Beneath Folly

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Vocabulary 8/10

Atmosphere 7/10

Personal 8/10

Value 8/10

Keith Campbell 8/10

SUPPLIER: The Fiend MACHINES: Spectrum/Commodore 64 PRICE: £3.99 (Mail Order) AVAILABLE FROM: The Fiendery The Folly stands atop Folly Hill in the village of Faringdon in Oxfordshire. The rock beneath, legend has it, is riddled with caves, and therein dwells - The Fiend! Many an adventure author and writer lives in fear of the self-styled Groper and Public Nuisance, bane of the local populace, and bete-noire of C+VG. Buried deep beneath The Folly, in his time off from his demanding occupation of nuisancing and groping, The Fiend has been painstakingly working on his Master Plan - the enslavement of all adventurer players in the land. Beneath Folly is the result, an adventure game so awesome in its concept as to make the faint-hearted quake as it loads. Here you will find not a feeble quest, but fiendish problems so diabolical, as to weary the strongest of minds. Finding yourself standing in a pentagram in a cave of solid rock, your objective is to outwit and escape The Fiend. An obvious door in the east wall proves nothing more than the simplest of traps, The pentagram itself may well destroy you should you try to step outside of it. There IS a way out, of course, and to help you find it, a full solution comes with the game. Ha ha ha ha ha! I had a copy, too! What sort of solution would you expect from a Fiend? Even with its help, it took me three or four hours before I was out of that cave, only to find myself facing a very wide crack that seemed to bar any further progress! And at every attempt to cross it I was greeted with a barrage of fiendish abuse. "Imbecile!" "Idiot!" To get anywhere, it is essential to EXAMINE everything possible, and, above all, to read what you see very carefully. It is all too easy to think you understand what is written on the screen, without truly understanding it. This is a graphic adventure written using The GAC. The graphics are simple, but only the simple-minded would ignore them or dismiss them. Presented in a flexible plastic cassette case, the inlay pictures the menacing silhouette of The Fiend, the tower of The Folly standing out behind him against a moonlit sky. On the reverse side of the tape, comes Fiend Music. DON'T play it through your computer cassette player, or you will be disappointed! Put it on a proper stereo system with a bit of oomph in it, turn the volume up, and THINK FIEND while you try to outwit that most feared resident of Faringdon - Beneath the Folly!!

AUTHOR PROFILE The Faringdon Fiend Born of an insatiable desire to complete The Sorceror of Claymorgue Castle, The Fiend first rose from his murky cave in the village of Faringdon in Oxfordshire, to plague the C+VG Adventure mailbag with insults and invective during 1985, when he discovered his first kitchen cabinet. Contrary to popular belief, The Fiend still remains anonymous even to us here at C+VG. He doesn't tolerate adventure fools gladly, he eats them, as readers of his regular ego-trip column will know. But do they realise that the cheque for this series of diatribes has to be made payable to The Fiend - and gets cashed?