Previous Next

The Helm is another Spectrum game written using The Quill and is text only. The object is to find and restore the sacred and powerful Helm of Immortality, currently held by the evil Lich. I groaned inwardly as I read about the plot - about as original as a sandwich in a lunchbox.

The Adventure lived up to my expectations in terms of its plot and problems - nothing special, as they say. Locked chest in first location. Solution - open chest with key I am carrying. Get knife since it's sure to be needed elsewhere. Come across unclimbable rope hanging from tree. Solution: cut rope with knife. To be fair, they do get more difficult, but seem rather mundane.

What does make the game different, though, is the style of text. Instead of saying "I see..." followed by a list of objects present, the narrative goes: "Upon further careful opticular contemplation of the immediate surrounding environment, I find the following" and then the list. Unusual the first time round, maddening by the tenth.

But it doesn't end there! Should you type a command that the program doesn't understand, such as "Move rubble" at the blocked mountain pass, you will receive the following message: "Unfortunately your sub-human linguistical attempts at simple communication are beyond me. Try conversing in the Queen's English."

A message that strong is a dangerous thing to put in any Adventure with a vocabulary any smaller than the standard set by Infocom. Best to play safe, on the basis that the programmer is more likely to have made an error of omission in the vocab, than the player a typing or spelling error.

Overall, the game performed well, but didn't hold my interest for very long and the attempts at humour wore thin very quickly. What I did like way the squelchy sound every time I pressed a key. Just what I thought a Spectrum keyboard should sound like!

The Helm is for 48K Spectrum from Firebird Software.