The Multi-Dimensional Thief (TGC version) - Joel Finch
          Available through SynTax - œ10 inclusive

             Reviewed by James Judge on a 486sx

After talking to Jean Childs on the 'phone about this new text
adventure creator she was beta testing for an Australian
programmer I got very interested. Not that I wanted to pick up
keyboard and crack out my own adventure, it just sounded a very
nicely implemented package.

In my ramblings to Sue she heard that I was interested in TGC (The
Games Creator) and so she sent me the new version of
Multi-Dimensional Thief for me to peruse and review.

I did have the old AGT version of the game, but didn't play it
because from what I heard it was severely bugged and, as it was
done using AGT, didn't offer anything (to me) that was
inspirational. It is strange how a programming utility can affect
whether you will play the game or not.

Still, this new version promises to be very good. The version I
was sent was the shareware version for which, in an act of
international friendliness, Sue herself is taking registrations.
To get the full game it'll cost you œ10. This seems a bit steep,
but if you think of the bank charges you, yourself, would incur
for getting x amount of Australian dollars it seems reasonable
enough, especially for a game of this quality.

The idea of the game is to become a member of the highly acclaimed
(and very secretive) organisation called the Multi-Dimensional
Thieves Guild. You are a very good thief when it comes down to it,
but you just haven't had the opportunity to join this prestigious
group. Well, that is until you are offered a membership if you can
complete a little test. Knowing what membership could do for your
street-cred you decide to accept the challenge and try the test.

This version is, puzzlewise, very similar to the original with
only one or two changes along the way. From what I've seen this is
a 'good thing' as the game is very, very funny. In the first five
minutes Joel had me smiling and laughing at the responses he had
programmed in, something which is pretty hard to do. Joel takes
the ridiculous and makes it even more strange without losing
sight of the game.

That isn't to say the game is normal or sane. The test is to
escape from a number of rooms into which you have been placed.
Sounds simple enough, but when one of the more important artifacts
in the game is a portable black hole (that can connect two rooms
that have no other logical connection) you can see where
difficulties will arouse. Also it is not just a matter of going
around a set of rooms affixing the hole to parts of the scenery -
there are some very funny puzzles to overcome too.

The biggest thing with this game, for me, is the new interface.
Remember TADS and AGT games? Remember how BORING they looked, with
just text, text, text, text in two or three shades of colour?
Well, discount them from now on for here is the future, here is
where the ultimate text adventure lies.

TGC allows the erstwhile programmer to create a text adventure
using a language similar to that of TADS. This means it will have
a flexible parser, allow large inputs and have no set responses.
This means the programmer will need to put more into programming
the game but, ultimately, it means that the game will be far
better than any AGT counterpart could ever hope to be.

But that is not all. All of you who have had an ST and played a
STAC game raise your hand (oooh, all two of you, wow!).  Well, can
you remember how good those STAC games could (potentially) look?
With nice graphics, fonts and sound effects? Wee-eell, TGC has the
same capabilities as STAC but using a more power language and a
few extra abilities.

So, not only do you get a nice language in which to program and
the ability to define graphics, sounds and (I think) fonts, you
can also control the way the screen looks with graphics and text
boxes places around the screen at your whim. Not only that, you
can specify a small control panel in which you place a number of
icons. These icon can represent much-used commands such as
directions, get, drop, push, pull and use. I know this sounds like
using the function keys (as you do in AGT games) but how many
people actually use that feature regularly? Not a lot, I should
imagine. The main reason why I don't use them is I can never
remember what each one does and I'm not going to create an
individual keyboard overlay for each AGT game I play. Now, how
many of you would use this facility, but instead of pressing F5
for <GET> you press (using the mouse) a little hand that is
collecting a bag? Hmmm, more of you and that's not surprising.
True, the use of icons can interrupt the flow of typing, but
directional arrows could be very useful for getting from A to B
very quickly.

And that is not all, ladies and gentlemen. Oh no. You see, you can
have either a VGA screen or an SVGA screen which is VERY nice to
look at. In M-DT Joel has put in graphics of all the main items so
that when you examine them a graphic in glorious SVGA pops up in
the graphics screen along with a text description. This is most
effective as it adds to the realism of the game (especially as he

has scanned in a photo of someone's hands for an <EXAMINE HANDS>
command).

Overall this is a very good game and a very good writing utility.
Get the game and drawl over how professional it is - it looks far
better than any other text adventure I have seen and then await
the release of the finished writing product. This may be the thing
to shake TADS off of it's plinth.

@~Sadly Joel's home was broken into and, among other things, the
@~thieves took his computer AND back up disks. This meant he lost
@~the code for TGC and it never got finished ... a real shame
@~because, as JJ said, it was a cracking system ... Sue






                              - o -