#114 Not sold in Agadda da Vida UNDER A KILLING MOON J n Jith ads that commenced that tradition, but uses a completely the way they'd like, most noticeably VV months in advance of the· pro- rendered 3-D game world for loca­ the size of the adventure/view win­ duct's shipping date, Access tions, and lots of video clips for con­ dow. The default settings should be made adventure fans around the versations fine for world drool in anticipation for Under and non­ most play­ A Killing Moon. Many CD-ROM interactive ers. A con­ titles (StoneKeep, Phantasmagoria sequences. trol panel and Harvester to name a few) are Players will sits to the taking months longer than originally also find a right of the anticipated because they're -really in a compelling view class all by themselves. soundtrack screen. The High-technology, high-quality and tons of buttons are games do take time to create. If any­ speech and labeled, thing, we'll see fewer games in the sound although future from individual companies, effects. players can because their production cycles are The use the extended. If these fo'~er games are as story builds right well-done and technically excellent to a fitting mouse but­ and adventurer-friendly as Moon, climax as you guide Murphy through ton to cycle the cursor in the msiin you'll be glad to wait as long as it three mysteries in the not-too-distant window through various functions takes - this game surpassed the future. San Francisco is divided into for interaction with people and expectations of most skeptical two areas: Old and New. After a objects. reviewers and editors because Access nuclear war, many people were Killing Moon has two modes: virtually did everything right. turned into mutants and passed that movement and interactive. You'll per­ Killing condition along to their children, so form most of the game in interactive Moon con­ society has effectively been divided mode. As you move the pointer over Type Graphic tinues the between the "norms" and mutants. the scene, standard commands (open, Adventure · adventures The mutants live in Old San System IBM · of private Francisco and, Murphy, even though Continued on page 5 Required 386/25 MHz, 150 detective he is a "norm," he feels comfortable KB/sec CD drive, 2 MB Tex among them. His office overlooks a Contents hard disk, 4 MB RAM, SVGA Murphy, a street that is home to a restaurant, (VESA), mouse character bar, pawn shop, newsstand, electron­ Adventure Road ......... ...... 2 Recommended 300 KB/sec many ics shop, hotel and some other bro­ Beneath a Steel Sky .. ... ..... 3 CD drive, 486 w/SVGA adventure ken down places. Murphy must solve VESA local bus, I 0 MB hard will recog­ his cases and ultimately uncover a Dream Web ..... ........ .... ...4 drive, 16 MB RAM, 16-bit nize from plot by a secret society formed Flash Traffic ... ................. 5 sound board Access' ear­ against mutants. lier titles, The interface is one of the most lshar 3 .................. .... .. ... 6 Supports all major sound Mean well-organized and complete point­ The Zork Anthology .. .... .... ? boards Streets and and-click navigation systems you'll Star Trail ................. ... .. ... 8 Martian find in a CD-ROM game and the best Memorandum. Both used video tech­ Access has put together after many Walkthru: Beneath a Steel niques and other state-of-the-art (at attempts. Players can configure many Sky ........................... .... 10 the time) graphics and sound effects of the parameters of the environment Keys to the Kingdoms ..... 12 to immerse players in Murphy's world. Killing Moon continues in by Russ Ceccola Swap Shop .......... .. .... .... l ~ a_dvenruRe l\oad .. New quests Postal rate hike Dear QuestBusters: I have all your clue books, and Book A record number of new adventures Whenever the post office raises their of Clues 2 was the first I was disap­ and RPGs arrived in December, and rates, so do we. But this year, in cele­ pointed with. The first Book of approximately 40% were on CD. bration of our 1 Oth Anniversary, Clues had 35 solutions, and the new These are some of the PC titles we'll we're going to maintain the current one only fifteen. Anyway, keep up cover in the next few issues: rates and see what happens. We're the good work and keep on questing. Alone in the Dark 2 (CD), hoping to make up for the extra cost Annie Degeeter Blackthorne (CD), Death Gate (CD), of mailing the journal by selling more Enhanced System Shock (CD), King's clue books, so check the back cover A year passed between our last Quest 7 (CD), Legend of Kyrandia 3, for any that may interest you. Origin clue book (Quest for Clues: Master of Magic (CD), Noctropolis The Book of Swords) and the publi­ (CD), Voyeur (CD), Space Ace (CD), Perturbing turbo cation of QuestBusters: The Book of Dragon Lore (CD) and Wolf. Sanctuary Woods shipped a "Turbo" Clues, so there were plenty of game PC edition of Thf! Journeyman Project to cover in the latter. The Book of Missed Christmas ... before Christmas. Trouble is, to "tur­ Clues 2 was limited to summer and A record number of widely anticipat­ boize" it, they simply chopped cut fall releases from 1994, which we ed adventures and RPGs did not miss from the beginning to the end of the wanted to make available by Christmas this year. These are a few full-motion scenes .. Instead of calling it Christmas rather than let them grow that still had not shipped by the end "Turbo," it might have been more moldy. Our next collection of walk-· of 1994: Dungeon Master 2, appropriate for them to preface the throughs, Keys to the Kingdoms 2, Kingdom: The Far Reaches, Hell, game intro with a message like those f'will address all major Christmas and Harvester, Stonekeep, and Star Trek: on TV movies: 'This game has been spring releases, which means it The Next Generation - A Final edited to work on your computer. We should offer solutions to 25 adven­ Unity. chopped out all the parts you bought ture and role-playing games. the game for."' Ecstatic over Ecstatica Quest for CES previews Early reports suggest that Psygnosis' new adventure does a better job of Interplay will be showing an adven­ QMcstBMstcrs creating a virtual world than Myst, ture inspired by Frankenstein. You Editor: Shay Addams Alone in the Dark or other self-styled play the monster, awakening to find Managing Editor: Dora McCormick "multi-media" games. Ellipsoid tech­ yourself charged with murdering a Editorial Consultant: Edgar Schrock nology produces sharply defined child from the village. Tim Curry stars News Editor: Subcomandante Marcos images that look more real than poly­ as Dr. Frankenstein, and the graphics Contributing Editors: Fred J. Philipp, Clancy Shaffer, Paul Shaffer, Al Giovetti, gon-generated graphics. Combat, puz­ are supposed to look better than Mist. Russ Ceccola, Bernie Yee, Ken St. zles and some arcade sequences make (Or was it Myst?) One of those, any­ way. It will be.a CD-only game for Andre, Brian Smith, Bruce Wiley, Duffy, Ecstatica worth a look (which can This Reviewer rarely be said of European imports). Mac this spring and PC later. That perennial CES favorite, QuestBusters, ye official journal of the Nintendo RPG Stonekeep, will be on display once QuestBusters Guild, is published monthly again. (No truth to rumors the name by Red Power Ranger. Annual dues: $19 Now for our annual news about was changed to "Stonekeep 9 5" or ($6 extra for Adventure Express) . Nintendo gaming: Interplay's The "Stonekeep 2000.") Canada/Mexico: $26. Overseas: $36. QuestBusters, The QuestBusters Guild, Lord of the Rings is now available on Micro Prose will be showing the SNES. Featuring "the first use of Adventure Road and Keys to the Magic: The Gathering, based on the Kingdoms are trademarks of Eldritch real-time action in a party- fantasy card gaming sets by Wizards based ....game," it lets up to five play­ LTD. TM is a trademark of Shay Addams. of the Coast. Readysoft will preview Contents Copyright 1994 Eldritch, LTD. ers play simultaneously by using the an action adventure that also Copying without express permission is SNES Multi-player adapter (not describes the state of mind most peo- prohibited and punishable by Rhino included). Ammo. Continued on page 7 2 ~E'V"IEW Beneath a Steel Sky here have been very few graphic ship develops a fatal malfunction, Look both ways adyentures from Europe that I you survive another crash, and the game begins. Be vigilant. That's the motto pasted t have ever enjoyed. I can count all over the place in Steel Sky, and it them on one hand: Curse of the Sci­ After escaping your captors, you wander around the city seeking false is really the key to solving this game. Mutant Priestess, Lure of the The plot to is fairly solid. The puzzles Temptress (which barely made the IDs of sufficient status that will qllow you to get down to ground level and are all logical, and I never go a a sin­ list) and Simon the Sorcerer. gle one of those "There's no way I'd Developed by Revolution, who did escape the city. It didn't quite make sense to me that your character is try­ ever be able to figure that out!!?!" Lure of the Temptress, Steel Sky has experiences. I got stuck about four been available for several months on ing to get back to his village when there's nothing left of it save ashes. times in all.