FAERIE
8th Day
Memory: 48K
Price: £1.75

ICE STATION ZERO
8th Day
Memory: 48K
Price: £1.75

By anyone's reckoning £1.75 is a good price to pay for a text adventure provided there has been no skimping on quality. 8th Day Software have introduced a suite of six games at that price, all written with the Quill.

The programs are graded from beginners standard to advanced difficulty and cover a range of subjects from science fiction to thrillers. It would have been useful to be able to look at the full set but regrettably only two of the games would load and only then after persistent attempts.

The two that loaded are quite adequate adventures. Faerie is set in a magical world of demons, eccentric wizards and changeling children. The game is of the advanced type and progress can only be made after a solid bout of clear lateral thinking. Both the setting and the puzzles are imaginative and intricate and you can expect long hours of perplexed entertainment from it.

Ice Station Zero, a beginner's adventure, is loosely based on the plot of a film with a similar title. A mad terrorist has taken over a polar research station and you must cross the lethal ice-pack to reach the installation before the maniac destroys New York.

It may well be for beginners but it certainly is not a doddle by any means.

This has to be one of the most spine-chilling games available! It has nothing whatsoever to do with the notorious "Pink Fairy"!

The plot is, to say the least, complicated with many sub-divisions. You are sent off into the underworld to find the three treasures of Isi-Tunn, and it's not easy!

Spectrum Cassette: £2.99

Culture can be a dangerous thing. In A Harvesting Moon the player and his parents are visiting Moreton Manor, an old country house situated in spacious grounds amid rolling woodlands, when an enthusiastic warden closes a portcullis too quickly and cuts you off from your family.

Your task is to explore the house, find a way back to Mom and Dad and stop a strange psychic disturbance spreading.

The first problem with A Harvesting Moon is that many objects in it can't be EXAMINEd. Things placed around the game suggest they should be looked at more closely - the pavilion in the middle of the maze, the litter bins and the scarecrow, for example - but no extra information is given (except that the scarecrow is made of straw) after an EXAMINE attempt.

This means a lot of guesswork on the player's part as he tries to figure out what the writer wants him to do with these elements, and because the parser is so small it's no fun. The graphics are typical 'add nothing to the game' material, and the whole adventure is rather on the silly side.

Life without my fictitious parents soon took precedence over finding them again as the screen went blank.

On the reverse side of the cassette is a very old adventure called Faerie. This is full of magic, mystery and frustration and deserves to be given away free...

MAKER: 8th Day Software
FORMAT: cassette
PRICE: £1.99 each

Pure text adventures seem to be becoming a threatened species of late. There seems to be a general feeling that to sell, a program has to contain graphics. Doesn't matter how tacky, how irrelevant to the plot line, how much memory is wasted, we gotta have them pictures. A good counter to what I, for one, see as a pernicious trend is this collection of six pocket-money programs from 8th Day, a new Merseyside outfit.

The packaging is understandably minimal, a plain black wrapper in every case, although you do get a natty plastic rack if you purchase all six. There's nothing cut-price about the quality however. as far as I could see, each of these is a well-thought out, properly plotted adventure. Better still, every one is on a different theme. The nearest to the hackneyed old Sword-and-Sorcery schlock is Faerie, but this rests more on Celtic whimsy than conquering barbarians. The vital thing is to keep the fairies happy, one way being to swap a human baby for their changeling, a bit naughty this.

Four Minutes to Midnight seems to be the most advanced program, and pits you against a post-catastrophe world. The object is to rebuild civilisation from the ruins by assembling a team of capable and technically-skilled people. To my mind this goes one better than The Hobbit in terms of human interaction, and displays genuine originality. Cuddles is a bit on the cute side - you are a bored toddler and you have to escape from your cot and get past nanny to sample the delights of the outside world.

Ice Station Zero owes something to the dreadful Alistair Maclean story - for Zero read Zebra - it's a thriller set on the Arctic Icepack. The obligatory space adventure is represented in the form of Quann Tulla in which you have to get a crippled starship working again. In Search of Angels is a Fleming-style spy story full of the obligatory souped-up sportsters full of gadgetry.

A lot of ground has been covered here, all six packages taken together cost the same as two normally-priced Spectrum programs, but represent months of playing time. This is the first time I've encountered software at a reasonable price which sacrifices nothing in the way of quality. Surely this, and not peculiar security devices, is the answer to piracy?

FEY ADVENTURE

MICRO: Spectrum 48K
PRICE: £1.75
FORMAT: Cassette
SUPPLIER: 8th Day Software, 18 Flaxhill, Moreton, Wirral, L46 7UH

At last we have a real adventure at a bargain price. Faerie is a surrealistic fantasy written with The Quill. You are hiking along a country lane one fine midsummer's day when you see a wand lying in a field. When you wave it the familiar landscape is transformed into one which harbours sufficient magic and wonder to rival Alice's own adventures in wonderland. It's inhabited by a host of creatures ranging from faeries to ogres, animated chessmen and even a talking fish.

The object of the game is to collect some 30 treasures and score as many points as you can. This entails solving quite complex problems, and to solve one problem you have to solve a number of lesser ones first. To cross the bridge you need to read a sign which is on the other side; to read the sign you need a water glass; to get the water glass you need to cross the bridge, or almost, but if I was any more specific I would be telling.

Other clues are also hidden in the game. Eating a dead fish, for example, produces a riddle of a sort more usually associated with that tv quiz show 3-2-1: 'magic in cave will help score while a books' advice will help you more.' At least this is more forthcoming than typing Help, which merely replies with 'You must be joking.' Should you be really desperate 8th Day will send you fairly comprehensive hints sheets on receipt of a sae.

Although problem-orientated and with no specific plot, the situations you encounter are sufficiently varied to sustain your interest. The atmosphere is also evocatively conveyed: 'The smell of freshly mown hay is heavy in the air, as if after a heavy shower. A bee flies by...' It's quite idyllic really, roaming through these enchanted forests with lights dancing among the trees; at least, until the sandman comes and wraps you in his cloak. But fortunately, you are given opportunities to escape, even if you are restricted to a limited number of moves.

There are several modes of transport in this land: magic wand (one way only), spells and teleportation (which requires the correct two-word input before you can be whisked away to the giant mushroom and other exotic locations).

This must be the first adventure to disprove the old saying 'you get what you pay for'. On side Two is a description of the scenario, with general advice for playing adventures, so you're actually getting very much more.