Producer: Firebird
Retail Price: £1.99
Author: Probe Software

Merlin Jnr has been left to tidy up his master's castle. Renowned for his clumsiness, it's not long before he releases the four talismen of Trodor the Demon. Now the evil one's power is free to roam the castle and the only way to prevent disaster is for Merlin Jnr to restore the talismen to their rightful place. Each charm is split into four segments, which must be returned whole to one of the castle's four temples.

Numerous demons traverse the chambers, and contact with these causes the player to lose energy. However, finding a pentangle restores Merlin Jnr's flagging spirits. Although initially defenceless, Junior is able to hurl bolts of mystic energy at the baddies once he has found the two spells which enable him to do so.

Objects vital to the success of his mission include two keys - one allowing access via the wooden doors of the castle, the other opening the metal doors of the dungeon.

COMMENTS

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: the main perspective appears successful, but when the characters begin to move within it the game falls apart
Sound: very basic and lacking a tune
Options: definable keys and three levels of difficulty (Easy, Hmm... and Heavy!)

Just because games are released at a budget price, some software houses see it as a good excuse to chum out their worst programs. Okay, Demon's Revenge isn't totally naff, but it's nearing the bottom of the barrel. Graphically the game is okay but the nasty demons are rather simplistically drawn - especially the skeletons, which hobble around in an amusing way. This very simple collect 'em up failed to hold my attention for any length of time.
MARK

Sorcerer's apprentices are traditionally dogged by bad luck. Merlin Jnr also has the misfortune of appearing in a fairly insipid adventure. The graphics are finely detailed and create a grim atmosphere, but they can't compensate for bland and bungled gameplay. The instructions are a feeble attempt to make sense of a completely illogical system. Pressing the keys to select and drop an object variously causes the inventory to swap items around, drop something completely different, or place the desired object in a totally undesired place. Irrational and thoroughly unaddictive.
KATI

There is so much wrong with this game: the characters are badly defined, monochrome sprites that move across the screen in jerky diagonals. The spot effects are just basic beeps and there is no tune whatsoever. None of the monsters look menacing and they only kill if you stay in one place for about five minutes! The idea of collecting objects isn't exactly new, and since they don't have any effect on what your character can do, it seems a total waste of time.
NICK

BUDGET BONANZA

What we got? Loadsacheapies! And we got Tony Worrall to review 'em. Take it away, Wozza!

Firebird
£1.99
Reviewer: Tony Worrall

As budget games go, Demon's Revenge offers above average quality in the graphics and depth department. The disappointment comes when you look at the gameplay. Controlling the central character is about as easy as being elected Pope, so making any serious attempt to complete the game is a non-starter. The dreadfully cliched blurb explains your quest ahead. Four pieces of a magic talisman have been accidentally scattered around a vast complex of temples. It doesn't take a megabrain to suss you've got to go and find these artifacts and return them to the central temple. Hoards of demons constantly sap valuable energy, but you can retaliate with your trusty spells or leg it - whichever takes your fancy. Of course there's the obligatory collection and delivery of objects, although this seems to aid the plot not one iota.

It's better than similar games (Conquest for example), but since completion of the game is impossible I cant recommend it, unless of course you want to pay £1.99 for a blank tape.

Label: Firebird
Author: Probe Software
Price: £1.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Christina Erskine

If Demon's Revenge had been released three years ago, we'd probably all be swooning with amazement. However, times have moved on, and while it doesn't exactly look out of date, its concept and implementation have a distinctly familiar look to them.

Set in the bowels of a stone-walled castle, you play Merlin Junior, collecting up pieces of a talisman, collecting spells and objects and using them at appropriate junctures, shooting at skeletal and ghoulish nasties which rattle and float around the various rooms.

Presentation is the very familiar single-colour-on-black, pseudo 3-D perspective, flip from screen to screen view. There are lots of objects to pick up and use, lots of baddies to do business with, and it's very playable. In fact it's a very neat, pleasing game, but not wildly exciting. It reminds me of the Hewson magic 'n' blasting games like Wizardry. It's cheap n' cheerful but it's quality budget stuff and could even make it to the charts.