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     ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN MICROPENDIUM
     P.O. Box 1343  Round Rock TX 78680
     Phone [phone]
     Internet [e-mail]

     Microreviews for December 1994
     by Charles Good

     Starting with this month's column I will list all appropriate names
     and addresses at the end of the column under the heading "access".
     This is where you look to find out where to send for the software
     reviewed here.
     ----------------
     DISK OF MEDIEVAL TIMES by Ken Gilliland

     This $15 commercial software is the latest of Ken's theme disk sets.
     This one is about the middle ages and is full of knights in armor,
     castles, dragons, jousts, and fair maidens locked up in towers.  I
     just finished reading Arthur Conan Doyle's "The White Company", and
     this disk set reminds me of the events in Doyle's story.  (Yes, Doyle
     wrote about other things besides Sherlock Holmes.)

     Medieval Times comes on four SSSD disks and is designed to run out of
     DSK1 using extended basic.  You also get a nicely illustrated 16 page
     user guide.  The main menu is displayed from the first disk as
     follows: A- Tales of Chivalry; B- Legends of Valor (Game); C- History
     of the helmet; D- Castles, Keeps, & Towers; E- Exit Medieval Times.
     When you select these items you are sometimes prompted to insert
     another of the four disks into DSK1 in order to continue.

     A- Tales of Chivalry displays text files which include legends
     relating to King Arthur and his knights as well as scholarly
     discussions concerning the history of these stories.  Separate stories
     about King Arthur, Sir Bors, Sir Gareth, Sir Gawain, Sir Percival, Sir
     Lancelot, and Sir Erec are included.  My favorite texts are the two
     dealing with the known history of these tales, answering questions
     such as what is the oldest known reference to King Arthur.  As you
     probably know, the Arthur stories are in all probability a mixture of
     ancient fiction and fact, and very little independent information
     about Arthur and his knights exists.  I was particularly intrigued
     with the "Holy Grail" legend.  Supposedly the cup Christ used in the
     last supper was brought to England where it exhibited various magical
     powers.  Lots of time, effort, and money was expended by medieval
     English important people looking the grail.  The source materials Ken
     used in researching these text files and in creating his medieval
     artwork are listed in the documentation that accompanies Medieval
     Times.

     B- The Legends of Valor game is actually three games tied loosely
     togther with a story.  The queen is locked up in a tower and you have
     to go and rescue her.  First, however, you have to prove you are
     worthy of such a rescue attempt by competing in various medieval tests
     of courage.  The three games are supposed to be played in order, and
     you have to win each in order to go on and play the next game.  All
     three games are written in extended basic.

     The first test of valor is a joust on horseback against a great big
     knight.  You position your shield and lance high/middle/low and try to
     knock the other knight off his horse.  This requires several tries
     with you or the other knight getting wounded each time.  When somebody
     is wounded enough that they can't continue the game ends and if you
     are the least wounded you then heal quickly and go on to the next
     game.  There really isn't any skill involved here, only luck.  There
     is about a 50% chance of winning.  The joust is slightly modified from
     a joust game originally published in 99er magazine in the ancient
     medieval past of the 99/4A, back in 1983.

     The second test of valor is very similar to the joust except that your
     opponent is a fire breathing dragon.  You adjust your lance and shield
     position and try to skure the dragon with your lance as you pass on
     your horse.  Hopefully your sheild prevents the dragon's fire breath
     from burning you.  As with the first test there doesn't seem to be
     much skill involved.  Chances of slaying the dragon are about 50%.

     The third test of valor really is original and fun.  You have to
     approach the castle in which the queen has been locked, climb the
     tower, and rescue her.  All along the way you have to dodge the arrows
     and swords of the defenders.  Some of these defenders pop out of the
     ground at sudden and irregular intervals to do you in.  Screen
     graphics are very well done.  You get two simultaneous displays.  Most
     of the screen shows you (as a knight) and your immediate surroundings.
     This display constantly changes as you move from left to right towards
     the Queen's location.  In the lower left of the screen you see a map
     of the whole castle area, with your location on this map indicated.
     The closer you are to the Queen's location the faster the action.
     There is a fair amount of skill in this game since you need to know
     just when to jump or dodge arrows.

     My main complaint about these tests of valor is that you are supposed
     to complete them in order and you only get one chance (one life) to
     complete all three games.  Once killed you go to a high score screen
     where your chosen "Sir _____" name and score are permanently recorded
     and are then returned to the Medieval Times main menu.  If you want to
     attempt another Queen rescue you have to start again from the
     beginning of the first test.  What is needed is a "save game" feature.
     The third test of valor is really neat, but you can waste a lot of
     time trying to get to this third test and if you are killed you have
     to start all over again with the first test.  Since Medieval Times is
     largely written in extended basic I figured out a way of cheating so
     that I can start directly with the third test at any time.  Each of
     the valor tests is a stand alone XB program.  You can OLD and RUN the
     third test directly from XB's command mode.

     C- History of the Helmet shows you a series of TI Artist pictures,
     each of which shows several types of medieval helmets.  A short
     description of each helmet  accompanies each picture.

     D- This gives you a slide show of several castles.  I suspect the
     castle pictures have been converted from MAC pictures or another
     picture format since the detail shown looks too elaborate to have been
     created de novo from TI Artist.  E- from the main menu will return you
     to reality and display the 99/4A title screen.

     Two of the four disks are completely full of Ken Gilliland's own
     artwork related to medieval times.  The disks are full of TI Artist
     pictures, instances, and fonts.  You really get a lot of artwork for
     your money because some of the art is archived.  What if you don't own
     TI Artist? If you don't want to purchase TIA from a dealer, you can
     use Bruce Harrison's Drawing Program which is public domain and which
     I will send you if you mail me a buck.  TIA instances and fonts can be
     loaded into and displayed by Drawing Program.

     Ken's theme disks are all totally 99/4A and Geneve creations.  The
     artwork and software are all created on a 99/4A and the documentation
     is created using TPA for MDOS.  I know of nothing in the IBM PC world
     that resembles the unique combination of scholarship and original
     artwork found in the theme disk sets.  Probably anyone can learn from
     and enjoy Disk of Medieval Times.
     -----------------
     RISK by Oliver Arnold

     Risk is a Parker Brothers board game I enjoyed playing with my friends
     when I was a young teenager.  The object of the game is to conquer the
     world with your armies, physically occupying all countries of the
     world displayed on board game's world map.  There is at least one
     "official" Risk computer version and I have also seen in CD ROM
     collections a couple of fairware RISK versions for IBM PCs.  Now we
     99/4A owners have a nice adaption of Risk we can use on our machines.

     The assembly language (EA5) game is for 2 to 6 players.  It is a game
     of strategy, not fast action.  A joystick is required.  The gameboard
     displays an amazingly detailed multi colored mercator projection of
     the world.  The game begins with Players entering their names in the
     upper right corner of the screen.  The computer randomly divides the
     countries of the world among the various players and then allows each
     player to place his surplus armies (each country already has one army)
     in the countries under his control.  Players attack countries next to
     the ones already under the player's control, with a roll of the
     cumputer dice deciding the outcome of each battle.

     Player names, country names, and computer prompts for input are all
     displayed in teeny tiny multi colored 64 column text.  Each letter is
     only 3 pixels wide with one pixel between letters.   This is hard to
     read on a TV screen.  You had better use a monitor.   Cute background
     music plays all the time.  You can turn it off by moving the cursor
     next to the pictured gramaphone (the "His master's voice" type with a
     big horn-like speaker) and pressing the firebutton.

     Risk is an excellent eductational tool for learning world geography.
     You run into some strange country names, particularly within what is
     now Russia.  Several autonomous areas within Russia are treated by
     Risk as separate countries.  I really like this game and am amazed at
     the detail that is simultaneously squeezed onto the screen.  My only
     complaint is that sometimes all this detail is hard to see.  Players 1
     and 2 have their countries colored white and gray, colors hard to
     distinguish from each other.  Sometimes the text is hard to read
     because it is so small.

     Risk is fairware.  Send me $1 and I'll send it to you to try out.
     Oliver asks whatever you think it is worth as a fairware donation.

     ACCESS:
     Ken Gilliland (Notung Software): 7647 McGroarty St., Tujunga CA 91042.
     Olivar Arnold: Hauptstrasse 44, 69517 Gorxheimertal, Germany. Internet
     [e-mail]
     Charles Good: P.O. Box 647, Venedocia OH 45894. Phone [phone].
     Internet [e-mail]