FRUSTRATION by Jim MacBrayne
         A text adventure on SynTax disk PCPD 1002

                    Review by Bev Truter

Jim MacBrayne wrote at least four well-known text adventures about
a decade ago, which were all sold commercially with some success.
About 3 years ago he ported all 4 games to TADS and made them
available to the public, as freeware, I think. Three of these
games are available on disk PCPD 1002 - Holy Grail, The Mission
and Frustration. Holy Grail and Mission have already been reviewed
w-a-y back in SynTax issue 11, and as I'm enjoying playing these
TADS versions so much I thought I'd give Frustration a whirl and a
review. I haven't a clue what the old versions were like, but I
gather there was something diabolical called an "infrotractor(?)
wheel" which had to be turned to find codes to access certain
sections of each game - aaarrgghh! Thank heavens the days of
elaborate pirating-protection are long gone. Anyhow, the new(ish)
version of Frustration runs beautifully in its TADS incarnation,
and is a delight to play.

Jim MacBrayne writes lovely text adventures, full of descriptive
scenery, weird objects and atmospheric locations. He has recurring
themes - like beginning each adventure in a location containing a
sword and a lamp; and the "forest of mushroom-like growths" which
crops up in Mission and Grail. Also, as both Sue and Neil Shipman
noted in their reviews of Mission and Grail, Jim is *very* partial
to mathematical puzzles and rods-buttons-levers situations. Oh
yes, and various little holes and apertures, into which one has to
insert ... something, to open a doorway to other places, other
worlds. This really is great stuff, a text adventure that grabs
and effortlessly holds your attention.

Here's a summary of the introduction to "Frustration", just to
whet your appetite:

Damn!! Just as you start to read the scrap of paper containing the
list of groceries which Aunt Maud asked you to collect on your way
home, it is torn from your grip by a sudden gust of wind. You
chase after the elusive grocery list, eventually making a dive for
it as it comes to rest perilously close to an open manhole.
Ooooops! You plummet down the shaft into ever-deepening gloom, a
bit like Alice in Wonderland, until finally you emerge from the
end of this odd shaft and glide gently to the ground at the bottom
of the manhole.  How strange! Next to you is a sword and lamp, and
heading north takes you through a wide pipe to a narrow path
through a field.  Following this path you emerge in the front
garden of a deserted and turreted mansion.

This is an irresistible start to the adventure; exploring the old
mansion, finding a means of entering another series of "worlds",
and finally (I hope!) managing to obtain all the items on Aunt
Maud's shopping list and return to normality. There's a horrible
maze of underground chambers which can be dealt with quite easily
after you find a certain object, a slippery flagpole to climb - if
only you had a pair of gloves, and a mysterious hole in the floor
in one location with a hook near its edge - if only you had a
rope.  Yes, there *is* the usual amount of levers and apertures
and buttons, and pushing a green button somewhere enables you to
pull a green lever somewhere else with some promising results.
Now if only I could sort out the 6 coloured buttons on the desk
... and what would you do with a stationary cupboard?

Frustration is spread over a large area geographically, about 180
locations at a rough count. The total score is 350 points, which
are awarded for certain rooms reached and puzzles solved, and not
for finding valuables. This is decidedly *not* a treasure hunt
type of game, nor is there any fighting to do; although three
characters in the game have to be dealt with before they allow you
to continue on your travels. But in all cases violence is not the
answer, and Frustration is definitely a more cerebral type of
adventure.

Like Jim's other 3 games I'm finding Frustration fascinating, and
very aptly titled too. This is a frustrating game in parts,
difficult too - not for the faint-hearted or mathematically
challenged. But having said that, I didn't find Frustration quite
as mathematically daunting or difficult as Jim's other three games
- perhaps my maths skills are improving after all that practice?
If you want to get your teeth into something solid and sprawling
and long, with plenty of puzzles to solve and problems to deal
with, I'd recommend giving Frustration a try.

















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