Personal Computer News


Arnold Goes To Somewhere Else
By Nemesis
Amstrad CPC464

 
Published in Personal Computer News #087

ARNOLD GOES TO SOMEWHERE ELSE

Well, you've just got to try out an adventure with a title like this, haven't you? Particularly when other reviewers have recommended the earlier Arnold Blackwood teasers from Nemesis on the Dragon 32.

I wasn't impressed by the English, at least to start. "What's you're name?" I was asked. "None of your business, you illiterate," I typed in. "Redo from start," the Amstrad replied.

Seems our task is to connect with one Lady E., wife of Lord Erebus. Lord E says she's not in this world, and Arnold says he doesn't fancy the next. Lord E's only advice is that we're at the entrance to the Stygian shores.

Arnold Goes To Somewhere Else

Arnold and I are to find Lady E, Lord E's deaf-aid, tablets, amulet and a dragon; the latter he must find before we can cross the river Styx. And we can't survive without that dragon.

So on into the unknown. The screen's divided into five areas. At top, the locations are described. Some of these are weird. How does "A cesspit. Many people are standing up to their armpits in foul excrement drinking cups of tea" grab you?

Below, a panel shows what's visible, to the right is a list of exits, and below, in a thin band, your last moves.

The rest of the screen is the "What now?" prompt, complete with stick figure (presumably Arnold) plus some occasional hints or hindrances.

Using two-word combinations means that the phrase analyser doesn't have much to do, but the vocabulary is large and the game makes up for all these minor niggles with originality and some fiendishly difficult problems.

Bryan Skinner

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