The Star Portal - Michael Detlefsen
       (AGT Text adventure available on SynTax PD Disk 64)

                     Reviewed by Neil Shipman

'You are in a vast desert, made up of reddish sand.'

Not the most inspiring description for the first location of an 
adventure, is it? But it only serves to emphasise your isolation 
as you begin this science fiction tale, stranded on the surface of 
Mars. How you come to be there is explained in four full screens 
of introductory text and, briefly, it goes like this:

Exploration of the solar system has come to a halt because of more 
pressing social needs on Earth. But you were always an adventurous 
sort and, while drinking in a pub - where else do adventurers get 
the information to start them on their journeys?! - you are told 
of a secret installation on Mars which contains an alien artifact. 
Seeking out former Lieutenant Mariko Kosei, you learn how a 
crewmember from the third expedition stepped into this vid-phone-
like booth, pushed a lever - and disappeared! The fourth 
expedition put transmitters into the portal, but nothing happened 
for many years. Then a number of signals were received but all 
from different directions. It appeared to be completely random.

"It is a gateway to the stars," says Kosei. "But who would want to 
use it?" Who indeed? The WorldGov had suppressed the story and 
placed a solitary guard at the installation. By a series of bribes 
and the use of a suspended animation drug you manage to get to 
Mars on an automated supply ship. However, this doesn't land where 
you'd expected it to and a sandstorm causes the loss of most of 
your equipment. You have no choice but to set out on foot to find 
the artifact...

Fortunately, the installation is not too far away and you will 
quickly find out how to get inside. Shame about the guard though! 
A little searching will provide you with some necessary items and 
you can then try out the portal for yourself. It is indeed random 
so you've no idea where you'll end up on each push of the lever. 
This reminded me of that old adventure 'The Time Machine' and can 
be rather frustrating when you know where you want to get to but 
always end up somewhere else! However, the program recognises 
AGAIN and this can be abbreviated to G to make things a little 
quicker when you have to push the lever umpteen times in a row.

There are ten destinations in all, seven of which allow you to 
explore strange new worlds. On your travels you will meet a race 
of trash-collecting lizards, acquire a faithful dog-like creature 
and take a trip in a shuttlecraft to an alien spaceship. Daar, 
another being who looks much like a squirrel, is quite 
knowledgeable and can be asked about all sorts of things. He (it?) 
can even tell you a bit about Merrivale, the human who first tried 
out the Star Portal, and about the portal builders themselves. 
There's also an invisible presence - go on, just examine it and 
see! - keeping guard over a mystic sword which doesn't turn out to 
be anything of the sort!

Once you've managed to figure out the order in which you should 
visit the different planets the puzzles are not too difficult. The 
objects you require to help in solving them are well spread 
throughout the adventure but, fortunately, your inventory is not 
limited so you can carry everything you can get your hands on. 
With over 170 locations to visit it will take you quite a time to 
work your way through to the end where another portal will take 
you to... Well that would be telling, wouldn't it?

Star Portal has quite a few rough edges to it, some of them 
probably the fault of the author but some, undoubtedly, due to a 
lack of care when the adventure was converted for the ST. Minor 
errors include (the usual!) spelling mistakes and a number of odd 
responses. More importantly, there is one planet, and thus a whole 
section of the game, which need not be tackled in order for you to 
finish. But most annoying and frustrating of all were a number 
of bugs which actually meant that the original ST version could 
not be completed.

However, Sue and I have spent some time sorting out these bugs 
with the result that the latest "Improved Playability" disk will 
allow you to get right through to the end. It's far from perfect 
but it will give you the opportunity of playing what, for all its 
faults, is a good adventure - and you won't get dumped back to 
desktop every time you get killed either! One bug we haven't
managed to zap concerns the randomness of the portal itself.
Sometimes when you push the lever you will end up with the
response 'Sorry, I can't describe that' and a location
description of 'none'. If this happens then all you can do is
restore or quit, so it's a good idea to save your position every
time just before you use the portal.

The stark one-liner at the beginning of the adventure is not at 
all indicative of what's to come. Most of the location and object 
descriptions are quite lengthy as, indeed, are the numerous 
messages and conversations. In fact there's so much text - and the 
majority of it is well-written too - that it couldn't be squeezed 
onto a single-sided disk! So, if you're a text adventure fan and 
you like science fiction scenarios (like I do), I think you'll 
find Star Portal both interesting and enjoyable.

@~A full solution will appear in the next issue of SynTax