The Haunted Mission Adventure - Steven Neighorn (PC Text Adventure, part of Disk Ref 53) Reviewed By James Judge 'Tis Halloween and Blair is throwing his usual 'mega-party'. One of the guests is the world famous Pumpkin Man, loved by men, women and children alike, but, on his way to the party, old pumpkin features was pump-knapped by the evil, immoral Lady Winsloe. Shocked and enraged by this act of true evil you vow to scout the neighbourhood where Lady Winsloe is meant to be holding the Pumpkin Man and free him from his wrongful imprisonment. Also on your adventure you must destroy many halloweeny monsters using whatever methods present themselves to you. This is a very poor text adventure from way back in '85 by a college student. Along with this game Stephen produced four other games of the same dubious standard which can (along with this game) be found in the collection named 'Adventureware'. After the title screen and intro bits the game then gives you a quick brief on how to use the game and that the parser only accepts the first three letters of a word so you can abbreviate everything e.g. SEA ROO would be search room. Following that are seven handy hints which, upon reflection, aren't all that handy (examine everything and don't be scared of the monsters, pah!). The game doesn't look like a standard text adventure in the way everything is boxed. At the top of the screen there is a small box for room descriptions and below that are two boxes which give you the exits and objects for that particular location. Below that is another, larger box which displays any messages and below that is where you enter your commands. At the bottom of the screen is a list of the function keys which are programmed to act as commonly used actions (directions, look and save/load the game). Due to the size of these boxes you'll be lucky to get a two line description of the current location which does nothing for the game's atmosphere. Also there may be an object mentioned in the room description (a safe, for example) but it doesn't make an appearance in the object box so you can't do anything with it. The game feels as if it is a huge place with only one or two things of interest in it, like an empty museum. There are not enough puzzles to justify the size of the game and the puzzles which are there aren't very thought provoking. What makes the game slightly harder, but also even more annoying, is the way that some objects are hidden within their description. Instead of telling you that you find a blowpipe, you will find a pool cue and you must examine that to be told it is a blowpipe. The game runs extremely slowly, mainly due to the way the text is wiped and then printed back on the screen after every move, even if you don't leave the room. Two other things which make the game even more ponderous is that when you do something other than move, the computer emits a high pitched wailing sound which means a very quick dash for the volume control. The other thing is that whenever a monster appears the name of it flashes in the object box for a while and, while it is doing this, the game just freezes up, highly annoying. Compared to the modern day adventures this should be sent to a retirement home with full time home-help. The age, though, is not an excuse for it. I've played many adventures which are older than this and I've got far more enjoyment out of them. Not worth the effort and money, even if you do get four other games with it, they're all rubbish. - o -