MUSEUM MYSTERY
       Available from www.richmond62.freeserve.co.uk

                  Written by Doreen Bardon
                Reviewed by Bev Truter on PC

Having recently got back online again I was checking out some of
the sites for games the other day, and found Doreen's new CAT game
'Museum Mystery' on Phil Richmond's website. After some initial
difficulty in getting it to run properly (had to create a SFX
folder for the sound files, and a DATA folder for the 'game.cdb'
file), I was off on my hunt through a rather creepy museum for a
missing Professor, an urn, and a strange African mask...

Doreen has included some really good sound effects in this game,
from the first roll of thunder if you linger too long outside the
museum, to the frenzied beat of those drums in the 'African'
section of the museum.  Nice one, Doreen! The thunder nearly had
me falling out of my computer chair in fright, as did a few other
sudden noises - like the front door slamming behind me.

The introduction explains that you were reading an article in the
newspaper about a Professor Sawyer, who has been collecting
artifacts from around the world to put on display in a new museum
which is due to open shortly. He has brought back an urn from the
Tomb of Albora on the island of Korden, and hopes to recreate the
tomb here at the museum as a special exhibit. You hope to
interview the Professor, then sell your story to the newspaper to
raise some money for a much- needed new car for yourself. Grabbing
a notebook and pencil you set off for the museum, and arrive at
the front door in ominous weather conditions.

Faced with an impending storm, some thick ivy and a fearsome
gargoyle head staring down at you most sensible people would give
up, retreat to their car and drive home. But not you - you are
obviously made of sterner stuff; so get cracking with that ivy and
gargoyle, and find a way to get the front door of the museum open
before the storm strikes.

Once inside the museum you find yourself in the Foyer, where
there's a mysterious chest sitting on the floor (locked,
naturally) and a counter with an old-fashioned cash register.
Further inside the museum are a number of displays, an office and
a green door to deal with.  There's also a high central dome in
the Library section of the museum, and four arched windows with
window sills far too high for you to reach.  There's a ladder
which can be pushed about and climbed - but only a few rungs up
there's a rung missing, wouldn't you know it; so an essential task
would appear to be fixing that dratted ladder, enabling you to
climb up to investigate what lurks on some of those window sills.

MM begins in a fairly straightforward way, and it's reasonably
easy to progress to a score of about 100/250. But thereafter
things turn a trifle tricky, and I must confess to being stuck,
stuck, stuck.  However, I've certainly played through enough of
this game to realize it's one I intend finishing, by hook or by
crook. Doreen has described the museum very well, with interesting
locations to explore and a variety of objects to discover and use.
The Games Room, the Office and especially the African Display
contain far more than a cursory glance would reveal, and just
looking at things is certainly not the same as 'searching' them
thoroughly.

I personally prefer playing a game with fewer locations, but
plenty of problems to solve and obstacles to overcome, rather than
trudge through hundreds of locations and bits of scenery that have
just been stuck there as a sort of text adventurers' exercise
programme. And Doreen's game definitely falls into the former
category. Phil's C.A.T. is a delight to play text adventures with,
and overall Doreen and CAT have combined extremely well together
to produce a game well worth playing.








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