BACK TO THE FUTURE 4
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                   Author: Ray Richardson
       (3 Disk Text Adventure on SynTax Disks 976a/c)
           Reviewed by: Philip Richmond on Amiga

Subtitled "The Search For Doc" this quest is a tribute to the
much-loved movie trilogy starring Michael J. Fox.  In this
spin-off sequel you get to play the hero and main character of the
original films, Marty McFly, who awakes one morning in his
smalltown American house wondering just where "Doc" is and
yearning to be with him again, wherever he may be in time.

The main quest is to travel through time to locate your old friend
and mentor, and thus, solve the game.  This is not as easy as it
sounds, as you must first of all explore your present day
surroundings, visiting pertinent places to fix yourself up with a
DeLorean car and the necessary equipment to convert it into the
familiar time machine. Eventually you'll be ready to go time
jaunting.

Due to a circuit malfunction your car ends up in the remote past,
the Jurassic era, where you must hunt through a prehistoric
jungle, to find clues, avoid the dinosaurs who inhabit this creepy
and dangerous domain, and make use of items you obtain on your
travels.  Sooner or later you'll discover evidence that "Doc" has
been around. Cunning and logic need to be employed in acquiring a
source of light and crossing a deep river.

If you can make it through that level your next jump in time is to
1955, where you get to see how your town used to look around 40
years ago and notice how different life is and how much things
have changed.  The school bully can be a pest, occasionally
appearing and duffing you up, so it's important to fortify
yourself by keeping your strength up... Also, in your present
attire you can easily be mistaken by the authorities as a
troublemaker who's jumped ship. I would advise blending into the
scenery by changing your clothing apparel to something more in
keeping with the times.

Completing that level, you move on to the Wild West era searching
for signs of Doc. This involves exploring a very detailed and
atmospheric old western town which you will arrive at after
boarding a steam train.  There's not much to do in this town
except locate the clue to Doc's whereabouts and somehow get back
to your time machine. If you are captured by Indians along the
way, I advise offering a gift to obtain your freedom.

The far future has you stranded in a mechanized, automated,
hi-tech city complex where you must come to terms with futuristic
gadgets and push-button amenities.  There are a limited number of
moves in which to build up your strength, cure your timesickness,
and fix up your car with the latest automotive gizmo to prevent
the future incarnation of the 'bully' from stealing it!

Your final 'trip' is to 1975 where you get to attend a rock
concert... but then I won't spoil things by giving too much of the
game away!


There are characters and creatures to meet as you roam around. The
school bully, a ferocious T.Rex, your future self, and ultimately
"Doc" Brown himself are just some.  There are not too many objects
to collect and use, the emphasis being more on survival and travel
through the textual 'scenery' (colour highlighted) of the various
time periods.

BTTF4 was written using the CAT adventure creator, has digitised
graphics at some locations and spans 3 disks.  Each disk contains
two levels of the adventure so that disk swapping is kept to the
absolute minimum.  The game supports the usual adventure commands,
including "look at <object>" which occasionally shows a pic,
"brief", "verbose" and "exits" commands.  The pictures can be
turned on or off.  You can "search room/area" and there is usually
"help" for the more trickier puzzles. RAMSAVE/LOAD is supported.

The six 'time zones' are excellently described and capture the
atmosphere of each era remarkably well.  Making a map is a good
idea to chart your travels for each part of the game, as there are
some 'sudden death' locations.  There are not too many problems to
overcome in each level, more a question of exploration, really,
making it ideal for the beginner or adept alike. The text is free
from spelling mistakes and typing gaffes as far as I could see and
is a worthy and successful attempt to translate a screen classic
into an enjoyable and playable romp through time.  It's not
necessary to have seen the 3 films to play the game, although the
author has provided some info/trivia regarding these in the
preliminary documentation.










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