Whiplash and Wagonwheel - Softel RRP œ8.95

Hitch-hiking across the USA in 1958 was probably a lot safer than 
it is nowadays ...... depending on where you stop, of course!

Whiplash  and Wagonwheel is the first ST adventure  from  Softel, 
who  have  written many well-known,  best-selling  adventures  on 
other  computers.  In  it,  you play Jonathan Masterson  and  are 
hitching your way across America.  Your latest ride is in a truck 
driven  by a man  called  McTear. The drive proceeds uneventfully 
till   you   draw  into  a  town  called   Hantsville.  For  some 
inexplicable  reason, as  you read  the  name, a shiver goes down 
your  spine,  and, as if to respond  to  your  gut-reaction,  the 
engine  of the truck splutters and dies and the truck rolls to  a 
halt.

Climbing down from the truck and heading towards a nearby  diner, 
McTear  says he'll get some burgers while you figure out what  to 
do.  A quick search of the cab will turn up some useful items but 

sooner  or  later,  you will start to wonder  why  McTear  hasn't 
returned and go to look for him.

Leaving  the cab and crossing the road,  you'll find  the  diner. 
Inside,  the proprietor,  Georgio, a suspicious looking character 
if  ever there was one,  offers no comment as you look round  the 
room.  A turned over chair,  a spilled cup of coffee and a  half-
smoked  cigar  in  the ashtray make  you  realise  that  McTear's 
absence  isn't  just because he's stuck in a long queue  for  the 
burgers! 

There are several characters about the town; one-eyed Joey sweeps 
up  the  street outside the diner,  the  sheriff  struggles  with 
paperwork  in  his office,  Bert McKechnie repairs a car  in  his 
garage while Bent Willy and his sister preside over the library. 

But who lives in the house with the intercom system -  and,  once 
you find that out, how can you get them to let you in? And why is 
one house so heavily fortified with solid gates, a high fence and 
snarling dobermans in the grounds? Above all, where is McTear?

The  game  comes on 2 packed disks.  Loading up  the  first  disk 
presents you with a digitized picture of (I guess) the authors. A 
short  wait, then a  prompt to  swap  disks,  and you're ready to 
start exploring.

You start in the cab of the truck just after McTear leaves to get 
the food. The screen display is very impressive as the game makes 
use  of  digitized pictures for all the locations.  Some  of  the  
pictures are especially good. Two of them were a bit too good for
my liking - the  ones of the  two title  characters, Whiplash and 
Wagonwheel.  Bearing  in mind  that this  is a  horror adventure, 
realistic graphics can sometimes come as a bit  of a shock to the
system!

On  entering  a  new  location,   there  may  be  an  atmospheric 
description and a prompt to press a key to  continue.  Otherwise, 
you  will still be presented with a fairly long  description   at 
the bottom of the screen below the graphic.  Along the top are  3 
windows  (they look a lot like drop-down menu bars)  showing  the 
available exits,  any characters present and any visible objects. 
Calling up your inventory also uses a window.

Your  inputs appear along the bottom of the screen and  responses 
to  these  replace the location description.  If an  input  isn't 
recognised,   the  unknown  word(s)  are  displayed  in  inverse. 
Interestingly,  the distinction is made between examining objects 
and  people - people must be observed,  not examined but all  the 
responses I got were very atmospheric and in some  cases,  highly 
amusing  (try  examining  the barn or repairing the  car  in  the 
workshop). 

The  OBSERVE  command is very useful in another way because there 
are a number of characters  in the game  who are quite  likely to 
wander  off  just when  you wanted  to know where they are. So by 
using OBSERVE JOEY, for instance, you will be told where Joey is. 
Persuading  him to go where  you want is another  matter! Some of
the  characters  seem determined to go anywhere  except where you 
want them to be - just like real life, in fact!

Several  extra  features are supported,  such as  MSAVE/MLOAD  to 
memory  (compared  with DSAVE/DLOAD to  disk),  multiple  inputs, 
GET/DROP  ALL  and OOPS.  There are also a  variety  of  commands 
linked to the turning on and off of the graphics and windows. The 
parser also recognises IT when referring to portable objects. One
other feature that is more unusual is the facility to program the
function keys - very useful. 

My  initial  impressions of Whiplash and Wagonwheel  were  pretty 
good  though I must confess to finding it hard to get into and  I 
doubt that it will  be quick to complete without help even by the
more  experienced  adventurers.  My  main  criticism  of the game 
is  that it  seems  very  linear so it is quite easy to get stuck 
early  on  and  it also  seems  rather unforgiving if you perform 
certain actions out of order.

                                         Sue