Everybody Loves a Parade
                  By Cody Sandifer (TADS)
             PC versions on Disks 1219 and 1226

                  Reviewed by John Ferris

The game is set in a small Arizona town called Chewton where you
find yourself out of petrol and out of money as well. The idea of
the game is to obtain enough funds to refuel your truck and
continue your journey. This is not as easy as it sounds as the
annual Rock Parade has come to a grinding halt as one of the
trucks has broken down.  So you need to find the mechanic and get
him to repair the broken down truck. If you can get his attention
he demands an item of food before even listening to your request.

Parade is a linear game; the plot revolves around obtaining the
aforementioned food item. In your travels you will meet a paint
salesman, a juggler, numerous soldiers, some very unusual bikers
and even a hamster.

If this sounds somewhat bizarre, then it is. The puzzles range
from the obvious to a couple of obscure ones. They are not
completely linear, a couple can be solved in any order but you
will have no idea what to do with the results unless you figure
out where and how to get the food item.

The map is not large, but there is plenty to do in the game and a
lot of background action going on. The map is cleverly restricted
by the use of a train that is slowly but continuously passing
through the town on one side and the parade itself on the other.

The author has also written "Zero Sum" which could be seen as a
dark satire on the hero concept of adventure games. The atmosphere
in this game is not so dark, but it is still pretty gloomy. The
characters you meet in the town are generally lacking the milk of
human kindness.  However, the game is not without its humor, which
tends to be more relevant to an American audience.  Although I
have not completed the game, I know that there is a rather
interesting twist in the tale. I say no more.

Personally, I started off liking the game. There was a lot going
on and a host of interesting and annoying characters to be
studied. However, I slowly began to lose interest because some of
the puzzles were too obscure for me. I am not saying it is a bad
game, on the contrary, "Parade" is well put together, the text
well written and the locations are believable, if a little
unusual. There are many of you who will really enjoy this game. I
enjoyed a lot of it and I'm glad that I have.











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