@~I like having several reviews for the same game. This time, @~Alex, Grimwold and Mark review DOTT. Day of the Tentacle - LucasArts RRP œ42.99 - œ45.99 (Point 'n' click adventure for PC and CD-ROM) (1) CD-ROM review by Alex van Kaam After lots of hours searching dungeons and killing trolls I need something completely not like a RPG. This time my choice fell on Day of the Tentacle (DOTT) When I bought the game I hadn't seen a review of it so it was a gamble, and a good one if you ask me. In the game you play 3 characters, Bernard the computer freak, Hoagie a heavy metal type of guy, and Laverne a weird medical student. Your mission is to stop a purple tentacle from taking over the world, this sounds simple enough but it isn't. It all started like this, Doctor Fred created two tentacles, a purple one and a green one, both of them were walking around the house of the doctor and came to the back of the house where the doctor was dumping some kind of sludge. The purple tentacle is curious and drinks from the stuff, the first thing that happens is that he grows arms, the second thing is that he wants to take over the world!!! Doctor Fred captures both tentacles and ties them up in the basement to kill them later. The green (good) tentacle gets a message to Bernard using a hamster, Bernard jumps in his car (with Hoagie and Laverne in the back) and drives to the house of Doctor Fred. Here you come into the game, after finding the secret laboratory the doctor you (Bernard) free both the tentacles and this is where the trouble starts. Doctor Fred comes into the laboratory and tells you that the only way to stop the purple tentacle from taking over the world is to go back to yesterday and turn off the machine that dumps the sludge into the river. All three of you are put in three different time capsules connected to a time machine (old car). At first all goes well until Doctor Fred's mail order imitation diamond breaks up and the time machine has to be turned off. Bernard comes back to this time, Hoagie goes 200 years into the past and Laverne goes 200 years into the future. The doctor can get them back but they need to plug the time capsules into a plug connection, but where do you get power 200 years into the past! In the time capsule is a toilet in which you can flush something to another person in another time, and all of the people are at the same place so if Hoagie cuts (or let someone cut) down a tree it won't be there in Bernard's or Laverne's time. After reading this intro you know that this is a silly, weird, funny and hilarious game. On the CD-ROM version which I played, all the voices (if you have the right sound card) are spoken, and they fit perfectly with the characters. The animation is like a cartoon. Every time Bernard comes into the main room I have to let him talk to the clown and see him being knocked to the floor by it, and I have to laugh every time. I have to say that this is one of the greatest (not being a great adventure player) adventures I have played until now (beside Monkey Island 1). If there are people who like funny and not too difficult adventures I can really recommend this one and if you have a CD-ROM drive do get the CD version. All the voices (using SoundBlaster or Sound Galaxy Pro 16 in my case) are spoken and you get 3 demos on the CD. And in the end the purple tentacle says he will be back, I hope there will be a sequel. PS. Be sure your Sound Galaxy DMA channel is 1 otherwise the game won't load. This happened to me and it took me hours to find out that (don't ask me when or why) I changed the DMA channel. * * * * * DAY OF THE TENTACLE : Maniac Mansion Part Two By LucasArts PC 286 minimum/VGA/3.5" HD/640K (2) Dwarfed on a PC by Grimwold "The trouble began when Purple Tentacle drunk that pesky toxic waste. Once evil but harmlessly slow-witted, he became an evil super-genius, bent on WORLD DOMINATION! His creator, fidgety mad scientist Doctor Fred Edison, realized the threat to all humanity and captured Purple Tentacle, along with his good-natured brother Green Tentacle, and plans to have them put to sleep..." That is, until computer geek Bernard (pronounced "Berr-naaarrd" by the excellent SoundBlaster speech) gets a message delivered by a mutant hamster and manages to free both tentacles, giving Purple free rein. Doctor Fred has an idea though, he must send Bernard and his friends back to the day before using his patented time machine, so they can switch off the toxic waste so Purple won't become mutated. Good plan, but he couldn't afford a real diamond for his machine (The Chron-O-John - a time travelling outside toilet) and when the three friends are in the time warp, it explodes, trapping Hoagie (Bernard's heavy-metal mate) 200 years in the past, and Laverne (Bernard's weird dissection-mad female friend) 200 years in the future with no way back. Bernard pops back into the present. This adventure (ish) features such innovative gizmos as: 256 colour VGA graphics (drawn in an attractive cartoon style), SoundBlaster support throughout, mouse control with the usual keywords that make life fairly simple for the player. Switching between the three characters is accomplished by simply clicking on their icon at the bottom left of the screen, and object transference is also quite easily accomplished by simply dragging the object icon across to the character icon and dropping it on their picture. This doesn't always work, as some items won't travel very well through the Chron-O-John so other means of getting them to the other characters must be found. The sound, when played through a SoundBlaster or compatible card (Adlib is also supported, but you lose the speech) is very nice, and not overdone. I was a little disappointed that the speech was confined to the introduction, but I suppose some sacrifices must be made for the sake of your hard drive (it takes up 16M as it is), and also for speed of gameplay. I understand the CD-ROM version has enhanced speech though. The introduction is worth watching two or three times alone, even if it does take ten or fifteen minutes. It's a cartoon all in itself. Although the game will run on a 286, a 386 is recommended for best gameplay. A colour monitor is not necessary but, again, is recommended. A fairly fast hard drive would also be a must, I think. The game is very easy to get into, and is, as you may have guessed, very heavy on the humour, none of which is in bad taste or 'over the top' in any way. The jokes, and in particular, the visual humour is top-notch and some of the scenes have to be replayed to get the most enjoyment. The puzzles are, I think, pitched at just the right degree of difficulty; slowing the player up for a while, but not for so long as to become annoying. The answer to the puzzles as always logical and fulfilling. The three main characters stay true to form throughout, and the extra people in the game are usually good for a laugh. In the past (where Hoagie is trapped), a rudimentary knowledge of American history is useful, as many of the jokes in regard to the constitution would be lost if you weren't familiar with the basics. Also in the game is an added bonus, in one of the rooms is a computer which, if you 'USE' it, gives you a chance to play all of Maniac Mansion One! Having said that, MM1 is very poor by comparison and you probably won't want to play it for very long and, indeed, you don't need to. All in all, I think that this has GOT to be THE game of 1993. Even with a RRP of around 45 pounds, I think that it is pretty good value for money, especially compared with what else is available for that money. The entertainment value is superb, doubly so if you have a soundcard. This is the best game I have played on the PC to date and although I completed it over a month ago, I have a feeling I will install it again soon and have another crack at it. How many games can you say that about? Grimwold's ratings: Graphics - 10/10 Sound - 10/10 Puzzles - 9/10 Atmosphere - 8/10 'Grabability' - 10/10 VFM - 8/10 Overall - 10/10 * * * * * Day of the Tentacle CD-ROM LucasArts Review machine: TI'KO 486 33Mhz with Panasonic CD-ROM (double speed) Reviewed by: Mark Bradshaw Well, what can I say about this game which hasn't been stated by any other of the major magazines? Each one of them has given the game praise after praise with not a hint of dissatisfaction and I am afraid I will be going along with this trend. However, let's set the scene before chattering too much: You play Bernard (dork star of the game Maniac Mansion), Laverne and Hoagie in a cartoon adventure from LucasArts, always the sign of a game with a good start in life. Dr Fred Edison, a crazed genius by his own admission, created a race of beings called the tentacles and called his 2 creations Green and Purple Tentacle, being their respective colours. Green was good-natured, kind and member of an exceeding loud rock band. Purple Tentacle wasn't! He was evil but slow-witted, presenting little of a problem until he drank the polluted stream behind the Doctor's Mansion. He instantly transformed into an evil super-genius with small, stubby arms. He drew up a plan for world domination and set about making it a reality. Dr Fred had managed to contain Green and Purple Tentacle in his basement until Bernard, the kind but stupid friend of Green, frees them. Purple is thus free to put his plan into action! The game consists of 3 parts. You play Bernard and his 2 roommates Hoagie and Laverne who each have a section of the game to complete. However, due to an accident with a time machine, Hoagie is stranded 200 years in the past while Laverne finds herself 200 years in the future with the tentacles the master race! Each must find a source of power for their Chron-o-John time machine so they can return to the present day and stop the dastardly Purple Tentacle. So, what's the game like? In a word, fantastic! The interface is the usual LucasArts adventure idea with possible action words at the bottom of the screen, along with the objects currently carried. This works very well and doesn't get in the way of the game, which is the main thing. I'm concerned that LucasArts seem to have ditched this interface in favour of the Sierra way of doing things in Sam & Max Hit The Road, but at least it is still present in DOTT. Installation was a piece of cake! In fact, as I was reviewing the CD-ROM version of the game, it was non-existent! Just stick the ROM in the drive, change to that drive and type DOTT! Could anything be simpler? I doubt it. You are then treated to a good intro, happily not as long as many seem to be getting nowadays, which nicely introduces the story. Another advantage of the CD version is that there is no copy protection! Disk based players will have to hunt through the manual as usual, however. Once past the intro, the game settles down a bit so it appears similar to others of the genre - you move your character around, click on objects, use objects to achieve goals, etc. But DOTT wins through with its comedy, its beautiful cartoon scenery and its speech. Oh - almost forgot to mention that! The CD version has full speech for all characters throughout the game - no more reading lines and imagining. I have to admit, having read the box I thought "Speech? So what?" but now I am hooked. It really adds a level of enjoyment to the proceedings and I shall wait for CD versions of games in the future in the hope that this enhancement is continued. I don't want to say too much about the game here as it may spoil other people's enjoyment, but all I can do is recommend the game whole-heartedly! DOTT seems to attract everyone as well - my wife saw it and settled down to help, my Mum was keen and SHOCK - my Dad was interested. This is the highest recommendation a game can get, as he is interested in VERY little (at the last count, I think it was 3 games in 11 years!). All I would say against the game, if anything, is that it is all over much too soon. Between my wife and I the game lasted about 8 hours. I would imagine this to be quite high as well as we are not that good at these games! But what a good 8 hours of enjoyment! Well, that's all I can say about the game. I will be interested to see if new players are still picking up the game in 1 or 2 years time as happens with all the true classics, but for now I would say this game is brilliant and well worth a look, especially on CD!