Unnkulia Zero:The Search for Amanda - D.A. Leary/Adventions
                RRP $26 including shipping
            (TADS text adventure for PC and ST)

Though I enjoy playing a wide range of different types of
adventure games, I still find something magical about a good text
adventure. The human imagination is a powerful thing and, despite
the advances made in graphical adventures, I still find I am
better at imagining my own pictures for an adventure. The
classic example is Lurking Horror - would the maintenance man have
been so effective if his disintegration had been shown
graphically? Not for me.

And when I talk about 'good text adventures', one series that I've
thoroughly enjoyed is the Unnkulian range of adventures, written
by Dave Leary and Dave Baggett. The previous games have been
shareware (Unnkulian Underworld and Unnkulian Unventure II:The
Secret of Acme).  Unnkulia One-Half is also out as freeware but
Zero is the first commercial game in the series.

In the first two games, attentive players would have noticed some
cryptic messages. In Unnkulian Underworld, the message "V.K. luvs
Amanda" was carved in a table top. In Unnkulian Unventure II, a
similar message was scratched on the branch of an oak tree.

Amanda who? It's time to find out.

The game takes place 35 years after the Second Valley King started
his reign and in it, you take the part of his most trusted
warrior. Awaking from sleep to the sound of the King's cry of
anguish, you clump along the corridor to the Great Hall. Your
master is there, unshaven and bleary eyed; you notice he's already
downed a bottle of Chateau Unnkulia. Leading you along the
corridors to an iron grate in the ceiling of one, he tells you the
sad tale; the lady Amanda, his betrothed, has been kidnapped.
Unlocking the grate and pushing you through it, he begs you to
find her and bring her back to him. You climb out into bright
sunlight. Maybe those fiendish Unnkulians are responsible? It's a
good job you have your trusty sword with you!

Above ground you find yourself in the Forest of Radeekal. Lake
Draounheer, where Amanda was last seen, lies to the west and, if
you take a walk along the cliff edge (brave warrior that you are,
you've never managed to conquer your fear of heights), you can
enter the King's lighthouse. A rowboat lies by the lake, but a
hole in the bottom means some repair work will be necessary before
you can use it. An oar is essential too; but the only one you can
see is guarded by a very large snake ...

Once you've solved these initial problems, and managed to placate
the Valley Patrol, a gormless bunch of failed Valley Warriors who
patrol the forest on the King's orders (when they're not catching
a quick nap or indulging in belching contests), you can explore
the other side of the lake. Unfortunately this is Unnkulian
territory, bordered by the Beegas'hell Mountains, so it's wise not
to hang about. To the north of the lake lies the Damsogee Swamp,
one route blocked by a stoll (a smaller and more agile relative of
trolls) who guards a rickety bridge. But the main part of the
game, as with the other Unnkulian adventures, lies underground
where you'll meet up with familiar characters from the previous
games, as well as some new ones, and explore areas such as 'In the
Way' and the Mines of Dioria, inhabited by testy dwarves who bring
back memories of Colossal Adventure.

It's hard to talk about this game without referring to the others
in the series. Memory plays a big part in playing Unnkulia Zero;
not only of games from other sources, and some films, that you
have seen, but also remembering the previous games. All of them
are set in roughly the same area, but at different times, so the
newly built lighthouse with a coin press on the ground floor
reminds you of the same location, years in the future, in
Unnkulian Underworld. The monk, whose diet is restricted to eggs,
appears again in this game - once you see the monk, you know
there'll be an egg somewhere but you'll still have the problem of
trying to cook it for him. A large, short-sighted dragon who
causes lots of problems in Unnkulian Two is a mere baby in this
game, but a 'baby' who can still flatten you with his
enthusiastic greeting. Recognising each incident and remembering
the solution from one of the other games doesn't guarantee you'll
solve the comparable problem easily in this game!

Of course, there are also loads of problems which will be
completely new to you.  And though the Acme products which were
such a feature of the other games don't play such a big part in
this one, you'll meet an Acme salesman in the early stages who
you'll actually play the part of in Unnkulian One-Half! And in
THAT game, you meet the warrior from Unnkulian Zero so sometimes
you get a feeling of deja vu that is stronger than usual.

Humour, again, is a big part of the game. I enjoy the names such
as Lake Draounheer and the Beegas'hell Mountains but the humour
goes deeper than that. It's the more subtle humour which suddenly
dawns on you some time later that will really make you laugh.  As
for difficulty, the game is rated 'Dam Tuff' (7/10) and the author
isn't kidding! I've got to 232/350 after some pauses when I
doubted I'd get THAT far, but now I'm stuck and am awaiting help
from Dave Leary. I console myself with the fact that I'm not
alone; Neil and Marion have been playing the game at the same time
and all three of us are stuck at exactly the same point.

In summary, Unnkulia Zero is even better than the other games in
the series - the puzzles are excellent, the game challenging, the
humour pitched just right for my taste.  It's worth playing the
games in the order in which they were written, to get the full
effect and appreciate the nuances.  More games are planned too -
I'm especially looking forward to the first Unnkulian Universe
Unventure - Ulien (in space, no one can smell the cheez!)

Though it isn't as convenient to order a game from the States,
it's not as hard as you'd expect. Full ordering details are in the
advert elsewhere in the magazine. If you have a credit card, you
can also order through High Energy in the States, but it'll cost a
bit more than from Adventions, $29 to be precise.
                                                       Sue