Beebug


The Greedy Dwarf
By Goldstar
BBC Model B

 
Published in Beebug #33

The Greedy Dwarf

Arfa, the greedy dwarf, has stolen the King's jewels and hidden them around the castle. This game's plot and location is set in a standard 'Castle and Dragon' land, with our old friend the torch to light the way; but it's still bereft of a long-lasting, copper-coloured filling!

A very nice feature of this game is that I managed to beat it! Special features involved include the use of function keys programmed to enable single key strokes for the most commonly used commands, and cursor keys which have been redefined to be used as movement controls. These soon proved to be a novel and ingenious method for tramping the dungeons. The game is text only but is none the worse for that. I found the traps and puzzles extremely satisfying as they are quite logical and I was able to repeatedly congratulate myself for being brilliant! A peek inside the command analyser revealed an extensive vocabulary, including a few words that I didn't think nice adventurers knew!

Some of the commands must be carried out 'quickly' or 'quietly' to escape the wrath of the guardian monsters, but you will soon learn to move quickly when a Rat is gnawing your finger. I found a minor bug with the 'Examine' command which cheered me up - I do love finding other author's mistakes! Should you forget to specify what object you wish to examine, the resulting message will reveal a small secret. This is a very interesting game, none too hard, which deserves more recognition.

Mitch

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