Tass Times in Tonetown

The Good
My first memory of this game was Ennio the dog, news hat on head, jumping through a portal into the "real" world, followed by some funky, but catchy music. It sets the tone for the game in so many ways.

The game starts out normal, until you pass through the portal that Gramps created to get into Tonetown. From there, the game embodies so much of that spacey, retro style that embodied the 1980's so well. It's like entering a new wave video, where hearing Flock of Seagulls on a regular basis would not be out of the question.

It's a weird and quirky game, much like a tricked out version of "Alice in Wonderland". Everything from the cute and cuddly blob pets, to the snake-like Franklin Snarl, or visit Chaz the stylist for the latest hoops and hair colors, make up this surreal little world.

The graphics were great and had some animation in each screen. The music stuck to the funky tune from the game's intro, and the story was compelling enough to keep pushing forward. There game did well in keeping a sense of urgency as Snarl could appear out of anywhere to capture you if you didn't fit in, or were snooping around in places he didn't want you to be. The game even came with some great freebies, such as a copy of Ennio's newspaper, and a Snarl button.

The Bad
There was nothing more annoying in trying to figure out a puzzle, and Snarl would appear out of nowhere, ending the game. Like with most text adventures, not all options are readily apparent, and it took a lot of thinking (or even guesswork) to solve certain puzzles. It takes a lot of patience and deductive skills to play these types of games.

The Bottom Line
The game is one of my favorite text adventures. The overall tone of the game is very unique, and has still stuck with me to this day, unlike most games of this genre. I would like to see this game emulated, or released on an Activision compilation pack, since my Apple IIc has gone the way of the dodo.

As far as "Tass Times in Tonetown" goes, it remains one of my Top 5 Apple IIc games of all time. Well worth a look, if you can ever find it.

The Good
The good thing about this game is, that it takes you onto a journey to a really cool place. The word "tass“ actually means "cool“ in Tonetown tongue. And the games title does indeed not promise too much.

Your starting-point in this Interactive Fiction is the real world, more exactly your grandpa's domicil. Gramps has vanished without a trace and a clever little boy like you would of course not call the police, no, you take on investigating yourself. Doing so, you're quickly discovering a secret lab and some strange machinery, which turns out to be some sort of dream-fulfilling cross-dimensional travelling-device.

Thus you arrive in the bizarre place that is Tonetown and surely would be a cool place to move to. To me it seemed, like the Tonetowners were always in a relaxed and happy mood. Very crazy at the same time, they all dress up like maniacs and surely have a heart, when it comes to parties and Rock'n'Roll. In fact, their official currency are guitar picks!

Being an ordinary young boy from our dimension, where Rock hasn't freed the minds of so many people yet, you surely look a little out of place here. You have to get more "tass“, which basically demands getting a lunatic outfit and and a mohawk-haircut. Getting socially accepted that way, was quite funny and in my eyes almost as surreal as a talking dog becoming a star-reporter (an important side-character in this game).

One thing, that's remarkable about "Tass Times in Tonetown", is actually its interface. The screen is divided into three parts: in the upper left are slightly animated graphics giving you first-view-impressions of your surroundings, while right from that some icons are placed, which make simple orders like "look“, "take“ and "talk“ possible by clicking on them with the mouse. Below that you find a text-window, in which places and events are described.

"Borrowed Time" and "Mindshadow", two earlier Adventures by Interplay, both had quite similar interfaces, which means that this company brought the mouse to the genre even before the folks at Lucas Arts had that idea. Contrary to "Maniac Mansion" though, it is not possible to handle "Tass Times in Tonetown" solely with your mouse. More complex or seldom used actions still require the good old typing. Regardless of that, the interface established here was ahead of it's time and feels even today not totally uncomfortable. You move through the world by simply clicking on a compass-rose and all simple actions are easily done with the mouse. The only thing I found strange about the interface is, that among the icons also the possible action "hit“ can be found, which is of no use in the entire game.

Which brings us to another topic: violence might be no way to progress in Tonetown, but therefore it is a good way to die.

Right, death comes in many ways, when you travel through Tonetown. An especially frequent kind of dying is getting eaten. My personal nightmare became a weird animal that is called "crocogator“ and strives through the wetlands northwest from Tonetown. Any encounter of that kind (and I had many of them) leads to a graphic showing a close-up view of a fully opened jaw armed with razor-sharp teeth, while the text-window is telling you that you just died. Therefore, to save often is important, when you want to prevent some frustrating moments. At least were the developers nice enough to build in a quicksave-function: to calm down a little, you just have to press F7.

Actually, the games puzzles quite often involve figuring out ways to bypass the numerous death-traps. The procedure is the classical trial&error-one: you die, you reload, you try to solve the problem, you die again, you relaod again and repeat this until you (hopefully) suceed. The creativity of that puzzles is certainly not overwhelming, but I have to say, they are way more entertaining, than it might sound here. The solutions are neither illogical nor ultrahard and sometimes even quite amusing, once you got it. If you get stuck, it's most likely that you've missed some important object, so you simply should explore a little more.

The quality of the graphics heavily depends on the system used to run the game. On the PC it looks rather awful, on the Amiga quite nice. Animations are seldom to be found, but nevertheless there's style. And the images also make orientation easier. As the amount of explorable terrain stays relatively easy to remember, you don't need to draw a map in this game. (By the way, the existence of gamers who actually enjoy mapping their virtual playgrounds always irritates me a little. If there's one thing about games from that era that annoys me, it's propably the need of drawing maps, which plagues so many Interactive Fiction Games.)

The Bad
On the other hand though, vaster areas to explore might have had some positive effects, either. As it is, the game isn't very long and the "Tass Times in Tonetown" are over pretty soon. I would have liked more places to go, more people to meet, more things to do. Most of the things you can do in this game are elementary for progressing, there is little extra. Interacting and experimenting with your surroundings is quite limited and unfortunately often not even interesting.

The writing is overall a little disappointing, I would have expected a bit more in that section. Sure it isn't to be called bad and it makes a correct use of the English grammar. But all is said in a rather brief and sober tone, which in my ears just didn't sound like the right style for this game.

Apart from that, there are only minor problems, as they are found everywhere on closer examination. Annoying is the limited inventory. As you can carry only a maximum of eight objects with you, you're forced to leave some behind and travel back once you need them. I really had difficulties in detecting the purpose of that design-decision. Might it be realism? Mhm, but who cares for realism, when you're in a weird, surreal world like Tonetown?

The Bottom Line
Despite its weird setting, Tass Times in Tonetown is not really an extraordinary experience. In the end, it simply feels a bit too shallow to be called that. On the other hand, it features an interface, which makes playing relatively fast and easy, compared to other games from the mid-80ies. And it really can make you smile sometimes.

The Good
Tass Times in Tonetown is a nice little adventure game developed by Interplay and published by Activision. It is in the same league as Shadowgate and Deju Vu when it comes to game mechanics. The game’s plot sounds like it comes straight from a movie. Your beloved Gramps has invented a device which makes everything in his dreams come to life in an alternate reality. The device is eventually used for evil purposes as he ends up being kidnapped by Franklin Snarl and taken back to that alternate reality. Accompanied by his dog Spot, you jump through the device in an effort to save him.

On the other side, you realize that it just isn’t the same anymore. You are transported to Tonetown where words like “tass” and “dyeorama” have entered the dictionary. Spot has been transformed into Ennio, a journalist dog that seems to be able to detect traces of “snarlmeat”; everyone you meet has colored hair; the main currency is in the form of guitar picks; the rage in town is a band known as the Daglets; and the only threat here is Snarl himself and his “jawdawgs”. To reach him, you must scour woods, wetlands, mansions, and mushroom forests.

If you look at the front cover, you would know that Tonetown is a surreal alternate world seemingly based on a distillation of 1980s culture. The game comes on two floppy disks and the usual manual. Also coming in the box is a copy of the ‘Towntown Times’, which makes for interesting reading. It contains articles, ads, and even a classified section.

The interface of Tass Times consists of the illustration window and a series of icons next to it, the inventory icon, and the description/command prompts. What I like is that the user has choice, the choice of playing the game with the mouse or keyboard. You can use the mouse to select various icons on the screen, or as I mentioned, you can enter text-only mode by pressing [Return] so you can pull a Zork and just use your imagination.

I also pretty much enjoyed getting lost in Tonetown, and meeting the strange people there. From my experience, executing illegal commands generates some witty dialogue, so I suppose there is enough humor in the game. There are also plenty of humorous ways you can die in the game, with the most common way being to walk in Snarl’s vicinity or inhaling poison from the mushrooms. Death is why you need to save the game, so that you can restore later when something goes wrong.

The illustrations are good, and there are some brilliant animations in some of the scene. The only sound effects I noticed in the game, other than the clock ticking in the first scene and the hoop charging up. As for the music, the main one is the theme music that is no doubt composed with Activision’s own Music Studio. The same music is heard in the game, in a scene where the band is playing.

Finally, players may argue that Tass Times is quite short, but in my opinion, it depends on how many times you get stuck.

The Bad
There is nothing bad about this game.

The Bottom Line
Tass Times in Tonetown is an adventure game that is in the same league as Shadowgate and Deja Vu. You interact with the game world by either entering commands or selecting icons with the mouse, and you get to meet some interesting characters on your journey. Like many adventure games, death can come at you if you are not careful. Sound effects are good, but music is not much given that there is virtually only one tune in the game. Tass Times is a very good adventure game that Amiga adventure gamers should have in their library.