The Worm in Paradise Amstrad CPC

Pete Austin

The Worm in Paradise

cpc

0

1

>A Science Fiction adventure in the 25th Century Eden, with 200+ pictures >on everything but the BBC. You nay never bite another apple! Level 9 >Computing specialise in big adventures with 200 + locations, detailed >scenery and interesting storylines. This one understands a wider range >of full English sentences than anything we've seen so far. It has a >thousand word vocabulary, better than 50% text compression, >multi-tasking in all graphics versions and it's entirely by the Austins. >The Worm in Paradise concludes the Silicon Dream Trilogy following the >award-winning Snowball and Return to Eden (though you don't need to have >played these). It's your last chance to give an arm and a leg for an >inflatible Kim Kimberley. The robot megapolis of Enoch may be a paradise >for the silent majority, but it's a real challenge for those with higher >ambitions. Especially if, with your faithful Dagget wrapped round your >leg, you intend to save the world. See the inside of this cover for more >details. > -- <cite>Cassette cover</cite> ***The Worm in Paradise*** is the third and final instalment of the Silicon Dreams trilogy and is a departure from the previous games. It "evolved alongside a 12 month enhancement on Level 9's own adventure system. Standard features include a 1,000 word vocabulary, a very highly-advanced English input, memory-enhancing text compression, the now familiar and very much appreciated type-ahead, and multi-tasking so a player need never wait while a picture is drawn." This was the first game using version 3 of the A-Code system. It was released for four fewer platforms, excluding the Lynx, Memotech MTX, Nascom and Oric-1 compared to the two previous releases. Another difference is that the player has only seven days, within the game's clock, to complete the game. Quests are also time-based and require that the player arrive at certain locations at specific hours to achieve the desired goal. And while gameplay remains the same, the backdrop is no longer an action adventure, but a political thriller that resembles the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Similar to what happened when Snowball was released, there was certain confusion about the main character's identity and the time when the story is set. The Level 9 Fact Sheet says: "...a couple of years later, Kim Kimberley has become a legend on Eden." Another article stated: "Worm in Paradise is set 100 years later. You are now Kim Kimberley III..." Furthermore, Pete Austin said, "Worm is set on Eden, about 50 years in the future" and "The player is not Kim - she becomes mayor and runs the place." Notice that these sources termed the game by its original name, Worm in Paradise. ***Gameplay*** The games use a text parser for entering commands at the "What now?" prompt. The parser can interpret more than a thousand words to control movement or actions. It looks at the command, picking out two or three words it knows, ignoring the order, and tries to guess what is meant. For movement, the usual commands for moving 'NORTH', 'SOUTH', 'EAST' and 'WEST' are available (and their abbreviated forms of 'N', 'S', 'E' and 'W') as well as 'UP' and 'DOWN' ('U' and 'D' respectively) and a number of other directions and 'modes' of movement (like 'JUMP'). For actions, it understands how to pick up objects, opening doors, lighting lamps, as well as dropping objects and wielding  them. Additionally, there are commands to invoke 'SAVE' and 'RESTORE' of game positions to cassette tape or floppy disk (for some systems also to RAM), ask for 'HELP', turn off pictures and turn them on again with 'WORDS' and 'PICTURES' respectively, an 'OOPS' command to undo previous commands. Source:[Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worm_in_Paradise#The_Worm_in_Paradise)