The Blag Trivia Quiz - Woolcock/Atkinson RRP See end of review
          (Blag add-on or stand-alone program)

Well, that's what I call good timing! There I was, just putting
the final touches to the disk, when what should arrive but a copy
of the Quiz, mentioned a while ago in SynTax. There was just time
to have a quick look at it, do a bit of file-juggling (remove one
file here, cut another one back a bit there) and - voila - you
can't say SynTax isn't up to date with the latest programs!

The Blag, as I'm sure you know, is a text and graphics detective
game written using STAC. The authors of the game are both
policemen so authenticity is big factor in its favour. Now, in
order to help you get even more enjoyment from the The Blag, and
perhaps (if you're good enough at answering the questions posed by
the Quiz) even a bit of help towards solving it.

I ran the Quiz as a stand-alone program but if you have the
upgraded V1.3 of The Blag, you can enter the Quiz during the game,
by simply typing QUIZ and then return from the main menu when

you've finished. Whichever way you access it, you'll be presented
with a neat heading - The Blag - in nicely shaded blue lettering
and a list of the topics you can choose between. There are eight
in all, including The Police Dog, The Police Car and Headquarters.
Once you've made your choice, you'll be given seven questions to
answer, some of which relate to the topic in question, some to The
blag, and others to the Police in general. Some of them are easy
but others aren't, so you may need to rack your brains or even
look up the answer in a book to get the necessary five or more
correct answers.

If, and only if, you get at least five right, another file will
load, complete with the excellent digitized graphics we've come to
expect from The Blag together with a few hints. Don't expect the
hints to solve the game for you - you didn't expect the authors to
be that generous, did you? - but there may be a bit of information
there that will put you on the right track. And the program is so
user-friendly that it will even accept minor spelling mistakes!

The Blag Trivia Quiz is an excellent idea and shows the trouble
that individuals who write adventure games will often go to in
order to give their customers good value for money. It must have
taken them quite a time to put together and how much do they want
for it? Nowt - well, just a stamp for return postage and a blank
formatted disk so it's near enough nowt! - sent to Tony Woolcock,
30 Lyndhurst Road, Ashurst, Southampton. Even if you haven't tried
The Blag itself, I think you'll get a lot of fun from trying to
answer the questions and you might be surprised at the bits of
knowledge that are lurking about in the depths of your brain.

And if you haven't tried The Blag, it will show you the high
standards aspired to by the authors and might persuade you to part
with the readies and get it. As I've said many times before, it's
a great shame when people put so much time and effort into
creating a game only to have low sales. If we like text or
text/graphics games as much as so many of us profess to, we ought
to support them.
                                               Sue