Electron User


The Eye Of Zolton

Categories: Review: Software
Author: Merlin
Publisher: Softek
Machine: BBC/Electron

 
Published in Electron User 2.02

This review is in response to a request for help from Elizabeth Young of Stondon Massey in Essex. She says the game is fascinating and I agree. Your ruler, the king, has had the five magic objects that enable him to maintain peace and prosperity in the land stolen by an evil wizard. As the influence of this wizard descends upon the land, you are summoned and told by the king that he has chosen you to recover the magic objects and take them to the Temple of Zolton. Here their beneficial influence will help the king defeat the wizard.

You begin your quest on a hilltop with the first task to equip yourself for the trials to come. You quickly discover a hut, two canyons, a lake, an island, a deadly forest and a mysterious castle. The island is the last place you want to visit so you search everywhere thoroughly before tackling the castle.

There is a way into the castle and you will be surprised at the help you can get here, always assuming you can recognise it! Once you have figured it out, you will be in the castle and the main body of the adventure. There are some really devious puzzles to solve, yet no real red herrings.

The Eye Of Zolton

I will give you one tip. Though the program description says you have to return the five magic objects to the temple, they are not the only things that have to go there.

The program is written in Basic and thus easily listable. This might not help you if you get stuck however, since many of the room descriptions and word parts have been tokenised. For those who haven't met this term before, I'll try to explain. To save memory space the programmer has substituted the more commonly used words and word parts for symbols. The tokeniser converts these symbols into English when they are to be displayed on screen. It also converts your input into symbols the program can understand and respond to. The Electron itself tokenises Basic keywords, though very little information is given in the User Guide.

Overall, an ingenious series of puzzles. Despite being written in Basic it's a very nice game to play and is about average difficulty. I am impressed and have no hesitation in recommending it for all types of adventurers.

Merlin

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