Ziggurat

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 5/10

Richard Price 5/10

ZIGGURAT Software Supersavers Memory: 48K Price: £2.99 Now here's an odd one. is Ziggurat an adventure or some other sort of hybrid game? Ziggurats were the multi-storey temple towers of the ancient Middle East and the game is clearly set in some such structure, although it has modern lifts and other artefacts in it. Reading the insert won't tell you anything at all but it soon becomes clear that the aim is to escape unscathed from this labyrinth with as many precious objects as possible. There is a vast number of rooms, each depicted in graphics but all looking pretty similar, except for the occasional special place. Text is entered in verb/noun combinations and the interpreter is friendly enough. It is not a highly verbal adventure and cannot possibly compare with more expensive productions. Despite that it becomes gripping purely because you want to get out of the maze and back into the light. Maybe it appeals to the reviewer's claustrophobic tendencies.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Personal Computer News

Overall 4/10

Mike Gerrard 4/10

PRICE: £2.99 PUBLISHER: Software Supersavers [redacted] A ziggurat, as anyone with a copy of the complete Oxford English Dictionary knows, is an Assyrian or Babylonian temple-tower. Whether that's of any use to you in this bargain-basement adventure, I don't know. All the insert tells you (in no less than five languages) is: 'Adventure game - standard commands eg get, look, examine. WENS' etc. Load it up and where are you, then? You're in a room with a view. The top half of the screen presents you with three walls of the room, the far one has a barred window in it, the other two are blank. There's also a wine bottle. Examining the window reveals a hungry tiger on the other side, while smashing the wine bottle provides you with a green key. The only exit is North, which takes you to 'A very cold room.' then on to 'A bright room.' followed by 'A grotty room,' and so on in much the same vei. If the room descriptions all sound very similar, then you should see the rooms. So what about the tasks? After the first eight rooms, and discovering a rusty sword and eight coins, you face a locked door. The key doesn't fit the lock, so on the wine bottle principle I tried 'Smash door' which led me to another set of rooms. There was some raw meat in one, and I carried this round but still got eaten by the tiger when I stepped into that room without being given a warning. Next time I returned the meat to the start, fed the tiger through the bars, and guess what? The meat must have been off, you're told, and the tiger dies. Back to the tiger room, discovers blue key, find a bronze ring, pick up more coins, then locate a room which has a lift to the surface. I soon grew tired of the boring graphics and descriptions. The best and the worst that can be said is that it is a cheap adventure.