Lasar - AGT (Text adventure for ST on SynTax PD 212) Reviewed by P.J.Darke Lasar is a text adventure written using the Adventure Game Toolkit (AGT). I am sorry to say that I can find nothing to recommend the game at all. This is the first AGT adventure I have played and I am not sure whether the problems I encountered are due to the AGT or simply the way the game has been written. On loading the game I was surprised to find no introduction at all, merely a description of the first location. Now perhaps I am being a bit picky but I don't think it is too much to expect a couple of sentences just to say who you are, where you are and at least some inkling of your quest, even if only to say that you don't know who, what or where you are. Next I approached a location in the game where I knew I was probably going to get killed and indeed I did, but only to find that I was dumped unceremoniously back to desktop, with no warning and no opportunity to restore or restart. I was also surprised to find that the game has an extremely limited vocabulary and does not recognise, in some cases, objects which have already been mentioned in the text for example:- <> Looking east from here there are many small houses. To the north there is a well kept looking house with a porch. What Now? EXAMINE PORCH What porch? There is no porch here. What Now? N <> The porch is made of a smooth wood which has been painted white. The porch has a large railing, probably for holding up a largely built person. There is a white door to the north. There is a small lock here on the door. There is a larger white porch on the front of the house. There is a large railing on the porch. What now? OPEN WHITE DOOR I don't understand WHITE as a noun. What now? OPEN DOOR Open what door? There isn't any closed door here. What now? ENTER PORCH There's nothing to enter here! This is typical of the responses which I got in practically every location which I visited and it very soon gets tedious trying out different ways of saying things to get a sensible response. Another example is as follows:- << Dusty bedroom>> You enter the room, and the dust flies at your feet, Although it does look like somebody has been trying to clean it up. You look around the room and you notice a bed, beside the bed you see a bedstand. There is a really dirty bed here. There is a wooden bedstand here. What now? EXAMINE BEDSTAND The bedstand is made of wood and look like it could use a sanding. It has a drawer in it. What now? OPEN DRAWER What drawer? There is no drawer here. What now? OPEN DRAWER IN BEDSTAND What drawer? There is no drawer here. On another occasion I entered a dark room with a lamp in my inventory. The game, however, does not understand LIGHT, TURN ON, SWITCH ON, USE or ILLUMINATE. Other verbs which the game does not recognise are MOVE, GIVE, LIFT, CLIMB, SEARCH, FEED and many more. I generally enjoy playing adventures and this looks as though it could have quite a good story. I don't mind difficult problems as long as they are reasonably logical. I don't even mind being told you can't do that or you can't go that way as long as there is a sensible reason. What I can not accept is when I have entered a properly constructed and grammatically correct instruction to be told that the words are not understood. I want to solve problems within the game not take part in a guessing game over what the parser does or does not recognise. I strongly advise anyone not to buy this game and until I have experience of other games written with AGT I shall have reservations over this system. @~Just a quick comment from me - Lasar is written using the @~standard version of AGT which requires minimal programming and @~allows only the built-in verbs such as examine, get, drop, pull, @~push, turn and play. (Of course, that doesn't excuse it being an @~awful game! But it does explain the poor vocabulary.) Sue