~The Adventurers Journal

By Martin Keen


This month may have seen the release of LucasArt's The Dig but there's
a lot more than one game floating around the adventure game scene at
the moment. Here once again is a look at the dark, mysterious world
of the graphic adventure:


~New Studios MERIT a mention

There aren't may people who have heard of computer game producers 
Merit Studios but they are currently working hard on a couple of
graphic adventures set to grace the PC in the coming months.

The first is Bud Tucker In Double Trouble and they must have paid PC
Home an awful lot of money to say "Will Bud Tucker be the Guybrush
Threepwood of the 90's?". The answer, of course, is NOT A CHANCE but
just becuase a game isn't as good as Monkey Island it doesn't mean it
isn't good at all.

The cartoony graphics bear a resemblence to Simon The Sorcerer 2, as
does the game engine. Watch teenager Bud get into all sorts of tricky
situations with ineviatably "hilarious" consequences. It may be old
fashioned but hey its err... written in six languages!

The second game on the horizon is Sato City. Merit aren't taking any
chances on setting an exact release date - only saying its due to 
ship in 1996. The game features are just as vague. Its one of those
cyberpunk adventures with dark moody SVGA graphics, but other than
that Merit aren't giving much away.

Whether Merit Studios will be a success remains to be seen but its 
good to see another new company enter the adventure game arena while
the rest of the world and his dog concentrate on producing slick
car racing arcade games.


~The ultimate guide

It has been rumoured that not every person on the entire planet owns
a copy of The Adventure Special yet - the ultimate guide to the best
game genre. Its a Cheet Sheets special containing articles, reviews, 
cheat, and hundreds of game solutions to just about every adventure
game made. To get hold of a copy of this one-disk-wonder contact
Wayne Roberts and obtain it in just the same way you got hold of this
copy of Cheet Sheets.


~Gabriel Fright

One of Sierra's best ever adventure games has to be Gabriel Knight,
released last year. It was also one of the hardest. Any day now the
sequel should be released, but its going to be quite a contrast. 
Instead of the scanned VGA graphics that grace so many games of this
ilk Gabriel 2 is going for the all out full-motion video approach.
Only last month Sierra set Phantasmagoria upon the world which was
very entertaining with gore glamour but suffered from poor video
quality, poor gameplay, and a maximum 7 hour playing time before it
was completed. Gabriel 2 is based on the same engine.

It certainly sounds ominous. Sierra haven't had much time to learn 
from their mistakes or improve the video engine since Phantasmagoria.
Lets just hope that their most promosing series so far doesn't join
the rest of the interactive movies in the graphic adventure sin bin.



Look out for next months bumper Adventurers Journal where we
concentrate on some of the talking points from LucasArts biggest ever
graphic adventure, The Dig. Can a game thats taken 3 years to produce
and gone through 3 project leaders really be any good? 

In the meantine you can contact me on the Cheet Sheets BBS by mailing
a message to Martin Keen, but if you want a quick response try my
e-mail account at: t_030f3_mk@solent.ac.uk