Anchorhead - Written by Michael Gentry
                    (Part of Disk 1268)

              Reviewed by Karen Tyers on a PC

This is another game I downloaded from the internet and is
available at ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive/games/inform/Anchor.Z8.
The if-archive site is an absolute must if you have access to it
as there are a lot of very good text adventures available there.
The introduction to this game is almost a short story in itself
but I will reproduce it here because it will give you an idea
about the quality and atmosphere of the game...

...Raindrops spatter down onto the pavement.  You take a deep
breath of salty air.  And the swollen, slate coloured clouds that
blanket the sky, mutter ominous portents amongst themselves over
the little coastal town of Anchorhead.  Squinting up into the
glowering storm, you wonder how everything managed to happen so
fast.  The strange phone call over a month ago, from a lawyer
claiming to represent the estate of some distant branch of
Michael's family, was bewildering enough in itself, but then the
sudden whirlwind of planning and decisions, legal details and
travel arrangements, the packing up and shipping away of your
entire house, your entire life...  Now suddenly, here you are,
after driving for the past two days straight, over a thousand
miles away from the familiar warmth of Texas, getting ready to
move into the ancestral mansion of a clan of relatives so far
removed, that even Michael has never heard of them.  And you've
only been married since June, and none of this was any of your
idea in the first place, and already it's starting to rain.  These
days, you often find yourself feeling confused and uprooted.

You shake yourself and force the melancholy thoughts from your
head, trying to focus on the errand at hand.  You're to pick up
the keys to the house while Michael runs across town to take care
of some paperwork at the University.  He'll be back to collect you
in a few minutes, then the two of you can begin the long process
of settling in.  A sudden belch emanates from the clouds, and the
rain starts coming down harder -- fat cold drops, smacking loudly
against the cobblestones.  Shouldn't it be snowing in New England
at this time of year?  With a sigh, you open your umbrella.
Welcome to Anchorhead.....

Well, with an intro like that I could hardly wait to get into the
game.  Reading the `about' section so thoughtfully included by the
author, you find out that the game is divided into `days' with
various puzzles needing to be completed during a particular day.
Time does not pass as such, but when you have completed all
necessary tasks for one section, the day turns into evening and
you will need to go back to the house to sleep.  Armed with this
information I found myself outside the Real Estate office where I
was supposed to pick up the keys, but it was locked and obviously
empty.  Off I went on walkabout to discover an alley leading round
the back with a window which was too high to reach.  Having solved
that one I managed to get hold of the house keys and I then
proceeded to explore the town and found several very interesting
places, such as a courthouse that was closed on that day, a church
I couldn't get into, a vacant lot, complete with mattress, a
locked door under a bridge, and several other places, but couldn't
seem to do a lot at the time, so found the University and library
where Michael was reading, waiting for me as the car had broken
down.  From there, we walked to the house, and went inside.  The
info bar at the top told me it was now evening, so I went to bed
and had some very strange dreams.....

Waking on the morning of day two, I decided some exploration was
in order so after getting dressed I started looking round the
house.  Immediately accessible was a library with a couple of
useful books, a study where Michael was working and didn't want to
be disturbed.  Venturing a little further I found a child's
bedroom and discovered an attic, but since I didn't have a light
with me, and we had been told there was no electricity, I decided
to leave that and go downstairs.  All the luggage was in the foyer
of the house, so had a quick look through that and found the
dining room, kitchen and pantry, and the cellar.  Having by now
located a torch, I went down into the cellar, and found a storage
room where a poisonous spider was lurking, and a wine cellar
absolutely full to the brim with bottles.  Nothing doing there, so
into the attic I went, only to be confronted with a locked door.
Something was blocking the keyhole, but there was a light shining
out from under the door...  Several puzzles later, and a visit to
the town, I then found that Michael was missing, but had left his
computer running.  However, I had to somehow find a passcode to
enable me to look at it.  I also found a secret set of passages
running between the walls of the house, and a safe for which I
hadn't yet found a combination.  However, after a lot of
headscratching and running around, I managed to solve the problems
of Day Two and went to bed, only to find I was having really weird
dreams again.....

On waking to Day Three, Michael was asleep beside me, and getting
up, I looked at him, only to find that his feet were covered in
mud!  However, I disturbed him while getting dressed, and he was
really irritable and wandered off (to do his own thing
presumably).  However, I managed to keep an eye on him, and
spotted him mucking around in the cellar with the bottles.  On
entering the cellar I found the bottles he had been playing around
with, and found several dates on them.  By now I had acquired a
whole heap of names, dates and objects, so decided to visit the
records office in the courthouse where I was able to look up
several names and dates which provided quite a lot of information.
I also visited the library to check up on what Michael had been
reading that first day, which also proved to be a mine of
information.  By this time I had managed to open the door in the
attic (an old trick this one and I nearly missed it, but was
talking to someone else who was playing who had got past this
point).

I could go on and on about the things to do and see in this game
but it would take up far too many pages.  Suffice to say the rest
of Day Three and Day Four are jam packed with puzzles, some fairly
easy and some very difficult, but I did manage to finish it
finally.

The atmosphere of this game is unbelievably good, very Infocomish,
and draws you further and further into the plot as the tension
grows and you uncover even more of a horrific mystery.  The sense
of relief when it is all over is overwhelming.  This game has to
be one of the best I've seen in many a long year and has to be an
absolute must for any adventurer.  If you don't have a PC, try to
find a friend who has, just for the pleasure of playing this one.
The game is freeware, so if you have a PC but no access to the
Internet, just contact me, and I'll be more than happy to pass a
copy on - I really don't think anyone should miss this one.

I believe this is the author's first offering, and I found no bugs
or spelling mistakes.  If this is any indication of the quality of
games he is going to write, I can't wait for the next one.











                              - o -