By
now, most of you have probably seen the advertising for "Fantasyland".
If not, you are missing out on one of the most interesting programs available
for the Atari. Fantasyland is loosely based on the popular movies "Westworld"
and "Futureworld", in which wealthy vacationers are able to live out
their fantasies in special worlds created for their enjoyment. In the case of
Fantasyland there are six such worlds, or lands: Congoland, Arabian Adventure,
King Arthur, Olympus, Captain Nemo, and Dante's Inferno. These lands have been
carefully constructed in the outbacks of Australia and now, in 2041 A.D., are
considered to make up the ultimate resort, known to the world as
"Fantasyland".
For
those wealthy enough to enter Fantasyland (a three million dollar entrance fee
is requested up front), there are many sleepless nights ahead. For in order to
leave Fantasyland, you must find your way through all six lands, rescue
Guinevere (or Lancelot, "according to your taste") from the clutches
of the Underworld, and return to the Hall of Heroes, from whence the odyssey
begins. Unfortunately, within each land are those that are programmed to see
that you do not succeed. In order to defeat their programming, you must destroy
them. In order to carry out their programming, they must destroy you. In
essence, therefore, you will either succeed in rescuing Guinevere (or Lancelot),
or you will have paid for the most expensive funeral ever.
If
this sounds like something you might be interested in doing, but without the
investment and the risk, then you're going to love Fantasyland, the program.
Occupying around 400,000 bytes (not 500,000 as the ads claim) on three
double-sided disks, Fantasyland is perhaps the most ambitious Atari program to
date. Each disk side contains the data for one land, including over 40,000 bytes
of graphics data alone. This data is in map form, however, rather than picture
form. In other words, what you see on your screen as you play Fantasyland is a
hi-res map of the particular land you are in. This map includes trees, swamps,
mountains, and other terrain that must be negotiated as well as characters and
creatures that are bent on destroying you. Needless to say, you yourself are
also represented on this map. Using the joystick, you are able to move yourself
around the screen, and thereby around the map. When you attempt to move off the
edge of the screen, however, the map starts scrolling. For example, if you
attempt to move off the top of the screen, the map will scroll down, while you
stay at the top of
the screen. In this way, the screen acts as a window on a map that is really as
large as SIXTEEN screens! Not only that, but each land is made up of four such
maps; two high by two wide (when you cross over onto another map, the computer
loads it into memory from disk - very quickly). Therefore, the map of each land
is as large as sixty-four screens. You can easily imagine how time consuming it
is to explore each land.
As
if exploring alone wouldn't be enough, there are also many obstacles that must
be overcome in order to successfully complete your odyssey. To aid you in this
task, you are able to carry various items with you on your journey. Some of
these items may be purchased in the Hall of Heroes, the starting point of
Fantasyland. Warriors, for example, are necessary to do battle with the enemies
you will come across. There are different types of warriors for each land, and
each warrior has different abilities for attacking and defending. Each warrior
is also able to carry a specific amount of weight, and you may also buy men
and/or horses for the sole purpose of carrying things. In order to carry things
with you, you MUST have enough men. If the weight of your baggage is more than
your men can carry, then you will not be able to move. In this case, you must
drop some of your baggage before you will be able to continue. Depending on
where you drop things, you may pick them up again later on.
The
most important thing that you must carry with you is rations. Without rations,
your men will quickly starve, and you will eventually die. Unfortunately, you
are only able to carry a limited amount of rations, which will eventually run
out. The more men you have with you, the sooner your rations will run out. The
less men you have, the worse you will fare in battle. Luckily, there are places
within each land where you may trade, and pick up extra rations. That is, of
course, if you can find them in time. Once you have left the Hall of Heroes,
these trading posts are the only places where you will be able to buy anything,
so it is extremely worthwhile to find them as soon as you can.
There
is one cheap and easy way to get supplies without having to trade. Scattered
across each land are treasures. All you have to do to claim them is walk over to
them and pick them up. They vary from gold pieces, which you will need in order
to trade (you start off with 5,000 gold pieces), to magical items that are
essential to your success, to worthlesspieces of junk (you'll have to determine
what's worthless and what's not), to extremely valuable treasures
(that are, unfortunately, also extremely heavy). Some parts of some lands may be
important just for the treasures they contain. Treasures will not appear in the
same place every time, however, and may not still be there if you go back for
them later.
Apart
from the terrain, the trading posts, the treasures, and other
"special" features, each land has an impassible wall that surrounds
it, and an entrance and an exit. The entrance to Congoland is through the Hall
of Heroes. The entrance to Arabian Adventure is through Congoland and so forth.
With the exception of the Hall of Heroes, passing from one land to the next is
not a simple task. There is usually magic needed and you must be property
equipped in order to be successful. Finding the entrance is often a task in
itself, and may require several trips back to the trading post for extra
rations. Going back to the previous land is relatively simple, however, again
with the exception of the Hall of Heroes. You must have Guinevere before you are
able to return to the Hall, at which point the game is over, and you have won.
"Winning"
is not dependent on making it back successfully. Upon completion you will be
given a score, based on how quickly you completed your odyssey, how many
treasures you secured, and how many enemies you destroyed. Thus, even though you
may have discovered the tactics necessary to succeed, Fantasyland will not
become another "solved puzzle" that sits on a bookshelf gathering
dust. In fact, some lands are such that you may successfully pass through them
one time and not the next.
I
have so far spent somewhere close to seventy-five hours playing Fantasyland, and
have not succeeded in winning yet, although I did make it all the way to Dante's
Inferno and had Guinevere in sight. Despite having spent so much time without
success, the game has still been a lot of fun. just making it from one land to
the next brings a feeling of success, while at the same time you know that even
more challenge lies ahead. Having spent so much time also, however, I have come
to realize the faults of the game, however few. Perhaps the most aggravating
thing about Fantasyland is the time it takes to drop or to use something. In
either case, you must go through an itemized list of what you are carrying
before you are able to specify what you want to drop/use. As you get further on
into the game, and are carrying more and more things (rations are item number
154), going through the list can take more time than you care for. A simple
machine language routine could, and should, have taken care of this problem.
Another problem is that if, in the Hall of Heroes, you attempt to buy more of
something than you have money for, the program will inform you of your mistake
and then not give you another chance to buy that particular item. I lost one
game immediately when I attempted to buy more rations than
I had money for, thereby losing a chance to buy them at all, and consequently
starving. Again, this could easily have been remedied. Other than the occasional
spelling errors ("your dead") which should hopefully have been
corrected by this time, these few problems are the only complaints I have with
Fantasyland, and are consequently very minor.
This
review has only skimmed Fantasyland and has purposely left out any details about
the different lands, other than what their names suggest. To attempt to cover
the game in any more detail would mean writing a small book, which Crystal has
already done in the manual that accompanies Fantasyland (39 pages). I will
therefore end this review at this stage with a simple point scale break-down of
some significant information. I feet that, even at the $59.95 list price, and
despite a few problems, Fantasyland 2041 is a must for the Atari adventurer.
