4K Adventure - part of Disk Ref 860

                      Reviewed by Sue

Earlier in the year, I ran an adventure writing competition in PC
Mart with a prize for the best entry.  To say that I was
overwhelmed by entries would be a fib. In fact, only one entry was
received on the final day. Panic time. What would I do if the game
was awful? This could be embarrassing. But I loaded the game and
was pleased to see that it was a good 'un.

The name of the game is 4K Adventure and it is written by John
Metcalf of Skegness. As you'll guess from its name, it isn't a big
adventure but games don't have to be enormous to be enjoyable.

In this adventure, you play Grimbis, a black dwarf. Your master is
Gawyn, the lord of all the realms. Lord he may be, but obviously
his security system isn't too good because treasonous elves have
stolen the magical orb which Gawyn uses to keep the land in
eternal winter. It is your job to find and return the orb.

You start your quest in the depths of the forest. Snow is still
falling around the ash trees and you can hear water from the west.
Heading in that direction, you find the River Burre. Its icy
waters are too cold to enter but fortunately a coracle-like craft
is moored on the bank. Brilliant, you think, about to hop into it.
But wait ... it's tied up and it's been tethered so long that the
rope has shrunk and you can't untie it. Do you have a knife to cut
the rope? Of course you don't. Your pockets are quite empty so you
will have to abandon this idea for a while.

Heading back into the forest you find several more areas to
explore. A door in the crumbling remains of an old wall remains
steadfastly locked. Yes, you've guessed it - you don't have a key.
A dark passage leads into a cave to the south, but without a light
source, it would be foolhardy to enter. Some more wandering around
will result in you finding the orb which the careless elves must
have hidden when they made their escape, but you are still, as
yet, no closer to getting it back to your master.

Fortunately, you're an observant dwarf, and a bit of diligent
searching will turn up a means of lighting your way in the cave.
And from there, your quest will become easier as solving one
puzzle leads neatly to the next until you finally succeed and
reach your goal. What a clever dwarf you are - I hope Gawyn
promotes you.

The screen display is a very clear and colourful yellow on black
with a blue border. The program understand the usual abbreviations
for directions and common commands such as EXAM, EX, X for
examine, INVE or I for inventory, L for look and N, S, E, W. There
are no NE, NW etc inputs. The verb list is pretty small, but John
designed a game suitable for an observant beginner. In fact, it is
an ideal introduction to adventure playing, and also a good
example for those wanting to write their own game, to see how well
a small adventure can be constructed and written.  There is no
save command but in a game this size (under 20 locations), it
isn't necessary.


John's text, though brief again, is very descriptive, with some
poetic turns of phrase - snow doesn't just fall, it "swirls around
the old ash trees playfully." Winter trees don't just stand in the
forest, they "frown at the gently falling snow and think about
times long ago.". I didn't see any spelling mistakes or
grammatical errors though I did find one word I'd never heard of
(aven) and couldn't find in the dictionary. John told me it's a
caving term.

The read.me file on the disk told me that John had programmed the
game from scratch in assembly language, taking 35 hours to do so.
He also programmed a text compressor to get the game into just 4K.
I think that writing a small game can be a bigger challenge in
some ways than writing a large one - anyone can waffle and write
screeds of text. It doesn't mean the adventure will necessarily be
better for it.

I was disappointed that I had only one entry in the competition
but certainly have no disappointments with the one game I DID

receive.  John's game would have been hard to beat for its
userfriendliness, presentation and descriptive text.

John told me that he hadn't yet decided whether to write any
more games. It would be a shame if this was the only one he wrote
and I look forward to seeing if Grimbis goes onto to more
adventures.












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