Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!vu-vlsi!swatsun!garth
From: garth@cs.swarthmore.edu (Garth Snyder)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: review wanted:  "Puzzle Gallery"
Summary: Not as good as the Fool's Errand
Keywords: Mac games puzzle gallery fool's errand cliff johnson
Message-ID: <3137@byzantium.cs.swarthmore.edu>
Date: 28 Sep 89 02:34:05 GMT
References: <458@janus.UUCP>
Reply-To: garth@cs.swarthmore.edu (Garth Snyder)
Followup-To: comp.sys.mac
Distribution: usa
Organization: CS Dept., Swarthmore College, PA
Lines: 60

> In article <458@janus.UUCP> jeff@janus.UUCP (jeff marder) writes:
> 
> please compare to "Fool's Errand".  Is it more difficult, more fun,
> etc.  Also, please discuss special features (color, sound, etc.)

I've been meaning to write about the Puzzle Gallery for a while now
and this seems like a good time to do so.  Since I haven't finished
the game yet, my perspective isn't really all that complete.  What I
say below are generalizations based on what I've seen of the game and
the documentation.

The Puzzle Gallery is Cliff Johnson's second puzzle game.  The first
was the infamous Fool's Errand, which is one of my favorite games of
all time.  Unfortunately, the Puzzle Gallery is a disappointment,
especially when contrasted with the Errand.  It's similar to Beyond
Dark Castle in that I think people who haven't played the original
will really like it, but others will find it stale and without flavor.

The Puzzle Gallery is essentially the Fools Errand minus the plot, the
meta-puzzles, the ultimate goal, the oddball one-of-a-kind puzzles,
and the haunting artwork.  It really is just what the name suggests, a
bunch of puzzles such as you might find in your Sunday newspaper,
loosely surrounded by a central theme but not really linked together.
There seem to be only about 5 different kinds of puzzles.  The game
has been split into a master program and a puzzle file.  The
documentation hints that more puzzle sets will be published in the
future.

The puzzle set supplied is called "At the Circus".  The puzzles take
you all the way from the parking lot through various rides,
attractions, and sideshows.  Puzzles are grouped into about 40
sequences of three or four puzzles each.  You can skip from sequence
to sequence however you like, but you must solve the puzzles within a
sequence in order.

The Puzzle Gallery is an extremely polished product.  It's compatible
with all models of Macintosh, it's multifinder friendly, and it works
correctly at any screen depth (though you need more than 1M to play in
8-bit mode).  All the puzzles are in full blazing color (if you've got
the hardware for it), and include lots of nifty digitized sounds.  The
interface for solving puzzles is similar to that of the Fool's Errand,
but many little improvements have been made.

Despite the limited number of types of puzzles, each individual puzzle
has its own "look and feel", just like in the Fool's Errand.  The
artwork is very good, but somehow it all just seems like pretty
pictures - the driving intensity of the Errand's drawings is absent.  

In summary, if you're trying to decide between the Fool's Errand and
the Puzzle Gallery, definitely go for the Errand (if you have a Mac
that will run it).  If you've played the Errand and are looking for a
continuation in that vein, you won't find it in the Gallery.  On the
other hand, if you can accept the Gallery on its own terms, its a
juicy piece of work.

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Garth Snyder                 UUCP: {bpa,liberty}!swatsun!garth
Swarthmore College       INTERNET: garth@cs.swarthmore.edu
Swarthmore, PA 19081         ALSO: garth@boulder.colorado.edu
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