Return to Pirate's Island 2

Gaming After 40
The title is a bit of a misnomer -- it might more accurately have been called Return to Pirate's Isle 2.0, as it's not so much a third pirate-themed Scott Adams adventure as a remake of the second. The opening sequence, the high-level map layout, and many of the puzzles are taken straight from #14A. So it's not a new experience in the fullest sense of the word. But it's a rare opportunity to see how the same designer approaches the same raw material with newer technology, and more memory space -- 440K of game engine and data, plus another 4 MB of sound samples, compared to the 16K size of the original adventures.
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Just Adventure
As far as gameplay goes, I have mixed feelings. The descriptions of the different rooms and items seemed a little on the brief side, where a sentence or two more might have given the experience more depth. Although, on a few occasions, I had to use language that was a little bit counterintuitive, it made me realize how nontrivial it is to write a decent parser for an adventure game, and how glad I am that I don't have to do it! The game is great for children, as all of the puzzles need to be solved without any sort of destructive force--I had a smile on my face the whole time I was playing the game, and I think it will probably have the same effect on other gamers everywhere.
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SPAG
"Return to Pirate's Island II" is not a bad puzzle game, and marks a welcome return from one of interactive fiction's founding fathers. The gameplay and interface will feel familiar to anyone who enjoyed earlier Scott Adams adventures, with many of the game's features (the lovely room descriptions, the full-sentence parser, the "Lurking Horror"-style sound effects, and the built-in hints system) being impressive achievements indeed. But such innovations should not come at the cost of performance -- the agonizing slowness of the S.A.G.A. engine, coupled with the alarming number of typos in the text, may ruin the fun for many questers. Die-hard puzzle fans will find much to like, but casual admirers of Mr. Adams' work will have to decide if the game is worth its $19.95 asking price.
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