Dungeons of Doom

ZX Computing

Nick Pearce

THE ZX81 SOFT SELECTION Nick Pearce looks at the new 'three pack' from Temptation. ADMIRAL GRAF SPEE It is 1940 and you are in command of the Admiral Graf Spee prowling the Atlantic. The mission is to sink as many enemy - Allied - ships as possible. The Graf Spee is armed with six 11 inch guns and two torpedo tubes. The support ship Altmark is at hand to replenish your supplies and ammunition. There are two main screen displays. Firstly a map of the South Atlantic is displayed showing the location of the Graf Spee (denoted by a flashing pixel), and the allied ships (intermittent flashing pixels). Also shown is your instrument display giving speed, compass heading, fuel, target distance, and so on. You close in on the allied ships using the map, and then move to the second screen display which shows the horizon and, when you get very close, the allied ship itself. To destroy the target you must fire whilst it is in visual range. The instrument panel continues to be show n in this second display. Instrument readings are constantly updated. The game gets quite exciting as you get close to an allied ship and it starts to fire at you, rocking the Graf Spee and inflicting damage; or taking evasive action and moving out of range. Graf Spee has the makings of a good game. I thought the graphics had been used to good effect, but the game is let down by its slow response to keyed-in commands. This is partly because the player has to wait between moves whilst each instrument reading is updated in turn, and partly because the game is written entirely in BASIC. The incorporation of machine code routines to speed up the programs would result in a faster, more interactive and improved game. BARON Baron is a role playing game of strategy for one to four players. Each player starts with 1500 dubloons, 70 acres of land, and 100 workers. The decisions to be made each year include whether to buy or sell land, whether to feed all your workers, or let some starve - merciless dog; whether to hire or fire mercenaries; and so on. If you are too extreme your workers revolt and impale you on the castle portcullis. Games last for five to 50 moves (selectable at the start), if you can survive that long! There is a year by year analysis of your performance as a Baron, and a final score is given. There are frequent disasters to thwart your struggle for success, for example the plague may strike or rats eat your grain. Baron is a text-only game. It is a reasonable simulation although perhaps somewhat short on interest to hold the attention of the avid role player for long. DUNGEONS OF DOOM Finally in this set of three cassettes from Temptation Software is Dungeons of Doom, a maze game for up to four players. In this game you have to find your way through some 400 rooms and 600 corridors in an attempt to build up a high score by surviving for as long as possible, and at the same time kill monsters or collect treasure. The screen displays the room or corridor you are in, and black squares to the North, South, East and West, and above and below. Only on attempting to move into one of these squares is its nature revealed - corridor, room, cave, or stone wall! And any content - monsters or treasure - becomes apparent. Again the game is written in BASIC, and is consequently rather slow. After each move there is a few seconds wait whilst the display is updated to show your current position. Dungeons of Doom is not really a computer "adventure" in the true sense; it has locations and objects, but no vocabulary. Control is effected through the use of movement keys. A reasonably good game. Each of these three programs from Temptation Software use most of the available 16K memory and take 7 to 8 minutes to LOAD. They each feature a 30 second "pre-load" program, a good idea which overcomes the frustrating problem of waiting for perhaps ten minutes only to find that the volume settings were wrong, the program hasn't LOADed and you have to start again. Incidentally I had no trouble loading any of these cassettes. The games are sold as a "triple-pack", and are available only as a set by mail order. Three cassettes each containing a reasonable game for just under £6.00 must be good value for money. Admiral Graf Spee, Baron and Dungeons of Doom are available as a set, price £5.99 inclusive of VAT postage and packing, from Temptation Software Limited, [redacted].-