Terrace

TERRACE STANDS TALL

A Review of Terrace

by Darren Kammer

Background
Terrace is a board game which (as the documentation tells you) was invented

in 1915 by Anton Dresden in Holland. Buzz Siler stumbled upon it in 1989 and

partnered with Dresden to clean up the rules and market the game. In 1992 the

game was released and won "worldwide praise". Also in 1992, Dresden and Siler

teamed with Mercury Software to develop the game for Windows. This is

version 1.0 of their efforts.

Overview
Terrace is a strategy board game in the same genre as Chess or Stratego, but

with a slight twist. Each player has one piece on the board designated as the

"t" and there are two objects of the game.

One is to move your "t" to your

opponent’s "t" space; the second is to capture your opponent’s "t". The board

shape and piece movements are quite unique which make the game a new

challenge for the avid strategy game player.

Summary
I found Terrace to be of the "simple to learn, difficult to master" type.

Although the documentation has a "home made" feel, it is quite complete. The

interface, for the most part, is clear and I uncovered no bugs.

The developers put many features in the 1.0 release, however, some obvious

features sadly missing.

Documentation
Terrace comes with a 54 page (lots of pictures) User’s Guide which is quite

clear. It includes everything from installation to rules of the game to how

to contact the developers if you have a problem. Terrace is also packaged with

a Basic Strategies and Tactics sheet to help the novice (like me). As I

mentioned before, the documentation has a "home made" feel to it. Many of the screen

shots are obviously (and badly) cut and pasted from a very mediocre laser

printer output. As I was looking at this, I was sincerely hoping the game was

more like the writing of the docs than the presentation.

Getting Started
Installation was a snap! I Put the disk in, brought up File Manager, ran

"install" and off it went. The rules in the User’s Guide were easy to follow

and I was playing almost immediately. For me, this is a very important

feature; I don’t always like having to read through pages of text just to get going.

Two sample games are available for those who don’t like to jump right in, but

they are not needed for the adventurous.

Game Play
I had never played the board game so I learned everything from the User’s

Guide. The rules are quite simple. Terrace is played on an 8 x 8 board

which is unusually divided into eight levels (see picture). In the Long version,

each player has 4 each of 4 different sized pieces. The bigger the piece,

the more power it has. Each player has one of their smallest pieces designated

as the "t". There are essentially two objects of the game; either capture your

opponent’s "t" or move your own "t" to the lowest square on the opposite side

of the board. All pieces move and capture by the same rules (you can even

capture your own pieces!). That is what makes this game so easy to learn.

Surprisingly, I won the first three games I played on the beginner level!

However, I did lose when I moved to level two. I didn’t get creamed, just

beaten. When I tried level three (the highest level), then I got creamed.

What this basically says is that the skill levels are well placed. I have a

feeling that my more than casual chess experience was the probable reason for

a swift exit out of Beginner. However, I was quickly challenged by level two.

Options
Terrace options include most of your basic computer chess options: game

clocks, undo last move, game recorder, etc. The one feature I particularly like is

the modem option. This allows you to play a friend (or whatever) over the modem.

I tend to get tired playing computers in these types of games and, therefore,

tend to stop playing them. The modem option gives the "human play" option for

which I hunger. One of the main missing options is the ability to take back

more than one move. I understand that the purist would say "You shouldn’t

take any moves back" but I believe this option is crucial to helping you learn the

strategies faster.

Gamer’s Zone Scorecard

Product:	Terrace
Company:	Siler/Siler Ventures PO Box 2405 Lake Oswego, OR 97035 503-635-6333
Cost:	$39.95

System Requirements:

IBM PC or compatible with a 386 or better processor,
Microsoft Windows 3.1 or greater
3.5″ HD(1.44Mb) floppy drive
3MB of hard drive space and 2MB RAM.

Breakdown:

Fun Factor 4
Graphics 2
Sound 1
Interface 3
Replayability 5

Overall Score: