Adventure of the Year, so far as 1988 is concerned.

Mad Hatter