Knightwoode - author Tony Kingsmill
         (Text/graphic Amiga adventure on Disk 788)

                Reviewed by: Philip Richmond

The story begins many years ago when the peace and harmony of the
Vale of Knightwoode was disrupted by outsiders. Led by General
Nojoy, these outsiders proceeded to erect a mysterious castle on
the edge of town, from where the General began to issue his orders
to the populace. That's when all the trouble started. Courageous
villagers, led by one named Fastflow September, launched an
assault against the intruders, but their simple tools and weapons
were no match for the Castle dwellers, and Fastflow was captured
and never seen again...

In 'Knightwoode' you play the role of Red Tassel, the son of
Fastflow. Red is a part time pig farmer and cow shed cleaner, who
has now grown up. The regulars at the local inn suggest that it is
time for another attempt be made to get rid of the General and his
cronies and, after wholeheartedly agreeing, you find yourself
boldly volunteering for the mission. After preparing yourself for
the quest you discover that you will have to achieve it
single-handedly though, as none of the others seem brave enough to
accompany you! You have to explore the land of Knightwoode and
amass the objects you will need to eventually gain entry to the
Castle and defeat Nojoy and his guards. You may also find your
father.

This is first and foremost a text adventure. There are graphics in
the game, but the author, being sympathetic, has wisely allowed
these to be turned on or off at will. The text is presented on a
low-rez screen against a black background. The input prompts eg:
'What Now?' appear in green. Game positions can be saved/loaded to
disk. (A fairly quick process) The parser is adequate and accepts
1,2,3 and 4 word commands eg: GIVE COIN TO MAN, EXAMINE ROPE, USE
BRICK ON WINDOW, TALK TO BELLA, DROP LIGHTER, NORTH.

GET ALL and DROP ALL also work. You are not left in any doubt as
to the sorts of things to type in as a summary of acceptable
words are given using the HELP command. The MAP command is handy
to see the 5 areas that need to be visited. You need to discover
passwords to gain entry to these regions in some cases. There are
many NPCs (Non Player Characters) to meet/talk/cooperate/help.
Most of them can be appeased by GIVE'ing them one of the many
items that can be stored in your inventory.

The loading screen on this autobooting game states: 'An Adventure
of Immense Proportions'. This is a bit misleading. The game is of
average length and easy to complete.  The puzzles are not too
taxing. Knightwoode has been written using AMOS, and the source
code is provided on disk and can be loaded into AMOS 1.3 or
AMOSPro for examination. The code is fully 'REMmed' and shows how
the game was constructed - very useful for those thinking about
writing their own adventures or devising a parser.

The author can be contacted for hints, a map or the solution.



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