Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!oliveb!amdahl!dwl10
From: dwl10@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Dave Lowrey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm
Subject: Re: Review: Adventure Construction Set
Message-ID: <960SUb8pfj10109AH/A@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>
Date: 11 Jul 88 19:07:07 GMT
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Houston TX
Lines: 71


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As the author of the original review of Adventure Construction Set, I'd like
to respond to these comments.  [By the way, "I" am Doug Pardee... I can't
post from my site, only read, but I've convinced Dave to post my drivel to
the net for all to see.  Don't blame Dave, he's just the messenger].
       ----
I read the following complaint as, "The C-64 is a dog of a computer, and thus
(through no fault of its own) ACS on the '64 is a waste of time.  What you
need is a REAL computer."

> The problems I encountered centered around
> the general slowness of the machine ...
> ... The problem is not that the game is not well
> designed, but rather the limitations of the machine make any user interface
> very clumsy to use.  I simply don't have the patience to invest that kind
> of time in a game, when the same concept put into another machine would
> obviously cut the task in half. 

My review was posted only to comp.sys.cbm.  I presume that my readers (if I
have any) are interested in C-64 software because they have a C-64, and that
they're not particularly interested in how much better any given program
might be on "another machine".  That information belongs in the infamous
high-flame newsgroup comp.sys.my.computer.is.better.than.your.computer.

I also presume that my readers are generally aware of what performance can be
expected of a C-64, and that I would be insulting their intelligence to point
out that the IBM-PC and Amiga versions of ACS would certainly be faster than
the C-64 version.

Except for the movement on the World Map (which I called "surprisingly
sluggish") and the disruption caused by having to go to the disk for any
3-line messages associated with special effects, I didn't find ACS to be slow
at all -- WHEN COMPARED WITH OTHER C-64 GAMES.

>It is amazing to see ACS 
>construct adventures on it's own given a rule set, but the resulting game
>is not usually worth playing.

This is (obviously) going to be a matter of taste, and one of the most
difficult parts of writing a review is to provide the information that is
needed for each reader to be able to decide if the product will agree with
his personal taste.  Apparently I missed on this point, so I'll try again.

Although the computer-generated adventures can't be "tricky" with ingenious
puzzles to solve, I feel that they *can* be interesting when treated as the
basic hack-and-slash quest-for-an-object style of adventure.

For the more sophisticated adventure players who prefer intriguing puzzles
rather than computer-generated hack-and-slash, the ACS Club library has over
75 C-64 titles, each priced at a measly $5.  Although I haven't tried any of
them myself, I've read the documentation on three of the games which were
rated "four stars", and I think most adventure players would be impressed.
--
Doug Pardee               {ames,hplabs,sun,amdahl,allegra}!oliveb!edge!doug
Edge Computer Corp., Scottsdale, AZ                 uunet!ism780c!edge!doug


-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------

    "This isn't Heaven, this is Cleveland!!!!"

                          Dave Lowrey
                          Amdahl Corp.
                          Houston, Texas
                          (713)-850-8828
                         ...!{ames,sun,decwrl,uunet,....}!amdahl!dwl10

[ The opinions expressed  be those of the author and not necessarily
  those of his most eminent employer. ]