News

Adventions are currently working on three new TADS adventures. The
first, 'The Horror of Rylvania' should be ready any time now, the
second, 'The Legend Lives' by Christmas and the third, 'Ulien' in
the spring.

Mindcraft are releasing 'Walls of Rome', where you can choose to
defend or conquer that ancient city. There is a wide choice of
armies from many times and places, different fortifications to
besiege or defend, and ready-made scenarios to play individually
or in an extended campaign. There's also a built-in editor which
allows you to create your own armies, battles and maps.

Also from Mindcraft comes 'Bloodstone' - a tale of magic and
treasure, bloodshed and glory - well, that's what the blurb says,
anyway! Set in the earliest days of dwarven history, the battles
between the northern and southern dwarves threatened their
civilization before it had got going. Then one young dwarf (you, I
assume) decided to take matters into his own hands.

Sierra's CD-ROM releases are continuing with versions of 'Willy
Beamish', 'Space Quest IV' and 'Laura Bow II' all now available,
featuring full digitized speech and other extras. The other CD-ROM
titles already available are 'EcoQuest 1', 'Inca', 'Jones in the
Fast Lane' (special edition), 'King's Quest V', 'King's Quest VI',
'Lost in Time', 'Mixed-up Mother Goose' and 'Stellar 7'.

Last issue I told you about several new games on the way from
Sierra - well, here are a few more ... 'Outpost' (a space
colonization and exploration game featuring a VR-like interface;
Windows only) and 'Phantasmagoria' (their first CD-ROM only title,
a ghost story with 3D rendered graphics and promising stunning
special effects). 'The Shadow of Yserbius' (an RPG set in a
volcano) is already out.

Coktel Vision, who appear to be part of the Sierra group, are
working on 'Inca 2' (travel through four different cultural
worlds) and 'Goblin 3' (featuring Blount, a journalist for the
Goblin News).

Discworld fans! The licence to Terry Pratchett's series of novels
has been bought by the appallingly-named Teeny Weeny Games and are
developing a game for PC and CD-ROM (and other formats) which
should be released next summer.

'Space Junk' is a new graphic adventure coming from Imagitec/US
Gold early next year for CD-ROM. The digitized graphics will use
Imagitec's Imagimation system which features live action footage
shot of automation puppets, built by the Spitting Image team.

If you enjoyed 'Wing Commander, why not try designing your own
missions with 'Wing Commander Academy' from Electronic
Arts/Origin? Or experiment with Domark's 'Flight Sim Toolkit' and
design your own game?

Infogrames have 'Alone in the Dark 2' aimed at a November release.
It is set in 1921 and once again you play detective Edward Carnby
(no option for Emily Hartwood this time though you can later
switch with another woman called Grace). There are pirates
involved in AITD2, but in the THIRD game, which is already being
worked on, the scenario is a wild west town. Infogrames are also
planning 'Shadow of the Comet 2' for release in June '94, a
Civilization-style strategy game called 'Marco Polo' for CD-ROM,
another CD-ROM adventure set in India called 'Tiger Strike' and a
third, 'Templar', based on the Knights Templar.

Empire are working on a top-down display futuristic adventure
called 'Dream Web', due out in January '94. But, before that,
their graphic cyberpunk adventure, 'CyberSpace', should hit the
shelves.

Fans of simulations should look out for Bullfrog's 'Theme Park'
which is similar to 'SimCity' but you have to construct and manage
(guessed it?) a theme park.

Finally, there are some good bargains available through the Hit
Squad - 'Chuck Yeager', 'Wing Commander', 'Magic Candle II',
'Indianapolis 500', 'Ultima VI' and 'F-29 Retaliator', all at the
low price of œ14.99 each.

Recent Releases
---------------
(1) Software

Deja Vu 1 & 2 - Mindscape/Viacom (revised version, Windows
compatible) - (PC, œ30)
Dark Sun:Shattered Lands - SSI/TSR (PC, œ46)
Frontier:Elite II - Gametek/Knomi (PC œ40; Amiga œ30)
Gateway 2 - Legend (PC, œ35)
Hired Guns - Psygnosis (robotic RPG, Amiga, œ35)
Innocent (Until Caught) - Psygnosis (PC, œ45)
Lands of Lore - Virgin/Westwood (PC, œ36)
Might and Magic V:Darkside of Xeen - New World Computing (PC, œ46)
Patrician - Ascon (Amiga, œ33;PC, œ35)
Pirates! Gold Edition - MicroProse (PC, œ45)
Return to Zork - Infocom/Activision (PC, œ46; CD-ROM, œ50)
Shadowcaster - Origin (PC, œ45)
Shadowgate - Mindscape/Viacom (revised version, Windows
     compatible) - (PC, œ30)
Shadow of Yserbus - Sierra (PC, œ40)
SimFarm - Maxis (PC, œ35)
Simon the Sorcerer - Adventuresoft (PC, œ40)
Space Hulk - Electronic Arts (Amiga joins PC, œ35)
     (1 meg, not hard disk, 2nd drive recommended)
Ultima VI:The False Prophet - Hit Squad budget re-release (PC, œ15)
Uninvited - Mindscape/Viacom (revised version, Windows compatible)
     - (PC, œ30)