SHADES

       Played and reviewed by Grimwold (AKA Flasheart)

This is a game unlike any I have played before.

Imagine an adventure. Give it a plethora of treasure and a complex
point-scoring system.  Put a few puzzles in there, none of them
too difficult to be annoying. Then, add the characters. Or rather,
you don't.  They add themselves if you see what I mean. For Shades
is a MUG, that is, a Multi User Game. You aren't the only person
playing it. Now, the normal problem with these types of games is
finding enough people to play along with you. Shades, along with
other MUGs like the infamous MUD, needs only one player to work,
though it will seem just like any other adventure if you're the
only one playing it. However, the game comes into its own with the
more people playing it.

Each extra player is a human being, so does not suffer from the
normal adventure NPCs, each has their own character and traits.
They may be nice, they may be nasty.  They might be funny, they
might be morose. They are usually friendly though.

To play Shades, the requirements are fairly straightforward. You
need a computer, a modem, a phone line and some suitable COMMS
software.  The actual computer doesn't matter, though 8-bits may
find the response time a little slow. The modem speed doesn't
matter a great deal either, the first time I played was at 300
BAUD and found the response quite adequate, though now I play at
1200 which is perfectly alright, though obviously, the faster the
better.  Nearly all COMMS software will be alright, though the
ability to `log' your file will be a boon, for then you can look
through the game when you are off-line, making mapping easier and
cheaper.

Talking of cost, the main thing that puts people off MUGs is the
cost of playing. Shades is almost unique in that it doesn't charge
a penny for the game itself, you only have to pay for the phone
call.  (Unfortunately, computers won't accept reverse charges...)
This means that if you don't like the game, you don't have to pay
any more than a short phone call. Some other MUGs, including MUD,
required an advance payment for a certain amount of playing hours.

Right, enough about that for the moment, let me go into the
adventure itself.

The game of Shades is fairly basic.  There is a large playing
area, though a main nucleus is where most players spend their
time. The plot doesn't seem to exist, simply find the treasure and
drop it at the Mad King's room, or certain other places, to score
points. Points are also scored by killing NPCs (the computer's
characters) and fellow adventurers.  The more points you score,
the higher your level, and hence, your power at fighting and
spells.

Shades' parser is very powerful and has obviously been honed over
a long time. There are very few bugs, very little spelling abuse
and the game generally has a friendly feel to it.  Abbreviations
abound, making the game very easy to play over a long time.

Instructions are given in a special set of rooms near to the
start, but only very few are given. The rest you must learn
yourself, or persuade another player to tell you. Fighting is
simple enough, you move to the same position as the person you
want to attack and simply ATTACK person WITH weapon. If they
attack you, just RETaliate WITH weapon. Hits are calculated by the
computer and are carried out automatically.  If you want to leave,
you have to FLEE! losing some points and also all the objects you
were carrying. One good thing about fighting in Shades is that
only two people can fight, this means that a whole gang can't go
roaming around killing others.

You can always SAVE at any time, this just makes a back-up of your
current points and stamina in case you lose a bad fight. Apart
from this, the host computer will automatically save your score
and stamina if you hang-up or are disconnected for any reason.

Creating a character is very simple, you just type in a name and
your own password (assuming nobody's already used that name) and
you are given a unique number. As far as I know, once a name has
been used, nobody else can ever use it again, so make sure you
have a list of alternatives if your first choice is rejected.  For
example, would you have thought that someone other than me would
have used `Grimwold'?  Well, they have and as such, I couldn't use
my favourite moniker.

When you are accepted, you can then play the game. You are given a
choice to either start the game proper, or go into the CHAT area.
The CHAT area is simply a small pub where nobody can attack
anyone else and they can all have a good chin wag.

Talking to other characters is the mainstay of Shades, as I have
already said. As with other main commands, talking is also
abbreviated.  To talk to someone specifically, you just either
"SAY TO name message", or to abbreviate it further, "name message"
abbreviating the character's name to the first three or four
letters.  This kind of message will travel to that person no
matter where they are in the game.  You can also "SAY message" and
everyone in your location can hear you. Another useful command is
"SHOUT message". With this, everyone in the whole game can hear
your message. Useful if you want to find out how to open the
drawbridge, for example.

Talking is everything though.  If you share the location with
someone else, you can: kiss, hug, pet, stroke or cuddle them.
Don't be surprised if they get a bit stroppy if you keep kissing
them repeatedly though, I got killed for getting too amorous with
one particular witch...

Spells are a bit of a woolly subject with me at the moment, as I
haven't learned much about them. I know that typing WHERE item
will give you the their whereabouts, and typing WH T will tell you
where all the treasure is. Naturally, these reduce your
spell-points so careful use, especially when you're starting, is
recommended.  I do know that the higher your rank, the more spells
are available for use.  The highest level is Wizard (or Witch, if
you are female) for which you will need to score 200,000 points.
At the moment, I am a mere Valiant (level 6, over 4000 points) so
I have a lot of playing to do.  Once a Wizard you are granted
immortality. Wizards can do all kinds of nasty things, like change
another player's sex, snoop on them (this means they can see
everything you type, whether or not they are in the same room) and
a host of other commands.

The players are generally friendly, but since they're real people,
they can have disagreements and fall out. There are also one or
two Wizards who sometimes abuse their power, but for the most
part, everyone gets on pretty well.

Overall, I would say that if you've a modem, then you just have to
try Shades. It's been going for years (I think at least ten) so
any bugs have been ironed out of the system and it has a wide
spread of characters, from novices to Arch-Wizards (immortal, so
don't go throwing snowballs at them).

The telephone number to Shades is: 071 275 9996. They have ten
lines and sometimes run into two games at the same time. I don't
know for certain what baud rate it will support though 300, 1200,
2400 and 14,400 have all been tried. The parity is a little
unusual in being 7E1, which caught me out the first few times, so
be sure to adjust your comms software first.  The most popular
time for playing seems to be around 10 PM onwards, and Friday and
Saturday being more popular.  There are also special `fight
nights' where slaying is the order of the day.  I think these are
on Tuesdays and Thursdays, though I've so far been too chicken to
try them out! There are special Quiz nights too, where a question
master shouts out questions and everyone tries to answer them
correctly until someone gets it right.

While you're there, look up Flasheart.  I'll be there most Friday
and Saturday nights at around 11 PM. I'll gladly show you what
dying's like!







                              - o -