Escape from Prison Island
          A Literary adventure by Christian Anderson
  (AGT Text adventure for PC (PD 324), ST (PD 323) and Amiga)

         Reviewed on an Amstrad PC1512 by "Kedenan"

You wake up in your cell and today is the day when you will
receive your sentence.  Your solicitor has been rather pessimistic
about your chances because the crime is one of the worst that
society has ever seen. You have, however, pleaded not guilty
during the trial, which is in fact the truth, but the
circumstantial evidence will probably be enough to produce a
guilty verdict.

Now the cell door opens and two burly prison warders grip you by
your shoulders, handcuff you and lead you into the court room. The
jury have just arrived back from the jury room. "Have you reached
a verdict?"  the judge asks. "We have your Honour, we find the
defendant guilty on all charges," says the Chairman of the jury.
"Very well," says the judge and looks at you. " I hereby sentence
you to be placed on Prison Island for the rest of your life.
Should you succeed in finding the exit and escaping from the
island you are a free man. To find this exit you must use all your
literary skills and if you find your favourite book on the island
you will learn how to find the final exit.  Court adjourned!"

Paralysed, you sit back startled! Prison Island!  That horrible
place.  No one has as far as you know ever succeeded in escaping
from it and you seriously doubt that there is an exit at all.
Rumours have it that you only have two possibilities; either you
go mad, or you commit suicide, probably after you have gone mad.

Prison Island is lying far out in the ocean. It is impossible to
get there by boat because of the heavy surf, which has even
smashed well-built boats of steel to pieces. Should you survive
the surf you would have to swim five kilometres. However, you
would not get very far because of the sharks. The reason for the
madness on the island is that there is a volcano on the southern
part of the island which constantly sprays out poisonous vapours.
Furthermore, the island is very old and rumour has it that there
are strange things going on on the island. How many prisoners
there are left on the island is unknown, but you have heard that
about twenty prisoners of both sexes have so far been sent there
by the courts.

Before you have the chance to do anything, you are put in a
chopper and are flown out over the ocean when after two hours
flight at 200 k/m you see the island below. At a low height your
handcuffs are released and you are pushed out of the chopper.
"Good luck," shouts the pilot and gives you a grin as he turns
around and makes his journey back to the mainland.

You land on top of a high cliff, dazed and bruised.  When you
recover and look down you can see the ocean far below you. I would
say that you are about 3000 feet above the surface. On the other
hand, the view from here is fantastic! Apart from the volcano
which you can see to the south, this must be the highest point on
the island.  You can see some kind of forest between yourself and
the volcano and you can spot a few people scattered around the
island.


So now you find yourself alone on a lonely island and the first
thing that you are advised to do is to carry out a survey of the
island, mapping it out as you go. You will come across various
locations, articles and mad men and women. Examine the men and
women, they all have a lot to say!  When you come across a bell
shaped stone, inscribed "Roll over Beethoven", just roll the stone
and it will drop into the ocean and you will find a spade and a
map of the island underneath where you first found the stone. The
map marks certain important places on the island. But remember,
you should map the island out yourself.

The island is a dangerous place and you are advised to SAVE often.
You are bound to die somewhere on the island and although you can
be resurrected in a Puff! You are engulfed in a cloud of orange
smoke at the top of the cliff and have to start all over again in
just the clothes that you landed in. It is better to RESTORE from
a saved position than keep going back to the start.

The parser accepts short phrases and abbreviated points of the
compass.  Our Danish author makes one or two spelling mistakes,
one of which is swimm for swim. In any case swimming is fatal, you
simply become shark food, so don't bother to swimm!

Do not despair! There is a way out! But it may be difficult to
find if you are not familiar with various classics in English
literature.