Zambadlos, the King of Darkness, is threatening the Agamen Empire with his black magic. It is up to Kayas, King of the Agamen Empire, and Bahamoot, the Dragon of Light, to destroy Zambadlos and send him back to the realm of darkness. This is a horizontally scrolling shoot-'em-up, but the dragon you control has a long, flexible tail which can be manoeuvred and used to kill enemies - although you can still use the traditional methods of shooting missiles and breathing fire at them. It all sounds good, but it turns out to be quite a lousy game. It's a horrible Spectrum port, complete with colour clash. Because the playing area is very small, and the dragon occupies a lot of the screen, it's difficult to avoid enemies, and if you crash into any of them, you are sent back a long way. It's not fun to play at all.

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A wealth of treasure is guarded by a dragon in a castle, and you aim to claim some of this treasure. The castle consists of six rooms which contain different hazards. You have to survive until the doorway to the next room opens; how long you need to survive depends on which of the three difficulty levels you have selected. When you've reached the final room, you must collect the treasure while avoiding the dragon and return to the first room. With only six rooms, there's hardly a game to speak of, and everything about the game is banal. Amazingly, it's written in machine code, but you wouldn't believe it after you've played it!

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King Aethelred's beautiful daughter, Princess Daphne, has been kidnapped by the evil dragon Singe! Dirk the Daring, the King's most favoured knight, sets out to rescue Daphne before Singe kills her. The arcade version of this game was revolutionary at the time, and there are eight challenges for Dirk to complete here. Unfortunately, they're extremely difficult - the first level is tough enough, but the second level is impossible! The graphics are reasonable (although the title screen is very good), and so is the music, but it's a real shame that you can't choose which levels you want to play at the start of the game.

See also: Escape from Singe's Castle.

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Princess Alicia has been captured by the evil serpent demon Zawell, but it seems that the only being who can rescue her is a magical flying dragon, and that's what you are in this vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up. Flying over eight levels, you must simply dodge or throw fireballs at the flying enemies, and drop bombs on the beasts on the ground. You can collect power-ups by dropping bombs on eggs. Unfortunately, they are few and far between, and they're of little use anyway. The graphics are nicely drawn and very colourful, although the sound effects are poor, but it's basically just another shoot-'em-up, and a very difficult one as well - I can just about complete the first level without cheating.

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6

Far in the future, corporations controlled by the Focus Fellowships rule the Earth. They are capable of focusing demons into people's dreams. Infighting within the group has allowed a group of four scientists, the Asmen, to stop Focus in their tracks, but Ocular, the Dream Demon, has captured three of them. You were the one who wasn't captured, and you must enter their minds and rescue your colleagues. What sort of a plot is that, I ask you? Anyway, this is a boring shoot-'em-up in which you collect psy-globes to operate the lifts, obtain extra energy (or 'dream depth' in this game) from safes, and build up images of your colleagues which will be shown at the bottom of the screen. The graphics and sound effects are poor, and the gameplay consists mostly of standing in a corner, waiting for demi-demons to appear. Definitely a game to avoid!

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Driller
(Incentive, 1987)

After the Ketars abandoned their mining expeditions on Mitral, a large amount of gas has built up beneath its surface, and it will explode in four hours. You have to place eighteen rigs on each of the sectors on Mitral to release the gas safely. This was the first of the Freescape games, and as a result, it moves quite slowly, but it's a great puzzle game as you try and work out where the rigs should be placed, whilst avoiding all the lasers and other obstacles the Ketars have left behind. You might also want to know that the sound effects were provided by the winner of an Amstrad Action competition!

See also: Dark Side.

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Druid
(Firebird, 1986)

The Princes of Darkness have placed four skulls in a tower, bringing misery to the surrounding land, and it's up to you, a druid, to venture into the tower and destroy the skulls. The tower is really a maze consisting of eight levels, each filled with monsters and treasure chests which can be opened to reveal offensive and defensive spells, as well as keys. You have three types of offensive spell to use against monsters, although many of them are resistant to at least one type of spell. Defensive spells include making yourself invisible, creating a magical Golem, and a smart bomb which kills everything on the screen. The graphics are OK, if a little garish on most of the levels, but it's a real joy to play it and to explore the tower.

See also: Enlightenment: Druid II.

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The Duct
(Gremlin, 1988)

This game appeared on an Amstrad Action covertape, but I'm not certain if it was commercially released. Anyway, it's basically an obstacle course where you drive a buggy down some ducts, avoiding the enemies and obstacles in your way, while collecting extra fuel and energy - you'll need them. You can move along the walls of the duct, which sends all the objects (and your eyes) into a frenzied spin. The 3D graphics are excellent, yet the game moves reasonably fast, and there are some good sound effects too. It's a shame that it's too hard - getting off the first level is very difficult - and you only have one life as well.

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7

Coktel Vision were better known for their graphic adventures than for arcade games, and for good reasons. This happens to be one of their arcade games, and it's a beat-'em-up featuring three types of combat; karate fighting, street fighting between two punks, and two robots fighting each other - combat in the year 2000, supposedly. There are three skill levels, and you can play either against the computer or another player. Aside from that, there's little else to the game; no opponents of increasing skill, no goals to attain. The graphics are poor and the music that is played before and after each fight becomes really annoying.

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4

Save for the music, which is really good though maybe too invading, this game (which seems to have been released only as part of the 6 Hit Pak compilation) is terrible. Your soldier moves as fast as a crippled turtle, and you must be exactly in front of your enemies to have a chance to kill them. As in Gauntlet, you must find the exit of a level to go to the next one - and it is often surrounded by barbed wire, which you must cut. You have to replenish your health and ammo regularly, and you can use smoke bombs and grenades. It could have been a funny game but the controls are really too irritating, and the game is way too slow!

See also: Commando.

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