HIDE AND SEEK by Edwina Brown
           A text adventure from Zenobi Software

   Review by Bev Truter on a PC under Spectrum emulation

Although at first glance this text adventure appears to be "one
for the kiddies", Hide and Seek is quite complicated and requires
you to solve some fairly difficult puzzles to progress through the
game. So despite the almost childish flavour of the introduction,
don't buy this game for your offspring - try it yourself! Hide &
Seek is a charming, relaxing, entertaining romp through an
adventure set in a fairytale, and I mean that literally, setting.

Typing HELP brings up a screenful of verbs used in the game, and
some handy abbreviations which include TH for THROUGH, R for
REDESCRIBE a location (instead of L or LOOK), and RS and RL for
RAMSAVE and RAMLOAD. Look under, look behind and look in have no
abbreviations, and are NOT the same as LOOK. The text itself is an
easily-readable white on a black background, with your input in
vivid yellow.

You play the role of Alfred, one of the "little people" - fairies
and elves - who live in the village of Seahaven. There's a knock
at the door of your house one morning, and your friend Dido enters
in a very distressed state. She's a teacher at the village school,
and it appears that the wicked Hedda has stolen the entire
alphabet and scattered the letters far and wide in Seahaven, so
now Dido can't teach the children to read. Oh dear! Perhaps you
could help her by tracking down the elusive letters and returning
the alphabet to Dido intact. She warns you that not all the
letters will be in their usual form, but if you tap them with a
special wand you will see them as they really are, although other
objects will remain unchanged when tapped. Dido leaves you with
the wand and a satchel for storing the alphabet, so now it's up to
you to find those missing 26 letters.

Depending on your mood at the time, the introduction might strike
you as either quaint and charming, or overly-cute and pretentious;
but whichever the case, persevere for at least 15 minutes longer
with Hide and Seek and you'll be drawn into its charming world and
fairytale atmosphere. Pixies, elves and fairies inhabit the
village, as well as a few "ordinary" folk like the farmer, the
people at the bus stop, and the surly gardener/groundsman at
Seahaven's Golf Club. Many of the puzzles are of the "find X and
give it to Y" variety, but as you progress further into the game
the puzzles seem to become more and more difficult. HOW can you
reach that patch of flowers up on the cliff? What on earth will
persuade the groundsman to let you walk on his precious green?
Will you ever be able to get inside the hallowed interior of the
Golf Club? And although you might find some equipment to help you
obtain gold, there doesn't seem to be any of the precious metal in
sight, or out of sight, for that matter.

Talking to everyone you meet is essential, and listening to their
replies can be very helpful in discovering what you need to do, or
where to go. Examine, move and search are all different verbs, so
there's plenty of hunting about and exploring to do.

Hide and Seek is well-written, with short but excellent location
descriptions, no spelling/grammar glitches, and no programming
bugs. It hits exactly the right note of "quaintness" without
teetering over into overly-cute, and the other-worldly kind of
atmosphere is maintained throughout the game. This is an adventure
with no killing, fighting or unpleasantness in it, so there's no
stomach-churning tension or drama; but on the other hand there's
plenty of fun to be had and sheer entertainment in your search for
the missing letters. Hide and Seek is a thoroughly likeable game,
well worth the (small) asking price.

@~Contact Zenobi at 26 Spotland Tops, Cutgate. Rochdale, Lancs
@~OL12 7NX








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