Tutankhamun

Crash

Overall 72%

Producer Micromania, 48K £5.95 (1) Author: Dominic Wood Tut was an Egyptian despot who stored his worldly goods in a large tomb. Your job as archaeologist or grave robber, is to wander the five tombs and collect as much treasure as you can. You may start at tomb 1 or at a later stage if you wish. The maze scrolls left and right and vertical tunnels wrap around top to bottom. What makes this game difficult is the ferocious speed of the beasts that inhabit the tombs. Monsters include mummies, cobras, spiders and skulls. You are provided with a continuous firing laser, but it only works horizontally, which makes you vulnerable in the vertical tunnels. There is also a smart bomb to be used once per tomb or life, but its effects are very short-lived indeed. At the top is a map of the entire complex. Doors block the tombs from each other. Lively graphics, speed and good key positions all combine to make this very playable and addictive. Overall CRASH rating 72% M/C - a maze/zap game with a different feel.

Read it at Crash - The Online Edition

Crash

Overall 72%

Producer Micromania, 48K £5.95 (1) Author: Dominic Wood Tut was an Egyptian despot who stored his worldly goods in a large tomb. Your job as archaeologist or grave robber, is to wander the five tombs and collect as much treasure as you can. You may start at tomb 1 or at a later stage if you wish. The maze scrolls left and right and vertical tunnels wrap around top to bottom. What makes this game difficult is the ferocious speed of the beasts that inhabit the tombs. Monsters include mummies, cobras, spiders and skulls. You are provided with a continuous firing laser, but it only works horizontally, which makes you vulnerable in the vertical tunnels. There is also a smart bomb to be used once per tomb or life, but its effects are very short-lived indeed. At the top is a map of the entire complex. Doors block the tombs from each other. Lively graphics, speed and good key positions all combine to make this very playable and addictive. Overall CRASH rating 72% M/C - a maze/zap game with a different feel.

Personal Computer News

Mike Gerrard

Mike Gerrard and his Sinclair go adventuring with a bagfull of games. SPECIFICALLY SPECTRUM Arcade games and adventures still dominate the Spectrum software market, and this round-up reflects that by looking at two arcade games, two adventures, and an adventure that includes three arcade-style games. I'M IN SHOCK (16K, £4.95), Artic Computing, [redacted] This simple but addictive zapping game fills the screen with a 31 x 23 grid, and you patrol the bottom firing at the vicious creatures that are buzzing above, bent on your destruction. This may sound like Gridrunner, but the difference is that some of the columns contain deflecting plates that turn your shot through 90°, and if you can't fire directly at the aliens you can use these plates to bounce your shots round a few angles, like an intergalactic Alex Higgins. This is no mean feat as the creatures move quickly. Control, is by the keyboard and the most important feature is the high-score record, because that's what you'll always be aiming to beat. The graphics don't need to be anything special as the action is fast and the sound relentless. TUTAKHAMUN (48K, £5.95), Micromania, [redacted] When you tire of killing aliens, move on to Mummies from ancient Egypt, which, along with skulls, spiders, snakes and indefinable monsters, are the hazards out to get you in five mazes. Using Kempston or AGF joysticks, or the sensible keyboard lay-out, you manoeuvre along the underground tunnels, and collecting goodies and shooting baddies along the way, you search for the key that will open the door to the next level. The screen scrolls automatically, and a scanner shows the whole of the that particular maze at the top of the screen. The machine code movement is fast, and while it obviously owes a lot to several other berserk-style games that are around, it is well done and extremely difficult to master. CASTLE COLDITZ (48K, £5.95), Felix Software, [redacted] To escape from Castle Colditz you must make your way from the prisoners' room to the castle's main gate, and this could be described as the archetypal text-only adventure. You move using N, S, E, W, U or D; C lets you know what you're carrying (up to six) items); L redescribes your location if the text has scrolled off the screen; the optional instructions advise you to make a map and warn that some exits are one-way only; there's a Save option; you're given a list of verbs you can use in the verb-noun commands, these include take, leave, use, fight and so on; you'll find objects such as a rope, torch, pencil, chisel; and finally there are Nazi treasures you can try to smuggle out. Though in machine language and quick to respond, the adventure is traditional and reliable - even the surprises were unsurprising as I moved round the Gun Room, or the Blanket Store, trying to escape, I was just waiting to find myself in a room with no apparent means of escape, and eventually it turned up, the Wine Cellar where all you can see is a barred window which proves very difficult to break open. The game is perfectly well done and thorough, but lacks sparkle and imagination, as if it were the latest to fall off the adventure production line. THE CROWN (48K, £4 mail order, £4.60 retail, also available for 16K ZX81 and Lynx), Symbol Software, [redacted] The Crown was put out originally on the 16K ZX81, but it's hard to see where that extra memory has been used up since the whole adventure has rather an amateurish look. It is set in the mists of time when everyone had funny names: 'After the fall of the House of Rof and the theft of the ancient sceptre by the Orckind, Invi the Elder took the great Crown of Rof... Your task is to recover the crown and ensure that once again good triumphs over evil. The scene descriptions will hardly win any literary prizes: 'Fork in road, Exits: N, W, E, you see: (followed by a blank). Unfortunately 'You see:' appears even when there's nothing there, which looks a bit odd on the screen, as do some of the responses. In one location I could see an axe. 'Take Axe,' I said. 'What?" it replied. "Take Axe,' I repeated. 'What? Take Axe,' I insisted, there being an axe staring us both in the face. 'You carry the Axe,' it finally agreed, and in other places too some perfectly acceptable commands were greeted by the uncomprehending 'What?" This adventure doesn't have a lot going for it, cheap though it is, and as far as I'm concerned evil can triumph over good if it means I don't have to play again. MAD MARTHA Mikro-Gen, [redacted] The adventure/arcade bridge is provided by the follow-up to the very successful Mad Martha, which the cassette cover claims contains 'three exciting arcade-type games.' I would take that 'exciting' with a generous pinch of salt. The hen-peeked Henry, ie you, is on holiday in Spain with Martha and son Arbuthnot, who have both gone off on a coach trip leaving you sitting in the sunshine enjoying a cool drink. Waiter Manuel, who also happens to be Martha's cousin, brings you a letter doused in perfume, and off you set on your travels around the town to find out what's going on. After all, you can't read the letter till you find your spectacles, and you can't get out of the dark alley without something to light the way, and what does the bullfight poster mean, and when will that phrasebook come in handy? The graphics are rather limited, the speed of response is slow, and there was also the occasional unusual reaction from the program. On the beach I tried the command 'Dig,' only to be confused by the reply 'You must wear your spectacles'. What can this mean? There are three skill levels, and this is a race against the clock - once you've found your time-piece, of course. The program allows for multiple command entries, and can be saved. Although I didn't feel it was testing my powers of deduction to the full, it still has a certain appeal and is definitely different, which is all to the good when there's so much mediocrity about.

Crash

Use of Computer 70%

Graphics 70%

Playability 74%

Getting Started 70%

Addictive Qualities 75%

Value For Money 70%

Overall 71.5%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Micromania Memory Required: 48K Recommended Retail Price: £5.95 Language: machine code Author: Dominic Wood Tut was an Egyptian ruler who stowed much treasure in his pyramid. Your job, as grave robber extraordinary (or archaeologist - they mean much the same thing) is to enter the tomb and collect as much of the treasure as you can. There are five different tombs and you can start at one and work your way through, or enter the game at a later stage if you wish. The very good packaging contains clear instructions and the tomb turns out to be a left/right scrolling maze with vertical tunnel connections from top to base of screen and vice versa. The treasure is collected by moving over it, and life would be easy were it not for the host of monsters lurking in the tombs. These include mummies (the wrapped up kind), cobras, spiders, skulls and others, all of which move rapidly and decidedly in your direction. Fortunately, you are provided with a rapid firing laser. It fires regularly by itself but can be put into continuous fire if you like. Unfortunately it only fires horizontally, so you're very vulnerable to beasties coming from above and below. There is also one smart bomb per tomb or life, but its effects are very short short-lived indeed. To help there is a map of the entire tomb layout at the top of the screen. GENERAL Joystick options are offered, but the keyboard layout is quite sensible. A/Z = up/down, N/M = left/right. A pause and restart facility is provided. COMMENTS Keyboard positions: well laid out Joystick options: Kempston or AGF and Protek Keyboard play: responsive Use of colour: marvellous Graphics: detailed and smooth Sound: good tunes, but not enough of them Skill levels: over eight Lives: five Screens: five

Killing monsters in TUTANKHAMUN is easy - getting past them is not.

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 8/10

EXPLORING TOMBS IS FUN Micromania's Tutankhamun for the 48K Spectrum is a maze-type arcade game with sufficient variety and incident to provide hours of entertainment. The game features an explorer searching a Pharoah's tomb for treasure while being pursued by cobras, spiders, skulls and mummies. He can fire against the monsters, but only horizontally, with his laser, and must at the same time collect keys to open the doors between one part of the tomb and another. Picking up treasure increases your score and you have to make your escape with the treasure before your time runs out. One of the assets of the game is that the screen scrolls left and right, so that you have a constantly-changing setting, and a wraparound facility for the explorer at the top and bottom of the screen maintains the smooth flow of the action. There are also five tombs from which to choose, each with a small-scale map at the top of the screen for reference. Any of the tombs bears exploring several times to find the best route, without dangerous dead-ends, to the central treasure chamber. Another advantage of the the carefully-designed game is that although the various monsters present you with plenty of difficulty and challenge, you do not have to face the discouragement of starting again every time you are zapped; you have several lives to resume your search from wherever you finished. Tutankhamun is available from Micromania, [redacted]. It costs £5.95.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Your Computer

Overall 3/5

48K Spectrum £5.95 Micromania You can have the tomb of your life with this colourful machine-code maze game. In fact you can choose from five tombs of varying difficulty in which to play the role of an armed explorer who is endeavouring to collect the priceless treasures placed in the great Pharaoh's massive sepulchre. The explorer is moved around by means of a Kempston or AGF joystick or by the familiar A and Z to go up and down, M and N to go right and left. The remaining keys on the bottom row lire the lasers, and there is a smart bomb facility which can only be brought into play once in every tomb or life but it kills everything on the screen except you. Points are scored by collecting the treasures and shooting the creatures. Bonus points are awarded for especially quick completion of a tomb. The screen scrolls to the left though if you wish, for some obscure reason, to retrace your tracks it will scroll to the right. Every tomb has between one and four doors which must be unlocked with the keys that are found in the tomb. Each key can only be used once and you cannot carry a bunch of them about with you. Your laser only works when firing to left or right.

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

THE LOST TREASURES OF THE PYRAMIDS A boy's best friend is his Mummie - unless it's chasing him through a pyramid. You are stalking through the maze-like interior of a pyramid looking for loot when you are suddenly set upon by man-eating spiders and killer-mummies. Tutankham is a Pac-Man type game with a slight difference. There are about 100 different mazes to get through, each one becoming more difficult as you strive to collect the ancient treasures and avoid the baddies. To break into a new maze you have to pick up keys which appear at random and insert them in a door at the edge of the maze. Once in your new maze the monsters appear from behind a smoke screen. Your only protection is a gun which unfortunately will only shoot horizontally - so watch out for baddies bearing down upon you. Should you get cornered you have one last device. Use your smart bomb and exterminate the lot of them. Tutankham is controlled either by keyboard or joystick and is available from Surrey-based Micromania for the 48K Spectrum at £5.95.