Producer: Puffin Books
Memory Required: 48K
Recommended Retail Price: £6.95
Language: machine code
Author: N Mottershead & S Brattel

A number of book publishing houses are now moving into games software publishing none so famous perhaps as Penguin, who have released this new game under their Puffin name.

An interesting aspect of this program is that it has been produced for Penguin by Crystal (Halls of the Things) and adapted from the amazingly successful novel of the same name written by Steve Jackson and fan Livingstone. The novels (there is a series) are really computer program flow diagrams in book form. Basically D&D format, the book keeps facing you with options where you can, say, pick one of three doors to go through. Whichever you choose, you will be given a page number to turn to, where the story continues, and it's quite different for each door. The idea here is that the computer game supports the book and you may buy either the tape on its own for £5.50 or the combined pack of tape and novel for £6.95. Either way round it represents very good value.

Crystal are famous for the notoriously difficult Halls of the Things, and Dungeon Master. The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is actually similar to HOTT but somewhat easier to play and in some ways much better.

THIS IS WHAT YOU DO

After a two minute load, a set of beautifully written instructions fill you in on the scenario and tell you the control keys. You are about to enter the vast and complex labyrinth beneath the gruesome crags of Firetop Mountain. Created by the evil Warlock to guard his fabulous treasure, the labyrinth is crawling with vicious monsters like Orcs, Spiders, Slime Mould and others which will prevent your return to the surface. All you have is a bow and a trusty sword. The idea is to roam the maze and collect 15 keys, find the Warlock's treasure chest, and escape with the lot.

There are 18 control keys, which may seem like a lot, but fortunately not all of them are needed at once! The screen only shows a small fraction of the actual maze, switching to the next section as you go. Here and there doors are shut in your way. These you can open and close, and in fact you can close many of the door-sized open spaces to keep the monsters at bay. The sword and your arrows can only be used in the direction you are facing, which is important because altering directions does not mean you are facing in that way. In the normal course of events, it's possible and as easy to walk backwards, but if an enemy threatens, you have to use the cursor keys as well as the direction keys to be sure of facing the monster.

GENERAL

There are four directional keys, Z/X for left/right and N/M for up/down, plus the cursors which make you face in the four directions. Additionally A fires arrows, S sheathes or draws the sword, O and C open and close doors, SPACE centres your man on the screen, 1 displays score and number of keys held, 2 pauses the game, 3 turns the sound on and 4 turns it off and zero makes your man face in the direction of movement.

COMMENTS

Keyboard positions: complex but masterable
Use of colour: simple but very effective
Graphics: excellent and clear, but the man isn't fully animated
Sound: average, more could have been made of it, though the on/off facility is useful
Skill levels: one
Lives: one but with a percentage of wounding allowed

This is very like Halls of the Things, but its much more playable. I actually found the other one too difficult and confusing to play. In Firetop you're left alone long enough to get used to the keys and moving your man about so you feel confident about attacking the monsters, some of whom have swords and arrows like yourself.

The graphics are better than HOTT's, the monsters are more defined and realistic. Everything moves very smoothly and very fast. It needs a quick eye and hand co-ordination to survive monster attacks. Everything seems to happen in a blurt at first until you get the hang of it, and just when you have, more monsters come along.

A quickly learned lesson is to shut doors behind you - it keeps some of the horrors away. My only quibble really is why did they have to put the up/down keys in a straight line and on the bottom row with the left/right? It does make life unnecessarily difficult at first - but it isn't a serious drawback.

I think Penguin have a winner with this one - when's the next one out?

Producer: Puffin Books, 48K
£6.95 (1)
Author: N Mottershead & S Brattel

Put together by Crystal for Puffin, this is a simpler and more playable version of Hall of the Things, and adapted from a successful book. You must enter the labyrinth beneath the crags of Firetop Mountain to get the Warlock's treasure. This is guarded by Orcs, Spiders. Slime Mould and other horrors. Your weapons are a sword and a bow. To get to the treasure you must collect 15 keys. Most doors open and shut at command and the maze scrolls smoothly as you move. As in HOTT there are a lot of control keys - 18 in all, and practice is essential to stay alive. Good looking monsters, which home in on you as soon as they spot you, loads of speed in the fights, and for the price you get a copy of the book as well. Puffin have a winner with this one. Overall CRASH rating 73% M/C.

Producer: Puffin Books, 48K
£6.95 (1)
Author: N Mottershead & S Brattel

Put together by Crystal for Puffin, this is a simpler and more playable version of Hall of the Things, and adapted from a successful book. You must enter the labyrinth beneath the crags of Firetop Mountain to get the Warlock's treasure. This is guarded by Orcs, Spiders. Slime Mould and other horrors. Your weapons are a sword and a bow. To get to the treasure you must collect 15 keys. Most doors open and shut at command and the maze scrolls smoothly as you move. As in HOTT there are a lot of control keys - 18 in all, and practice is essential to stay alive. Good looking monsters, which home in on you as soon as they spot you, loads of speed in the fights, and for the price you get a copy of the book as well. Puffin have a winner with this one. Overall CRASH rating 73% M/C.

FANTASY LABYRINTH FULL OF COMPLEXITY

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain for the 48K Spectrum is the computer version of the popular Penguin Books fantasy adventure of the same name. You can buy the two together in a smartly-presented pack or choose the book or the cassette separately.

The cassette offers a fast and unusual game in which you must imagine you are lost in a vast labyrinth created by the evil warlock to protect himself and his treasures. The labyrinth is haunted by a variety of unspeakable monsters, against which you have only a bow and your sword to defend yourself, and scattered around it are the 15 magic keys you need to open the treasure chest, should you ever manage to locate it. Even then, your troubles are not over, as you will have to find the exit somewhere in the maze to depart with the treasure.

The unusual feature is the way in which the screen scrolls in four directions, presenting you with a change of scene each time.

The computer generates the maze randomly and the number of keys needed to move about, open doors, draw the sword and fire arrows adds to the complexity.

Mastering the controls and improving the speed with which you move around the maze make for an addictive pastime and there is the lure of the magic keys, which increase your score dramatically whenever you pick one up.

The lack of incident in the game, with the monsters and keys appearing only rarely, might make it seem monotonous after a time.

It is also a pity that whenever you lose a battle with one of the monsters, which as all too easily done, the game is finished and you have to start again. Some way of recovering from an encounter or of replenishing one's strength along the journey might have added interest to the adventure.

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is produced by Penguin Books, 536 King's Road, London SW10 0UH. It costs £5.50 on its own or £6.95 in the software pack containing the book and cassette.

A THING IS A THING IS A THING

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, from the Puffin Personal Computer Collection, comes in a card sleeve, complete, as might be expected with a name like Puffin behind it, with a full-length paperback.

The package is billed as "A fighting fantasy game with revolutionary animated graphics... AND the original best selling book."

Well, forgive me for associating a fantasy game with Adventure, and for assuming there would be a connection between the book and the accompanying Spectrum cassette.

The book is best described as a 'multiple choice' Adventure, where, by use of a dice and selecting the next move from a choice of two or three, the player proceeds from paragraph to paragraph, moving on to the paragraph indicated by his selection. This means constant and rapid page-turning, as there are 400 numbered paragraphs and the result can perhaps be described as an Adventure story read in random order.

Not so the software, which, not unreasonably, I anticipated would be a computerised version of the book. It is not. The game is almost identical to Halls of the Things from Crystal Computing.

Guess who wrote the program? Messrs Mottershead and Brattel of Crystal Computing. Phew! What a coincidence! And you bought both? Ever been had?

Warlock of Firetop Mountain for 48k Spectrum from Puffin at £6.95.

WARLOCK CASTS HIS SPELL

MICRO: Spectrum 48K
PRICE: £6.95
FORMAT: Cassette
SUPPLIER: Puffin Books, Penguin Books Ltd, Bath Rd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex

Penguin Books starts with a distinct advantage over most software companies: experience.

This is evident in the excellent packaging of Warlock of Firetop Mountain. It comes in a custom-designed package including the best-selling fighting-fancy game book which inspired it.

The game loads easily and comprehensive instructions are displayed. These are a little formidable, since it takes no less than 19 keystrokes to control the action. When you think you have them memorized you can proceed to the animated adventure.

Your task is to collect 15 keys with which to unlock the warlock's treasure chest, and to escape alive. To do this you control the swift, smooth actions of a little stick-man as you search a vast maze, which is different each time you play. Armed with a sword and a bow you combat the spiders, warriors and slime monsters which try to bar your way. Action is very slick and well animated. The game is compulsive and highly entertaining.

It is also, as some of you may have noticed, rather similar to the popular Halls of the Things. Indeed it is so similar that it would be pointless buying both games.

The great advantage of Warlock is that you get the book as well. It bears scant resemblance to the game, being a kind of solo Dungeons and Dragons type of adventure.

You play it using pencil, paper and dice, with the book providing all the scenarios and problems. The experience is very similar to playing a traditional text adventure. All in all, Warlock of Firetop Mountain is highly recommended.