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Text File
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1987-04-21
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3KB
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106 lines
STOS ADVENTURE CREATOR V1.02
****************************
BY DEAN SHARPLES
****************
Review By Steven Gooding
************************
This is a review of both the P.D and
the shareware versions of this utility.
Being an adventure fan myself, I can't
help but give this program a completely
biased evaluation. Having said that, I
will try to be as fair as possible.
When you load S.A.C. you are presented
with a picture of what looks like a
vampiric punk rocker suffering from a
gravity problem. You are then taken to
an almost blank screen which requests a
mouse button input as to whether you
would like to continue with the editor
or quit to the desktop. Apart from the
lack of graphics, this would have been
better if the keyboard was used instead
of the mouse.
On continuing with the editor you are
taken to the main menu screen. As
before, there is nothing visual here,
but for practicality it gets top marks,
apart from the fact that there is no
way to quit other than reseting your
machine!
You have a choice of nine options, all
of which are keyboard controlled and
these in turn take you to their own
sub-menus or to the file selector. Some
of these look a bit complicated, but if
you keep notes and maps as to what you
are doing, you shouldn't encounter too
many problems. This is explained by the
author in greater detail in the on disk
manual, which of course, should be read
before attempting to use the program.
Even in the P.D. version, you are able
to use pictures in your adventure,
stored as STOS memory bank files (MBK).
The only real limits are the amount of
locations you may have (200) and the
amount of objects (50), but as an
introduction to adventure creation you
will find this quite sufficient. The
full, registered version includes the
source code, so you are able to define
your own parameters, thus allowing you
to have as many locations and objects
as you like.
Also in the registered version, you
are treated to two extra chapters in
the manual, the first of which explains
how to use STOS tunes, sampled sound
effects, tracker music, interactive
characters and special objects in your
adventures.
The second added chapter is a simple
step-by-step guide on how to acheive a
small, basic adventure.
The disk contains an example adventure
called ST_BRIDES. This is a very simple
game indeed and does not do justice to
the capability of the its creation
system. I completed this adventure in
about ten minutes flat and I never had
to use any brain juice!
First impressions count and I don't
think the author is doing himself any
favours by using this as an example of
his creation. It certainly does not
show S.A.C.'s full potential.
There are many adventure creators
available, both commercial and public
domain/shareware, some of which are
very good, but if you have a little
knowledge of STOS basic and the urge
to write your own game then you can't
go far wrong with S.A.C.
Recommended - 8 out of 10.
Steve.
***************************************