Amazon - Telarium - deleted (Text/graphics adventure) Reviewed by Neil Shipman Some time ago I managed to buy a few old adventures quite cheaply by mail order and amongst these was Amazon. Reading the blurb on the package I thought I was in for a treat, because Amazon was described as the first computer adventure game to be developed by world-renowned science fiction author, Michael Crichton. It featured state-of-the-art colour graphics and overlays as well as a phenomenal range of special effects and promised many hours of exciting and intense game play. The elegant game design was said to include text that was supremely imaginative, challenging, and - when you least expected it - witty. Now I've been playing adventures for too long to be taken in by hype like this, but surely some of the promised wonders would make me feel pleased I'd spent a few quid on this adventure? Michael Crichton has some impressive works to his credit, being perhaps best known for his novel The Andromeda Strain and as the screenplay writer and director of the film of Robin Cook's book Coma. And, a couple of years ago, I'd read his latest sci-fi novel, Sphere, which explored some interesting ideas concerning time travel and the mind. So some of the author's story-telling ability was bound to show through in Amazon, wasn't it? Well the short answer is a resounding NO, but let me first give you the basic plot. You're a special agent for National Satellite Resources Technology, a top-secret, hi-tech consulting firm with its headquarters in Washington. Something has happened to the NSRT field team operating in the Amazon and, of course, your boss sends you to find out what's gone wrong. At the airport you open the envelope he's given you and learn that it's thought the expedition has been killed by Huni warriors. A Professor Beneker at the Archaeological Institute in Miami is apparently the world expert on this tribe, so the sensible thing to do is pay him a visit. When you get there though, the first thing you notice is the police car and the ambulance outside, and his secretary informs you that, horror of horrors, he's just been murdered. His office has been turned over and his notebooks have been stolen. This is where you meet your fellow traveller, a parrot called Paco, who tells you about the lost city of Chak and who, perched on your shoulder throughout most of the adventure, will often prove helpful. For some reason he has a fear of water, so he won't like crossing the jungle rivers later on - but you'll soon figure out how to handle him. At Miami airport an agent gives you a backpack which contains many useful items including a computer with which to contact NSRT. On arrival in the Amazon you key in your ID code and learn from headquarters that the Huni cannibals are on the rampage, there are corrupt government troops in the area, Kemani tribesmen may be dangerous and the volcano Macuma is likely to erupt. From there it's a matter of dealing with all the jungle animals, escaping from the troops, surviving a night on snowy mountain peaks and fighting off the cannibals before you can enter Chak. Once inside the lost city, a search through secret passageways and the successful opening of booby-trapped doors will lead you to a treasure room full of emeralds. Then all you have to do is get out before the volcano explodes in order to be rescued in the nick of time by a helicopter sent in by NSRT. When you begin the adventure the first thing you notice is how long it takes to load - it's ages before the music stops and you can type in your first command. The second is how laughably simple the graphics are. The pictures of the massacred expedition which you view at the start in the NSRT Control Room and which "no ordinary person could bear to watch" are, quite frankly, pathetic. Things quickly go from bad to worse as you find that the graphics and much of the text appear very S.....L.....O.....W.....L.....Y - and if you get killed off you've got time to go and make yourself a cup of coffee while the game re-starts. The parser is a simple two-word affair and the vocabulary is quite large, but you still find yourself searching for very specific inputs. The adventure is fairly easy though, because you are led through it by the information given in the text and by the advice offered by Paco. And what of this "supremely imaginative and challenging" text? Well, how about "The phone rings--it's Murphy. He wants to see you in his office. It's Urgent." or "You are in a tiny, smelly room."? To say that it's uninspiring would be too kind. In fact it's awful throughout the whole adventure, and Michael Crichton should be thoroughly ashamed of himself. The special effects are limited to some odd buzzes and beeps plus a few tunes, including a high-speed rendition of the first few bars of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus when you finish. I just said, "Hallelujah," out of relief! The game is 6 years old, but that's no excuse for such a poor product, particularly when you consider what Infocom et al were coming up with at the same time. Apparently the C64 version of Amazon is enlivened, or perhaps made even more tedious, by a couple of arcade sequences, but these don't feature in the ST version. Oh yes, you have the opportunity of playing at 3 skill levels too. There are only two small differences between Novice and Seasoned Explorer, and I was so disenchanted by the whole thing that I never bothered to try Expedition Leader! So, if you get the chance to pick up Amazon for a couple of quid - don't bother. If you want to see what Michael Crichton is really capable of, spend your money on Sphere instead and settle down to a good read.