News

If you're looking for a bargain, Activision have 6 Infocom
collections for sale - The Zork Anthology contains Zork 1-3,
Beyond and Zero; The Comedy Collection contains 4 games including
Ballyhoo, Bureaucracy and Hollywood Hijinx; The Fantasy
Collection contains 5 games including the Enchanter trilogy; The
Mystery Collection has Lurking Horror, Suspect, Deadline and 2
others; finally the Adventure Collection contains Border Zone,
Cutthroats, Plundered Hearts and 3 more games.

Still on the subject of Infocom, sad news for those Infocom fans
who had a soft spot for Floyd. Planetfall 2, which was due to be
released in the spring, has been postponed indefinitely.  There's
good news too though - they may have shelved Planetfall 2 but the
Zork series goes on and on and ... Zork : The Grand Inquisitor is
the working title for their next game, due out at the end of the
year. Like Zork : Nemesis it will use 360 degree panning but there
will be a lot of improvements on that system.

Now for a graphic adventure with a surreal edge - Koala Lumpur
from Broderbund. You don't actually get to play Koala Lumpur
himself, an Australian Zen master who sits, all the time, on a
flying carpet.  No, you play a house fly who is his familiar. The
basic story is that KL (and you) must find the pieces of the Lost
Scroll of Cartoon Prophecies, thereby avoiding the Comedy
Apocalypse which KL has accidentally called up through an
incantation. Whoops.

Two Quake add-on packs have been announced by id Software. These
are Scourge of Armagon from Hipnotic Interactive and the
Dissolution of Eternity from Rogue Entertainment. Both will have
new features - SoA has 2 new enemies and 2 new weapons plus novel
power-ups. DoE promises a really nasty end-game against a dragon
plus four new weapons and several new enemies.

There are a lot of new games promised over the few months. Riven,
the sequel to Myst, is due in April - it's been a long wait and
the graphics for it look very similar to the prequel. Still, it's
gotta be better than Pyst (see this issue's Quick Look At
section). Cryo are working on Atlantis : The Lost Tale which will
be a graphic adventure with a 360 degree view system.

Looks who's back - it's Populous! (If Bullfrog are working on
that, what HAS happened to Dungeon Keeper? Answers on a postcard
to ...) It's Populous 3 to be precise and due in the Autumn.
Another golden oldie due to make a reappearance is Sentinel. This
was originally on the Speccy and a PC version is due from
Psygnosis. It will not be programmed by Geoff Crammond, who did
the original, but by someone called John Cook who loved the first
game so much that he completed it and was disappointed by the fact
there wasn't an end sequence. Don't expect to see it until 1998.

There are lots of re-releases in the bargain bucket - Star Lord,
Return of the Phantom, Rex Nebular  and Domark's Championship
Manager cost just œ4.99 from Regenerator. Crusader : No Remorse is
œ11.99 through EA Classic.  Magic Carpet 2 comes from them too but
is a surprisingly expensive œ19.99. William Shatner's Tekwar is
only œ9.99 from Kixx.  Powerplus have re-released X-Com : Terror
from the Deep at œ14.99 and Grand Prix Manager for œ12.99 while
from Sierra come King's Quest 7, Larry 6 and Space Quest 6 for
œ9.99 each.

A new AD&D licence is Birthright from Sierra. It is a combination
of fantasy role playing with strategy and takes place in the land
of Cerilia. Another new RPG is Drowned God from Inscape/WEA. It
takes place in 4 realms and covers various X-Files topics such as
Roswell, Atlantis, the Bermuda Triangle and JFK's assassination.











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