Reviews

by P.A.W. Software (Tony Adams, Tony R. Porter)

As a 19th century scientist from a H. G. Wells novel, blending with a fantasy tale from Tolkien and such, you built a peculiar machine that somehow allows you to enter another dimension, where you ride through mazes of caves riddled with the most fantastic creatures, but not of the friendly kind. Anyway, your thirst of knowledge pushes you into exploring the caves and learn all their secrets - and you discover you can pick up coloured balls, mostly yellow or golden, which gives you some kind of energy. Some researchers think you simply turned into Pac Man. But there are no ghosts here, only Trolls, Rotoflies, Biter Birds and a HUGE DRAGON GUARDING THE EXIT OF THE CAVE. To defeat the latter, you have first to shoot some fireballs at the other creatures, until you have collected three jewels, which will disintegrate the invisible barrier protecting the dragon.Then you'll have to face the dragon in a furious duel. If you win, you'll reach the next level, more tortuous, more crowded and with new creatures. You ride your interdimensional machine from a subjective point of view, a panel with various indicators occupying the lowest quarter of the screen. Graphics are black and white, except for the fireballs. The sprites of the creatures are big and well drawn, a bit blocky but in a nice way, and the caverns flow smoothly around you. Playability is very high, and you'll need to draw or check a map to really find your way through the mazes without getting lost.
I don't find it much addictive, but overall is an excellent game, technically irreproachable.
Very nice three channel tune in the 128k version.

4/5

I never managed to get into this, always got lost, always lost interest, but my it's graphically impressive. Some of the enemy designs are quite fantastic, the dragon for instance is an incredible sight. While the graphics are there it is just a shame it doesn't seem to have the gameplay to match.