KQUEST - by Kelly Small
       A Text Adventure for the PC on SynTax disk 601

                    Review by Bev Truter

This smallish but interesting text adventure is absolutely no
relation to any of the "King's Quest" series, and there is not
even the slightest similarity in plot or story. KQuest is the
first of two games written by Kelly Small, and has nothing in
common with KQuest 2 either. In fact, the title remains a mystery,
as there's not even a king in KQuest....hang on a minute, I think
I get it.....Kelly Small, K. Small, K Quest??? <groan>. You start
this game in your hotel room, and the aim is to collect an
ill-assorted swag of treasures around and outside the local town,
and deposit them in the Bank. The climate and geography
surrounding this little town varies amazingly, from snow-covered
mountains outside the west end of town, to dense jungle at the
east end. There's also an abandoned mine to explore, and some
coastal scenery to the south, where a sunken ship lies somewhere
under the sea..........

Corny and trite the plot may sound, but hey, I thoroughly enjoyed
playing this game. With all the dramatic changes in scenery
there's certainly no time for boredom, and there are some neat
puzzles sprinkled around too, as well as the more obvious get X
and use it to find Y type of problems. I liked the screen layout
as well; the left half displays all the text and your input, while
a small section on the right shows number of moves, score, and
what items you are carrying. Saves a whole heap of typing in "I"
<enter> to have a squizz at your inventory.

KQuest was fairly small - under 50 locations if memory serves, but
there was a lot to do and find in the various areas. The total
score was 1000, with an accompanying ranking system which lets you
know how well (or badly) you are doing as an adventurer. For the
terminally baffled there is a separate hint file, which you can
only access after quitting the game, thus avoiding the temptation
of continual peeking while playing KQuest. The hint file supplies
hints for the major problems, ranging from vague to the bleeding
obvious, and I imagine most people would prefer this sort of hint
system to a straightforward walkthrough solution.  HINT: To
obliterate all temptation to use the Hint file, delete it from
your floppy copy sight unseen. This is a real test of will-power;
not for the faint-hearted.

I'd rate KQuest as fairly challenging, but certainly not in the
mind-bogglingly difficult category; and I reckon a week's worth of
wet afternoons should see you through it - if you decide to follow
through with the hint above. (Two afternoons for the Keepers of
the Hintfile......).

The author requests a donation of US$10 if you enjoyed playing
this game, but the address given is not a current one; so I guess
for practical purposes this game can be considered freeware, with
no way of sending the author any money.
   ENJOYMENT           5/10
   ATMOSPHERE        4.5/10
   DIFFICULTY        4.5/10
   FINAL COMMENT     Have a go, you'd probably enjoy it.
                              - o -