¢8-BIT SOFTWARE SCENE - MAY/JUNE 1993¢¢¢DARK CHAMBERS¢by Atari Corporation¢¢Reviewed by John McIntyre, NOSAUG.¢¢¢ Well, what can I say? How about starting with the word "Gauntlet"? That about sums up this game, but don't go thinking that this is a case of stealing a popular idea. Oh no, after all, it was Atari who originally produced Gauntlet. In fact, if you look closer at the small print you'll find that Dark Chambers was first designed back in 1983 by John Howard Palevich. If my memory serves me right, Gauntlet wasn't released until the end of 1984. Correct me if I'm wrong but could Dark Chambers have been the the game which inspired Gauntlet?¢¢ Dark Chambers is set in a time of ghouls, spectres and long-forgotten treasure. The latter being exactly what you, our intreped hero, wants to get his greedy little hands on.¢¢ All this treasure hunting takes place in 26 mazes, lettered A-Z. Along the way you will meet a variety of foes that will try to drain you of your vital energy. These come in the form of Zombies, Skeletons, Wizards and most deadly of all, Take That fans (only joking...PHEW!). Some of the nasties need more than one hit, turning a lesser foe with each successive hit until dead. If this wasn't enough to contend with, there are also traps positioned throughout the maze that can drain upto 96 energy units depending on its type.¢¢ Your probably thinking to yourself that this sounds like a challenging game? Wrong! The game may play like a smooth version of Mindscape's 8-Bit Gauntlet, but to anyone who is familiar with the Mindscape arcade conversion - Dark Chambers will be a pushover.¢¢ The graphics on Dark Chambers are quite impressive. The opening screen shows a dusky chamber with a door facing you. There are torches ablaze on either side. In the doorway you can see two glowing eyes peering out at you. Add the spooky music and you have an eerie feel that really suits the game.¢¢ The sound effects throughout the game are quite adequate with plenty of blasting noises.¢¢ From levels Q to T the maze layouts are repeats of earlier mazes, so there should be no excuse for anyone getting killed between these levels. After level Z it's back to the beginning to start all over again. It's a shame they didn't program more complex mazes from level Q onward. It would have made the completion of the game a greater challenge.¢¢ All in all, Dark Chambers is very playable. My only quam is that it is far too easy to have any real lastability. I am not the world's greatest games player but even I managed to complete it twice round on my second shot. Micro Discount sell this game at 18.50. To me this is far too high. Gralin International sell it for 9.95 - this is a better price. Even at a tenner though, I'd only buy it for the two-player option. The game has three difficulty levels but neither one is much harder than the other. In fact, I would recommend playing the game on advanced level as there is more to shoot. Dark Chambers is a cartridge for young Atarians or those who are new to arcade games. A good game wasted by easy gameplay.¢¢DARK CHAMBERS by Atari¢ROM Cartridge¢9.95 pounds (Gralin International);¢18.50 pounds (Micro Discount);¢$9.95 (B&C ComputerVisions, USA);¢DM29.80 (KE-Soft, Germany).¢¢Software Scene Rating:¢¢Graphics..........80%¢Sound.............70%¢Gameplay..........45%¢Value For Money...50%¢¢OVERALL...........65%¢¢ -------------------------¢¢¢OPERATION BLOOD¢by A.N.G. Software¢¢(A totally honest and unbiased review by Daniel Baverstock.)¢¢¢ Life can't be easy when ten or more soldiers, a few tanks and a fleet of choppers want to blow your a.., I mean back-side, out of the sky! This is basically what Operation Blood from A.N.G. Software is about.¢¢ After sending a letter off to 'New Atari User' some time ago, asking for a clone of the infamous 'Operation Wolf' (or was it Operation Thunderbolt!), It suddenly appeared available on the Atari 8-Bit. I bought it from Micro Discount and as soon as it arrived I hastily bunged it into my drive.¢¢ Literally one second into loading the disk, a Polish sign appeared which, after much anxiety and a dictionary, was translated into 'disk write-protected'. On loading the second time, with my write-protect switch off, it was OK. I was then presented with a title screen. A picture of a machine gun could be seen at the bottom (in green), and the game title was at the top. This was accompanied with some pleasantly catchy music that made me feel as though I was in the game situation described at the beginning of this review. I then proceeded with the game...¢¢ The screen appeared and scrolled to the left, rather jerkily at first, until I saw a little man open fire on me. On reading another review of the game, I was expecting my gunfire to be reminicent of a pea shooter. However, the noises were not that bad and the gameplay was soon to make me forget about the gunfire, or anything for that matter! By activating the limited amount of grenades you have (by pressing the spacebar) you can blast the oncoming tanks, helecopters and soldiers. Talking about the soldiers, they are extremely well animated, including those in the background.¢¢ Now and then the odd civilian hobbles by; some carrying stretchers. These must be missed to avoid a loss of points and a good telling-off by your superiors (if you make it through the game!).¢¢ There are also extra grenades, first-aid kits and land mines which must be shot at. The background graphics (especially the buldings) are exceptional and add to the overall gameplay. The enemies also throw grenades and knives at you, which have to be shot to avoid becoming a kebab! By shooting the various enemies themselves, the total numbers remaining decreases until all the figures reach zero, upon which you are releaved of finger ache and soothed with some very good ending music. You are then sent straight to Level 2 without a lunchbreak!¢¢ Overall, I throughly enjoyed this game, despite minor gripes about the graphics being mostly green and the lack of sampled sounds. At just 5.95 pounds it's well worth it. As for Level 2, that would be telling, wouldn't it? I look forward to more quality games from Europe, especially Brundles.¢¢¢Operation Blood is available from Micro Discount (Tel: 021-353-5730) for 5.95 pounds plus P&P.¢
