STARGAZER
     A text adventure by Jonathan Fry, part of disk 1072

                    Review by Bev Truter

I dimly recall this being one of the entries in the 1996 I-F
competition run on the Internet, but I can't swear on it. Typing
INFO while playing the game brings up the following information:
"Originally conceived as the prologue for a full-length adventure,
Stargazer became a story in itself: one poor boy's attempts to
escape the drudgery of banal existence in a subterranean world. It
was also the intention of the author to produce a simple game which
might be won in one sitting, and thus serve as a good introduction
for newcomers to I-F."

As a short (very) and simple game (16 locations, 5 puzzles)
STARGAZER works very well. It is well-written with only a few minor
spelling and grammatical glitches, and has a vaguely Tolkienesque
feel, although it's never specified exactly what you are - human,
elven, gnomish or whatever. All the action takes place in a strange
subterranean world called the Underworld, on an unnamed planet.
The Circle of Life exists somewhere above the roadway north of your
home, and you know of a place called the Overworld. The village in
which you live is called Thran, and apparently you usually spend
most days working in the fungi fields north of Thran, harvesting
the mosses and lichens for food.

Although very short, the game contains interesting objects and
atmospheric locations, immediately drawing you into the fantasy
world of Thran and its surrounding areas. From the start of the
game, where you wake up in your house (Home Sweet Hovel) to that
mysterious passage wending southwards from The Road Less-
Travelled, STARGAZER maintains that other-worldly atmosphere so
vital to fantasy/adventure games of this type.

There are two characters to interact with in STARGAZER - Maxx,
proprietor of the Food Emporium, and Garthan the Stargazer. The
latter is considered a nutter by the Thran villagers, but he is a
friend who you visit regularly because of his interesting
conversation and theories. Explore Thran, pick up some equipment,
and discover what's wrong with the Stargazer's telescope. If you
fix that problem, the Stargazer has an ominous piece of news for
you, which will send you scuttling off in search of a way into the
Overworld, to save Thran and your planet from impending disaster.

And that is where this adventure ends, tantalizingly close to the
brink of another adventure, perhaps. Jonathan mentions in the INFO
section that he is currently coding and designing a full-length
adventure with Inform, and I hope that it will be a continuation of
this Stargazer prologue.

Despite having only a few straightforward puzzles, a limited number
of locations and a teensy maximum score (15 points), STARGAZER is a
text game well worth playing, if only to see how well the fantasy
genre is handled.




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