The SynTax Challenge
                       Skyland's Star

                      Reviewed by Sue

I've set the last two SynTax challenges, one of which Bev has
solved and in the other one she certainly got us a lot further.
But this issue, Bev has set the challenge. Skyland's Star is a
game which got her stumped. Can we do any better?

Well I haven't, because I'm also stuck (and knowing me probably a
lot earlier in the game than Bev!) so let's see what you can do
with it. The game is, as always, provided with this issue.

The premise is simple. Earth is short of energy. All its natural
resources have been used up. You are a doctor, and one of your
fellow scientists sends you through a time gate at the beginning
of the game. You're being sent into Earth's future ... hopefully it
has one otherwise that'll be the end of the game (and you). You
have to find out what how future society dealt with this problem,
then come back so the solution can be implemented.

As soon as I read this I thought of Alex. He'd love the
possibility of time paradox. Simon Avery, who reviewed Skyland's
Star back in issue 28, pointed this out too. The whole game is
built on a paradox. But if you can ignore this, and luckily it
doesn't bother me at all, you can enter the game and hopefully
enjoy it.

The game originally dates back to 1989 with updates between then
and 1994. It doesn't look that old though it is text only.

You arrive just outside a large city. A crystal arch rises in
front of you and writing on it tells you that you're about to
enter the City of Skyland.  Considering its size, it's surprising
it only has just over 10,000 inhabitants. The time door to return
you to the present is here too.

The city is well organised. As well as walkways there are moving
sidewalks to whisk you from one part of the city to another.
There's an industrial area and a commercial district.  But
unfortunately you don't have any 'future' money. This appears to
be in the form of credits which are added to a credit cube. Until
you have a cube, you can't use any of the skyways which are
another form of transportation. There are several skyway stations.

To the south of the city is a vista deck. Several paintings at a
dome near here show a familiar looking person wearing odd gloves
and holding a box which contains a glowing object. You can't see
the person's face clearly but by now I had a good idea who it was.
I'm not slow, me!! The box seems to be purple but you can't see
anything of the object except that it glows.

But from the vista deck, you can see the real thing. A pit is in
front of you and in the pit is a huge pedestal and on it is the
glowing object from the paintings. If you explore the museum one
of the exhibits is a light bulb. A plaque by it mentions that
light bulbs and electricity were made redundant after the
development of photon fusers. So now at least we know what we're
looking for.

There are a few inconsistencies in the programming. When you find
someone who will buy your 'antique' loose change, you'd think that
'sell' would be the right word to use, but no it's 'show'.
However, even with the right words, I couldn't get any credits
because I didn't have a credit cube. There is some confusion about
keys too. If you use the word 'key' the program tries to decide
which key you mean and sometimes mentions ones you don't have.

The game is shareware and though the unregistered version is
finishable, every so often you'll get a prompt to register and the
game seizes up for a minute which is very frustrating. It's also
worth mentioning that there's a time limit to the game.

So, I'm stuck in several places but not yet at the 'giving up'
stage. Money would help! I've got a lab coat, some keys, a
flask, some spare change, a lead block and a library book. There's 
an electrified fence that stops me entering the industrial area.  A
corner of fabric is hanging from a shelf in a lab storage area but
is too high for me to reach. I've found a mold for the box and am
currently playing with four buttons, a lever and a dial in the
room where the mold is, trying to make a box from the block of
lead but so far I've failed miserably. 

Maybe you'd like to have a go and see if you can get credits
before I do! Remember if you can complete the game, there's a free
issue of the magazine up for grabs. I was impressed with Skyland's
Star; it's nicely programmed with NPCs wandering around adding
realistic atmopshere.










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