The Jewel of Power

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Personal Rating 7/10

Keith Campbell 7/10

A game that I thought was going to be very mundane turned out to have some very novel features and puzzles. In Jewel of Power, you find yourself in an ordinary house - except I couldn't find a bathroom! - but there is something most peculiar going on down in the cellar. Here you get your clue as to what the Adventure is all about, and this is done in an original and entertaining way, using graphics to great effect. Leaving the house behind you in a mysteriously abandoned village, you make your way into the countryside, where there are some rather more unusual buildings. One of these is a mysterious monument in the middle of nowhere - a red tower with a door at the base of all four sides. Inside, there are stairs leading up and down, but something very disorientating happens to you. Elsewhere you might be dish of the day for a giant, or become incarcerated in a prison cell. There is also the desert, with a very unfriendly oasis! This is a machine code Adventure with instant response, including graphics. To start, the graphics are rather crude and garish, but they improve as you move away from the house. Some are very effective and they all interact with the game. What is more, they form an integral part of the game, for many of the features depicted are not mentioned in the text, but require reference by the player. The commands required are mainly two words, but occasionally three words are needed as in "open front door." My one complaint about the game is that on quitting or dying - which isn't difficult - the game cannot be continued without either reloading the program or data. The end is somewhat inelegant, producing a STOP statement and Basic line number. But don't be fooled into thinking that listing this will give you any clues -all the text is hidden away in the machine code part! Fertile ground for peeking cheats, though! The Jewel of Power is for the 48K Spectrum, from Slogger Software.

Sinclair User

Overall 4/5

Richard Price 4/5

WATCHING OUT FOR GREMLINS Richard Price finds something nasty in the blender and goes to El Dorado. THE JEWEL OF POWER Publisher: Slogger Software Memory: 48K Price: £9.50 Then there is The Jewel of Power from Slogger Software. At £9.50 this is another expensive game but it's big and complex. The problems are extremely involved and I suspect it would keep even veteran players struggling. The story line is not new and revolves around your search for the missing fragments of a magic staff which will lead you to the great jewel itself. The once happy land is full of sadness and desolation as a result of its disappearance. This is a standard plot in adventuring these days and most of you who have played such games regularly will not need to adjust too much to the game's environment and rules. The game has 'dynamic' graphics - that is, they show you the results of some of your actions and, as in Gremlins, are partially animated on occasions. They are strikingly primary in their colours and dominate the screen. Beneath them is the input and response area. The game has a large vocabulary and the interpreter is sophisticated and advanced enough to notice words it does not understand as you are typing them in. That is a very friendly feature and one example of the level of skill and care put into the programming. The 125 locations cover the range of magical and fairy tale settings. There are thick woods, troll-infested landscapes, deserts, castles, mazes and dungeons. Few of the many objects have obvious uses and I thought that the puzzles were of the quality you might expect from companies like Level 9. Even the objective of the game is hidden and must be searched for right at the beginning. This is a high-powered, high quality expert's game and, given the amount of time it will take to solve, justifies the relatively high price. It is custom-built and other adventure programmers would do well to note some of its features. The theme is not my personal cup of tea but I'm sure it will appeal to many hardened players.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Personal Computer News

Overall 8/10

Mike Gerrard 8/10

PRICE: £9.50 PUBLISHER: Slogger Software [redacted] Concealed in unpromising packaging, The Jewel of Power turns out to be an excellent animated graphics adventure. As you'd expect, doors open by means of redrawing the picture for each location - and in some places there are animated effects. Having explored my house and discovered the purpose of my quest (look for fragments of a wand), I was walking in the countryside when a goat suddenly appeared at one location, only to disappear again almost as quickly. It emerges every time you arrive there, but I haven't yet figured out why. Elsewhere I got caught by a giant and placed in a cage to await my fate, the giant's face appearing to leer as he did so. There is a picture for each of the 120 locations, and with the animated touches as well, it's astounding to see how it's all been squeezed into the memory, with the pictures appearing instantly rather than drawn. But this does have its snags. For instance, one way of saving memory is by restricting the parser that analyses the commands, and this does prove a nuisance in places. When you see a box of matches you can't GET BOX or GET MATCHES, but must GET BOX OF MATCHES, and similarly in one place OPEN TRAP DOOR works, but OPEN TRAPDOOR doesn't. You have to study the objects in each picture, not only the text, so having spotted a mirror in the bedroom I tried EXAMINE MIRROR. I was told 'All that is here you see,' implying there was nothing more to be found; yet if you STUDY MIRROR, something happens, and this was only discovered by studying the solution provided. The other major fault is that there's no automatic restart to the game. You're told you must reload the data, yet when loading the game you're not told where the data files start so that you can mark it on the tape and rewind. This is soon overcome by saving the game as soon as you've started, but it is still annoying. Complaints apart, I enjoyed Jewel of Power thoroughly, especially trying to figure out the Escher-like monument I ventured into, where you can continually go up or down in a never-ending circle. It's perhaps best to SAVE your achievements before you step into here, believe me. With castles, desert, forests, prison cells, lanterns, dungeons, mazes and even trolls on bridges, this is definitely for the traditional adventurers.