Producer: Rainbird
Retail Price: £14.95
Author: Level 9

Jewels of Darkness follows the usual rules of naming software, ie make it sound like everything else. In fact this unoriginal title covers a trilogy of very famous games, games which go back to the very earliest days of adventuring. Colossal Adventure, the first of the three, is a direct descendant of the Crowther and Woods mainframe jaunt. This was the bane of many an academic computing fraternity in the late seventies and early eighties. Adventure Quest, the second tape, is played out on the same ground as the first, but is a LEVEL v original, while Dungeon Adventure completes the trilogy with the most original story and feel of the lot.

All three have been completely overhauled and updated since their first release, with extended text descriptions, enhanced language manipulation, and, most noticeably to a Colossal veteran, pictures. Even if these do only amount to the usual LEVEL 9 minimalistic art school, they still add some colour to these text classics.

The packaging is of the very highest standard with full instructions (which even go so far as telling you how to wrestle with the firm plastic casings), and a novella by Peter McBride indicating a high regard and a great confidence in the product by RAINBIRD. I tend to go along with this confidence, as this package, even at nigh on £15, is still superb value for money given the effort to breathe new life into these oldies (but extremely goodies).

Presentation is all very well of course, but what of the substance. Well, what can be said from the outset is, if you haven't played these games before, or it you are thinking of looking into adventuring but don't know where to start, then this trilogy can provide an insight into what makes adventuring great. The stories behind each part, the strong and evocative descriptions of each location, and the clever weighting and interlinking of puzzles and objects provide the fuel to set burning even the dullest of imaginations. One offshoot of the games' notoriety is the ease of discussing the adventure with fellow adventurers, many of whom will have at least tried Colossal, so you can end up in animated conversation - much the same as with Tolkien novels.

The features designed to bring these old masterpieces into line with new advances are most impressive. Most immediately apparent is the type-ahead feature; even while pictures are being drawn, the next move can be made. Enhancements in vocabulary include GET ALL or EVERYTHING, AGAIN and RAM SAVE and EXITS.

The sophistication which these commands can achieve together when they are linked by punctuation for simply by the word AND), is quite remarkable. The GET ALL DROP ALL command can be used with exceptions as in DROP ALL BUT THE LAMP AND SILVER BALL. The command OOPS, which restores the player to the position before the last move on larger machines, is sadly not available on the Spectrum 48K versions!

In addition to the commands to get you back into the game, the programs also give you an option to be resurrected after an untimely death. To obtain a maximum score, and the title of Supreme Adventurer, the player must complete Colossal, Quest, and Dungeon in that order, carrying the score across from one adventure to the next. Each adventure has its own scoring system and objectives, as we shall now see on our tour of the trilogy.

In the first part, Colossal Adventure, the player scores points by finding fabulous treasures and carrying them back to the small brick building at the start. If things are going well, and you reach the Colossal Cavern, then you will score more points for entering it. Bonus points are had by making as little use as possible of the SAVE/RESTORE options.

Colossal has you cast as the chap who takes pity on a weary traveller who stops by at your local tavern, and then goes on to free the goodly elves imprisoned in the deep dark dungeons at the end of your quest. The traveller is grateful for your helping him avoid the bandits who would have his money, but instead of proffering you some of his new found wealth, he allows you the chance of searching out your own at the cave which locals have put down as a myth. He gives you a map showing the location of the Colossal Cavern, and you decide to chance all and follow it - over mountains, through forests, and past deserts until nearing the cave, you foolishly lose the map in a fast-flowing stream. You must now make your own way to the cavern remembering what the traveller told you - that magic works in the cavern.

In some ways Colossal seems the easiest of the trilogy. This may be due to familiarity, or perhaps it's due to the ease of wandering round a great many locations with only a few minor problems to solve. Come to think of it the early part of Adventure Quest isn't so difficult either, but perhaps it isn't quite so easy to go as far. Playing both graphic and text versions (the text backs the graphics side of the tape) I noticed that not only is the text side wordier, but in some ways it is easier. Both prompts and location descriptions become more tangible as their lengths increase. For example, on the graphics side, trying to pick up an object when you already have four, results in 'Your hands are full'. On the text only side however, this becomes 'Your hands are full, you can't carry anything else unless you drop something first'. This is a simple example of what may well prove more valuable, as the plot thickens and becomes more intractable.

The story behind Adventure Quest goes like this. You are an apprentice magician (being under 60 years old) and have taken courses in the three M's (Meditation, Mysticism, and Moneymaking), but you haven't had the opportunity to put theory into practice - until now. You are told the base of the demon lord's power has been discovered: he has taken up residence in the Black Tower, on the far edge of the world. Even now the full council is preparing an assault on its defences. But there is a second way. Perhaps one person, acting alone, can find the four Stones-oil the-Elements and use them to enter the tower. There the Amulet-of-Life might help defeat the Demon. As you leave the room you think you hear the shouted order 'Next!'. Dressed in travel clothes you are teleported to a familiar scene.

You score points by getting nearer to the Demon Lord's Black Tower, and more for possessing any of the four Stones-of-the-Elements. There are bonus points for entering the tower itself and winning the adventure. On the debit side, you lose points as time goes by, and more if you manage to get yourself killed. Using SAVE/RESTORE regularly will keep you on your way in what is an epic journey.

The concluding game of the trilogy, Dungeon Adventure, goes like this. You awake on a mudbank under a bridge spanning a wide river. Apparently you were robbed and your body left for dead in the river but a current took you to the shore. However lucky you may fell at being alive, all your weapons and magic powers, are lost.

To score points you must collect treasures left by the late Demon Lord and take them to the store room. There are bonuses for getting rid of undesirable beings (though, to prevent massacre, only the worst enemies give you a bonus score). Getting yourself killed, as usual, loses valuable points. Resurrection is possible, and uses a machine which is initially situated very close to the start of the game. The setting for Dungeon Adventure is a cave network which was originally the headquarters of the Demon Lord. Some parts are now blocked off by rock falls, but it may help you to bear in mind the original functions of the accessible areas.

Jewels of Darkness is a classic trilogy and a collectors item for connoisseurs and laymen alike. Given the untold damage to the market, in terms of unimaginative structures and stories, wreaked by the Quill, these programs are at once a return to traditional adventuring and a breath of fresh air. Only allowing the carriage of four objects in the first two games seems unnecessarily restricting, and makes maze-mapping difficult. The bunched up text can be difficult to separate when reading and perhaps a bit of colour within the text wouldn't have gone amiss. The long, atmospheric location descriptions, the clever and entertaining plot, and the super way the whole thing is dished up, makes this package one to remember.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: easy to quite puzzling
Graphics: nothing special but colourful enough
Presentation: average, but at least the colours are restful
Input facility: beyond verb/noun
Response: fast

FAX BOX
Title: Jewels of Darkness
Publisher: Rainbird
Price: £14.95

"As he struggled to raise himself, a searing shaft of pain stabbed through his skull and set a deep throbbing thrumming in his temples. He was blinded by an angry vivid light though his eyes were closed, lids weighed down by a weariness that reached from the depths of his tortured body."

No, that's not your reviewer after two bottles of Armenian Beaujolais, but the opening words to the 43-page novella that accompanies this three-tape repackaging by Rainbird of the Level 9 Middle Earth trilogy of adventures: Colossal Adventure, Adventure Quest and Dungeon Adventure. is there anyone out there who doesn't know that these hallowed text-only games are being given a new lease of life with added graphics, enhanced text and Level 9's latest wonder-system?

Is it worth the effort? Well if you haven't got any of the titles in your collection then this handsome packaging ensures you're getting a bargain at only a fiver per brilliant and devious adventure. Even if you already have them, it'll be hard to resist the shiny blue box and tempting art-work - the only people likely to show no interest are the clever-clogs that've solved all three already.

Our old friend, the Lenslok falls out of the box when you open it, but don't give into the temptation to crunch it underfoot as you'll need it part-way through each adventure and also each time you RESTORE. Other familiar features are the mix of versions on each tape, with 48K graphics or extended text options, while 128K owners get graphics and extended text, though the text didn't seem to have been expanded that much in the locations I looked at. Who needs it, though, as these are already brimming over with that lengthy purple prose.

Unfortunately they're also brimming with Level 9's love of purple graphics, and you might, like me, prefer to imagine rather than see places like the Hall of Mists. No OOPS or RAMSAVE in 48K versions, which is a shame, and I do delight in finding little faults in Level 9's alleged Infocom-busting parser: 'A huge clam is anchored firmly to the floor.' GET CLAM. 'You can't see it.' If you type the command CLIMB UP you get a double-response, such as 'You must be joking!' 'You must be joking!' And after being killed and asked if I wished to be resurrected I typed RAMSAVE (I like being awkward), which produced the 'What now' prompt. LOOK, I typed, to be told 'You are "this is your referee speaking. If you continue east, you will leave the game. OK?'"

Despite little niggles, and I'm a great nit-picker, this is still a lovely package of three excellent and very extensive adventures, with Dungeon Adventure featuring in many people's list of all-time toughies. Never mind the storylines, just get on with bringing back treasures and vanquishing evil. A must for most Christmas lists.

Label: Rainbird
Author: Level 9
Price: £14.95
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Brenda Gore

Jewels of Darkness is the collective title for a trilogy of Level 9 adventures - Colossal Adventure, Adventure Quest and Dungeon Adventure.

These are the three early titles which first established Level 9 as a major force in the adventure world.

Packaged by Rainbird, these adventures have now been improved for their re-release. Colourful graphics, extended text descriptions and a host of new options, such as the resurrection of your character after it has been killed, have been added to the original games.

In Colossal Adventure, you score points for finding various treasures. Depositing these treasures in the small brick building near your starting position will increase your score still further. You lose points for being killed, something which is surprisingly easy to accomplish.

Having found your way underground, remembering that a lamp is useless unless it is lit, you are confronted by a number of perils. Will the Hall of Mists prove fatal or welcoming? What have you done to annoy the dwarf who keeps throwing axes at you? How can you persuade the green snake to let you pass through the Hall of Kings?

Well, I can't spoil the adventure for you by answering any of these questions - suffice it to say that the problems aren't too difficult.

The second part of the trilogy, Adventure Quest, is quite similar to the first. The main difference is that you are searching for the Demon Lord's Black Tower, where you hope to defeat the Demon Lord himself.

Again, you start off near a building by a road. Inside you will find an assortment of objects including a sling, a bottle, a bunch of keys and a table. Steps lead down a well in the centre of the room, but you will find it difficult to breathe underwater.

A little exploring will bring you face-to-horn with a unicorn. This beast is easily pacified, if you can stretch yourself enough to provide a flowery offering. This, in turn, opens up further avenues for exploration.

If you chance upon a stone pinnacle, you may also find a robed wizard bearing a scroll. This scroll contains much good advice about the whereabouts of the Talisman and the need for the four stones guarded by the servants of the demon. It also carries the dubious blessing of Typo, god of adventures.

Eventually, you find yourself crossing a trackless desert in pursuit of the Demon Lord. Listen carefully, and you will hear the sound of the giant worm before it emerges from the sand to swallow you whole. You could be forgiven for thinking you had suddenly found yourself on Frank Herbert's Dune - certainly someone at Level 9 is a an SF fan.

Ores and giants abound. And this is the outside of the Black Tower, never mind the heavy stuff inside.

The third and final part of the trilogy, Dungeon Adventure, starts on a bridge leading to a gigantic stone ore's head. The bridge is in fact the orc's tongue and leads into its mouth.

To score points, you must collect the treasures left behind by the late and unlamented Demon Lord and bring them to the store room. In this game it's possible to carry a lot of objects at once, thanks to a Tardis-like technique whereby some things are larger inside than they are outside.

The hazards come fast and furious in this game - perhaps you are supposed to have learnt something from the two previous adventures. Deadly sirens, bloodthirsty guards and evil smelling mud banks lie in wait to trap the unwary.

The science fiction element appears again in the form of the Rakasha - the demons which figured prominently in Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light. You are asked to take part in a dice game. If you win, the Rakasha will strengthen the flames of your soul, but if you lose the Rakasha will claim your body.

The trilogy has survived the test of time very well. Taken together the three titles make an excellent introduction to adventuring and, also, give a real insight into where it all began - with the legendary Colossal Adventure.

The colourful graphics are a welcome addition to the adventures. The locations are depicted in full colour and help to build up the atmosphere. The graphics are static, but no less effective for that.

Dyed in the wool text only fans will appreciate the option of loading Side 2 of the tape. This produces a non-graphic version of each adventure, with expanded text explanations.

All in all, these are still three of the best adventures going. Anyone who missed them first time round should certainly invest in the set now.

MACHINE: CBM 64, Amstrad CPC, Spectrum 48/128K, Atari 800
SUPPLIER: Rainbird/Level 9
PRICE: £14.95

Jewels of Darkness is a three-pack of Level 9's earliest games. Colossal Adventure, Adventure Quest, and Dungeon Adventure, once known as The Middle Earth trilogy, are now combined in an enhanced form.

Colossal Adventure is itself a revamped version of the first adventure ever - Crowther and Wood's mainframe Colossal Cave adventure. The Level 9 original added to it a whole new endgame, and now they have added graphics, updated the text, and put the whole thing on their new adventure system.

You start off by a brick well-house, and progress to find a hidden grating leading into the cave itself. In here are the early problems of logic and deduction, which went to make adventure playing such a popular pastime.

The bird that flies away when you try to trap it in the obvious place, a cage planted in a previous location; the serpent or snake that will not allow you to pass until driven off by the bird.

Two mazes in the game may well appear to be one and the same to the observant player. One has twisty passages all the same, and the other has twisty passages all different. Having become known as the 'same' maze and the 'different' maze respectively, both must be mapped if you hope to get anywhere.

Adventure Quest and Dungeon Adventure are both original scenarios, but, with a bit of frictional background, they are connected to form sequels. In Adventure Quest, your task is to defeat the demon Lord Agaliarept. In Dungeon Adventure, (reviewed C+VG September 1983) the Demon Lord is dead, and it occurs to you that there may be great treasure left unguarded in his dungeon...

For the fast-typing player, who is, perhaps, typing his way back into the game, this means that there is so much activity on the screen at any given time, that the text becomes a little difficult to take in.

The graphics are reasonable, and a little less abstract than Level 9's early graphics, but nevertheless, you are not likely to gasp in astonishment when you see what the inside of the cave looks like, for the first time over! Basic pictures, competently drawn, with rather unnatural colours in most cases, is what you'll get.

Three separate cassettes, or one disk, are contained in Rainbird's standard sturdy and glossy box, which is attractively illustrated, and a delight to handle. Also in the box is a fairly hefty glossy booklet, containing game instructions and a 'novel' based on the games.

If you haven't played the games before, then at £15, Jewel Of Darkness undoubtedly represents excellent value for money, providing you with a well-packaged compilation of three quality adventures, at a mere £5 each!

All
Rainbird
Graphic/Text Adventure
£14.95-£19.95

In the adventure world there are not many games which could be called true classics. A few have earned the accolade but few are more deserving of it than the early adventures from Level 9. For sheer enjoyment with a wealth of problems, massive locations and terrific atmospheric text descriptions, few games, even of today's standard, could match the excitement generated by Pete Austin and company.

It appeared to be impossible to improve them in any way but with the release of Jewels of Darkness they certainly have been.

Jewels is an omnibus of the Colossal Trilogy containing Colossal Adventure, Adventure Quest and Dungeon Adventure, enhanced and with graphics included, but before we deal with the additional features, let us look at the adventures.

Colossal Adventure is the re-make of the original Crowther and Wood Adventure with an additional 70 locations for good measure. That is like an adventure itself. Starting in the old stone hut, you must make your way into the massive underground cave system, where you will find much to amuse and confuse you. The main objective is to find all the various treasures and return with them to the hut. It sounds easy but with the devious mind of the author at work, I can assure it is not.

Adventure Quest is set some 100 years after the caves have been robbed. As an apprentice magician your task is to find and defeat the evil Lord Agaliarept, who happens to have a murderous band of Orcs camped conveniently outside your king's door. The evil Lord has issued an ultimatum - surrender now and die with dignity; and you have only one week to decide.

The king has only one alternative. Quickly calling the leader of the Wizard's Guild, he reminds him of all the favours bestowed on the Guild through the years and now is the time to repay them. Either defeat the Lord in one week or it is head-chopping time - and that is where you come in.

Once again, the imagination of the writer presents you with all kinds of weird and wonderful problems to overcome before you find and defeat Agaliarept. They include having to find the four element stones, keep out of the way of a giant sandworm, cross burning deserts, climb Orc-infested mountains, cross swamps where magical hands grab you from all sides until you eventually reach the Black Tower - and guess who lies in wait for you there?

Dungeon Adventure continues the day after the defeat of Agaliarept. Playing the part of a soldier of fortune, it dawns on you quickly that there must be plenty of loot in the Black Tower, so off you go as fast as possible to do some old-fashioned pillaging. By far the most atmospheric of the three, Dungeon barely lets you catch your breath before some other frustrating problem faces you. Once again there are many locations and some distinctly distasteful characters and things to overcome makes for smashing adventuring.

All three games are written using the new parser system. New commands added are the OOPS command - very useful when, having made an incorrect move; typing OOPs takes you back to the previous location; RAM save which, as it suggests, saves to RAM, therefore spensing with the need to save to tape until you decide to quit the session; and multi-tasking.

It was strange seeing graphics but they are a cut above the normal Level 9 graphics and enhance the overall payability of the games.

My opinion is that with the release of Jewels, Level 9 has once again brought back fun to adventuring, so even though you may have played the games in their earlier forms, do not let that deter you from buying them again. For those who have not yet played them, buy a copy as soon as possible.

PETER SWEASY DELIVERS THE VERDICT ON THE REVAMPED MIDDLE EARTH TRILOGY.

Rainbird
£14.95

I very nearly didn't give this game a Monster Hit rating, but in the end I decided that even a below average Level 9 game is better than almost everything on the market. However, I'm extremely disappointed with Jewels Of Darkness: not so much for what it is, but because it isn't what it could so easily have been.

The games which form what was previously called the 'middle earth' trilogy are Colossal Cavern, Adventure Quest and Dungeon Adventure. The first is a version of the original mainframe game, with all the traditional puzzles, plus a special endgame where you rescue some elves in a race against time. Adventure Quest takes you, an apprentice magician, across varied terrain in your mission to destroy the Demon Lord. Dungeon Adventure is set just after said nasty's defeat, and sees you as an adventurer looting the treasurefilled caverns beneath his domain. The latter two have an obvious plot link but the first one "feels" very different and doesn't fit in particularly; the only common feature being the same starting point as AQ.

These are all well-crafted, enjoyable adventures, and no matter what I will shortly say this must be borne in mind. They remain impressive for their mass of locations and puzzles, the lengthy descriptions and varied responses (though not as wideranging as in Price Of Magik). In their original forms they have rightly become classics, and the versions in Jewels have been technically updated, though the actual games remain basically unchanged. They run faster and look (marginally) better. The sophisticated sentence constructions marvelled at in POM are mostly here too (like DROP ALL EXCEPT....). The marvelous typeahead multi-tasking feature is provided. The originals lacked an EXAMINE command; this has been added, along with other vocabulary dimensions through the additional information that can be gained. The combination of three tapes provides months of entertainment and problems solving for a bargain price. The Jewels of Darkness are a joy to play.

Why then am I not lavishing the games with further praise? It would have been easy for me to go into auto-pllot for this review (Level 9 - must be brilliant), but when looked at closely it contains faults which I would criticise heavily in other games. Though these are minor shortcomings separately, taken together they spoil a potential masterpiece

Presentation quality is poor. Descriptions, commands and responses are printed in the same yellow on black, with no gaps between them. Everything merges into an untidy mess, particularly if you play the full screen text version; yet this game above all others requires the player to read a tremendous amount. So why no use of a colour, or a more readable character set?

Then we have the 'graphics'. These are so stupefyingly atrocious, so indescribably inept that I'd laugh if this wasn't a premier product. Just look at the lamentable screenshots we present here. I am not moaning at the inclusion of pictures - I realise they are necessary to gain wide distribution, and enjoy illustrations anyway - but these are so ghastly, no-one could want them. Have fewer of them, and make them monotone, if it means higher detail and the creation of something worth looking at. Instead we have blotchy, vague shapes and mindlessly inappropriate colouring (purple trees?). An illustrated version of Colossal offers fascinating possibilities which L9 have completley thrown away. Fortunately, a non-graphics version with expanded text, mostly longer EXAMINE responses, is provided on the other side of the tape (ignore the cassette label which claims that side is for 128 users only - a stupid, unnecessary error.)

START HERE
The games lack RAMSAVE/LOAD, which is fast becoming standard, and should certainly be included in such a major release as this. It is claimed the commands couldn't be fitted in the Spectrum's memory, though many of the versions for other computers include them, and they are tantalisingly mentioned in the instructions. Even if memory was too tight in the graphics version - and seeing as they had no difficulty including the commands in Price Of Magik, this surprises me - why are they not in the text-only version, utilising some of the memory freed by the welcome disposal of the "graphics"? I for one would prefer a few messages not to be expanded in exchange for these useful features. A double punishment is that when you resort to conventional tape storage, which in games this size is frequently necessary, you are forced to use the dreaded Lenslok: EVERY TIME! Why not have just one code to crack at the start?

There are other, tiny niggles which all add up. There's no abbreviation for LOOK, unlike virtually every adventure on the market. You are only given a score rating on death; if you type SCORE or QUIT, you are just given a number. It the rating routine is there in memory, why not use it? There are no proper editing facilities just delete: annoying during long sentences.

Plus, I think more could have been done to update the games themselves. Some independent characters perhaps? And Colossal looks rather hackneyed these days, so some new problems would have been welcome.

Virtually every fault I've outlined is easily corrected. But they're present, in what should be a particularly professional adventure, as a result of the Rainbird deal. Apart from the packaging, the BT tie-up seems to have had no effect. For example, there is no loading screen, just the same "Level 9" printed in different colours that has been used for several years. The adventures are good, so why not polish them to perfection? Nothing annoys me more than wasted opportunity.

The attractive packaging is better than most by the way. The instructions are excellent; plus there's a highly readable, entertaining novella, which sets the scene for the latter two games. I expected this to be dull, standard fantasy fare, full of silly names but it was unexpectedly humorous and gripping. Illustrations would have improved it though.

If you own more than one of these games already, then the revisions are probably insufficient to justify buying Jewels Of Darkness. If you have one or less, or if you are new to the world of adventuring or to the Spectrum, this package represents superb value for money and should keep you occupied for all the coming long, winter nights: perhaps the rest of 1987 as well!