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Adventure International, £9.95 cass
Authors: Mike Woodroffe, Brian Howarth, Teoman Irmak

Having had previous dealings with the Commodore 64 version, I thought I knew what to expect from Robin of Sherwood. There are some similarities but there are also some areas where the two versions differ.
The plot, based on the TV series, involves you, as Robin of
course, searching for the Touchstones mentioned in the title. They are important for various reasons which are not necessary to go into here. In fact, the game is a quest for everything; your equipment, your comrades and even Marion, your prospective spouse!

You start off in typical Adventure International fashion, stuck in a dingy dungeon in Nottingham castle (being stuck in a room is typical — not the fact that this one is in Nottingham)! Once you get out of there, the game lets Will Scarlet and Much the miller's son {who had been imprisoned with you) escape, but your hard work is only just beginning.

Graphics on Adventure International games tend to be above average but then they don't have the volume of pictures that you would find in a Level 9 game so it's really a case of you pays yer money and takes yer choice. Still, some of the views are quite stunning considering their relative unimportance to the game and I thought they were marginally better implemented on the Amstrad version than on other machines. However, there are also some which have gone missing from this version for no apparent reason. This is quite annoying because although machines like the Commodore are more thoroughly understood, due to the fact that they have been around so long, the Amstrad is a more powerful machine and could have easily handled an equivalent amount of screens. Is this lazy translation from Adventure International?

One of the great stumbling blocks for Adventure International games is that they have generally inferior vocabulary to that of their competitors. Unfortunately, nothing has changed on Robin of Sherwood. Ten minutes after you have figured out how to do something, you're still going to be trying to get the game to understand you. There's really no excuse for this and it is surprising that Al have never really taken the problem in hand. They certainly could improve their games if they wanted to.
Screen layout is the now familiar one Brian Howarth has employed ever since the days of Digital Fantasia, with the lower half displaying the scrolling text, and the separated upper half containing the graphics. The location descriptions are short, relying on the graphics for atmosphere, and 'seen' objects are often to be really seen in the picture above. Fortunately, there is a good EXAMINE, and this tends to be essential to further the action.
The difficulty level is well set, despite some frustrations due to vocabulary problems, but my overall impression was of disappointment that they had not done more with characterisation and plot sophistication. However, the game isn't bad and in fact fans of the TV series would probably Find it a worthy addition to their collection despite its limitations. For anybody else, well, you could do worse than have this game but there are more rewarding challenges awaiting you in other games. All in all, if you can spare the money, then buy it — but don't make it a top priority.

Atmosphere 70%
Plot 61%
Interaction 63%
Instability 56%
Value for money 68%
Overall 70%