Monty Mole has been called out of retirement by some aliens to destroy five guardians. The adventure takes Monty through the Klondike mines, the Amazon rainforest, the Orient, and Iceland, before the final encounter in Bermuda. You can choose to play any of the first four levels in any order you want. This is a good thing, because if you had to start on a particular level, you'd never get to see the other four! It's a very difficult game, and even worse, you've only got one life. The graphics are very cheerful and colourful, but there's very little sound. Thankfully, you can play enough of the game to keep coming back to it, but it's still much too tough.

See also: Auf Wiedersehen Monty, Monty on the Run.

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Impossible Mission
(Epyx, 1986)
Reviewed by Chris Lennard

Evil Professor Elvin Atombender is engaged in a deadly game of nuclear blackmail. Using his supercomputer, he will crack the secret US nuclear missile launch codes in six hours, allowing him to destroy the world. Only Agent 4125 of the IMF (Impossible Mission Force) can stop him by entering his secret underground complex and shutting it down. With his pocket computer in hand, our hero must explore the complex rooms, avoiding the guard robots whilst searching the ordinary furniture within for passwords which enable to you to disable the bots, reset the navigation lifts and others which when combined will disable Elvin's computer. Rather ugly looking, no speech (unlike the C64 version) and extremely difficult - but a classic nonetheless.

See also: Impossible Mission II.

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6

Warped madman Elvin Atombender is back in another attempt at nuclear Armageddon, and after Agent 4125's previous success in spoiling the evil professor's plans, he is again sent in to stop him. This time he has to infiltrate his secret tower complex, and once more is taking the lifts in the rooms, jumping around hostile guard robots which have evolved to kill you in more varied ways, searching the everyday objects and furniture to get codes that can help you and which will enable you to end Atombender's nefarious scheme. Essentially more of the same, but simply better presented this time round with mild graphical improvements, but sadly still without the speech which the CPC is quite capable of.

See also: Impossible Mission.

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6

I don't recall this game being released for the CPC in the UK, but anyway... A Nazi agent has stolen a statue that Indiana Jones has uncovered, but he drops some papers about the lost city of Atlantis, and it turns out that the agent is working for Dr. Hans Ubermann, a physicist who is trying to build a nuclear bomb using a material called orichalcum. Indy knows that one of his colleagues, Sophia Hapgood, is interested in Atlantis, and the two of them set out to stop the Nazis. This is an arcade adventure which is viewed in an isometric perspective. Both you and Sophia have to find objects to enable you to pursue your quest. Initially things look good, but the game is at times grindingly slow and you spend too much time plodding around in frustration. It's subtitled 'the action game', but there's not a lot of action in it!

See also: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

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5

Indy is on a quest for the Holy Grail before the Nazis grab it. The four levels take you in a search for the Cross of Coronado, then going to a castle for the Crusader's Shield, acting as a stowaway on a flying Zeppelin, and finally, traversing pits and platforms to reach the Grail. There are some fantastic pictures from the film of the same name before you play each level, and there's a fairly good rendition of the theme tune, but the in-game graphics are monochrome, albeit detailed and well animated. The game's big let-down, though, is that it's too slow - Indy takes ages to land on the ground when he jumps.

See also: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

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5

Based (obviously) around the film of the same name, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a game that excels greatly on various levels, that lets itself down slightly in the most important aspect of all. To my delight, the graphics, though not groundbreaking, were clear and well animated. Indy is instantly recognisable. The sound also really impressed me. From the Indy theme tune right down to the crack of his whip, everything is spot on. So far, so good, but then comes the difficulty... this must rank as one of the hardest games ever to be created! The first level sees Indy rescuing slave children, while using his whip to stun the attacking Thuggee guards. The cavern is huge, pitfalls lie everywhere, and the guards attack in swarms! I like a bit of a challenge, but this is ridiculous! By the way, the second level sees you riding a mine cart. Sounds great, but you'll never see it!

See also: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

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7

Infernal House
(Lankhor, 1991)

It's Friday the 13th of April, 1990. You're a private detective, and your journalist friend Sophie disappeared three days ago while investigating the infernal house of Professor Tcherslawsky. You know from one of his colleagues, Rainer Gelehrtman, that he has worked on some diabolical experiments in the past, and fear the worst as you enter the house. But nothing can prepare you for the shocking and horrific fate that has befallen Sophie, and many other innocent people as well... This is a very nice French adventure which has some excellent graphics; the introduction sequence is very well done indeed and a welcome addition to the game. Although you can't save your current position, there is little opportunity for dying, but the game is still quite a challenge, with several secret rooms and clues to be discovered around the house.

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9

You're an explorer in the Egyptian desert, hunting for a lost pyramid in a search for treasure - but your crew has deserted you and left you on your own. Can you find the pyramid and explore it before you die in the fierce heat? The plot of this text adventure game might be rather unoriginal, but as usual, Infocom turn it into something special, and in this game, there are lots of hieroglyphics to be deciphered, which will give you vital clues to solving the puzzles and traps that the Egyptians have left for treasure hunters! It's a reasonably hard adventure, but the ending is a bit of an anti-climax and there are a few bugs.

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8

Your aunt, an old eccentric who lived in America, just died. She leaves you her colossal fortune. But she wanted you to do one thing before you can inherit it; you've got to win one million dollars in Las Vegas. The story begins in your hotel room, which is miserable. Point-and-click adventure games were rare at the time, so we can be indulgent with this one. The graphics were good on the French Thomson computer from which the game (known as L'Heritage in France) is ported. But the use of MODE 1 produces grainy screens on the CPC and the colours are sometimes awful. It's rather fun to play, though, for a short while...

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6

Los Inhumanos are a well known pop group in Spain, and this game is apparently based around one of their songs. Zufuru's beloved Simca 1000 car has been stolen and his girlfriend has been kidnapped by the rival Rokopiedras gang. Zufuru must find the four pieces of the car, then head to New York and enter the Empire State Building where his girlfriend is being held captive. The graphics are very bright and colourful and a fairly jolly tune plays throughout the game, although there are no sound effects. However, the enemies that you encounter frequently are difficult to defeat, and the range of enemies and the landscape are very surreal - since when did one find mailboxes and dustbins in a prehistoric setting?

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