Prelude - a PC game available from the SynTax library.
             (Text adventure, part of Disk 776)

                  Reviewed by Jean Childs

The disk Sue sent me had two games on it, Prelude and Voyager. On
loading Prelude the screen displayed:-
Hayden Software
TimeQuest (TM) Adventure Series
"Prelude by MAP"
Computer Novel Construction Set by Robin Computing Inc.
Copyright (c) 1985 Hayden Software Company, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.

There, that's all I can tell you. The readme file gave limited
details on how to play the game, but no further information on
the author or whether any registration was required. Not an
address in sight.

You are first given an introduction to the story. "What a
beautiful day. And, with the dream last night, you feel absolutely
wonderful! A day or two away from the lab will help to rejuvinate
(first spelling mistake) your deep inner strength ... it's always
been there before. The ring of enlightenment, the omnipotent
beings and yes the challenge and the yearning...what a dream!"

The game then began and I was surprised to find various windows
pop up on the screen. (This game is DOS). At the top was a blue
window that gave the location description. "Open field. The sun
glorifies nature through every sense. Ah, the smell of fresh green
grass, the song of birds, and the feel of a lite (oh dear) breeze!
The field extends east and west and a small path leads to the
north. An old wooden shack sits just to the south." At the bottom
of the screen was another long narrow window that received the
players input. There was no "what now" message, just a flashing
cursor. To the right was another window entitled "You can see",
but at the moment this window or box was empty.


I decided to investigate the wooden shack and when I typed "open
door", a red window appeared on the screen displaying the words
"The hinges squeak and the door reluctantly opens". Inside the
shack are a variety of items to collect and as soon as you take
your first item, another window appears on the left of the screen
entitled "You are holding". At this point in time I was quite
happy with the layout of the screen.

As you can see from the above the text is quite poetic and, if you
can put up with the occasional spelling mistake, it flows quite
nicely. Obviously some of the text will refer to items that are
not recognised as important by the game. In most cases,
examination of the items was met with the words "my vision is
limited". Much better than "I don't know what that is". If you
type "score", a purple window appears with a scale from 0 to 375.
Along the scale is a little arrow above which is printed your
score, and the arrow is located along the scale appropriately. A
nice touch, but I prefer to see my score on the screen without
having to ask for it.

There are many puzzles, some easy and some fairly hard. There is a
hints facility, but you have to leave the game in order to use
it. The hints facility is very informative but you get more of an
answer rather than a hint. You just type the word of the item that
you are stuck on. For example "spider" responds with "best to kill
this sucker! It's only vulnerable at certain times. You need the
sword". It also gives information on red herrings. Typing "weeds"
gives "they just grow wild. They don't help you much". As I said,
you have to quit the game in order to use the hints, but I think
this is a good thing.

Unfortunately, in many cases the exact wording is hard to find. In
one place when you sit on a bench, a statue appears. You have to
give something to the statue, but if you try to the game responds
with "you can't reach it from here". You can't "stand" or "leave
bench", you have to "get off bench". Another problem is timing.
Sometimes you have to wait for the windows to appear and then
things can happen too fast. Let me give you an example. If you
destroy the spider's web, the spider will appear. If you try to
kill it with the sword, it says "you cut the spider". You have to
wait until a window appears that states "the spider is distracted"
and then kill him. However, sometimes before you can finish typing
- you're dead. Killed by the spider whose distraction did not
last long enough for you to finish typing the sentence. Another
fault is that sometimes the windows pop up on top of each other
before you have had time to finish reading.

In some places the exits are not obvious, but if you are lucky you
may come across the diary. To read the diary, you have to "open
diary" and "turn page". There are seven pages in all and it makes
for some 'interesting' reading. "Pearly figurines outlined the
landscape, casting ominous shadows as the fire of life made its
final bowes in the sky. Each tombstone carried its own timeless
message, engrave rock representing an entity lost to the world.
In the center of the grounds temporarily subdued trees, burdened
with intertwining vines forever clinging through the ages marked
my grave. For in this very spot, 300 years to date, I bet and
lost to my inevitable fate." And so it went on. Apparently you
should read all the diary, for this is what the game is all
about. It's very 'deep', so deep that I got vertigo.

But there's something about this game, something that took me back
to my early adventuring days. I don't know what it was, it
certainly wasn't the pop up windows. Maybe the hypnotic story was
taking me back ten or twenty years rather than the three hundred.

The solving of some of the puzzles is not necessary in order to
complete the game. However careful reading is, as at the end you
meet some of the 'Elders' (I think the guy who wrote the diary was
one of them) and you are asked three important questions. Here at
the end the poetry continues. "You experience the birth and death
of stars, the endless expansion of the galaxies. You understand
the nature of all forces at play in the universe. You comprehend
the role of the virtual particle and the inseparable nature of
the elementary particles, universal forces, space and time. You
are part of the God being now." And so on......

Then one of the Elders says "my friend, now is the time for you to
understand your destiny in part." (You mean there's more?) "In
ancient days, our race, your forefathers colonized earth in the
continent of Atlantis." Then the congratulations window pops up
informing you that the Supreme Elder continues "We foresaw the
ruinous path of the world, disassembled the machine and pushed our
beloved Atlantis to the ocean floor. We desired our sons and
daughters to have peace on earth. To this end, we planned the
creation of a new order founded in a new country - the United
States of America." (At this point I rushed a copy of the game
off to Simon Avery - only joking.) "You, my friend, must build the
machine, destroy the intruders" ....and on and on and on.

The other game Voyager is the sequel to Prelude. You guessed? Well
the introduction of Voyager begins with "the prelude! Ah, yes,
the dreams and the walks in the park! The Elders". I haven't
played it yet, but I will. Like the man on the Cornflakes advert
says "there's no rush". But joking apart, there was something
about Prelude and I'd love to read someone else's review of it.



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