Dragon User


Keys Of The Wizard

Author: Jason Orbaum
Publisher: Microdeal
Machine: Dragon 32

 
Published in Dragon User #027

Keys Of The Wizard is an adventure that puzzles me - I know what I have to do, and have almost done it, but haven't had to solve any problems yet!

The game, a real-time action D&D-type game, is also a pure text adventure of, at first sight, considerable verbosity.

There are two basic aims, and therefore two ways of playing the game; the first is to collect all the treasure in the adventure's domain and take it to the sanctuary, and the second is to kill all of the various inhabitants of the area (except the unicorn who is supposedly friendly) in a bloodthirsty, and noisy, series of battles.

The game talks to you (not very often, and with a very limited vocabulary I must admit) and has several other beeps and bangs to keep you awake. The presentation is superb, even allowing you to view information that has recently scrolled off the screen.

Keys Of The Wizard

The parser (that's the bit that turns your English commands into things that the computer understands) is fairly standard (Verb Noun, no Infocom stuff here), and the response, being in machine code, is nearly immediate.

The adventure, when it was released early in 1984, was the best available for the Dragon. Since its release it has been overshadowed by some incredibly good adventures. This does not mean that it is not an adventure worth buying; it most certainly is.

To sum up them, Keys Of The Wizard is not an adventure for the puzzle player, more for those of us who like a colourful jaunt around another land, pausing only to pick up treasures and, of course, massacre the odd creature.

Jason Orbaum

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