@~This issue's AGT reviews are Lost in Space, the ST version this @~time, from Shebo and The Tempest from James Judge. Lost In Space - author Graeme Cree A standard AGT adventure for PC (PD 679) and ST (PD 698) A Review by Shebo on the STe You are Dr. Zachary Smith. Do you remember him? He was the wimp in the TV series all those years ago who walked around as if he had a brillo pad in his pants. The year is 2005 and you have been trapped aboard Jupiter 2 for eight years with the Robinson family. You are on Alpha Centauri. You have helped the Robinsons to build several shelters and you are living off the land quite comfortably. Despite the fact that you and the Robinson family are well established and are eating fairly well, you are really, really cheesed off. All you want to do, and ever wanted to do over the past eight years, is get back to Earth. The Robinsons have set off in the chariot to do some Alpha Centaurian type chores and you make up your mind to take the opportunity to take the ship for a spin and head back home to Earth. You know how to pilot the ship (that's a sitting down job) but you must fuel it up, find the course data to Earth and make the ship spaceworthy before they get back. You have at least a day. Judy and the fat old Robot have remained behind and so you must do something about them. I completed the game very quickly. There are only 18 locations and you are awarded just a teeny weeny point at completion. I was extremely disappointed as I enjoyed playing it and I felt that it should have been longer. The text was informative and witty in places, I think it helps if you are familiar with the character of Dr. Zach Smith as portrayed in the TV series. You can then appreciate the humour more. You get a lot of help during the game by punching the help button, in fact you are practically told how to complete the game. If it hadn't have been for the help option, I would have probably still been playing it. I knew I had to get rid of the robot, but every time I used the word "ROBOT" I was sent back to the desktop (that's not fair, is it?). I tried several times to examine it without using the 'R' word, but to no avail. I tried to complete the quest by totally ignoring it, but of course,that didn't work. Eventually, shamefully, I asked for help and found out what it was I had to do to the robot to end its life. So I did it without using the 'R' word and it worked. It would have been nice to be able to find out for myself, but I felt justified asking for help under the circumstances. The game has a few puzzles to complete but they are fairly easy, but I found them enjoyable none the less. I personally do not like to play the small games, especially as small as this one, but at the same time can appreciate their merits. If you need a short break from a mind-boggling game, but do not want to start anything too involved, load up a game such as Lost In Space, play the game, have a giggle, tear your hair out a couple of times and put the disk in your 'done' file. After completing the game you are told that poor old Dr Smith ends up back where he started, but this time he is rich and becomes mayor of Alpha Centauri. By the way, the capital city is Robotville, had to be, didn't it? Oh the pain, the pain! ----------------------------------------------------------------- TEMPEST - A Game Based on the play of the same name (the play is called Tempest for all those who are a bit slow on the uptake) (For PC on PD 560) Reviewed By James Judge To be or not to be that is the horse for my kingdom that I knew well. As you can see, I know a great deal of Shakespeare, but alas poor dagger before me, I have never come across the play Tempest - probably 'cos it was a bit too tempestuous. Enough of this word play , I art here to review a game, so down to business, my dear witches. I looked forward to getting this game and reviewing it as I had heard that it was quite good, well, I thought I had heard it was quite good. For those of you who don't know about this game or who have not come across the play, you play a rich merchant's son who is on a boat (or is it a ship? - sailors please tell me!) bound for somewhere. After a night of letting your fancy go free, as well as your swallowing muscles and a few gallons of the finest Shakespearian booze, you're a bit worse for wear. Never mind - your friends put you in the room (how kind of them) with a spare casket (of beer, that is) and then locked you in the room, hiding the key. You wake up in the morning and feel as if the boat is swaying precariously underneath you - probably just the effects of last night (ha! fool). Your first problem is getting out of the room, and I better warn you that the beginning bit is timed because the ship is going to sink. After a bit of scouting, you should have found the elusive key (no, it wasn't in the casket where you thought it was - it's somewhere far more transparent) and gotten yourself out of your room. A bit of exploration over the first few locations will reveal that the captain is going down with the ship, a really bad storm is hitting the ship and you need to get of it. First things first, though - better go and borrow some kit and find something to float with (hint - get yourself drunk). After that, you should fling yourself any which way, as long as you hit the water. Here you should come across your first major problem - a maze, and so early on! The only problem with this is that you have got a time limit to complete it in, there is no way that you can really map it as you can't drop items, and you need all the items that you've got. Also there are a few sharks hanging around, wanting to take a bite from your drumstick. After an hour of fruitless nothing, easting and westing, I decompiled the game and cheated. Luckily it worked and I was washed up on the local beach, free of the modern day excrement, discarded contraceptives and other 'bad taste' items. My epic swim lost me a couple of items of kit, but hey - I'll probably find them along the beach, won't I? After a great deal of wandering, I found that I couldn't get them so I decided to explore the forest. Here I came across a niggle. When you happen to be strolling around your local forest you may notice that when you head west from one clearing to another, there is no force on earth that will make you go north, to get back to the first clearing without going east at some time. Not so with this game, many a time I've gone west, planning to make a lovely map and then I come east and find I am somewhere completely different - two or three locations away from the starting place at that! Another annoying bit of the game was the amount of random occurrences and time limits in the game. My second go at the game I actually found something on the beach - wow! Another go I found something different and subsequent games I found nothing at all, and I needed the swords that I found to kill certain monsters - hi ho. As the game went on, I became more and more despondent about the game. I didn't care whether I completed a puzzle or just left the game hanging. Luckily a few more games fell through my post box when I was about two thirds of the way through this game so it was flung into my disk box and I got on with these other games. Overall the game was quite well put together, with adequate text descriptions and OK puzzles. There were no redeeming features to this game and so it became one of those games that you only play on a wet Sunday when Songs Of Praise is on and you've run out of other software and books to indulge yourself in. Buy it if you liked the play (I don't know how close it follows the storyline) or you just want something to do. If not, waste your money elsewhere. - o -