88 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
88 lines
5.2 KiB
Plaintext
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TANGLED TALES
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TANGLED TALES is a fantasy role-playing adventure written by Gary Scott Smith
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and published by Origin. Subtitled "The Misadventures of a Wizard's Apprentice,"
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TANGLED TALES offers a three-part storyline, excellent graphics and gameplay, an
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easy to use menu/icon interface, keyboard or joystick control, and a weird and
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nasty form of copy protection that makes the package not worth the cost. The
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Commodore 64/128 version is the basis of this review.
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While TANGLED TALES looks great, plays well, and has an interestingly skewed
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story, the copy protection is so vile that I can't imagine C64 users booting it
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often. Consider formatting a disk from Commodore BASIC: The 1541 drive head
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"bumps" to Track 0, where the format process begins. Choosing to reload a saved
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TALES position also causes the drive to bump; the difference is that the
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format-a-disk bumps are compressed into one very quick, very strong, and very
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loud bump.
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This is a scary sound, especially as the 1541 has always been plagued with a
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drive head that's easily knocked out of alignment. If this bump event happened
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once in a while, it might be tolerable, but you hear it every time you reload a
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saved game, no matter which of the three scenarios it's loaded from. What's
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more, should you decide to remove your current character and restart with a new
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character, the program asks you to swap all four disk sides, which is how many
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bumps you're going to hear.
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The storyline of TALES concerns an inept apprentice wizard who destroys
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precious adamantite dust. His mentor, Eldritch the Wizard, on learning of the
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loss, erases the apprentice's spell book. As the apprentice, you must solve
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three successive adventures in order to prove your worthiness and get your
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spells rewritten. En route to this desirable destination, you'll travel through
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time, explore continents, enlist the aid of some strange people, and encounter
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such disparate elements as haunted houses and grizzled prospectors. Although
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there are monsters and combat, TALES is humorous and silly, a pleasant change
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from the usual role-playing adventure, which relies heavily on themes of
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despair, demons, and death.
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You'll have to create and name a character whose attributes are Strength,
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Intelligence, Speed, and Charisma. Intelligence determines how many spells you
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can cast; Charisma concerns your ability to interact with other characters;
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Speed and Strength refer to your combat potential. These attributes are ranked
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(worst to best), and your character starts in the middle of the road: Athletic,
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Educated, Brisk, and Tactful. Rankings can be adjusted at the character creation
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screen. A character can be male or female, and begins as an Initiate (higher
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titles being Magician, Sorcerer, and Wizard).
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The C64 screen display consists of two graphics windows, an icon line, and a
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text window. The window at the upper left holds a picture, usually with animated
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features, of what you can see; the window at the upper right is a terrain map of
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the area you're exploring, with your character always centered within it. The
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map scrolls as you move; the picture window changes to reflect the environment
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or to display a character or monster you've encountered. The text window
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provides descriptions, dialogue with other characters, available actions, and
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general game messages.
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The icon line is twofold. The first layer consists of Look, Cast Magic, Get
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Talk, Actions, and a Toggle Switch, which reveals the second layer: Drop/Give,
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Save Game, Inspect/Inventory, Equip, and Rest. In many situations, selecting an
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icon will display an option menu in the text window. When combat occurs, a
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different icon line appears: Fight, Run Away, Inspect/Inventory, Cast Magic, and
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Actions. Each icon clearly indicates its function, and is easily identified.
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TALES can be controlled with either keyboard or joystick. The cursor keys move
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your character left and right; the "A" and "Z" keys move up and down. Climbing
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is accomplished with the Return key. The Spacebar activates the icon line; the
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cursor keys move the pointer; the Return key selects. Also, single-letter
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keystrokes can be used to bypass the icon line and immediately invoke a command:
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"C" = Cast a spell; "I" = Inspect/Inventory; "S" = Save the game, and so on.
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In addition to the joystick controlling your character's movement, a quick
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press of the button replaces the Return key; instead of the Spacebar, press and
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hold the button to activate the pointer and the icon line, after which th stick
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can then be used to select an icon. The keyboard worked best.
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The game package comes with two, double-sided disks, an instruction manual, a
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C64 reference card, and "A Young Wizard's First Journal," which explains how he
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managed to waste the adamantite dust.
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TANGLED TALES looks very good on the Commodore; the pictures and scrolling map
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are perfectly done and completely understandable. The icon lines offer an easy
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interface with the game, especially when used by way of the keyboard. This game
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is a role-playing adventure, but it's an upbeat role-playing problem is the copy
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protection: There is no game on the planet, including
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TANGLED TALES is published and distributed by Origin.
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*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253
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