Tales of the Arabian Nights

Your Spectrum

Rick Robson 2/5 MISS

Roger Willis 1/5 MISS

Ross Holman 2/5 MISS

JOYSTICK JURY Have we got some great software lined up for you! But first a surprise - the hairy hacker is taking his annual rest (he calls it that 'cos it usually lasts a year!) so we welcome a new joystick juror to the bench, Rick Robson. Now join the three Rs - Rick, Roger Willis and Ross Holman as they find out where the arcade action is! What's the score? Well, the marks out of five at the end of each review is a shorthand way of summing up what each reviewer thought of the game. But will it be a commercial success? For that you'll have to check out the HIT and MISS system. Simple, eh? TALES OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS Interceptor Micros £7.95 Rick: Unfortunately, this placid platform game is based on one of the greatest and longest stories ever told. It sure is long and sure does grate. You are Imrahil the Kalendar Prince who has a date to keep (and no doubt a few to eat) saving the Princess Anitra from the wicked grasp of the Sultan Saladin. This game of Eastern Promise doesn't make the platforms any more exotic than a Pakistani porter would those at Clapham Junction. A pretty box contains a pretty poor game as you have to collect pots of gold that come to spell to the word Arabia. This Bedouin booty turns up on several different screens ranging from a ship, a desert, a garden, a palace and then eventually freedom. The Prince has various perils to overcome as part of his own Middle Last crisis - including an octopus straight from 20,000 Leagues under the Sea and arrows that have apparently been shot from a neighbouring version of 'Hunchback'. The baddies have an unfair advantage at first because the collision detection ain't too hot. And I certainly dream of genies with greater powers than those portrayed here...

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

Sinclair User

Overall 4/5

Chris Bourne 4/5

Publisher: Interceptor Price: £5.50 Memory: 48K Joystick: Kempston "Lord of the silken bowstring," said Scheherazade, "I'm sick of telling stories. Let's play a computer game instead." And so the great Sultan plugged in his gold-plated Spectrum. "Aha!" quoth the Sultan. "Tis a tale of the rogue Imrahil and his quest to rescue Anitra from the evil Saladin." And so the mighty Sultan settled down and began to guide the pale, flickering Imrahil about the screen of his bejewelled Sony. "See my lord," murmured Scheherazade, "here is the ship of Sinbad, full of gold. Each bag is marked with a letter, and the letters spell out the sigil ARABIAN. Collect the gold and enrich thyself with points beyond measure." But the Sultan grew angry, for he found it most difficult to spell Arabian. There were three As in it, and which was which, and what was what, and why? Lives did he lose as the night progressed, jumping from deck to deck and mast to mast, avoiding the hazards of Sinbad's ship. And the couscous sat heavy on his bowels. Then Scheherazade of the nimble wrist took the diamante joystick and showed her master how to negotiate the first screen, and then it was straight down the river by raft to the caverns of Al-Khemizd. "More gold!" roared the Sultan, and straightway began collecting the bags again. Meanwhile Scheherazade tiptoed out to play much more exciting state-of-the-art stuff with her friends in the village, and was never called upon to serve the Sultan again. Which teaches us, O children of the desert, that even the simplest of level and ladders games may provide a few hours of escape from the rigours of the harem.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Crash

Use of Computer 51%

Graphics 55%

Playability 46%

Getting Started 65%

Addictive Qualities 43%

Value For Money 55%

Overall 55%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Interceptor Software Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £5.50 Language: Machine code Author: I Gray and others This game first appeared sometime before Christmas on the Commodore 64 and generally received favourable reviews. Don't be deceived into thinking that Sultan Saladin is some form of cold and healthy crinkly green meal served with dried fruit. He is in fact a very unsavoury character from the Tales of the Arabian Nights who practised the same nasty habits as the black widow spider only with the roles reversed as a result, the Sultan's brides last a short time! Prince Imrahil's sister has been seized by the Sultan and is taken to Baghdad. It's up to you to help him rescue the girl. The journey to Baghdad begins aboard one of the Sultan's ships where you must collect, in order, the golden jugs each bearing one of the letters in the word A-R-A-B-I-A-N. As you scamper about the rigging a multitude of nasty monsters from above and below the water attack you. From the ship it's up river by raft to a great cavern where you encounter Al-Khemized and his dreadful genies. While you're in the cavern perhaps you could just have a quick jog round and put the jugs in order then you can move on; to the desert. The desert scene, like the river, is to be noted for its lack of jugs, it's just you against the nasties. Next stop, the city gates, but mind out for the arrows and boulders as you sort out those jugs. Among the platforms of the next scene, the garden, you find some more golden jugs and this time the arrows are small fry compared to the nastie genies. At last the Palace; more golden jugs but don't forget to duck and weave as you sort them out. After the Palace you pick up Anitra and with her in tow you're only a magic carpet's flight from home, just mind out for the arrows and those nasty birds. COMMENTS Control keys: Q/A up/down, N/M left/right, SS to jump Joystick: Kempston or Protek Keyboard play: narrow selection of keys but otherwise OK Use of colour: pretty good Graphics: above average Sound: great when you turn it off Skill levels: 1 Lives: 5 Screens: 8

Sorting jugs seems to be a perennial task in ARABIAN NIGHTS.