C&VG


Tanglewood
By Microdeal
Atari ST

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #76

Tanglewood

If it hadn't been for the scrap of blue paper left on your doorstep by uncle Arthur, you wouldn't be hunting for gems on an undistinguished planet called Tanglewood, hidden away in a dusty, forgotten corner of the galaxy.

Apparently, Arthur had bought the mining rights to Tanglewood for next to nothing, a price that accurately mirrored the total lack of mineable minerals to be found there... or so it appeared.

Anyway, just as Arthur was about to file Tanglewood under "dead loss", one of his mining mobiles rescued a native who, in return for his life, revealed that some of the pretty, but otherwise unremarkable stones, which Arthur had previously ignored, in fact possessed special qualities.

Tanglewood

It turned out that the stones had various uses, some of them military, that gave them immense value. Sadly, while celebrating his good fortune, Arthur was rather too loose-lipped about his new-found knowledge, and news soon filtered back to the company that had originality sold him Tanglewood's mining rights.

The next thing he knew, Arthur's mining mobiles were being hounded by the company's own disrupter mobiles; his mining rights documents have been stolen, and the company were claiming that they had never sold the rights to him in the first place, and were bringing a case against him to have him thrown off the planet.

It was at this point that Arthur, knowing your prowess in the field of computers, wrote you the note, asking for your help. You have ten days to find the documents, stolen from your uncle Arthur.

Tanglewood

Tanglewood is a huge arcade adventure in which you can control a number of mobiles over (and inside) the planet. Each mobile was originally programmed to do certain tasks. Two problem here: firstly, the original programs were full of bugs, and secondly, much of the data has become corrupted and is now useless. Mobiles are, to say the least, frustrating to control!

As if this wasn't enough you will also have to enlist the help of the native T'nglians who are a friendly, though highly ritualistic species. In fact, it turns out that every kind of interaction with the T'nglians is governed by a rigid set of rules.

The graphics of the planet's surface have a quality all of their own, a kind of Tanglewoodian feel you might say. The graphics inside the mine are equally impressive, giving you a first person view of proceedings as you wander through the tunnels.

It is difficult to categorise Tanglewood, which in itself is not a bad thing. The game, including movement, is entirely mouse-controlled, the only text being in the form of information and reports.

Without spending a great deal of time on this one, it would be difficult, and indeed unfair, to give a final verdict on the overall quality of the game as an adventure; the problem being that it seems to be rather vast! If the solution sheets, supplied with the evaluation copy, are anything to go by, Tanglewood should keep problem-solvers busy for weeks.