IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT
          Amiga or PC shareware Graphic Adventure
     Amiga version on SynTax Disks 917a-c or from Zenobi

            Reviewed by: Philip Richmond on A1200

This is a 3 disk limited play Shareware adventure from Trecision,
an Italian software house.  A second disk drive is really needed
to avoid any disk swapping.

It's a detective/thriller adventure in the mould of 'Cruise for a
Corpse'.  You play Private Investigator Tom Scool, who has
recently had his licensed revoked and is down on his luck.  A
greedy gem collector, seeking to possess the famous Visnu
gemstone, currently owned by the movie actress Diana Stevens,
hires Tom to steal the jewel.  Diana is staying at an isolated
mountain chalet with some movie people and has invited the author,
Eric Wells to visit her.  Tom bears a striking resemblance to
Wells, so a kidnap operation is put into effect and Wells is
captured. Tom, donning a false beard, takes his place and sets off
for Diana's chalet armed with a truth serum to extract the
combination of the safe that holds the priceless gem.  However,
things don't quite go according to plan...

The game begins at the chalet, during a snow blizzard.  Lightning
has struck the cable car (the only means of transport to the
chalet) and put it out of action.  Andrea, Diana's husband, enters
your room with the sad news that he has just found his wife dead
in her room!  Since the police will be unable to arrive for a day
or two because of the weather conditions, Andrea asks you to use
your experience as a crime author to conduct an investigation and
interview the guests to try and find out who/what caused her
death.

You, as the disguised Wells, must now get to the bottom of the
mystery by visiting the suspects and interrogating them. There are
a wide variety of Characters to meet, most of them connected with
the film business.  You will need to elicit facts and information
about the guests, their history, relationships and business.  You
will need to enter the various rooms, searching and collecting
useful clues and objects.  Certain objects can be shown or given
to suspects which might gain co-operation or further leads.

A producer, an actor, a scriptwriter, a starlet, a maid and a
parrot are just some of the people you will need to question.
There are plenty of amusing dialogues (not always in perfect
English, but quite understandable) and the mystery deepens as your
investigation proceeds.  Slowly, you begin to build up a picture
of the type of people you are dealing with - their fears, manias,
skills, love lives and finances.

You interact with the game through a simple control panel situated
along the bottom of the screen.  Control is very simple, you just
click on the action you wish to perform. There is also a scrolling
inventory window which shows pictures of the objects you own and
can use.  Game positions (up to 5) can be saved or loaded.  In
addition to the pleasing visual displays, moody backing music and
realistic sound effects enhance the game.  This has all the looks
of a commercial game.

Although I didn't actually solve the murder, I did manage to open
the safe. It appears that some events don't happen until you're in
possession of certain facts or have found or used a particular
object.  When you reach the cut-off point a message appears:

                    THIS DEMO IS OVER

and you are invited to register 10 dollars for the complete
version - in Amiga or PC format.  'Dead Of Night' is a
try-before-you-buy product and has much appeal about it,
particularly the presentation.

@~Contact Zenobi at 26 Spotland Tops, Cutgate, Rochdale, Lancs
@~OL12 7NX. Zenobi charges œ1.49 per disk.





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