Producer: US Gold/TSR/SSI
Magi: Alan Bridgman, Matt Ellis, Craham Lilley, Teroman Irmak, Anthony Scott
Gold: £9.99 Cassette, £14.99 Disk

After having played - and finished - Heroes Of The Lance on both the ST and the Amiga, I looked forward to the release of the Spectrum versions with a little apprehension. On receiving the game I was pleased that the superb packaging, at least, was identical; a superbly-illustrated box and a well-written, 25-page rulebook. But one addition, a trouble-shooting guide, soon proved essential when the game crashed four times! With two tapes of data to juggle I began to feel my fears were about to be confirmed.

However, once the game actually loaded I was pleasantly surprised. The opening screens, with pictures of all the game's characters, were great and accompanied by some almost hypnotic music, perfectly set the scene for adventuring.

The game proper starts with a smallish, but well-detailed character standing in a dungeon. You control him with a joystick, and also the off-screen characters he represents - Tank, Raistlin, Flint, Sturm, Tasslehoff, Caramon. Riverwind and Goldmoon.

Your mission is to guide these brave adventurers through this evil-looking dungeon and obtain a set of holy items called The Disks Of Mishakal. Only by queen Takhisis creating the most evil empire in all eternity.

Of course, the Disks are not just lying there waiting for your group of heroes to grasp them in their sticky little maulers. The Disks are actively and professionally guarded by such nasties as Spectral Minions, Draconians, Trolls and hatchling dragons - to name but a few.

Even if your brave band manage to get into the mysterious place where the Disks are kept, they will still have to get past Kisthanth - a giant Black Dragon, who sprays lethal acid at all and sundry. She can only be killed in a special way - which you have to discover on your travels.

Each of the adventurers you control are depicted at the bottom of your screen via grey portraits, each with a small vertical bar showing their health. Death isn't too much of a frightening thing though, not when you have got someone like Goldmoon in the party. She has a magical staff which, if used correctly, will bring back to life any deceased character. She can also perform eight other divine miracles, such as healing your party's wounds to protect you from your evil opponents.

Mind you, Raistlin is no slouch either as he has a magic staff. He can cast eight spells which can do anything from entangling an opponent in a spider's web to merely putting them to sleep. While lacking such powers the rest of your party are great at fighting and detecting.

Combat plays a big part of the game and is dealt with using the joystick. Spells, and picking up objects, are accomplished by calling up menus and flipping through them with the joystick. One of the most useful options is save game.

While exploring the dungeon, entrances and exits are indicated by a flashing compass. Exploring them inevitably results in lots of combat and, if you survive long enough, discovering objects such as magical rings. superpower options and Gems which provoke unexpected responses from various monsters.

The graphics depicting the dungeon and the monsters are quite well put together - the programmers have utilised shading wherever possible - but they are by no means the best I've ever seen on the Spectrum. This said, after giving Heroes a thorough play, I found my original apprehension largely dispelled. Apart from a few loading problems, coupled with the reluctance of Goldmoon and Raistlin to cast certain spells in one or two life-or-death situations, the game has been converted in a very acceptable fashion and is well worth spending your hard-earned (speak for yourself - Nick) cash on.

US Gold
£9.99 cass/£14.99 disk
Reviewer: Phil South

Now this is what I call a BIG game. Imagine, if you will, a sort of Gauntlet, only played from side to side instead of from above, and populate it with eight characters instead of four. Now you've got it! I have to say I'm impressed by the quality of the programming which put this game together. The graphics are amazing! A bit lacking in the old sound department, but looking at the characters diving around on the screen, I don't suppose there was any code space left!

You are one of a party of adventurers on the world of Krynn, a world designed by Dungeon Masters who wanted more dragons in their RPGing. You are fighting to protect Krynn from domination by the wicked Takhisis, Queen of Darkness. (Coo') Can you retrieve the Disks of Mishakal from the lair of Khisanth, deep in the ruins of Xak Tsaroth? Can you even spell it? And who's going to untie your tongue after saying all that?

AD&D is one of the most popular, and oldest, role playing games around, and its devotees outnumber even those not-so-cunningly disguised Brossettes. So, it was only a matter of time before the game was turned into a computerised version, and now SSI and US Gold have done it. So how has the old game fared?

AD&D was a multiplayer game. The computer version, although having eight characters to play, plays them all through the one player. This swiftness of the switching between characters puts paid to any joystick switching between players. So you can't use the game as a replacement for AD&D (as if you could). But it does have the complexity of a game of AD&D. If you play it properly.

The basic part of the game puts you on the screen as the first character in the party. This is the first face on the left of the top row on screen. Hitting the space bar brings up the Main Menu screen, and this is what separates AD&D from any other old pick 'em up. You can check on a character's capabilities and make sure he or she is up to the tasks in hand, like combat or magic. Magic users can cast spells, as long as they're on the top row of the main screen. For users of staffs, depending on who wields them, spells include Charm, Sleep, Magic Missile, Web, Detect Magic, Detect Invisible, Final Strike, Burning Hands, Cure Light Wounds, Protection From Evil, Find Traps, Hold Person, Spiritual Hammer, Prayer, Cure Critical Wounds, Raise Dead, and Deflect Dragon Breath. Phew! This gigantic reel of spells gives you a particularly sharp look at how in depth this game is.

How do you play though? just charging around like in an arcade adventure will get all your characters killed very quickly. Careful mapping and utilisation of spells and charms is needed if you're to survive longer than a few yards in the dangerous world of Krynn. And it's worth waiting to see the dragons... or not, depending on whether you beat them or end up as a crisp little twirl on the flagstones!

AD&D is a mammoth game, and represents stupendous value for money, especially if you like your games with a bit of strategy and lots of action.

REPLAY

In an effort not to appear Dutch, we've got hold of the brightest reviewers and the newest games. And it's all for you!

Kixx
£3.99
Reviewer: Rich Pelley

Ahem. Heroes Of The Lance was originally a YS Megagame, although for the life of me I can't see why. I've checked to see if the issue it appeared in was April (it wasn't, so it couldn't have been a joke), I've checked to see if the reviewer in question actually exists (he does) and so I can only conclude that, heaven forbid, we were wrong. The aforementioned reviewer will never work in this town again.

I'm stalling a bit here, but frankly I would have had more fun trying to load the latest Roxette album into my poor unsuspecting Speccy than this. Not that it isn't well programmed, it's just that this kind of game needs a certain something if it's to make the crossing from the role playing Dungeons and Dragons universe to the Speccyverse. To be quite frank, having dismantled the cassette with a sharp knife and a screwdriver (cross-point head), I can't find it anywhere. Personally I found it monotonous, fiddly, unbearably complicated, monochrome, very very dated and I kept getting killed. (Poo. Ed) The menu system is a danger to your sanity, and the only way to fight is to hack away until one of the opponents is dead. The plot is unhelpful in the extreme, something about collecting the Disks of Unpronounceable from a ruined city. I've got nothing against this type of game and I'm not trying to be controversial or anything, but somehow Heroes and I didn't click. We just sort of rubbed uncomfortably against one another.

Label: US Gold/SSI
Author: Teoman Irmak
Price: £9.99/£14.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer:

Pixie hats on - it's RPG time again. Heroes of the Lance has an impeccable pedigree; it's an official Advanced Dungeons and Dragons scenario based on the Dragonlance series of characters and situations. If all this means nothing to you, then you probably won't think much of the game; if however you're a Dragonlance fan, you'll wee yourself with joy at the prospect of seeing your favourite characters in computer form.

The characters are the usual motley assortment of elves, humans, trolls and wizards. Each one is introduced with a portrait, biographical details, and, in the 25-page booklet, attribute points for characteristics such as strength, intelligence, dexterity and charisma.

This is the first problem with the game; although the characteristics obviously change as you play the game, you can't edit them or define your characters. In that sense, it may be a role-playing game, but the roles are strictly defined by the program.

Once you've gone through the enormously long-winded multi-stage loading process, you are ready to begin the quest. There's a pseudo mediaeval music theme: otherwise sound effects are minimal. The playing screen shows the ruined city of Xak Tsaroth. Your party has to explore the ruins, recover the lost Disks of Tsaroth and do a little shopping.

The second big prob with the game is that while the graphics are quite ambitious and the characters well animated, the designs are dead boring - warrior, demon, dwarf, ho-hum - and the characters, backgrounds AND menus are all white-on-black. Monochrome is OK if you want to avoid colour clash, but all black-and-white, all the way through the game? Leave it out, Bjornthroth.

The eight characters of the party are shown beneath the main screen, each with his or her strength meter. As you move through the city, using joystick or keyboard control to move left and right, and into or out of exits, you will soon realise that you can't get by without making a map. The compass to the bottom left spins to show your current orientation, and flashes to indicate any possible directions of movement.

When you encounter any of the fearsome monsters (yawn), you can combat them according to what weapons you are carrying, or have found along the way. You can choose a high, centre or low thrust, or a dodge. If you carry a bow or spear you can stick the baddies from a distance. Unfortunately, there's no indication of how much damage you've done, which makes it a bit difficult to judge when to run away. Speaking of fleeing, you can also run or jump over certain obstacles, though some crevasses seem to be impassable.

Two sub-menus allow you to select further functions such as TAKE, USE, GIVE and DROP; and to select spells for your magic users. These include spells to locate traps (such as blocks of stone which plummet from ceilings when you walk beneath them, curiously like Psygnosis' Barbarian); to defect dragon breath (there are lots of dragons in the lower levels) and to cure critical wounds.

If a character dies, the next one along automatically takes over, but you can select a different character if you wish. I think it's a problem though that in effect you are controlling only one character at a time, so you don't get much impression of controlling an entire party (and you certainly don't see them all simultaneously in animated form on the screen).

You can save and reload games, but basically every time you play you'll have the same goats, and all you can hope to do is to score a higher overall mark.

Compared to something like The Bard's Tale, Heroes of the Lance has limited play appeal. It's a disappointing cross between RPGs and arcade-adventures which doesn't make the bast of either genre, though it will probably be enjoyed by anyone is a true devotee of the original.

Label: Kixx
Memory: 48K
Price: £3.99 Tape, N/A Disk
Reviewer: Big Al Dykes

Playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is neither, as many people imagine, solely an occupation of cold, hungry students or the blue, furry hooded anorak brigade. Nor is it pursued by satanic hordes who all do strange things with goats and new born calves.

So why play it? The goats and calves all sounds like heaps of fun, but hard work (I'd imagine). What is needed is a bit of imagination and a endless supply of chocolate and coffee.

The game, based around the Dragonlance series of novels, involves you blocking the path of on evil sorceress before she escapes from her underworld prison and lays waste to the land of Krynn. You control eight (count 'em) characters including members from all the well known D&D races; dwarf, elf, and human and these are divided into warriors and spell casters all of who vary widely in skills and strength.

Exploration is the name of the game and picking up objects and money helps your mission. There is some real fighting action but this game really involves some brainpower, judgment and above all, strategy.

The story has great depth and the graphics are well drawn and detailed. If you're a joystick basher this game may not appeal but to anyone who likes AD&D or does strange things with farmyard animals, it'll have you indoors and out of trouble for weeks.

Amiga: £24.99
Amstrad CPC, Spectrum 48/128 Cassette: £9.99, Diskette: £14.99

Six heroes of the lance enter the ruined city of Xak Tsaroth to locate the fabled Disks of Mishakal, with which they hope to rid Krynn of demon dragons. Taking the form of a multi-character combat game with exploration overtones, Heroes Of The Lance was created to cover the action side of the classic RPG.

Amiga Heroes is a straight-forward conversion which has made no effort to improve the lurching scrolling, poor sound or slow animation of its predecessor. Technically, the game takes a significant step backwards.

That's the good news! The Amstrad brings the bad: use of colour is limited to the extreme, basically consisting of pink and grey (very Habitat). Game-speed is fast, but this is due to the machine only having to move poorly animated single colour midgets around.

On the Spectrum, things are a little better. If only because the potentially horrendous use of colours is absent. Scrolling is fair, animation forgettable and combat amounts to two matchsticks feebly tapping one another.

The fact that there's very little difference between the Amiga and Spectrum versions loses the game its credibility.