The Mission - Jim MacBrayne RRP œ7.50
                (Text adventure, needs 1 meg)

Back in the early days of adventure gaming, if we were sent on a
quest, it invariably had a hackneyed theme .... find the King's
treasure .... rescue the lovely Princess Flora .... kill the nasty
old dragon and so forth. It was rare that we were sent to look for
something different. Luckily authors are having to show a bit more
imagination now but it's still a treat to find something unusual
to look for. Until now, my favourite quest object had been the
Coconut of Quendor in Beyond Zork but since starting to play The
Mission, it's being rivalled by the Toothpick of Quetzalcoatl
(who, as far as I can remember was one of the chief Aztec gods,
worshipped as the bestower of the arts of civilisation on mankind,
and having the symbol of a plumed serpent; I don't remember any
mention of toothpicks, though! Any Terry Pratchett fans will also
remember him turning up in the form of Quezovercoatl, the
Feathered Boa, in his ninth Diskworld novel, Eric. But I digress,
as always.....)

....So, there you are one day, sitting in your Club with
Blenkinsop and his crony Braithwaite, in a somewhat alcoholic
haze, boasting of some of your previous adventures and suddenly
finding that you'd agreed to recover this fabulous artifact. How
could you have been so stupid?  On the other hand, it is justice
in a way as you had played a similar trick on old Sowerby-Jones
some time ago. The old guy didn't know that the object in
question, Guinever's shoelace, had been in your possession for
some five years. But did you get a twinge of conscience as he
handed over his cheque to settle the bet, thereby condemning him
to a life of penury? No, you didn't. But now the roles are
reversed and you face the same fate if you fail. But you vow that
if you succeed this will be the last such exploit of your career
and that Blenkinsop and his pal will regret setting the challenge.

But it's a new day as you start on your mission in a circular
chamber with the inevitable lamp and sword by your side,
determined to succeed even though no-one knows if the Toothpick
even exists, let alone where it is.  A few moves on, you'll find

the only way out, a small door with some buttons by the side of
it. I'll say this for Jim - he loves buttons in his games ...
shaped ones, coloured one, ones that shimmer or glow or others
that just sit there, daring you to press them! Some of them are
even recessed into small holes so you can't get at them!! Outside
this door are the first buttons you'll encounter in this game, a
round one, a triangular one and a square one. Work out how to open
the door and enter the small room beyond and you'll be greeted by
three more, coloured red, blue and green.

Once these buttons have also revealed their secrets, you'll be on
your way, emerging into daylight at the base of a tree with signs
of habitation in the distance. Habitation maybe, but not inhabited
as the place is completely deserted but there are plenty of rooms
to explore, another button (shimmering this time), a portal, a
wheel and a signal. Try to get through the portal and you'll find
it impossible but with a little experimentation you'll discover
the logic behind the puzzle and be through the portal.

The portal turns out to be the gateway into several other
scenarios, making this a good-sized adventure - and I haven't
finished it yet. Part of the enjoyment of The Mission is derived
from working out what order the portals should be tackled in, and
part is from revelling in the marvellously detailed descriptions
which are as good as always. From what I've seen of it so far, it
isn't surprising that the game needs 1 meg to run. The parser is
as comprehensive as in his other games (see details in the review
of The Golden Fleece in Issue 10). This is Jim's third game, The
Holy Grail being the middle one and Neil has reviewed that this
issue too.

The copy protection, which comes in the form of an infotater code
wheel as before, plays a minor part in the game. It's a shame that
the function keys aren't programmable as in the Amiga version as
there is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing involved and being able to
use a macro would have been a boon.

I mentioned earlier that Jim seems to like buttons as part of his
puzzles.  Well, there are a few other recurrent themes in his
games such as the ACME trademark which appears in both this and
Fleece and, no doubt also in Grail. There are a few too many
closed doors which need opening for my liking but that's sheer
laziness on my part as they do make the games more realistic.
The other trademark that I have particularly noticed (though I
have been told of others) is the dreaded mathematical puzzle -
argh! It's a long time since I did any maths worth mentioning
and I found it hard to wrap my brain around the maths problems
in Fleece. I've only found one pretty easy one in Mission which
is a relief. But that's just personal preference and no doubt
there are others among you who would enjoy a good brain-teaser.

Once again, a good though hard game from Jim - I wouldn't 
recommend it to a beginner. I'm looking forward to seeing if I do
actually find the fabled Toothpick and if I do you can expect some
hints in a future issue.
                                           Sue