Producer: Precision Games
Retail Price: £2.99
Author: P & C Hoar, D Hayter, S Boral

You are an Earth agent working for a top security company on a government assignment to infiltrate the Star Fleet Command HQ on the planet Arg. Once settled, you are to extricate a Prof Roberts who is imprisoned in the detention area of the Complex, known as the Green Sector. Reaching the Green Sector is difficult enough, but it is also necessary to deactivate the shuttle bay security system by sabotaging the main computer. This being done, a time limit is set, its end marked by the completion of the repair of the security system by which time the professor should be through the shuttle bay and off the planet. When the time left is really low, a warning klaxon sounds out signalling a most worrying lack of moves left for your escape.

Before I forget, I should mention that this game has something exotic on the flip side. Frantic is a specially written piece of music by Baz Hoar. It is unusual in that no actual instruments have been used in its recording as all of the sounds have been digitally sampled through a Spectrum micro and played back through the Spectrum's own keyboard and then multi-tracked on a Porta-Studio. Hearing the music, it's impressive to note that no other external effects were used.

Back to the adventure which is Quilled, Illustrated and Patched. This last utility ensures RAM SAVE and sound effects, but the game in addition offers the opportunity to alter the typeface. Although any change to the Spectrum capitals might have been thought an improvement, I rather thought that the home grown typeface offered was, if anything, worse and less distinctive.

You kick off this one on an alien plain with purple grass swaying in the breeze. The only exit leads south but travelling south, the only way to go is back the way you came. Clearly you've missed something and that something is literally staring you in the face. Clues in graphics are very much my idea of good and imaginative adventuring and this game has already made a good impression after only a few opening frames. Since I've given this part away I feel restrained to give no more at this point so take it from me that in the next instance of getting somewhere the game demonstrates another welcome feature with a persistence of an activity paying off handsomely (and no, I don't mean WAIT which would not count as such an interesting feature).

Extricator is a rather good adventure for £2.99. Amongst its many strong points I would count its sense of humour (for instance, the Sony Walkman bedecked skeleton), the clues hidden within text and graphics, and the pleasantly informative EXAMINE command as the most praiseworthy. The problems are within the ken of even an average adventurer but watching them go down still provides a considerable amount of pleasure, which is what adventuring is all about.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: easy for quite some way
Graphics: good enough
Presentation: nothing special
Input facility: verb/noun
Response: fast Quill response

FAX BOX
Title: The Extricator
Publisher: Precision Games, 2 Fern Hills, Langdon Hills, Basildon, Essex SS16 5UE
Price: £2.99 plus 21p if mail order

I suppose you might call this another QUIP adventure - one written using The Quill, The Illustrator and The Patch. And come to think of it, that's not altogether a bad description for a game that displays a neat line in dry humour. In One location there's a piece of string which you can't GET, so naturally you EXAMINE STRING: "You know perfectly well what a piece of string looks like." Oh well, it was worth a try. Elsewhere you rummage through a pile of rubbish to unearth a letter. We intrepid adventurers are always finding letters, and what's the first thing we do? Right, READ LETTER. "It's not that sort of letter!" What? Examining the object proves that in fact it's a letter 'L' that's dropped off a sign somewhere - though what the 'L' you do with it I haven't yet worked out.

Your task in The Extricator as an earth agent for a top security company is to rescue a Professor Roberts from the detention area of the 'Star Fleet Command' headquarters on the Planet Arg. You begin, though, on "an alien plain with purple grass swaying in the breeze" You're wearing a tin hat and staring at a rather tatty scarecrow. Sitting staring at things doesn't normally get you very far in adventures, though this is one where you'll have to look closely at the occasional illustrations, as well as paying attention to the text, if you're to make any progress.

Uncovering a familiar old fissure, I made my way past some not very clean water and into one sector of the complex. On a desk I found a computer, which on closer inspection turned out to be "a ZX Spectrum wearing a Saga keyboard." I had a tape of data with me with a laser gun, and eventually I made it to the red sector.

I doubt if experienced adventurers would take too long to work their way through this, but I think you'd still like some of the problems and smile at their solutions. Beginners though, could find it taxes their ingenuity a good deal. The atmosphere's reasonably convincing, with an attempt to produce more than just the bare location descriptions. And the pricing's about right to provide value for money, especially as the B-side of the cassette contains an impressive tune called Frantic.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
SUPPLIER: Precision Games, Mail Order (21p extra) from: 2 Fern Hill, Langdon Hills, Basildon, Essex
PRICE: £2.99

Professor Roberts is imprisoned at the Star Fleet Command HQ on the planet Arg. Your job is to extricate him. The snag is, that the complex is split up into sectors, and to infiltrate the sector where the prof is languishing, involves passing through three other sectors.

You must get hold of the appropriate pass to move from one sector to the next. Therein lie the puzzles.

The puzzles are not overly difficult, but the solutions do sometimes require a bit of spotting. EXAMINE is a command used to good effect here, and this adds a lot to the adventure.

Quilled, patched, and illustrated, The Extricator is described as a split screen text and graphics adventure. There are very few graphics, and you can even turn those off, although they are pleasant enough not to want to.

One word of warning! I nearly didn't get as far as reviewing this game, as I got locked into four locations.