Virtual Worlds

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Overall 92%

Paul Rand 92%

Domark Spectrum £19.99 Take the most ground-breaking graphics system ever devised. Use it to make three of the best ever Spectrum games. Lump them all together in a box. And chuck in a previously unreleased sequel to one of the titles for good measure. That's Virtual Worlds in a nutshell. Driller, Total Eclipse, Castle Master and The Crypt (aforementioned sequel to CM). All utilising the Freescape system of 3D Construction Kit fame. All four games are of such a high quality they'd probably shift for around a tenner apiece. So at a price of just under a score for all four, we are talking bargain! The graphics are great. the puzzles are brain-bending and the value is enormous. You'll be playing these lot for months!

Sinclair UserSinclair User Gold

Graphics 84%

Sound 78%

Playability 88%

Lastability 93%

Overall 91%

Garth Sumpter

Matt Regan 91%

Steve Keen

Label: Domark Memory: 48K/128K Price: £19.99 Tape, N/A Disk Reviewer: Matt Regan DoMark's release of this Freescape compilation neatly ties into their 3D Construction Kit system reviewed on page 50. is this a clever marketing ploy? Maybe, maybe not, but it hardly matters when a set of games this polished is released in one box. The four games in theis pack are Castle Master, its sequel The Crypt, Total Eclipse, and Driller. All the (at the time) revolutionary Freescape system games are here. with only Dark Side missing, which is a bloomin' shame. This system uses polygons to represent the areas to be explored - this graphical style is usually only seen in flight sims and the like. So let's have a look at each game in turn... CASTLE MASTER This is the most recent of the games in the set, and has a distinctly supernatural bent. Set in a castle (quelle surprise!) populated by evil spirits with bad attitudes. The aim of the game (as Brucie would say) is to rescue your twin, either male or female, from the sweaty clutches of the Magister. As you explore the landscape, discovering secret rooms and collecting keys, your spirit level (groan) keeps you informed of your health. If this drops too low it's curtains for you, blue eyes. The Freescape system allows you to look at the floor or celling, and even crawl under beds and run screaming from the castle! The puzzles are rather cunning, and deserves to have been such a hit the first time round. It's a strong contender for top dog in this collection, with a nippy feel to the play. The graphics are simply lavish, and they don't get any better than this on the Spectrum. DRILLER This game was the very first Freescape game, and I'm afraid it shows. Set in the far future, the colony of Evath is in great danger. One of its moons, Mitral, is full of explosive gas (like Steve), and an impending meteor strike is threatening to shower the hapless Evathians with debris. Somebody has to travel to Mitral and drill out the gas before the meteor arrives. Guess who gets "volunteered" for this mission? That's right, it's you, you poor git. The task in hand is to locate the areas of gas build-up and call in the drill to free the noxious stuff. All this is against the clock, and failure obviously means death. On top of the time limit, there are violent laser beacons and skanners (sic) intent in frying your whatsits. Driller lacks a basic level of excitement and atmosphere (ho ho), but still manages to be a workman-like game. It's fun for a short while, but doesn't have the thrills of Castle Master or Total Eclipse. Every compilation has a weak game, and this is not nearly as poor as some. TOTAL ECLIPSE Those zany Egyptians certainly knew how to screw things up for future inhabitants of Earth. Thousands of years ago, the priest of Ra the Sun God decided that the pyramid needed that extra zing to make it interesting. So he put a curse on the building, if it was ever hidden from the sun during the day, whatever caused the obstruction would be annihilated. Unfortunately, there's an eclipse on the way... Set in the 1930's, the star of the show is an archaeologist who has discovered the curse and and is racing to destroy the shrine of Re before the big bang. A revolver and compass help him on his way, but dehydration is a major worry - keep an eye out for troughs to replenish supplies. The pyramid isn't completely deserted, of course, and various nasties lurk in his dark passages waiting to cause aggro. Luckily this is counterbalanced by the presence of enormous quantities of treasure, all ripe for the plucking. Total Eclipse is a highly original game, with a true feel of the period and location. The time limit helps to keep things moving at a brisk pace, and a heart beat is used to measure health - a novel idea which works effectively. This is probably the best game in the compilation. THE CRYPT - CASTLE MASTER II This is the sequel to Castle Master, and was previously unreleased on the Speccy. This time Magister has captured you, and the horrific fate you've been assigned is to become a ghoul yourself. There's only one thing to - escape from his catacombs and avoid this terrifying prospect! This uses the same system as Castle Master, and so it's best to tackle its forerunner first. The puzzles avoid being just more of the same, and the graphics have been tweaked to give a greater variety of locations. As before, keys are vital to success, as is accurate exploration of all the nooks and crannies of the rooms. Basically, if you like Castle Master you'll love this. It's more than a data disk and virtually (nyup nyup) a complete a in itself. Obviously it seems that the game is easier than its predecessor, but that's because you get used to solving them as you play. Either way, a worthy addition to an excellent compilation.

Castle Master contains many evil creatures - but few as vicious as this demon. Time to run away and become an accountant!

Exploring the pyramid in Total Eclipse. Notice the handy watch and compass - but mind the Evil Eye!

Get drilling! just like a visit to the dentist, but infinitely more dangerous.

Make sure you look everywhere.

Whoops! Perhaps next time you'll pay more attention to where you're going.

DoMark's 3D Construction Kit will appeal to all Fans of these games; imagine constructing your own sequel to Total Eclipse! Incentive, the team behind the Freescape system, have been developing these games for five years - talk about dedication! The Crypt has never been released on the Speccy before, so it's been put in this collection as an added bonus for Spectrum owners. As all the games have Save and Load features, it's easy to leave the game if you get stumped and either come back later or have a stab at one of the others! If you solve any of these adventures, write in to Sinclair User's Hacking Squad for your chance to win £100 worth of Spectrum software!

Your SinclairYour Sinclair Megagame

Life Expectancy 93%

Instant Appeal 90%

Graphics 88%

Addictiveness 89%

Overall 91%

James Leach 91%

Domark (Incentive) £14.99 cass Reviewer: James Leach When life gets you down, when you want to escape (and can't afford a holiday) you can always depend on Freescape. Just dive in and fade away - it's the perfect virtual reality. And now thanks to Domark, you don't even need to jump from box to box, because they've very kindly squashed four of these Incentive titles together in one pack, under the rather mesmeric title of Virtual Worlds. Driller, Total Eclipse and Castle Master have all been out before of course, so rather than giving them to Jon for Replay I've written a quick round-up in that box over there, but The Crypt is a newie. And it's this one that I'll be concentrating on in tonight's lecture. So dim the lights please. Miss Jones, and let's take a look at the first slide... WHO WRITES THESE CRYPTS? The Crypt is the sequel to Castle Master, but instead of starting off outdoors, we're stuck down in the depths of, erm, somewhere rather dark and damp and horrible. The game's got the same spooky claustrophobic feel (like one of the old movies where you see everything through the monster s eyes as he shambles around eating people or whatever) and looks just as stonkingly brilliant! As before this restricted viewpoint means you've got to be careful where and how you move around, in case you get trapped or bash into anything! Right as I said, you start off in a crypt (You didn't actually say that. Ed) Oh. Well, you do anyway. There are two closed coffins keeping you company, and the door's locked - so the first puzzle is how to escape! (Actually, I won't really be giving anything away if I say there's a key in one of the coffins - so have a peek in there!) Escape out of your prison and you're faced with the usual labryrinth of tunnels and rooms - press the action key now and again to examine, eat, push or shoot all the things you come I across. SLICE OF CHEESE, SIR And it's incredibly megastonkingly fab! Of course, you have to stop all the time to scribble down different bits of map and solve puzzles, but that's half the fun. And you have to be prepared for making some ghastly mistakes too - I wandered into a room called the Mousetrap, found some cheese on a table and ate it. What an idiot! The screen flashed hideously for a mo and then I collapsed and died. (So, erm, the moral of the story is don't eat any cheese!) The Crypt is certainly large enough to keep you wandering around for months, and easily as big as Castle Master. The locations have an even more menacing look, and the puzzles are perhaps even more fiendishly difficult than they were before. Finding the hidden objects to help you escape stretched my logical powers further than I ever expected. (Just make sure you look on top of all the objects!) Of course, the graphics are just what you'd expect from the people who brought us 3D Construction Kit - everything's beautifully designed and positioned, and, as usual, you get totally caught up in the atmosphere of the whole thing and forget you're sitting at your telly. If only I could make games like this with my copy! It's not that far removed from Castle Master- so don't expect to see something completely different (to coin a phrase) - but lots of tweakish little improvements make it even better. So I'm going to give it a whopping... 1991 Verdict: 95° (Blimey!)

Coo-ee! Anyone home? You'll find a key in one of the coffins, but I don't think it's this one. (Better try the others then, eh, Spec-chums?)

Here we are at the beginning of the game, stuck in the crypt itself. (Find a key for the door though and you'll be out in a jiffy!)

In the corridor now, and you can jump on the table (and off it again) to your little heart's content. (Whatever turns you on!)

SO WHAT ELSE DO YOU GET THEN? DRILLER The original Freescape game (reviewed by Phil 'Snouty' South in January 1988, who gave it 9 out of 10), Driller was a complete sensation when it came out. Basically it sees you wandering around a planet, trying to mine valuable gases (which is easier said than done). The brain tingling puzzles certainly hit the mark (as do those bast laser beacons) but the graphics jerk a bit and detract from the game. Still, it was the first Freescape game out so what do you expect? 1991 Verdict: 90° TOTAL ECLIPSE Reviewed in July 1989 by that complete loony 'Macca', this got 90° (as well it might). The game is subtitled Sphinz Jinx and sees you evacuating a pyramid in spooky Egypt. Roofs collapse, stairs lead nowhere and there's a time limit hanging over it (which adds a certain 'frisson'). 1991 Verdict: 92° CASTLE MASTER After Total Eclipse, Incentive introduced the 'action' key (to open, eat, push and so on). Before Castle Master you could only shoot things to make stuff happen, but this addition meant that the adventures became deeper, slicker and more playable. It's smooth, it's fast and it got 93° when Matt reviewed it back in May last year (which means now it's out as barg price we can give it a whopping...). 1991 Verdict: 95°

Read it at Your Sinclair Rock'n'Roll Years

Crash

Overall 86%

Mark Caswell 84%

Nick Roberts 88%

It's not very often a game comes out that takes a computer into a whole new dimension, but that's exactly what happened when Incentive unleashed Driller into the world. Programmed using a new technique called Freescape, it blew away every so-called 3D game that came before it. Nick Roberts makes the journey into 3D city. Domark/Incentive £19.99 Compilation There have been four main Freescape games from Incentive: Driller, Dark Side, Total Eclipse and Castle Master. But what you might not know is there have been special editions of the last two created especially for members of The Home Computer Club. A BIT ABOUT FREESCAPE So what's so amazing about the Freescape graphics system anyway? Well, it enables the programmer to create new worlds using solid three dimensional graphics. These worlds can then be explored with immense freedom. You can walk, run, crawl and fly around as if you were actually there (sort of). You can walk toward an object and look up at it from below. Put on a jetpack, rise up above and look down and all around. The possibilities are seemingly endless. Once you've got a system like this to create games with it must be easy to fall into the trap of having amazing graphics but no gameplay at all. Luckily, Incentive managed to steer away from this path by changing the locations of the games and giving the player something different to do than just walk around collecting objects. CRYPT - REALLY CM2? Driller, Total and Castle Master we've covered plenty of times and they're all very good. But what of this new(ish) game, The Crypt? Basically, it's Castle Master with redefined screens. This can't have been very difficult with the new Domark/Incentive release 3D Construction Kit around! if you've bought this games creation utility you'll know just how easy it is to make a game. However, I'm not moaning (not much, anyway) because all Freescape fans will love a new game to tackle and there are plenty of new puzzles and scenes to entertain. If you haven't already got all the Freescape games in your software collection, this is an excellent opportunity to pick up most of them at once. I can't imagine what made them leave Dark Side out of the compilation, though, as it was one of the best games. Software houses, eh? NICK 88%

I want my mummy (ho ho)! Sorry, that wasn't funny. That's a plane in the backgroup (with something useful in it, we'll be bound).

It looks like rain! I wonder if the king of the castle will let you in for a cuppa?

Spooky goings on down in the Crypt.