Dunjin - Magnus Olsson on PD 375 (Text adventure for PC) Reviewed by Alex McEwan This is the best shareware text adventure I have ever played. Author Magnus Olsson has created a game in the grand tradition of Zork and Adventure, without the use of any of the generic writing systems so prevalent in the world of shareware. By his own admission the parser is not as sophisticated as those to be found in some commercial software, but it is certainly better than all but the best in the field. The major limitation in this area seems to be that the program does not accept long sentences using conjunctions. Personally I don't find this a big problem as I still tend to use simple verb/noun instructions. If a preposition and secondary object are required you are prompted for them. For example entering 'Break Glass' will give the response 'With what do you want to break the glass ?' One very useful feature is the inclusion of a command line editor, similar to DOSEDIT, where you can call back the most recently used commands in rotation, to make minor changes. Some of the most frequently used commands e.g. Inventory, Save, Load, etc have been assigned to function keys, but again this is something that I seldom use. Also supplied with the game is a small configuration utility which allows you to set screen colours, prompt symbol or message, save directories, and to determine the initial state of the insert/overstrike option, and the game's built-in hint facility. This last option allows you to ask for a hint if you are really stuck. Accepting a clue will cost you ten points from your score. The setting for the game is similar to the classic adventures. You have to enter an underground network in search of treasure. In this case the ultimate prize is The Holy Grail, but there are also other goodies to be found in the cave system. The object is to find The Grail and as many of the other treasures as possible, and return them all to the Dungeon Office. There are a number of 'open air' locations to be explored before entering the cave system through the ubiquitous secret passage. In all the author claims over 180 locations and several hundred objects, but this must include items which are there for description only, as well as those that can be manipulated in some way. Once inside the caves you find yourself in a fantasy type setting, complete with Trolls, Dwarves, and a fairy tale castle. The fact that there is also an electric elevator, and a computer room did not strike me as too incongruous. Whether this is down to the skill of the author in blending these unlikely elements, or to an acceptance of such inconsistencies, in adventure playing, I wouldn't like to say. The game documentation warns you that the cave passages are notoriously twisty, and exiting a room to the north does not mean that you can return by going south. When you see just how twisting some of the paths seem to be, you will be glad that the game only recognises the four cardinal compass points, as well as up and down. When I first started playing I got the impression that the puzzles were going to be a bit easy. I was sure that I could have figured out that I could use the cage to hold the cat, without being told that there were some cat hairs caught in the cage door. Thankfully such heavy handed pointers were rare, and I feel that there is enough work to be done in this game to test even the most experienced player. I will openly acknowledge that I got completely stuck at one point and tried frantically to get a hint from a number of sources. The fact that the game is reasonably new meant that I couldn't find anyone who had actually played it, and so I was forced to plod on and solve the problem on my own. Why didn't I use the aforementioned Hint feature I hear you ask ? The reason is that once you amass a certain score, the author reckons that you are proficient enough to do without hints, and you are left to your own devices. As it happens my problem lay in completely missing a passageway which was only revealed after examining an item I had thought was purely 'window dressing'. Isn't that the worst ? Throughout the game, the atmosphere created by the first rate descriptions is excellent. There is not too much in the way of humour, although there are a few smart responses included. Try burning the bra for instance. I did find one sizeable bug and one error which caused me to waste a bit of time. The bug was in the scoring system, which allowed to you to advance your score by five points every time you entered and escaped from the well. It should only be necessary to do this once in the game, but if you want to score more than the game maximum of 350 points, just do it a few times. Purely as an experiment I did this and amassed a score of 360. The author has included a response which says that you are not supposed to be able to get such a score followed by 'Boy, Am I Confused.' which I thought was a nice touch. You may say that I am being pedantic (you won't be the first) but the Roman numerals in The Kilroy Room actually translate to a date of 1586, not 1986 as given in the description. Not a big deal I know, but I did spend a bit of time trying to work on this, thinking it was a clue rather than a mistake. The author asks for a registration fee of $20 for the game. For this you are offered some support from him if you get totally stuck. He makes it quite clear that telephone calls are not welcome, and that E-mail is much preferred to normal post for correspondence. Although I think the game is excellent, I have to say that $20 is quite high for a single text adventure. This coupled with the difficulties involved in registering in accordance with the author's wishes, may mean that he won't get the number of registrations he deserves. There is a 'bank' account number provided in the game documentation, but as with all things in the public domain, you can never be sure that it has not been tampered with. I can only advise that you get a copy of the game and judge its worth for yourself.