News

Special Reserve will be holding a series of competitions for
members over the coming year, one every two months, each with
œ10,000 worth of prizes - all you need to do is answer a very
simple question, and send in your membership number and choice of
prize on the special coupon in their NRG magazine or enter by
phone on a special competition line. Prizes range from a TV/VCR,
MAC, A600, œ200 mountain bike, Sony Discman and other great prizes
to Special Reserve vouchers of various denominations. 102 prizes
will be given away each time. Of course you have to be a member of
Special Reserve to enter so this would be a good time to join if
you haven't already. For more details contact Inter-Mediates Ltd
on 0279 726842 or see their ad in this issue.

The next Legend game will be Gateway II, but the one after THAT
will be Companions of Xanth, based on the latest Piers Anthony
Xanth novel, Demons Don't Dream. Unlike the previous Legend games
it will have a graphic interface but it is a 'smart interface'
where you can click on a verb and object in any order ie it
doesn't have to be verb/object - object/verb will work fine too.
If you click on an object that has several special verbs linked
to it, those will be displayed; each object will also have a
default verb. Over 100 verbs are included. There are lots of other
features that CoX will have that other graphic adventures don't
have. The storyline is that the demons of Earth and Xanth have
made a bet on the performance of human beings in which you, as
hero Dug Mundane, get enmeshed. Can't wait!

Seek out the seven secrets of life in The Red Crystal, coming soon
from QQP, PC only, a RPG which allows two-player modem play, over
50 dungeon levels and auto-mapping.

Something different on the way from US Gold/SSI under the TSR
Dungeons and Dragons banner is a kingdom simulator called
Stronghold. Become emperor by building and expanding a kingdom
while dispatching opposing forces - deal with all aspects of the
kingdom such as building, farming, population, housing, taxes,
troops, morale, changing seasons and marauding monsters.

Sierra have released another compilation for the PC. This time
it contains all four Space Quest games. The version of SQ1 is the
revamped one and the package sells for œ50.  Empire have also
brought out a compilation, called Space Legends, of Megatraveller
1, Wing Commander and Elite Plus.

But, back to Sierra who have several new titles planned - Police
Quest 4, Larry 6, Quest for Glory 4 and Gobliins 3. A new venture
for them will be a Hitchcockian psycho-suspense story called
Gabriel Knight. A CD version of King's Quest VI will also be out
and on it will be a video about the making of the program.
Already out from Sierra on the PC is Freddy Pharkas:Frontier
Pharmacist! Born to be a gunslinger, Freddy met his match and gave
it all up for a life in pharmacy. Now his arch enemy is back so
Freddy must leave the safety of his shop counter, strap on his
guns and clean up Coarsegold.

Brian Moriarty has been very quiet since Loom. But it has recently
been announced that his next adventure from LucasArts (due at
Christmas) will be The Dig. A rumour had been going round that the
game was being written in collaboration with a 'major Hollywood
film producer/director' but no name was able to be revealed. At
last, the full story has come out ... the mystery director is none
other than Steven Spielberg!

Ishar 2 should be out RSN for just over œ30. Subtitled Messengers
of Doom, it is set on seven islands, each with its own distinctive
towns and landscape. The baddie in this game is a drug-pusher ...
quite a change from the usual evil wizard/demon/whatever.
Characters can be imported from the original game. Daze are also
releasing a strategy game called The Patrician, set in medieval
Europe, where your aim is to become Major of a town.

Impressions have several new products planned for the next few
months, one of which will be a science fiction strategy wargame
called When Two Worlds War.

Clive Wilson's second AGT PC conversion of one of his 8-bit games,
The Unborn One, is now available from The Adventure Workshop for
œ5.00.

Thanks to Bob Adams for telling me that a new version, v1.5, of
the Master's Edition of AGT will be out on 15th June. It will have
many extras including animation and Sound Blaster support, and an
improved question and answer system.  A minimum of 512K and a hard
disk are required and it is PC only.  Price? $50.  Yes, it's a
commercial program, not shareware like AGT and AGTBIG.

A new version of Railroad Tycoon is on the way. It will be out in
the States fairly soon but not in the UK until August or later. It
will have several new features including new locomotives and three
new maps - North America including Canada and Mexico, Africa south
of the equator and South America.

Legend's Gateway 2:Homeworld should be out by the time you read
this, as should SimFarm. Look out for the RPGs Lands of Lore from
Westwood/Virgin (over 20 megs of compressed art and FX) and Might
and Magic V:Dark Side of Xeen.


Recent Releases
---------------

(1) Software

A-Train - Maxis/Ocean (Amiga joins PC, œ35)
     NB Needs 1 meg and 2 drives minimum.
Betrayal at Krondor - Dynamix (PC, œ45)
Blade of Destiny - US Gold (PC, œ46; Amiga, œ38)
Civilization - MicroProse (ST joins PC and Amiga, œ35)
Day of the Tentacle - LucasArts (PC, œ43)
Eye of the Beholder 3 - SSI (PC, œ40)
Flashback - Delphine (Amiga, œ31)
Gunship 2000 - MicroProse (Amiga, œ35)
Prince of Persia 2 - Broderbund (PC, œ40)
Return of the Phantom - MicroProse (PC, œ45)
Ringworld - Tsunami/Accolade (PC, œ40)
Shadow of the Comet - Infogrames (PC, œ45)
Space Hulk - Electronic Arts (PC, œ45)
Space Legends - Empire (PC, œ35; Amiga, œ30)
Space Quest 1-4 compilation - Sierra (PC, œ50)
Syndicate - Bullfrog (PC, œ45; Amiga, œ35)
Tornado - Digital Integration (PC, œ45)
War in the Gulf - Empire (Amiga, œ30)
Worlds of Legend - Mindscape (PC and Amiga, œ26)

(2) Books

A-Train Book - Maxis œ17