Commodore Free 25/Commodore_Free_Issue_25_2008_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/t.sceptre bagd

Text File | 2008-01-01 | 5.5 KB | 177 lines

u
The Sceptre of Baghdad
(C)2008 Psytronik Software
--------------------------

Programming: Jon Wells
Graphics:Jon Wells
Music:Paul (Feekzoid) Hannay

Reviewed by Richard Bayliss

The tales of the 1001 knights and Ali
Baba meets Dizzy in this arcade action
adventure by Jon Wells. You are the
Caliph who wakes up one morning to
find everything around him is so big.
Is he dreaming or is it for real?
Unfortunately for the Caliph he was
cast under the spell by an evil
sorcerer who was very jealous and
wants to be the new Caliph himself.
Not only is the Caliph small and cast
under an evil spell, but he needs to
find a way to bring him back to normal
size and try to stop the evil
sorcerer, Which of course will not be
an easy job. Thankfully the Caliph has
a friend to try and help him find a
way around and to try and bring things
back to normal. Who is that? It's the
genie in the magic lamp. So the Caliph
rubs the lamp but sadly the genie
speaks "I'm not at home". After
several rubs, the genie gives up and
gets the Caliph started and booms out
that to break the evil sorcerer's
spell; he needs to find the sacred
sceptre of Baghdad.

In the game you start in the lounge,
where lies the Genie in the lamp, and
the game idea is generally to find the
sacred sceptre. This sounds straight
forward, but to be honest it is not
all that straight forward. You cannot
find the sceptre straight away, you
need to enter all the rooms inside and
outside the magic palace gathering
items to try and solve various
puzzles. For example how can you rub
the lamp, how can you enter the water,
how can you avoid turning into stone
when you come so close to the Medusa.
What things do I need to do to get on
to the next stage, If you solve any
puzzles you will gain access to new
rooms, which may or may not have some
more puzzles for you to solve.

As well as the various puzzles to you
need to solve, you can rub the magic
lamp, where the genie lives and he
will give you some very useful clues.
Or then again he could be a bit
stubborn and say that he is not
available. Several rubs of the lamp
usually will give out clues, no
wishes. There are also various hazards
which you have to watch out for in the
game. The main hazards are the demons,
but you can attack the demons while
they are moving around the rooms by
using the fire button. If you touch a
demon, a bit of energy will be lost.
Once all your energy has gone, the
game is over.

Not only are there deadly demons
lurking around the palace (probably
sent in by the evil sorcerer) but you
also have various obstacles to avoid
by collecting the right item to help
you progress further. For example, if
you walk in water, on a very hot sandy
ground or walk across fire without the
correct item in your possession, you
will lose energy quicker than the
demons sapping you. Also there are
some obstacles that are dangerous if
you walk into those, like as mentioned
before, the Medusa. And funnily
enough, you can get killed by a
harmless looking goldfish. (Well, it
does look harmless, unless it packs a
bite.)

This game is kind of like Dizzy,
especially when you have various
puzzles to solve to try and progress
further, but this game has no egg
characters involved - thankfully
because I have run out of egg gags :).
Anyway, the concept of the game is
very simple. There are plenty of rooms
for you to explore which makes things
wonderfully enjoyable, and some
puzzles are tricky others easy (Unless
you keep playing the game to progress
further that is). If the player finds
the sceptre, then they will be awarded
a password for the final part of the
game (The ending), which I won't give
away because that's wrong. The game is
fun for all the family. The game plays
smoothly well.

On the graphics front this game looks
very stylish. Practically every screen
must have been painted in a art
program because the graphics are
probably all C64 hires/multicoloured
bitmap graphics. The detail for the
graphics is magnificent and very
colourful. The sprites are very nice
looking as well. There has been a lot
of attention to graphical detail with
this game which was worth the effort.
The loading picture is artistic as
well.

As for sounds in the game. The sound
effects are pretty original, because I
never heard nice filtered sound
effects like this in a game. This game
does not only have sound effects, but
it has an excellent sound track to the
title. Feekzoid's music stands out
really well with this game, the intro
and end sequence. The music is very
atmospheric all the way through the
game. The in game tune is over 9
minutes long and you are sure to
really enjoy it as I did.

The tape version of this game is split
into 3 different parts. The first part
used is the intro part. You are first
presented with a nice picture, and
then the intro comes on. The intro is
just a 2x2 char up-scroll, with a
longish story line. There is also
music playing in the background, which
makes things more atmospheric. Then
the picture comes on again and loads
in the game (While the loading music
is playing in the background). Then
the last part has to be loaded in
separately, where loading music will
play again, which is good.

Overall the production is worth its
price of 3.99 on a real Commodore C64.
Not only do you get hours of
excitement and many puzzles to solve,
you also get a proper C64 tape with
professional artwork on the tape inlay
in full colour and a very professional
tape loader. I was very impressed with
the production and would love to see a
sequel to the original game.

The Sceptre of Baghdad available from:
 http://www.binaryzone.org/psytronik

====