![\"In](\"http:\/\/greywolfe.co.za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/old_new_text_adventures.png\")
<\/a>On the surface, Gateway looks like any number of other Legend Entertainment games:\u00a0 it has a polished interface with windows that cleanly and clearly denote each section of the game.\u00a0 Compass on one side, verbs along with the compass so you never get stuck for “what to type” – a small window with hand-drawn graphics that shows you a glimpse of the action and a vast lower half of the screen completely devoted to the – sometimes surprisingly well-written text.<\/p>\n
This is in stark contrast with most other text adventures at the time, where – at most – you would get a status line and the whole screen would be subsumed by text.\u00a0 So, already, Gateway is making it easier for new players to appreciate the world of interactive fiction.\u00a0 Instead of guessing at verbs they might need, they simply select them from a list.\u00a0 Instead of wondering which exits the player can possibly take, they’re clearly marked on-screen.<\/p>\n
So, if you’re new to the genre, this particular game certainly seems inviting.<\/p>\n
It even has a pretty interesting plot, built upon a book by the same name penned by Frederik Pohl – a grand master of science fiction.<\/p>\n
If you’ve read that book, you will feel perfectly at home in the world that has been created here.\u00a0 A world that’s somewhat in the future, but clearly contains traces of the past in which it was written.\u00a0 In this particular version of our future the planet has shot for the stars, aided by technology they found early in their initial exploration.\u00a0 Benevolent [? – it’s a little tricky to tell if they are<\/em> actually benevolent – but that’s better left as an exercise to the reader:\u00a0 go play the game and see what you think after] aliens have left behind ancient artefacts that allow us to cross great distances in the blink of an eye.\u00a0 The upside?\u00a0 It becomes far easier to map the galaxy and find treasures.\u00a0 The downside?\u00a0 Well, we’re still scouring the skies and we haven’t quite cracked the alien language.\u00a0 You could go on to riches as much as you could wind up dying if you take a trip on an alien ship.<\/p>\n This is where you come in.\u00a0 You’ve won a lottery to participate in being a Gateway Prospector.\u00a0 What that means is that the science guys pick lottery tickets with potential co-ordinates that might have something interesting at them and then, they slingshot you at those places.<\/p>\n The thing is, of course, that everyone is trying to be a Prospector.\u00a0 So the science guys don’t actually care if they sling shot you to your doom.\u00a0 So the first half of the game is a trial-by-fire were you’re trying to prove your worth as a valuable Prospector Asset.\u00a0 This then leads to the final act, which is not…surprising, exactly but might come a little out of left field if you think the game is a short one where all you need to do is find some big technological payoff.<\/p>\n