The pre-release demo of Ankh from Artex software is now available to download. Ankh is a new graphical adventure game for RISC OS and will feature high resolution and high colour graphics. Ankh is due for release at the Wakefield show in May where it will be sold for a special price of £20. After the show the game will cost about £25. It will probably be distributed on CD-ROM due to the size of the graphics and music.

 Download Ankh Demo (1900Kb)

The demo is very impressive and this game will be one to look forward to along with Artex's other planned release, TEK. The demo runs in a 640x400 high colour mode on RiscPCs with 1MB VRAM and 6MB RAM.

Details of any problems experienced with the demo should be sent to Artex at DHeide@gmx.net rather than the normal Acorn Arcade addresses.

Artex have now released a list of the changes between the game and demo to Acorn Arcade.

• The game is far more complex, with dozens of little missions all necessary to solve the complete game. The game is roughly divided into three very different parts.
  
• Sound and music, missing from the demo, add atmosphere to the game.
  
• The demo only contains one rather difficult task. In the full game more little riddles have been added.
  
• The control is user-friendlier. You can use the right mouse button to look at things and the middle button to talk to people or pick up items.
  
• Some characters have been replaced by better ones.
  
• The main character has been improved.
  
• The dialogues and jokes have been improved.
  
• The text has black outlines and can be read more easily.
  
• The full game will have undertaken extensive testing, so should be bug-free.
  

Screenshots

These screenshots were taken from the demo and are a good demonstration of the overall quality of the graphics in the game.

Ankh title screen	Some rather nasty terrorists...

Game Plot
The game is set in Cairo, Egypt in about 500 BC. The main character, wants to show his father that he's a grown-up tough guy, and so he tries to get an audience at the Pharaoh's palace. Unfortunately he doesn't get further than the doorstep of his father's house where a gang of three unfriendly boys steals his one and only silver coin....

Game Features
There will be about 30 scenes of places in Ancient Egypt, including Cairo, the desert, a tomb and the underworld. The game will have lots of riddles (but logical ones). There will be over 35 animated characters and over 50 items that you can use, combine, wear, or give.

Technical Info
High-resolution graphics, animated scenery, animated characters, music played from CD in full 16-bit quality, loads of sound effects.

Requirements
To play Ankh, you will need a Risc PC with 4mb of RAM, a VGA monitor and a CD drive. Artex have hinted that they may do a pre-Risc PC version.

For more information on the game, see the Jan Klose interview.

Acorn Banner Exchange