MERLIN #1
MARCH 1985
Welcome to the first in a more-or-less regular series of columns for adventurers - especially frustrated adventurers.
Why frustrated? Because one of the purposes of this column is to try to help you if you are stuck. And we all are at one time or another.
However don't you experts lose interest, I expect you to do your bit by sending in maps for adventures you have completed or solutions to difficult problems you have solved.
I also hope to be a sounding board for your ideas and opinions on adventures. So if you have something to say, write in.
Sooner or later I hope to compile a Top Ten for adventures, so I'm relying on you to award marks for each one you try. I suggest you award marks out of 100 (it makes it easier for me).
To give you some idea of what I mean, my nomination for the adventure of 1984 is Epic's Wheel of Fortune. I would award marks for it as follows:
Presentation - 6/10
Contents - 28/30
Value for money - 27/30
Frustration factor! - 29/30
Total - 90/100
The categories I have used are only suggestions. What counts is the total mark. All the marks sent in will be averaged out and a Top Ten published in a future issue.
Try to be honest with your marks - don't give it 100 just because you managed to finish it!
Our Top Ten, combined with our reviews, will then be the best possible way for you to judge whether a particular adventure is the one you want or not.
Incidently I'm also prepared to help BBC owners who get stuck.
A warning. I won't be using any codes or letter-transposition routines, so if you don't want to see the answers don't read the last part of this article. This month we'll be giving hints on Adventure and Eye of Zolton.
Now having said how we're going to help you, I'd like some help myself with Kingdom of Klein. How do I get off the pile of rocks and how do I get into the mountain? And in Quest for the Holy Grail, how do I open the castle doors?
Finally, if you want an immediate answer to a problem, enclose an sae - I'll reply, if only to say I don't know either!
And now to some hints. Mrs Bull wants to know how to get into the castle in Program Power's adventure. Rub the lamp in the right place, Mrs Bull.
E. Young is having problems with Softek's Eye of Zolton. To get the keys, take a book then look.
As for the stone doors, this
is the temple of Zolton. You don't need to go there yet! The
keys are the key (sorry!).
This article appeared in the March 1985 edition of the "Electron User", published by Database Publications.
Scanned in by dllm@usa.net
http://www.stairwaytohell.com