Producer: Carnell Software
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Machine code
Author: David Abrahams

You are a wizard in battle with the legions of hell. Your defence consists of a magic circle, which you cannot leave, and a talisman to destroy the hellish army. In the first screen your magic circle is surrounded by several ghosts which float lazily around, firing on the occasional green fire ball at you. Your 'talisman' acts like a laser to destroy the ghosts. The fireballs weaken your strength if they hit you, three being fatal. Running into the edge of your magic circle does the same thing.

In the second screen, the scale has been reduced, and small spiders have built a web around your circle to protect the big spiders firing at you from being harmed by your rays. The object is burn away the web so you can fire through again. The third screen has little devils scurrying around the circle, not very dangerous until hit by the rays from your talisman. In screens 4 and 5 the Angel of Death himself appears, and screen 5 brings forth the winged demons and skeletons which steal bits from your circle. The demons require two direct hits before being destroyed.

Between games a 12 hour clock face appears and counts down the final few seconds before the game commences.

COMMENTS

Control keys: cursor keys with 9 for diagonal rotation and 0 to fire, or a rather daft arrangement of A/L left/right and X/M up/down with SPACE to fire
Joystick: AGF and Protek
Keyboard play: responsive but slow action
Use of colour: fair
Graphics: very smooth but slow
Sound: poor
Skill: levels: 4
Lives: 3
Screens: 6

The cassette box and general presentation is very good, and leads you to expect a pretty good game. The actuality on screen is a bit different. Although the pixel movement graphics are to be commended for their smoothness, the actual graphics are boring, small and very, very slow.

I've never seen a game quite like this one before, and I hope I never will again. It's an original enough idea, but its main let down is the sluggish response of the keys. The hellish army moves about well, but colour and sound could have been better. Not a game I could recommend because of its lack of content.

In some vague respects this resembles one of those older 'Berserk' type games. Machine code and graphics have come quite a way, but I don't think the ideas behind this one have moved much at all. Small characters and slow movement don't improve it. Only the winged demons held me in any thrall, and it's a long wait to see them.

You are a wizard in your magic circle and you have to use your magic talisman to do battle with the armies of Hell who throw spells at you. Neither you nor the attackers are allowed to touch the magic circle, even if continuous fighting has partly erased it.

Ieuan: Reminds me a bit of Asteroids. The 'rotate through 45 degrees' feature is a nuisance — it should allow simultaneous keypress or joystick diagonals instead. 7/10

Dilwyn: Other than Ieuan's comment, a nice game. Slow at first, but once it gets going it's fun to play. 8/10

Gerralt: All events are covered with a 'zap' or 'ping'. The sound slows things down a bit which, once the game has got into top gear, causes a little jerkiness. There doesn't seem to be a time limit as long as you keep alive. 7/10

Memory: 16K
Price: £5.95
Joystick: Protek, AGF with Interface II

Step right into a nightmare - with The Devil Rides in for the 16K Spectrum. You must stand alone in your magic circle and brandish your talisman against the various hosts of evil which are ready to destroy you.

Screen one of the game features ghosts and from there you will encounter spiders, little devils, winged demons, skeletons and the Angel of Death. Not only have you to deal with those horrors which cannot get into your protective circle but you also have to dodge the astral lights which can. Contact with the lights or with the boundary of the circle will destroy one of your three lives.

The game is obviously based on the Dennis Wheatley classic The Devil Rides Our and is complete with Angel of Death. It is an original twist to the Space Invaders type of program.

The graphics are good but slow and various pieces of demon and astral light are frequently left on the screen, producing an untidy effect. If you like games which are different from the usual adventure or zap 'em formats you will like this one from Carnell Software.