The Adventurer - author Prozess Software, RRP œ39.95

                      Reviewed by Sue

This text adventure writing utility, mentioned in Jean's review of
'Guru' last issue, is a commercial program. However, the games
that you can write with it may be distributed royalty free, eg as
shareware or public domain, though a mention to The Adventurer
would obviously be appreciated.

The program is nicely presented in a plastic flip open box (kinda
like a video box, only bigger) containing two disks (the utility
itself and a sample game) and a 42 page A5 manual which is clearly
written and laid out with screenshots for illustrating certain
processes.

There are two important things that you should know initially
about the program. One is that it runs under Windows. This is
unusual because most adventure writing utilities are DOS-based.
The second is that games written with it require no keyboard input
from the player; all verbs and nouns are actioned by selecting
them from a list using the mouse. This may, at first sight, appear
rather restrictive but just think for a moment about graphic
adventures. Many of these use a limited number of icons for
different commands and yet these games can still be quite tricky
and it is possible to get completely stuck. The only disadvantage
is that you can't sneak a tricky input past a player, all possible
inputs are always there for him or her to see.  However, this
theoretically makes the game more user-friendly as you'll never be
stuck for the right input. We've probably all been frustrated at
times when playing a text adventure, thinking, I know WHAT I want
to do but I can't work out what wording the author wants me to
use.

The sample game provided in the package, "So You Want to be a
Guru?" - reviewed by Jean in Issue 39 - is used as an example
in the tutorial provided in the manual which takes you through the
first few locations, objects and puzzles.  Games written with The
Adventurer have a very neat display - a window with a slide bar
for location descriptions, messages etc, much like a normal text
adventure. However there are also several buttons at the top right
corner covering directional movements, Command and Wait. The
letters (N, SE etc) on the direction buttons are greyed out if
there isn't an exit in that direction.

Selecting Command brings up a selection box with options for verb
and adverb.  Clicking the arrow on the Verb box drops a list of
possibilities - in the case of "Guru" this is busk, help, jump,
knock, look, say, score and wait. Adverbs lets you choose between
gently, quickly and slowly. Obviously, you can add your own
choices when you write your own game.

Another way that The Adventurer differs from other games is that
it has two more boxes on the screen for objects found and objects
carried. All items are shown graphically using Windows icons, and
the program Iconworks is provided for you to create your own. If
you double click on an item in either box, it brings up a window
connected with that object. This gives its description and two
more drop down selection boxes for verb and adverb to use to react
with it.  These verbs are the same for all items. All items have
their name underneath them, just as a Windows icon does normally,
some may have an extra adjective in brackets - eg worn. Worn
items' names are in green, other items in yellow.  Picking up
objects is very easy. Just drag the icon into your inventory, or
vice versa to drop something. You can also have location graphics
in BMP or WMF format and sound effects!

Using The Adventurer to write a game is very easy. There are 7
drop down menus.  These are: file, edit, elements, vocab, action,
game and help. File is pretty self explanatory but it also allows
you to compact the adventure, repair it in the horrible event of a
computer crash, and extract object icons or print some of the
adventure files. Edit contains the usual cut, copy and paste
options we're all familiar with from other Windows programs.

Elements lets you add and edit the locations, objects, messages,
timers, counters and sounds in the game. Vocab does the same for
verbs, adverbs and phrases. Action copes with selecting and
editing commands used by the player and precommand functions used

by the program. Finally the Game Menu lets you run and test your
game, change fonts, add icons and so forth.

Adding a new location is very simple. A box opens into which you
add its reference (a short name such as home1), its short
description and long description. Buttons along the bottom of the
screen allow you to add the movement directions using a similar
compass arrangement of buttons. In many cases, whenever you add
something new, a selection box will open so you can easily select
your choice from previous inputs. For example, if you fill in 3
location descriptions, when you go to add movement from one to
another, all those locations will be listed and you can click on
the one you want. Very neat.  Movements can be made conditional at
this point too, by using a counter.  Another button lets you add a
location graphic.  Defining objects uses a similar system - write
a short and long description, add an icon, add its start location
and weight.  Messages are very easy, just a text description and a
reference so you can identify the message. Sounds also have a
reference name and can be a WAV sound file or MIDI music file.

Timers, counters and vocabulary are also easy to add. Timers can
be used to notify a player about things that are happening. In
"Guru", the player can enter a wardrobe and after 5 moves will be
warned that the air is stale, firing a message called 'cough'.
Counters can be used, for example, when opening and closing the
aforementioned wardrobe which is jammed. A counter is linked to
the wardrobe and shows whether it is open or closed.  Verbs can be
linked to an object, general (not connected with an object), or
linked to a phrase.

The most tricky part of writing any adventure (apart from thinking
up a good plot!) is sorting out the commands and their actions.
The Adventurer makes this as painless as possible by its intuitive
system. Select a verb and according to whether it's an object,
general or phrase verb, other buttons may be activated.  Further
information is added on a Define Action window in the form of
conditions and actions.  A good range of conditions and actions
are supported.  Conditions include Absent (object), Carried
(object), Location Is (location), Counter > (counter number) and
Random > (number). Actions include Get (object), Describe, Destroy
(object), End Game, Move (object) (location) and Swap (object)
(object). All of these are very logical and self-explanatory.

You can test the game at any time from within The Adventurer.
Debug mode lets you check counters, timers and action. Some
changes can be made during testing which is a nice touch. Two more
neat ideas are being easily able to change the start location so
you can check sections of the game and being able to spellcheck
all the text in the program by printing an ASCII file to disk
which can be loaded into a WP.

This is version 1 of The Adventurer. One nice addition to future
versions of the program would be the ability to link a verb with
one particular object so that it only appeared in the verb list
when that object was selected.  Some verbs could be a real
giveaway for forthcoming objects if you saw them listed.  It's fun
to be able to sneak something up on the player occasionally! It
would also be good to be able to type in commands to the selection
area, not restrict the player to accessing the built-in commands.
This would get rid of any arguments about restrictions in the
system. I only crashed it once, by trying to insert a new action
before the currently selected action when there wasn't one there!

Dave Home, author of The Adventurer, is a professional programmer.
He started writing the program 2 years ago when he realised there
wasn't anything similar to Gilsoft's old text adventure utility
The Quill, with which he'd first written "Guru", in Windows. As
far as I'm concerned he can give himself a huge thump on the back
for a job well done. I am very impressed with The Adventurer which
neatly fills a gap in the market and will enable even more of us
to create our own adventures.

The RRP of The Adventurer is œ39.95 which I would say is very
reasonable. I would highly recommend the utility to all budding
adventure authors. Jean and I are both hard at work programming
games with it and thoroughly enjoying ourselves!

Prozess Software can be contacted at PO Box 51, Manchester M14 6NF

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