Alternate Reality: The City / game / commercial
From: Michael Current (aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 01/18/92-12:38:43 PM Z
From: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
Subject: Alternate Reality: The City / game / commercial
Date: Sat Jan 18 12:38:43 1992
Reprinted from A.C.E.C. BBS (614)-471-8559
(written 12/88 for CURRENT NOTES)
ALTERNATE REALITY - THE CITY
Programmed by Philip Price
Music by Gary Gilbertson
Microscreen Art by Craig Skinner
The Alternate Reality series is BY FAR the most popular set of
adventures ever written for the Atari 8-bits. If you haven't yet
discovered why, you're in for a real treat when you do. The City is
an absolute masterwork of graphics, music, and fantasy. I've long
been an ardent fan of adventure games - especially of good graphic
adventures. It wasn't until one night back in the summer of 1986,
when I decided to try out my new modem on Compuserve's Atari section,
that I found at least 100 messages pertaining to "Alternate Reality"
(AR). Upon reading them, I deduced that AR The City must be a truly
provocative and fascinating game.
The documentation is quite adequate and straightforward, though
after playing the game for awhile, some may find it a bit thin on
details. This is a common complaint regarding documentation for
better adventure games, and the omissions are intentional to preserve
some of the mysteries and secrets of the games. If you have two disk
drives, once you've entered The City, you can play uninterrupted by
disk swapping (until you wish to save your character). The game plays
significantly faster on an XL/XE (less disk access: it uses an extra
16K as a small ramdisk) than on an 800/400(48K). Your most important
tool is the map provided in the Guidebook. The City is positively
IMMENSE! It is laid out in a 64 X 64 square grid. Within each square
are 36 positions (6 X 6: it takes 6 steps to cross a square in
whichever direction). Within each position you may assume any of 4
orientations (north, south, east, or west). In most locations you can
tell which direction you're facing by the difference in the shapes of
the mountains and scenery off in the distance. For those other
locations where the horizon is not visible, a compass is available for
purchase at any of the shops in The City to help you regain your
bearings. The map only shows you the City Wall (city limits), the two
Main Streets (one runs north and south, the other runs east and west),
and the center of The City, where the two Main Streets intersect at
the Floating Gate. YOU have to travel to the unmapped areas and draw
in the walls yourself, based upon what you see in front of you. The
square-to-square boundaries are not as clear as they should be, but
they are visible if you look carefully at the walls. A few of the
openings and doorways are shown on your map, but many are invisible,
or only visible from one side, or passable only in one direction.
It's advisable that you make many copies of the original map, and
either work in pencil or keep plenty of white-out handy - as you're
bound to make mistakes as you begin filling in the uncharted regions.
Once you've run around the streets for a few days, you get to know The
City just as you would get to know any other unfamiliar town you'd
explore here on Earth. Most people I know who've been playing for a
short while just stroll easily about the familiar parts of The City
without the map. You get to know what's nearby the center of town: a
place to eat, a place to sleep, a couple of places to buy clothes, a
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place to buy weapons, and a place to earn interest on your money.
In AR The City, you, the adventurer, have undergone abduction by
aliens who then take you to a strange, walled city on another planet.
This is impressively depicted - and accompanied by some of the most
technically advanced music ever to come out of any 8-bit computer - in
the game's introduction, which lasts for about five minutes (and can
be bypassed by pressing START anytime after about 5 seconds into the
loading). Somehow, through the use of his "Advanced Music Processor",
Philip Price has found a method of having more than four voices to
sound simultaneously. Those of you who are familiar with music theory
and harmony: listen closely, and count the voices. (I've counted at
least six concurrent voices in a few of the AR City songs. Try
playing this game on a stereo-equipped TV or through a stereo VCR with
a good set of headphones instead of your normal dinky "lo-fi" TV
speaker. The sound effects produced by your Atari will BLOW YOU AWAY!
The music in The Dungeon sequel - though very nice - doesn't even come
close, technically.) The intro rivals many movie intros I've seen.
When you regain conciousness, you're in a room with a large portal
with an energy field glistening across its opening. Above the door is
a display panel of seven constantly-changing numbers, each
representing a critical attribute of your character. To the lower-
right is another changing number representing the amount of money
you'll be starting with. Each of these numbers changes at a different
rate. You may be there for quite awhile waiting for what you hope
will be the best combination of vital statistics for your character.
You can't possibly follow all of these numbers changing at the same
time, so it's a good idea to pick two or three of what you consider to
be the more important attributes and wait for them to simultaneously
display higher numbers. The instant you've decided that your best
choice of numbers has rolled up on the panel, you lunge forth with
abandon through the shimmering energy field (that is - you push ahead
on the stick or hit any key) and your numbers freeze as you will soon
be taking your first steps in "The City of Xebec's Demise".
Note 1: When you're entering The City for the first time, it's a
good idea to use a "Temporary Character" (option "T" on the "Character
Decision Menu"). This allows you to quickly enter and roam around to
get used to your surroundings. You don't have to worry too much about
waiting for the perfect set of stats to come up, as you're mostlikely
gonna die soon anyway. A temporary character is, of course, not
savable.
Note 2: When you feel that you're ready to try a savable
character (I hesitate to call it a "permanent" character - in that
world of Assassins, Dragons, and Nightstalkers even the most
experienced characters have been known to bite the dust!) and you're
not satisfied with the combination of numbers you've begun with, you
should reboot the game - without letting the rest of The City load -
and try running the entrance portal again. I wish the programmer had
provided us with a routine for "quitting" the game and re-entering The
City without having to reboot. The initial boot (to get to the
Character Decision Menu and the Entrance Portal) takes about 40
seconds if you bypass the full introduction. But the loading of the
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rest of The City takes an average of about 3.5 minutes with disk
swaps. AR The Dungeon (which we'll discuss next issue), the first
sequel to The City, has such a routine and it's quite a convenience.
Note 3: Once you're satisfied with your initial character, let
The City finish loading and save the character to disk IMMEDIATELY
upon reaching the Floating Gate. Make a few copies of that saved-game
disk (any sector-copier will work) - because if you don't, if (when!)
you die, those stats you worked so long and hard to obtain will be
gone forever! (That is, unless you happen to have a neat little public
domain utility which I'll tell you more about later.)
Once you've passed through the ship's portal, you'll find
yourself at The City's center section facing north, with the Floating
Gate directly ahead of you. In the text display toward the lower end
of the screen, you'll notice a rough indication of your location ("You
are on a street", "...on an alley", "...in a room", etc.) and how much
food and water you're carrying. If you back up or turn around to face
the direction from which you came, don't even think about backing
through that door. The ship has left you - and there's no turning
back! As you look around, you'll see the difference in the scenery
and you'll hear (and almost feel) the wind howling softly around you
as it flows briskly against the light gray stone walls of the center
of town. The actual graphics section of the screen is just a small
central portion of the display (just roughly 2.7" X 4.9" on a 13"
television) but due to the great detail of the graphics, it's no
trouble seeing what's going on from the player's standpoint (and from
a programmer's point of view, a larger graphics area of such
meticulous detail would eat up much of the ram reserved for the rest
of the game).
As time goes by (if you're still alive!), you'll get to see your
first sunset (yes, the sun does rise in the east in the morning, and
it sets in the west at dusk - it's quite beautifully done). Sometimes
the air is perfectly still, then all of a sudden a pouring rain begins
- often complete with lightning and thunder (very realistic! - I've
left the game in "pause" during a "storm" more than once, and members
of my family had to do a double-take out the windows to see if it was
wet outside). As you pass close to a couple of areas (hint: areas
which pertain to sequels) during certain times of the day, you can
hear the distant music and/or activity coming from the other side of
the walls which is meant to clue you as to where you are. There are
so many nice details of this sort written into this game, but I'll
leave a great majority of them for you to discover. As you explore
your new home-town you'll eventually run out of food and get hungry,
or get tired of walking around all day and night. For these
conditions, there are Taverns and Inns at various locations throughout
The City. Some are hidden quite well. In general (but not always!),
the farther from the center of town, the lower the prices are. In the
Taverns, you'll hear much more of the incredibly intricate music of
composer Gary Gilbertson, accompanied by lyrics which often are
helpful not only in The City, but are best remembered for later
sequels as well. If you don't (or can't afford to) eat or sleep,
you'll get progressively more hungry and/or tired and your stats will
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diminish with gradually increasing rapidity. As soon as you get
enough to eat and/or get enough sleep, you'll regain your previous
stat levels. Inns are also the only place where you can find out the
date and the time of day. You can even get terribly drunk in this
game from consuming too many alchoholic beverages in the tavern, or by
taking a "Potion of Inebriation". The on-screen effect is quite
realistic: you stumble against walls, spin around in different
directions, you even have blackouts. While this might seem funny to
some, it can also be suicidal if you're trying to defend yourself
during an encounter. You must either find an Inn and sleep it off,
find and take a "Potion of Cleanse", or pay one of the Healers to cure
you.
There are MANY different life-forms traversing The City, and
there are times when you encounter them quite often. There are "good"
entities and "evil" ones. These can be easily distinguished by the
short tune which plays just prior to their appearance. While good
beings may be met at any time, there are certain evil creatures which
can only be encountered in the dark of night or during a rainstorm.
You may choose to have your own character be either good or evil by
the manner in which you interact with others. You may find treasure
after encounters in the form of precious stones, magic potions,
weapons, armor, or money. The jewels and gems you find may be taken
to any of the three banks in The City and cashed in (prices vary from
day-to-day, bank-to-bank). The potions may be anywhere from extremely
beneficial to extremely detrimental for your character. Though these
should be taken with caution, too much delay may cause the potion to
vanish. The game doesn't tell you exactly what potion is in the vial
until you've taken enough of it. If you're unlucky enough to take a
potion of Poison, you, in a desperate race with time, must either
find and take a potion of Antidote or find one of the two Healers in
The City (they're not always home, either!). There is a wide variety
of weapons and armor to be found after an encounter or purchased from
a Smithy (mostly Medieval types, which seems a bit anachronistic)
which may be either mundane, magical, or cursed. You can always tell
when you're near a Smithy when you hear him busily hammering away on
his anvil. Different types of weapons and armor vary greatly in
strength, and some creatures can only be defeated by certain special
types of weapons which are rarely found and only possessed by the
luckiest adventurers. You may take any of your City possessions with
you "downstairs" into The Dungeon sequel (with the exception that
you're limited to taking only 16 potions).
There are 12 accessible Guilds in The City. Although you can't
join any of the Guilds in this episode (not until you reach The
Dungeon), each one you find rewards you with increases in your
character stats. The Wizards and Mages of the Guilds are the only
ones who have the power to rid you of any cursed weapons.
Just a few Complaints:
(1.) During an encounter, when your adversary steals something from
you and then you kill him (it), you rarely get back what was taken
(after a kill in The Dungeon, all that was taken is available for you
to pick up... even the corpse of your fallen foe).
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(2.) Once as a neophyte in The City, I was dying of thirst. A
pouring rain began. I thought my prayers had been answered, but not
so. For some odd reason (oversight?) the game doesn't allow you to
drink rain (who knows... maybe it's not water???).
(3.) I don't think all of the "security" during character name input
at the beginning of the game was necessary, but it's tolerable.
(4.) There are just a few minor misspellings of some rather
elementary words, which tend to grate on the nerves of some of us
perfectionist-types.
(5.) The most deadly flaw in the game is exitsence of the dreaded
so-called "kill-squares". These are two locations which are only one
square in area, each having a one-way secret (invisible) door to the
inside, and NO WAY OUT. There's nothing to do in there but hopelessly
bash yourself against the walls wishing that a door would appear (it
won't) and fight off any other hapless victims who are also so unlucky
to have stumbled in there with you - until you starve and die. For
those of you with maps, the locations of the kill squares are at
coordinates 4N,41E and 6N,47E (don't forget to begin counting with
ZERO). Mark them in on your map and avoid these locations AT ALL
COST! If you do happen to end up in either one, don't even stop to
lament, just shut the machine off and reboot.
(6.) I wish that the documentation went into more detail concerning
the relative "ranking" of the many types of weapons and armor - or
even just a simple listing. It took a group of us (Compuserve users)
a few months and a couple of phone calls and letters to Philip Price
(the author) himself (his address can be found by booting disk 1 side
2) to determine this fairly accurately. One of the undocumented goals
of the game is to become the possessor of the most powerful offensive
weapon (the Magical Flamesword), the best defensive weapon (the
Magical Tower Shield), and the best armor (Magical Crystal Plate).
Only once in over two years of playing have I had one character obtain
all of these items. Many others I know were much more lucky than I,
but there are also many more who've never seen ANY of those weapons
and they think that Mr. Price forgot to include them on their disks.
Believe me, they're there, but your chances of finding them are
completely governed by lady luck.
Players who have modems have a tremendous advantage over those
who don't. The single greatest source of information in the world on
Alternate Reality is Compuserve's 8-bit Atari SIG (Special Interest
Group), command: "Go Atari8". On no other on-line service have I seen
anywhere close to such a level of AR enthusiasm. Though most of the
current talk concerns The Dungeon, most of us are quite familiar with
The City and all of its secrets. There are loads of informational and
utility files in the "Games & Entertainment" data library and all can
be found by using the search key "ALTERNATE" or "AR". One lists each
of the potions and their characteristics, another (uploaded by yours
truly) lists all of the beings who exist in The City, what weapons
they carry, and their moral alignment (good or evil). There is at
least one set of files which contains a complete map of The City which
can either be printed out or viewed in sections in RLE format right on
your TV (software for viewing RLE pictures is also in the public
domain and is available free from most on-line services). There is a
utility for resurrecting dead City characters. A very large set of
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files (also compiled and uploaded by me) containing all of the most
pertinent AR City-related messages over the space of about a year
(when the AR City talk was at its height back in 1986-1987) would be
extremely helpful to the AR novice. That set is literally chock-full
of helpful hints.
Before I close, I must divulge just one undocumented City secret.
There are actually two extra Guilds, both of which are located in a
normally inaccessible area. There is another public domain utility
available which creates a new door (which the programmers seem to have
accidentally omitted) which gives you access to a place none of us
could get to before. The original Guidebook stated clearly that there
were 14 Guilds, but when it was realized that the door wasn't there, a
decision was made to change the Guidebook instead of the program.
A Gentle Warning: AR The City and The Dungeon can become
incredibly captivating and consuming. Often, players have said that
they don't feel as if they're playing The City, they're LIVING it. As
your character hungers and thirsts, YOU feel hungry and your mouth
begins to feel dry. As your character tires, YOU feel your eyelids
become heavy. There's something special about the first-person 3D
perspective used which clearly distinguishes the FEEL of this game
from those such as the Ultimas or some of the SSI role-playing graphic
adventures, which all employ the second-person view (you see
yourself). Even with all its shortcomings, Alternate Reality - The
City is a spectacular introduction and preparation for Alternate
Reality - The Dungeon and the sequels (AR - The Arena, The Palace, The
Wilderness, Revelation, and Destiny) that will hopefully follow!
(end.)
My name is Lauren Emery. Many of those closest to me call me Larry.
I'm 31 years of age, a concert pianist, I've played professional
basketball (briefly) in Spain and Argentina (I'm 6'11" tall, 245
lbs.), and my hobbies are many. I'm presently employed as a quality
control technician for Interspec, Inc., an ultrasound cardiographic
imaging systems manufacturer in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. I invite
anyone with AR questions to either catch me on Compuserve (ID:
73137,3172) or to write me at the address below:
Lauren Royce Emery
6617 Lincoln Drive
Philadelphia, PA 19119
Thanks to Len Poggiali, Joe Waters, and all others involved for the
opportunity to write this, my first "official" software review.
The game is originally by Datasoft, now owned by Electronic Arts.
Current AR programming is handled by:
Datasoft/IntelliCreations, Inc.
19808 Nordhoff Place
Chatsworth, CA 91311
(818) 886-5922
List Price: $29.95.
--
Michael Current, Cleveland Free-Net 8-bit Atari SIGOp -->> go atari8 <<--
The Cleveland Free-Net Atari SIG is the Central Atari Information Network
Internet: currentm@carleton.edu / UUCP: ...!umn-cs!ccnfld!currentm
BITNET: currentm%carleton.edu@interbit / Cleveland Free-Net: aa700
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