THE DEFAULT ADVENTURE by Jamie Bradbury

 

THE DEFAULT ADVENTURE by Jamie Bradbury for Sinclair QL

   Our first text adventure! And for the magnificent QL, no less!

   My extensive experience of this type of game can easily be summarised as follows: The Hobbit on the Spectrum and The Pawn on the Amiga.

   I'm no connoisseur, but that doesn't detract from my admiration for the genre. And I have engraved in my mind the comment made by Richard Bartle (co-creator of the first M.U.D.) in the indispensable documentary "Get Lamp":

"Lets have a little thought experimente here...
... what would happen if I were tu cut off 
the whole business with the fingers and stick
a jack in the back of your head and it goes right
into the spinal cord and you're talking straight to the brain there.
All the senses that go into your brain,
they're all filtered and they're used 
to create a world model inside your head and imagination.
But if you could talk straight to that imagination and

 cut out all the senses, then it would be impossible to ignore it.
You couldn't say "that's just an image of a dragon", 

that would BE a dragon. 
And if there were some kind of technology that could talk
straight to the imagination. Well there is, it's called text. 
And it's been around for several thousand years."

(completely agree)

   The author has used the famous adventure creation software The Quill. Once again, our contest gives us the opportunity to learn about the history of computers. Today, we will be learning a bit about that particular programme.

"The Quill Adventure System or The Quill, as it was known, was written by Graeme Yeandle and initially published for the ZX Spectrum by Gilsoft International Ltd in 1983. The Quill was the first in the "Gilsoft family" of adventure systems which includes the PAW, the SWAN, and DAAD. Over 800 games are known to have been produced using The Quill.

The QL version of The Quill (not to be confused with QL word-process of the same name) was written by Huw H. Powell in 1986. It was perhaps the most advanced version of Gilsoft's original system; with several enhancements that would soon make an appearance in the PAW, such as a much greater number of flags and an expanded bank of user-editable system messages."

   Now that we know about text adventures and the creation tool, let's get started. 

   The loading instructions I have used with Qemulator go here:

   - TV Mode

   - Attach Directory (where the game is)

   - MDV image (choose "dfault2.mdv")

   - Game will autorun. If it doesn't, type "Lrun mdv1_boot"

   The author's own words provide an ideal introduction to the game:

"The default adventure is the one that comes with the Gillsoft manual. It shows off the key features of the software and it is a good was for a player to learn how to play Quill adventures.

You have to find something and take it somewhere.

Anything else would be a spoiler."

   The real text adventure. 

   

   Apparently, this adventure was not presented, organised or arranged well in The Quill manual for the QL, but the author has fixed it for our enjoyment. Enjoyment not without risks...

(starving to death in front of an apple, pitiful...)

   I also think I've found a bug in the game, so I'll call (0446) 732... immediately and ask for a refund.

(Hm, they don't seem to be in the office right now, I'll try again later.)

   I won't describe my progress through the stages, because I don't want to spoil the experience that I'm sure everyone wants to have. However, I must say that the magic of the text to which Mr Bartle refers is present. Although it's a short and simple adventure, it's enough to make you imagine the rooms and objects. In a world where everything has to be visual and extremely easy to digest, this is greatly appreciated.

(Now I'm calling Gilsoft again to complain about the torturous text formatting.)

   Collecting words and commands: If you want to get started in the world of text adventures, this is the ideal one because you don't need to solve Einstein's equations to complete it. You start it and you won't give it up until you finish it. And, if you're lucky and the stars align, maybe you'll be up for a more complex adventure.

Scrambled Smile: 6/10

Broccoli and Squid Yoghourt: 6/10

Deep Fried Ice Cream: 1/10

Strawberry Monosodium Glutamate: 2/10

Affable Hot Chocolate Sauce: 8/10