The following review of the Talismans Virtual Reality Gaming Host was published in Australia's Chips'n'Bits magazine in July of 1996. ---------- A RIPPER OF A RIP GAME.... by Franz Scheurer An accidental visit to the Talismans web site got my attention: A new game, virtual reality, 3D, for stand-alone or BBS door usage with supposedly great graphics and sound.....too good to resist! After reading all the blurb I decided to order the game and try it out. The company, Prime Connection, was very helpful and I was given the option of either getting the current version immediately and having to up-grade with free patches later, or waiting a few days for the next version. I chose to wait and received the game, as promised a couple of weeks later. Presentation of the package is very good, the printed manual is comprehensive, and the disks are well protected. Installation is child's play. The package is smart enough to let you chose the location, to distinguish which operating system you are running, (for time slice allocation) and to create all the files and subdirectories without a fuss. I installed the game under Windows NT, running Spitfire BBS software and I configured it as a BBS door. The six Talismans disks include all the Talismans files, but you still have to log onto the Telegrafix website and download the latest RipTerm, (vers. 2.20.01) and optionally 5 RipTerm patches to make the game work. Players must use RipTerm 2.20.01 or later to play this game, and their computer must be set to standard resolution and 256 colours. The game is very smart indeed. When a user logs into the Talismans door, the game goes into "detect" mode and correctly analyses what kind of a terminal proggie you are using and will respond with ANSI/RIP whatever is appropriate and will let you play if you have all the correct files already installed, or alternatively, offer to send you RipTerm 2.20.01 or the correct patch; the Talismans Graphics (mandatory) and Sound (optional) files. If you select to have them sent to you it will do so immediately and efficiently and due to the fact that this is all happening within the game you don't have to worry about these downloads affecting your users up/download ratios. (it is, after all over 9 mb!) Every single aspect of the game is fully customisable and configurable by the sysop. After downloading, the player must run the graphics and the sound exe files in their RipTerm \icons directory, log back into the games door, and bingo, you're in like Flynn. Talismans is a RPG/Adventure game, utilising Rip 2 graphics in 256 colours and music and sound effects. The currently available world consists of over 40 maps each one full of puzzles, monsters and allies. This is no simple text adventure with pretty pictures, but a 3D world that lets you move through a rich fantasy world of forests, palaces, gardens, dungeons and more. It supports up to 255 simultaneous online players and other online characters' movements are tracked automatically in the overhead display. There is a chat feature as well. Players can customise their character's appearance and attributes and each player can control up to 9 different characters and each one in a separate world, if so desired. Characters can be chosen from six different guilds: Warrior, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Templar and Mage and each character develops magical talents by mastering Fire, Water, Air, Stone and Life. Experience points are earned as a character wins battles, solves puzzles and finishes quests. Spells and skills are learned and attributes are built, namely: strength, defence, wisdom, resistance and speed. It is possible to create extra worlds, both off and on line by simply using the point and click editor. World editing allows you to create mazes, treasures, quests, battles, puzzles and build weapons, armour, potions, charms and magical items. Create a horde of beings and creations to harass or help players with the enemy editor. A world can be made accessible to all, or just to the creator, so that a world under construction can stay private until the creator is satisfied with it. Game play is intuitive and straight forward. This is truly a game for the enthusiast RPG player. It will take a very long time indeed for a single player to finish one complete world. You don't just kill a dragon and start again from scratch. Extra worlds can be freely traded, or marketed with the help of Prime Connection via their web site. After one week on my BBS, this game has 15 active players and I really do think that this game will be a long term hit. There are however no on-line help files available as yet. The menu option is there, but not the actual help. This is a commercial game, and therefore rather expensive. I whole-heartedly recommend this game to any sysop who can justify spending the money. It won't let you or your users down. It is as stable as a rock and has not misbehaved in any way, shape or form, not even once. Here is my rating out of 10 max. points: Presentation and Documentation 10 Installation 9 Graphics: 10 Music and Sound effects: 10 Puzzles and Quests: 10 Speed on ease of use 8 Reliability: 10 Price: 5 ---------- Prime Connection On-line Interactive Multimedia Voice: 1-800-420-8242 Voice: 1-408-724-0992 Fax: 1-408-724-8206 E-Mail: info@primec.com Web: http://www.csra.net/talismans