Personal Computer News


Krakit

Author: David Janda
Publisher: IPS
Machine: Sinclair ZX81

 
Published in Personal Computer News #007

Ten Grand Puzzles

Ten Grand Puzzles

If you fancy the idea of making £10,000 simply by playing a game, then Krakit from Artic Computing could be the program for you.

It's another attempt to follow in the footsteps of the Masquerade book, by setting a series of riddles which lead you to a real - and substantial! - treasure. But you don't get the benefit of a book filled with pretty pictures that Masquerade had to offer.

Objectives

To get sight of the ten grand, you have to crack no less than twelve clues. Each clue solved will give you the name of a country, city or town, and a number between one and six digits long.

Krakit

> When you find the answers and note them on the 'clue page' provided, you fill in the registration form that comes with the cassette, dash to the nearest postbox to send the answers to the address supplied, then you wait and hope...

You can run the program as many times as you like and SAVE intermediate answers on cassette, so you don't have to solve the whole puzzle in one sitting.

First Impressions

Krakit comes with very brief instructions and rules for play, plus the clue page. You also get a registration form which has to be filled in as soon as you buy the quiz. But most of the documentation comes as a program called 'Rules', which is the first piece of software on the cassette.

In Use

Krakit

> The first thing you see is a display declaring that two people have died, but their legacy of £10,000 has been deposited in a bank account somewhere in the world. You have the choice of seeing the clues, storing your answers, seeing or SAVEing your answers.

The clues are very difficult to solve, as you might expect. There are two types - rhymes, or pieces of code. After a mere six hours spent trying to solve the first clue, I gave up in despair.

Verdict

Once somebody wins the prize, there will not be much use for Krakit. I did not think much of the idea, since I could not see why you would want to use a computer to solve riddles. p> A book, at least, you can carry around and try to solve the puzzles on the bus - and have pictures to look at. But with Krakit you'll be left with a piece of cassette tape and not much more.

David Janda

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