ZANFAR
  An AGT text adventure written by YAK, SynTax PC disk 876

           PC version reviewed by James Jillians


In this AGT game you play the part of a person whose favourite
pastimes (apart from playing computer adventure games, of course!)
are to visit old manor houses and to track down ruined old
buildings.  On the strength of a few pieced together rumours, you
decide one summer holiday to set off in your car on a hunt for a
mysterious country mansion, named Zanfar, that has somehow eluded
discovery. Deep in the countryside close to your estimated
destination, you sit down on a rock for a midday sandwich break.
Suddenly you feel dizzy and the world distorts, reality seeming to
slip strangely sideways. You open your eyes to discover unfamiliar
surroundings, near to a magical manor house inhabited by wizards,
dragons and vampires, with many fabulous treasures lying therein.
Your car nowhere in sight, you have but one option: to enter and
explore Zanfar.

The game Zanfar is one of that familiar, often irritating, breed
of games that was spawned as a result of the creation of the
Adventure Game Toolkit in 1989. Due to the Toolkit's tremendous
success in luring text game players to have a go at programming
their own game, most of us have become at least accustomed to
them, if not exactly enamoured.

Zanfar is the stereotypical AGT game. It has all the dated charm
and limited puzzle capacity, not to mention the hordes of monsters
vanishing in puffs of green smoke which plague the genre. It is
not among the worst AGT games I have played so far, neither is it
in the same league as ones like Ken Bond's excellent "The Test".

So what do you actually have to do? The main aim of the game is to
find a way out of the predicament you are in, by reaching your car
and driving away.  A secondary objective is to search the mansion
and its grounds for hidden treasures, most of which come in the
form of animal statuettes carved from valuable rocks and minerals.
Of course, most of the treasures are locked safely away or guarded
by nasty monsters. After you have explored the fairly large map,
47 rooms in total, the major part of your time is spent searching
for the correct keys and items needed to open the locked
containers and the correct weapons to "throw" at the hostile
guards.

There aren't many puzzles. There is a (small) maze, plenty of
items hidden within others and the classic find-a-light-to-
explore-the-darkness conundrum (the same light doesn't illuminate
everything, strangely). The game also has a large school of red
herrings. The game's main asset is the locational descriptions -
very detailed and atmospheric, but, sadly for those of us who
prefer walking in the countryside than hearing it described, of
rather dull places. In these respects the game reminded me of some
of the earlier style adventure games, such as Level 9's Red Moon
and Price Of Magik.

The text input is classic AGT, not accepting obvious alternatives
to simple actions. In fact, I found I needed few verbs apart from
take, drop, throw, light, open and the directions. No graphics.

Concerning the game's plot, I would have liked ultimately to have
known the reason why I was whisked away to the strange world.  Was
it the usual - an alien society manipulating humans with superior
technology as a test of our capabilities? We can only guess. At
the end you are teleported equally mysteriously back to your car,
leaving you just as puzzled about why you were allowed to return
as about why you were snatched away in the first place.
Personally I play adventures to be entertained by an unfolding
story, as much as to have my brain taxed by challenging puzzles. A
game with mediocre puzzles is a completely different game if it
also has a complicated storyline.

Zanfar was not originally designed for AGT, instead it was "piped"
over from an adventure toolkit called GAGS (never heard of it
myself). It seems that none of the AGT system messages have been
changed, nor anything done to make it stand out among other AGT
games. The game seems to be almost a trial run in programming for
a new, far superior game that I understand the author is currently
co-authoring using the more recent AGTBIG, this time with
hundreds of metacommands and no puffs of green smoke anywhere. I
look forward to it with great anticipation!

I recommend the game to those who like the exploring and reading
text descriptions side of adventuring. If it's tricky and original
puzzles you're after (I usually am), then you could make much
better use of your time.

@~GAGS was the forerunner of AGT and YAK's new game, written with
@~Kanga, is the excellent Witchfinder, reviewed last issue ... Sue









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