GRIMALKIN THE CAT (128)
Simon Wood
Spectrum 128
This adventure is part of a compilation in a fanzine published by Simon
Wood.
This is the second of Simon Wood's games I have played (the first I have
not yet conquered). Very good, complex, interesting game: challenging,
good atmosphere, nice premise, cohesive and internally consistent (as a
cat you can only carry three objects at a time) and it keeps you guessing.
Chance elements are few, but actions apparently need to be done in a
particular order, as that "triggers" a further sequence of events.
The challenge is this: you need to find objects to teleport back as a
witch. But the objects are different depending on what month it is which
you do not know when you start. As you do not find this out until you are
much further in the game, you obviously need to take the objects needed
for both time periods. I made the logical (?) assumption that the later
the better, so I avoided the objects needed for the first time period.
But, until you know, and even after you know, you still need to get them
in order for those actions to "trigger" other actions which get you the
objects you need, therefore returning to previous locations is necessary.
Sounds complex? It is. You also need to explore first to know where to
leave the objects. There are lots of red herrings that use up time. Other
than the spelling and grammatical errors, this is a very good game and
provides hours of frustration while knowing what it is that is causing
that frustration (if that is the measure of satisfaction). It's not that
you don't know what you need to do, it's how and when to do it.
You will need to eat. And there is a time limit to the game. While I often
find such requirements frustrating and annoying in other games, for some
reason, it did not bother me so much here, maybe because they were
infrequent or maybe because I marvel at how this man's mind could handle
all these complexities at one time. My congratulations to the author. Now,
if I could just solve the other game...
It is 489 AD. You are Grimalkin the witch who has died. She decided she
needed to be a cat in order to return. You turn yourself into a cat and
the adventure begins.
Hints:
You don't need the Lore book after you've read it.
KILL the pony.
Since time passes even if you do not make a move, keep track.
Ignore the butterfly.
Don't waste your time on the Lada.
If you type HINT, you should lose points: however, I finished with more
than 100, not using any hints. They are not very helpful anyway.
Keep an eye on the time. When you get hungry, you have half an hour
(exactly) in which to find and eat food. There are three.
I found that if you ignored the chips (a food item) and went later to
retrieve them, they were not there, so TAKE and DROP, preferably in a
different location.
The only thing helpful in the library van is the Record newspaper. In the
house, ignore the objects in the living room.
Taking and dropping objects (primarily those you do not need) do not lose
you points.
The red herring, is a red herring. But pick it up anyway. Since it's
plastic, would it be good as a food source? There are other red herrings
as well. So is the log. The ladder is not one of them, but the horseshoe
is. This is a nice touch, considering that you run into a pony.
You need to SEARCH RUBBISH more than once.
As you will have noticed, the river is not the place to go.
You need to remove the hat to leave the house.
Terri Sheehan
2007-03-30
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