113 lines
6.5 KiB
Plaintext
113 lines
6.5 KiB
Plaintext
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MURDER CLUB
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Bill Robbins has been murdered, and it's up to you, J. B. Harold, to discover
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"whodunit." During your investigations, Robbins's lifestyle begins to take on a
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seedy aspect: He was a philanderer and a ruthless businessman. And while you
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might find yourself thinking, "This guy got what he deserved," your job is to
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uphold law and order.
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MURDER CLUB, by Riverhill Soft Japan, is touted as "Japan's most popular
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mystery game." After playing for a good four hours, I can't see why. Yes, it has
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an involving plot, but that's where the game's charm ends.
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There is no parser. Instead, you're presented with a list of actions (a la
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STARFLIGHT), and each action includes a list of questions. After selecting the
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action, you are given a menu of possible questions you may ask. If you hate
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wrestling with game parsers, you'll love this feature; however, this is one of
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the major drawbacks of MURDER CLUB: You have to re-select the action in order to
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continue.
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For instance, you select the "Question Person" option when you first meet a
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suspect. Next, you select one of the available questions you may ask the person
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(e.g., Name, Age, Hobbies, etc.). When the suspect has answered the question you
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select, you must choose the "Question" option again in order to continue your
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questioning. This may not sound so bad, until you consider there are 33
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characters -- each with a menu of eight main topics. Believe me, you'll wear out
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the up- and down-arrows on your keyboard. It would have been much better if the
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Questions menu remained on the screen until you pressed, say, ESCAPE to exit the
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routine.
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The "sparkling graphics" mentioned (and shown) on the back of the game box are
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mundane, at best. It's obvious that American game companies could teach
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Riverhill Soft Japan several lessons in what constitutes even good graphics, let
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alone "sparkling" ones. Characterizations range from amateur to interesting --
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as though several different artists worked on the project. I played MURDER CLUB
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on a CGA. I'd hoped that the EGA version would display crisper graphics;
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however, that wasn't the case. The sole difference between the two graphic mode
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was the addition of color; otherwise, CGA and EGA were the same, in terms of
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resolution.
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The only animation in the entire game occurs during the game loading sequence:
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You get to watch the "O" in KYODAI change to their logo. There is sound (AdLib
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cards and Tandy), which can be toggled on or off, and a melody
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(horrendous-sounding on my one-tone PC) that plays during the loading process.
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(Thankfully, the sound toggle is available.) You must sit through the opening
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graphics every time you start the game; there's no way to bypass them, although
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the documentation says you can press the spacebar to skip them. And after the
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opening sequence has finished, you'll see a pair of legs forever until you press
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a key to start the game.
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While VGA monitors are supported, the graphics display in EGA resolution only.
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Also, the Tandy 1000's 16-color palette is supported. The instructions say that
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384K of memory is required, but I was able to play the game with only 256K.
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MURDER CLUB will also run on monitors with Hercules monochrome cards; it can be
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played via keyboard, Microsoft (or compatible) mouse, or joystick. I preferred
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the keyboard, but others may prefer one of the other two options. PC-DOS or
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MS-DOS 2.1 or higher is required.
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MURDER CLUB's diskettes (three 5-1/4") aren't copy-protected. You may play the
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game from your floppy drive, or install the game on a hard drive; however,
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playing from the hard drive requires that you insert the original "Disk 1" every
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time you start the game. This is an acceptable method of copy protection, given
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the limited verbiage in the documentation. You can also make copies of the
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diskettes for archival purposes. The authors suggest you copy the game disks to
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a 1.5MB disk to minimize disk swaps, if you're going to play the game on a
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single drive computer. I found this interesting due to the fact that, in order
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to perform this feat, you would normally have to copy the originals down to a
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hard drive before you could copy them back to a high density disk. Why not just
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play from the hard drive?
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If you have a 3-1/2" disk drive, there is a coupon in the box that you may send
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in (along with your original diskettes) to exchange your disks. There is no
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charge for this service; however, read the front of the box carefully to make
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sure you avoid delays in getting the proper format.
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The documentation has a page for each of the characters you'll interrogate, and
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blanks for filling in what you learn about them; lists of the various menus for
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each of the phases; introductory letters to J. B. Harold; and complete
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installation and interface guidelines.
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If you play from a floppy drive, you must have a blank, formatted diskette on
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which to save your game. Hard disk players' games will automatically be saved to
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the MCLUB subdirectory. After saving a game, you can see how you're progressing
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in five different categories: Collecting evidence, general investigation,
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interrogation, vital information, and total investigation. You'll also be given
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clues at this point about things you may have overlooked.
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One interesting angle in MURDER CLUB is the investigation phase. As you
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interview more and more people, someone you've already questioned will have
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additional information to give you. For example, at one point, you learn the
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color of the car seen leaving the scene of the crime. Now, everybody you've
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already visited will have "Car" under their "Ask for Information" menu. Also,
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suspects who aren't forthcoming with everything they know will answer more fully
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if you ask them at a later time. So, as you can see, you'll be visiting the same
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suspects over and over.
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As you continue your investigation, you'll be able to ask for search and arrest
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warrants. If you try to get a warrant before the game feels you've earned it,
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your request will be denied. This is especially frustrating when you _know_
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somebody's lying, or you've learned contradictory information. I found it
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aggravating that I couldn't request a search warrant for someone's room, even
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though I was able to obtain an arrest warrant for him.
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MURDER CLUB could have been a much better game, both graphically and logically.
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The plot's twisty, the clues are obtuse, and the method is maddening. But you
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don't have to be a super sleuth to win this one: Brute force and patience are
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enough.
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MURDER CLUB is published by Kyodai and distributed by Broderbund.
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*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253
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