~uestBusters™ ~ t The Adventurers' Journal Vol. VII,# 8 August, 1990 $2.50 No Wizardry VI? No Leisure Suit Larry IV? Everyone wants to know geta T-sh~an~~luebook. for Sierra rumors Eric Todd . when the sequel to the~ ~a~or- example, lil addi(Sb.on ~al~~u- not outlandish Mitchell Knight ite series will be out-if 1t s tographed box. pect . H · i, even happening. About a . tio~s are available only vta enough VOn e1nen.en potential Wizardry VI, for lil- mall order from ORIGIN.) The phone lines at Sierra Poner moves stance, Sir-tech ~ys, 'W,e have been strangled lately by don't even know if there s SS/ goes SF callers trying to confirm a ru- to SS/! any such animal." , SSI is using the AD & D mor that the company is shift- yes, that man of many EA has no plans for Bard s engine in Buck Rogers: ing from computer games to names has made the move to Tale IV or Wasteland II, bu_t Countdown to Doomsday. It's doing CD-ROM games only. "The Coast," as it's called in says_ Fquntain ofDreams will set for October for MS DOS , Not true. (Not even a good ru- the industry. Times of Lore be s1m1lar 1'? Wasteland. C?r with C-64 and Amiga to fol- mor, since at last count only author Todd Mitchell Porter you can,wait for Inte~lay s 1 two people in the entire coun- (yes, Todd, we fmally got it Mean Time,which will also ow. try have CD-ROM for their right!) left ORIGIN to be- use a similar system (EA has • computers and one of them is come a senior game devel- the right to ~e name Waste- Con versions in the shop!) Sierra's John oper at SSL Interceptor will land, for which Interplay de- Might & Magic II arrived_ Williams says they're branch- be his first game, then he's veloped the system . ~ Drago'! for Amiga and Mac. ~here _in ing out but will continue fo- starting on Renegade Le- Wars II (referred tom cer_tam Time is Carmen Sandzego? is cusing on computer games, gion, based on a FASA role- circles as Bard's Tale V) is coming for Amiga this month, especially for MSDOS (even playing game and due out planned for early next year. as is Prince ofPersia. Dark CGA and monochrome sup- next year. Sierra plans to ~nleash Heart of Uukrul already ar- port) and Amiga (new, en- King' s Quest V this fall. rived for MSDOS (only hanced one-meg games are on Space Quest IV mar be ready $24.95)Knight of Diamonrjs the way). But Apple conver- Accolade hints by Christmas. Hero s Quest II is due for Mac this fall, as is sions are not happening. is in the works, but no release Bard's Tale III for MSDOS. Anticipating calls from date has been set. Another The MSDOS Dungeon Master people stuck in Search/or . Camelot is planned but not is set for Christmas. EA's Excuses, etc. the King and Altered Desti­ ny, Accolade set up tw? 24- yet underway. Jim Walls may British import, Helms of This issue probably arrived do another Police Quest and Shadow (Amiga and ST), is hour hint lines (but notice a week late, a tragedy caused it's a 900 number, not an will follow up with another being ported to MSDOS for by a confluence I CEMAN, but not right now. the fall. of uncommon 800 number: 900-990- events, including the last stag­ HINT). They've also got a Sierra says no more Leisure Bad Blood will run through es of editing Quest for Clues Suit Larrys are scheduled, but the streets for C-64 u~rs this bulletin board: 408-296- III, switching all in-house 8800 (300, 1200, 2400 baud; "you never know." fall. So will Ultima VI. The writing and editing from the ORIGIN says aMoebius Amiga version (512K, ~e 8-N-l). And clue books are Mac to an MSDOS clone going for $12.95. sequel is possible.Ultima VII resolution) is set for spnng of (more frustrating than playing is "scheduled" for fall of 1991 '91. But no way will we see 'Zork blindfolded), and our ed­ (so look for it by spring of an Apple Ultima VI. '92!). ORIGIN, in addition to itor's honeymoon. It is likely the September issue will also doing "story sequels," i~,d?­ Inventory be a week behind schedule, ing "technology sequels lik~ SF2 & U6 bugs Savage Empire (see CES arti­ but by October we'll be back 'IJragon S tri~ .. ......... ....2 EA says Starflight 2 won't on tracks. cle this· issue) and a Joles play on certain MSDOS Chaos Strikf,s 'Bac~ ...... 3 Ve~e-type tale, both using clones, but didn't name them. CES Qjust 'Jl&port ........ 5 enhanced versions of the Ulti­ Acwally, you can get ~alf~ay Over the ma VI system. Bad Blood, through it before runnmg mto Conquests of Camefot ... 7 which took the same approach fatal bugs. A revised version bounding main 'Escape from :HefL .........8 as Times of Lore but en-. is imminent-be sure that's At CES, Broderbund Sorcerian .................... 10 hanced it for MSDOS, will be what you get if using a clone. showed off Galleons of Glory, followed by a super hero-type Ultima VI went through three a "resource-management ad­ 'Wa[KJliru: 9fountf of game using that system_'s lat­ versions, but ORIGIN says venture" about the secret voy­ Sfuufow .......12 est version. ORIGIN will there's no reason to request an age of Magellan. You sail have special editions of most upgrade unless you're having from Brazil ti> fmd a trade 'X!ys to ye 'l(j.ngcfoms .. 13 future releases. With Savage problems (many bugs were route around Africa to the Or­ SwapSfwp & 'Duffy.. .15 Empire, for example, you'll system-specific). ient. MSDOS, any day. Mruk felt the role-playing aspect of the Dragon Strike game could have been enhanced by giv­ Letters ing the player the ability to create his to the Takhisis and the dragons of darkness own character. Of course, SSl's idea is Editor have nothing to fear from me. (On the that you are the dragon- rider, not some other hand, Mark, who gave me extensive character that you just role-play. I can see Dear QuestBusters: notes about the look and feel of the game, how some gamers would prefer it one Thanks for the article questioning the ne­ apparently had little trouble in clearing way, and some the other. cessity of death in adventure gaming. the sky of the evil lizards.) There are 22 missions to fly, which After struggling through the innumerable I don't like flight simulators very lead to considerable advancement for battles in Bard's Tale I and//, I find it much, but I could grow to like this one on your character. They start with relatively relaxing to tum to Ultima V, where a more responsive machine, like a 386 or an Amiga. SSI and Westwood Associates fighting is not the main object of the did a terrific job in bringing the winged game. Keep up the good work. Maybe combat of Krynn, TSR's most famous game writers will see the light Dungeons and Dragons fantasy world, to Irene McCracken a computer screen. DragonStrike has it all-color, sound, man-dragon communi­ Dear QuestBusters: cation and smooth flight (actually it After noticing the poll and the new man­ lurches a bit from frame to frame on my aging editor in the May issue, I got the Tandy, but I understand it is smoother on willies-big changes on the way. Please, faster machines). EGA and Tandy graph­ no changes! Not in coverage (though an ics are very good; VGA are excellent. occasional ST review would be nice), no You really seem to be riding on a dragon changes in staff, and no changes in hu­ DragonStrike contains a wealth of de­ Weird, Weird, Weird! mor (unless it's an increase). I've seen tail, including dragon biographies, ob­ easy ones, like dispatching a couple of changes ruin (and kill, in some cases) jects to be acquired (magic things that small white scout dragons, and move to a Compute, Family Computing, ST Log work automatically), related missions grand finale against nearly invulnerable and other magazines. (The Fray, Rout, and Blood of the Moun­ Death Dragons and hordes of small flying Carl Lund tain are all tied together), other, non­ Draconians. You'll need magical weap­ dragon, foes to fight (castles and ships), ons as well as supernal reflexes and su­ Aside from raising the sub price to $150 and music that's keyed in to the action. perb judgment if you hope to free Krynn a year, we have no big changes in store. Combat is detailed. Though your main from the innumerable forces of evil. (Except that starting next month, we will weapon is the dragonlance and the deadly Copy protection in contained in the review only games for the Timex­ breath of game's 28-page manual. To begin play Sinclair, and start publishing the entire ..T_y_p_e_:_R_o-le---p-la-y-in_g_ ~~:r· you must find a symbol on a page comer, journal in Portugese-but that.'s just mi­ Flight Simulator Bronze then look up a certain word by paragraph nor fine-tuning.) The poll was just an ex­ and page number. The well-written and Systems: MSDOS Dragon, cuse for a contest so we could give away illustrated manual will also brief you on (512K; mouse & joy- you can some free subs to well-deserving adven­ the missions, the types of foes you will turers.