The Gene Machine / Vic Tokai

                  Reviewed by Neil Shipman

With genetically modified foods featuring so highly in the media
at present it seemed a particularly apposite time to take a look
at this adventure which had been sitting on the shelf for the last
couple of years. The Gene Machine, subtitled The Great British
Adventure, is a simple game with a light-hearted storyline, set in
the days of Empire when Queen Victoria sat on the throne, servants
knew their place and all was right with the world.

Except that all is far from right in gentleman Piers
Featherstonehaugh's world when he returns home to find a talking
cat, Number Seventy-three, who tells him about the fiendish plans
of evil twisted genius Dr Dinsey. Seventy-three is the product of
the doctor's gene machine which can cross two different species of
animal and, apparently, even animals and humans. Like all mad
scientists, Dinsey wants to take over the world and is intent on
creating mutant life-forms to help him achieve this goal.

Your task, as Piers Featherstonehaugh (pronounced Fanshawe) is, of
course, to foil his dastardly plan. This involves financing your
expedition, discovering the location of Dinsey Island and
travelling there to confront the doctor himself. And just to add a
sense of urgency to the proceedings, you find yourself in a race
to get there with rogue adventurer Ralph (pronounced Rafe,
naturally) Kingpiece.

Your quest will involve journeying to various locations in London
- your fianc‚e Mirabella's residence; the Royal Scientific
Institute; a public house and brothel in Whitechapel; your
gentleman's club, The Highborn; Buckingham Palace; the home of
inventor Professor Tipple; and the docks. This you achieve by
horse-drawn taxi cab, the available destinations being displayed
by large icons on a full screen map of the city.

In addition to travelling around London you will fly to the moon
in a steam-powered rocket, sail to the arctic in your chartered


ship, take a trip in Captain Nemotoade's submarine, and discover
the lost city of Atlantis under a tropical island.

There are over a hundred locations, all of which have hand-
painted backgrounds with a stylish, washed look to them. The
effect is, however, spoilt by the rendering of the characters and
objects because these are too detailed and it makes them rather
obtrusive. Having said that, this does make it extremely simple to
identify the items which you must acquire and the people you have
to talk to.

There are an enormous number of puzzles to solve but these are, on
the whole, easy and you are most unlikely to be stuck for long.
And, as seems to be the case with most adventures these days, you
can't make a wrong move by using something in the wrong place and
you can't die.

The graphics are full screen throughout and presented in cartoon
style. The mouse pointer is a quill - a rather nice touch - and
moving this to the bottom of the screen brings up your inventory
and the various game controls. At some stages you will be carrying
over 20 items and these are displayed by large icons in up to
three rows across the screen which makes accessing them a piece of
cake. Identifying characters, objects, locations and exits is
further simplified because their names are shown as the quill
pointer passes over them.

Sound effects, like the clatter of horses' hooves on the cobbled
streets, the whistle of a steam engine and the cries of seagulls,
are good, but the musical accompaniment is very poor. Speech is
extremely clear and the choice of actors for voice
characterisation - Sean Pertwee as Piers and Jeff Rawle (George in
Drop The Dead Donkey) as Piers' manservant, Mossop - is just
right.

The whole adventure is presented with bawdy humour without going
so far over the top as to make it unsuitable for younger players.
Indeed, it would probably provide quite a good introduction to
computer adventures for any children in the family looking for
something very different from the latest shoot-'em-up or soccer
game. More experienced gamers will romp through it in two or three
sessions but it's an enjoyable romp nonetheless.

Minimum PC system requirements are:
Windows 95 or DOS 5.0 (DOS 6.0 recommended)
486DX2/66 MHz processor (Pentium P60 recommended)
8MB RAM (12MB recommended)
VESA compliant SVGA video card
Microsoft compatible mouse (Keyboard and joystick also
supported)
All major soundcards supported
Double-speed CD-ROM drive (Quad-speed recommended)






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