Mapper - Jeff Casbee on SynTax PD Disk 158 œ2.50
            (ST but works on Amiga using emulator)
                 Reviewed by George W Smith

@~Mapper is designed to enable you to create RPG maps from a set of
@~icons. Maps can be any size from 30x30 to 80x80 blocks (one
@~screenful is 20x32) and can be scrolled left/right or up/down,
@~flipped to give a mirror-image or rotated. Rows or columns can be
@~inserted or deleted and complete areas filled. Each icon is a
@~10x10 pixel square.  There are 186 in all, some already in the
@~shape of different walls or a wave pattern to represent water,
@~others representing a key, scroll, flame, tap, castle or various
@~weapons.  Another set of icons has been edited into lines and
@~partial boxes (corners, diagonals etc) to create text adventure
@~maps. Any of these can be edited and there are a lot you can
@~design yourself from scratch.

@~Each icon can have a legend of up to 5 lines of text and these
@~different parts of the map can be saved separately, enabling
@~greater flexibility when creating a set of maps.
@~Finished maps can be printed screen by screen, tiled (to tape
@~together into one huge map) or paged (to file in a notebook). You
@~can even print graph paper too!

@~Well, that's the theory anyway. I haven't tried the program in any
@~depth myself but when George bought a copy, I asked if he'd be
@~kind enough to give his views on how it worked and here they are...

I sent for this program because I am working my way through Captive,
which at first I had thought to be a worthy successor to Dungeon
Master. But having fought my way to the space station which is the
last "planet", the lack of puzzles has become very obvious and I
would rate it now as "fair". The program calls for an enormous
amount of mapping and although I have used Degas Elite in the past
I thought that this might be an improvement.

My opinion of Mapper is based on a comparison with my set up which
is: Degas Elite used in medium resolution (which gives four
colours), a library of grids of various sizes and also a library
of doors, windows etc which I have acquired over a period of time.
Comments:

The File Menu lacks flexibility - there is no facility for
deleting the current work screen as one example.

There is only one work screen and although this can be extended to
the North, South, East and West to the extent of the memory
available, I myself would prefer the flexibility of several
screens.

The lack of other colours (only black and white available) I found
a disadvantage.

Although the print option says "Print Graph" this did not work on
my set up (an Atari ST and Star LC10 printer) although, to be
fair, the author mentions in the doc file that this might happen.

The print option was difficult to grasp and there are no
facilities to escape once printing has started. (The program

insisted on printing ten sheets of paper before I switched the
computer off and started again)

I like to see a graph on the screen on which I can work and it
took me some time before I realised that I could only do this with
an "L" fill and this in one size only.

The drawing option I also found difficult. There are no commands
in the menu for Frame, Box etc. To draw a box one has to use lines
and sometimes the corner icon. The lines would not always meet at
the corners even if one resorted to a corner fill "L_"

Otherwise as a cheap alternative to a good art package, it would
make a reasonable mapping accessory and I am sure that with
practise it would become easier to use. I look forward to version 2
which the author mentions which might have some improvements and
additions.