Microdeal
£29.95
Requires Colour monitor
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This program comes in an attractive and colourful
box with a well written booklet which explains some of the basic
details of the game and starts with a poem. On opening the first
page I was afraid someone had once read the Epic of Gilgamesh, but
the poem is only one page long. The details are concise and enough
to get you started and there is nothing complicated beyond the usual
arcade game rules except that you do have mysteries to sort out as
well as zapping unfriendly creatures. My only complaint is that the
book is crudely stapled and the disk is loose in the box.
It is well worth curbing your impatience to try
the game out and just let it cycle through its auto routine, this
way you will get used to the inhabitants and not die so quickly!.
When I played it first, I was so interested in the superb graphics
that the game was over before I knew it. A lot of time and effort
has gone into this game and it really shows in the detail as the
game progresses.
Basically Time Bandit is a maze style arcade game,
reminiscent of 'Wizard of Wor'. You start of on a planet with around
a dozen timegates, shaped differently (starship, hotel, pyramid
etc). Just walk through one of the gates and you appear in different
lands, each more varied and dangerous than the last. To survive you
must find a key to open the way out, but you will also find some
valuable treasures as you wander through the locations. These add to
your score and give you a chance to acquire valuable lives. There is
a tendency to play this game in the usual fast and furious arcade
style. Taking it easy will not get you a good reputation as an
adventurer (shown on the screen) but you will last a bit longer. The
death throes of the enemy have got to be seen to be believed and
some of the humour is very subtle!
There is something here for everyone, you can play
Pac Man, wander around the `Enterprise', bust ghosts, solve
mysteries and more. The best thing about this game is that you can
try all the locations on a simple level by entering them only once,
take just one level and enter it time after time so increasing the
level of difficulty, or do a combination of both. Your score will be
recorded upon your death, and if the disk is protected the error is
trapped and the game goes on. 'Wizard of Wor' was the only game of
this style (I detest the word genre!) I enjoyed until I had the loan
of this, and Microdeal might have a fight on their hands to get it
back again!
I would thoroughly recommend this game, and as yet
I have found no bugs and only one complaint, the hero moves and
shoots in only four directions. It is well worth getting your local
ATARI dealer to set up the demo screen, and if he has not obtained
it tell him to contact the lovely Jenny Pope at 0726 68020.
Two small hints, as you stumble through the graveyard and you come
across an interesting tombstone, think twice about digging it up and
do not forget to try other exits such as ladders or holes.
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