MADHOUSE - Indian Spirit - on SynTax disks
                ------------------------            855a/b
                 Author: Mattis Folkestad
            Reviewed by: Philip Richmond on A1200
         2 Disks   1.5mb required   Joystick required
   A second disk drive is recommended to avoid disk swaps

You play Greg Kapschnick, a janitor at the Valverdance Mental
Institute, in this graphical, animated adventure.  Your boss is in
tears because she's just received a letter from the Highways
Company. They're constructing a highway through the Deep Valley and
are going to tear down the Institute to make way for it. All
employees will soon be out of a job!  Can you save the day by
stopping the Company project?  Visiting room 101, you speak to a
Mr. Bahunky, an Indian who is a descendant of the Weehityo tribe,
the original owners of the land and property that is now the
Institute.  He tells you that somewhere in the building is a signed
treaty, still valid, which shows that the tribe has full authority
over the property. If found, and shown to the head of the Highways
Company, surely they will have to change their plans?  This is
where the game starts properly, and you begin in a corridor of the
building. Your initial quest is to locate the treaty.

Control of the game is certainly easy using the joystick only.
(plugged in Port 2) No typing or clicking on objects, icons or
keywords. You simply move your character left or right along the
screen and press Fire when you are standing by an object, door,
stairway or person and the game responds by printing some text
above the main 'picture' area. The picture backdrops are LoRes
about 320 x 200 pixels in size and coloured. The main Character
animation is quite large, but moves a tad jerkily. There are a
several musical interludes, which coupled with the pictures and
animated sequences, probably explains why 1.5 megabytes of memory
is needed.

There are not many rooms to explore and finding the treaty is
relatively easy, once you have learnt to deal with Henry Schnabb, a
crazed psychopath and inmate of the hospital.  However, that is not
the end of the game, for the Highways boss is unwilling to change
his plans for what he describes as a worthless scrap of paper, so
you find yourself back with your Indian friend planning the next
course of action. This involves another search, this time for a
magical wooden statue, which surely would provide more concrete
evidence of the Indian claims.  Time to revisit the same set of
rooms for clues...

There are 4 main quests in total, and they are fairly simple to
solve. The whole game probably takes about 45 minutes to finish.
There are a few laughs along the way, as you enter a TV game show,
fight with a country singer, and rescue a nurse. To win and be a
hero you need to realise the innermost secret of the nature of your
own soul and thus be imbued with 'Indian Spirit', making you a
Master of the art of persuasion. Phew!

 Comments
 --------
Easy to play. You just can't go wrong with this system.  Ok
graphics and good music modules.  Hard drive installable.
Although Shareware, the full game is here.  There are passwords
given at certain points so you don't have to restart from the
beginning each time.  'Madhouse' was written in 1995 using AMOS
Professional.  A bit similar to a LucasArts or GRAC created game,
but far easier to control and solve.  The program loads via
Workbench. There is a short manual on disk which uses the
'MuchMore' text viewer as default.

 Personal Opinion
 ----------------
It's quite enjoyable but a bit TOO simple.  The author has
succeeded in using a 'no frills', idiot proof interface. This has
a slight drawback in that it restricts the choices and selections
you can make.  For instance, you can't actually examine, search,
use, or take items, as in other games of this type. The game does
what's needed for you automatically, in keeping with the plot at
that moment. This can be good or bad, depending upon your point of
view. I found it rather limiting and less challenging.  Ideal for
newcomers to the world of graphic adventures.  Experienced players
will sail through it. Even so, it could be worth giving it a whirl
if you have a spare hour free.
                              - o -