The Forest At Worlds End

ComSoft6128 · 11:27, 09 March 22

Early text adventure (with some graphics) released by Interceptor Software in 1985.
Using the solution provided by Kukulcan at CPCPOWER I have a partial walk-thru (run-thru) of just over half of the game.
The accompanying music is provided by 'The Blue Danube' & 'The William Tell Overture' transcribed to the CPC (using the Advanced Music System) by Rob Baxter in the mid-eighties and is Running on a second 6128.
So if you wish to experience the game in its original form - hit mute!

Amstrad Computer User review:
https://archive.org/details/AmstradComputerUser04-0385/page/n17/mode/1up

Links:
https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Forest_at_World%27s_End
https://www.cpc-power.com/index.php?page=detail&num=906
http://www.cpcgamereviews.com/f/index6.html#the_forest_at_worlds_end
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interceptor_Micros
https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/The_Advanced_Music_System

Not emulated - original hardware and software.
Please note that the aspect ratio for this YouTube video is 16:9 but the CPC monitor
has an aspect ratio of 4:3 so you may wish to adjust your viewing device accordingly.

zeropolis79 · 19:30, 09 March 22

Those Inteceptor games always did have great graphics.

ComSoft6128 · 07:15, 10 March 22

Yes I liked the graphics but it would have been nice to have one of the Elf which frequently attacks you.

awergh · 15:19, 12 March 22

I have this but I never did make much progress.
I hadn't yet realised I was supposed to make a map when playing a text adventure.
Video looks a bit strange to me, I've never actually seen the game in colour only ever in green

.

Animalgril987 · 22:19, 12 March 22

Jewels of Babylon had great graphics, as well.
I think I still have maps of JOB and FAWE from back in the day.

Nworc · 23:56, 12 March 22

Yes, these adventures with graphics by Terry Greer are such a beauty. Watching the screen to build up was joy on its own, not comparable to other graphic adventures. I believe their pattern renderer was unique as I can't recall titles from other studios doing it like this. I think they used 8x8 pixel characters to build up the shapes, but the renderer could print it to arbitrary locations.

See how consistent they are: the loading screen seems to be in Basic, when looking at the paint speed. Yet is seems to use a similar technique to draw the picture than the painter from the main program, which is in MC.

Most of their adventures are also available for the ZX spectrum. You would think they would have just reused the graphics as is. But no, if you compare the scenes, you see that they are quite different, so they really put effort into the conversion to get the most out of the respective system. I don't know, which is the original and which the conversion. The CPC graphics however are the best.

ComSoft6128 · 06:22, 13 March 22

Quote from: Animalgril987 on 22:19, 12 March 22Jewels of Babylon had great graphics, as well.
I think I still have maps of JOB and FAWE from back in the day.

Thanks for the pointer I'll have a look at JOB sometime this week.

ComSoft6128 · 06:28, 13 March 22

Quote from: Nworc on 23:56, 12 March 22Yes, these adventures with graphics by Terry Greer are such a beauty. Watching the screen to build up was joy on its own, not comparable to other graphic adventures. I believe their pattern renderer was unique as I can't recall titles from other studios doing it like this. I think they used 8x8 pixel characters to build up the shapes, but the renderer could print it to arbitrary locations.
See how consistent they are: the loading screen seems to be in Basic, when looking at the paint speed. Yet is seems to use a similar technique to draw the picture than the painter from the main program, which is in MC.
Most of their adventures are also available for the ZX spectrum. You would think they would have just reused the graphics as is. But no, if you compare the scenes, you see that they are quite different, so they really put effort into the conversion to get the most out of the respective system. I don't know, which is the original and which the conversion. The CPC graphics however are the best.

https://www.terrygreer.com/adventuregames.html

manossg · 07:18, 13 March 22

@ComSoft6128

Thanks, mate, for bringing these obscure games to my attention.

ComSoft6128 · 07:47, 13 March 22

Quote from: manossg on 07:18, 13 March 22@ComSoft6128

Thanks, mate, for bringing these obscure games to my attention.

To be honest though I looked at a few of these "back in the day" I never had the time (or inclination) to really get into them but as part of CPC history they should be recorded on video.

ComSoft6128 · 07:49, 13 March 22

Quote from: Animalgril987 on 22:19, 12 March 22Jewels of Babylon had great graphics, as well.
I think I still have maps of JOB and FAWE from back in the day.

From Popular Computng Weekly (taken from CPCRulez):

"To some companies the term 'graphic adventure' seems to be an excuse to call up a load of slow and intensely boring box-like pictures and use that as an excuse to avoid any pretence of atmosphere in the text. Fortunately Interceptor have gone down a very different road and have built themselves a pretty good reputation for adventures in the process. Jewels of Babylon should greatly enhance this image because, in terms of plot, I found it a huge improvement on Forest at the World's End which was really quite simple and written in a minimalist style.

Not only are there more, and more interesting, puzzles in this game but the author has also allowed himself the luxury of including the occasional adjective or line of descriptive prose to liven things up.

To be honest it's not Level 9 and you still get annoying sequences like when in the rowboat ''ROW SOUTH" - "I DON'T UNDERSTAND", "GO SOUTH" - "TRY ROWING" etc. On the whole though the text handling is pretty reasonable but what about the graphics?

They are absolutely superb, probably the best I've seen, and the color restraint due to the use of four color mode somehow adds to their charm. They appear extremely quickly too.

It is a tribute to Interceptor, and I suppose a tribute to Amstrad, that when playing the game in the office everyone who walked past stopped short in admiration and demanded to know what the program was. If Interceptor
keep this up they can forget about their arcade games."

Animalgril987 · 16:11, 13 March 22

Interceptor did 2 other graphical text adventures, Heroes of Karn, which I never had back then, and Message from Andromeda, which I never completed. Guess I'll have to finish it now, and get a copy of HoK to play with

Nich · 18:32, 13 March 22

Quote from: Animalgril987 on 16:11, 13 March 22Interceptor did 2 other graphical text adventures, Heroes of Karn, which I never had back then, and Message from Andromeda, which I never completed. Guess I'll have to finish it now, and get a copy of HoK to play with

Actually, they released four more adventures - the other two being Warlord and After Shock.

Animalgril987 · 19:36, 13 March 22

@Nich. My bad.

I'll see f I can find these other 2.

ComSoft6128 · 19:36, 13 March 22

1985 interview with Terry Greer from Popular Computing Weekly (@ CPCRulez):

https://cpcrulez.fr/auteur-terry_greer.htm

Strident · 19:50, 13 March 22

Terry was interviewed fairly recently in Classic Adventurer too...
http://classicadventurer.co.uk/

(The interview is in issue 4 and there's a celebration of his art in issue 3).

Interceptor were, at one point, going to launch a new wave of adventures on a resurrected Automata label (Anthony Collins had some games lined up to be published by them). This relaunch was delayed and eventually didn't happen, though.

News:

The Forest At Worlds End