Producer: Mirrorsoft
Retail Price: £7.95
Author: David O'Conner

Into the mystical lands you must venture in search of the secret potion of Zythum. This is a very ancient type of beer which gives the partaker mystical powers and possibly even eternal life. It has been lost for centuries in this weird and wonderful landscape and many have searched for it before you, but it has never been found. One of the main reasons for this is that the country in which it is hidden is inhabited by various guardians who possessively guard the elixir.

Four separate landscapes have to be crossed during the journey to the potion location. Three lives are available, and a life is lost each time you make contact with one of the guardians that pursue you mercilessly on the journey - you return to the start of the current land when death comes...

Setting out with a burning desire to locate the Zythum you are equipped with a fist full of fire crackers and a limited number of bombs. Firecrackers seem to go on forever, but use the bombs sparingly because once they're gone there ain't no more. A magic staff that wards off evil spirits is amongst the useful objects that can be collected on the way: a chalice confers the power of levitalion and a crucifix gives short term immunity from the custodians. Money bags and treasure chests are worth bonus points.

There's no time to hang about and enjoy the scenery, however, as each of the four levels must be completed in just eight minutes. Take any longer and it's back to square one. Apart from the custodians and guardians this country contains many natural dangers. Quicksands suck a hapless traveller to a sticky death while bottomless pits must be skillfully jumped over or else - wheee! Dead. Marsh mud sticks to your feet and temporarily saps jumping abilities, while spring pools send you cavorting into the air. Hidden landmines, buried in a sneaky attempt to get rid of unwanted travellers also have to be avoided. The vegetation is also a bit weird because some bushes make you invincible for a short while.

The action takes place in a scrolling window in the top half of the screen. An arrow points to your position on a map along the base of the screen, below the status area. It'd better be a good brew, this Zythum you'll need a good drink on arrival!

COMMENTS

Control keys: definable
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: mainly monochrome
Graphics: large and wiry
Sound: minimal effects
Skill levels: one
Screens: scrolling play area

At first, Zythum held a reasonable appeal for me. After playing for a length of time, though, things started to get crazily frustrating. The game seems to have been written so as to make it as unaddictive as is possible. If that was the author's objective, then he's certainly succeeded. The graphics are pleasant enough, but you really start wanting to belt the life out of your Spectrum when it kills you off pixels before the end of a stage and sends you right back to the beginning, time and again. The idea for Zythum isn't the best ever conceived - but is definitely not the worst - though after playing the game you might need some convincing of that. Quite good in all its facets except addictivity. This isn't a game I would recommend.

I found that Zythum was well presented but lacked a very challenging or addictive game. The graphics are very detailed but the colour is completely wrong. The blue on white screen is very hard to see and strains the eyes. I felt that you had to be good at the game to really enjoy it, because the distance you have to cover to get anywhere in Zythum is quite large. The graphics are the most impressive part of the game, as they are large and recognisable but could have had some better animation to bring them alive. The game didn't consist of much to keep me playing for long - it was just a case of judging distances and shooting baddies. Zythum is a very basic 'up and down' game that requires little mental ability and is very easy to leave.

Oh no. Oh no! I can't play this game any more; its just sooooooo frustrating, it's unbelievable! A split second of misjudgement, and it's back to the beginning again. Okay, so some games are equally as demanding in their necessity for accuracy, but they don't penalise mistakes quite as harshly as Zythum does. The fact that it's so maddening is quite a pity, considering the game has got so much potential for playability. Graphics are passable, and the scrolling is a bit unfortunate, but visually in every other respect, Zythum has no serious downfalls. Playing the game soon makes you realise that not everything that looks okay plays well. Such a pity, after the excellent Dynamite Dan II.

Mirrorsoft
£7.95

(Slurp!) Ahhhhh! Nothing like a nice drop of Zythum between meals to perk up your unknown powers. Only trouble is, it's a bit hard to get hold of these days. None of yer 'Oh, I'll just nip down Waitrose and pick up a carton of Zythum for when Mr and Mrs Merlin come to dinner. No, siree. You have to slog yerself to shredded wheat across the four hostile territories, avoiding the fiendish Custodians who attempt to stop you fetching your brew. And all this with only eight minutes a territory to reach your objective. Cor, the things some folks will do for a free beer, eh?

At first glance, this appears to be quite an original concept, but strip away the wizard and custodian sprites and replace them with a spaceship and aliens and what have you got? A poor version of the mighty Defender perchance? Sure looks that way.

The graphics on this game are a little simplistic, as in blue line drawings on white paper. It plays a bit like a biro drawing too. The Custodians lurch towards you in v. scuzzy two-part animation (if that's not too strong a word), and are about as threatening as a smurf with a butter knife. The gameplay is challenging at first, but once you get used to it, it's a real doddle. As a budget game this would've been good value and a charming little shoot-up, but the charm tarnishes when it's going out at a little under eight quid.

Label: Mirrorsoft
Author: David O'Connor
Price: £7.95
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Graham Taylor

Take one wizard from Avalon, add some BC Quest for Tyres graphic design and ladle in a classic arcade plot (Hunchback if not much earlier) and you have Zythum.

Zythum is not by any means a bad game. In fact it uses some classic ideas rather well and looks quite good if two-colour. It passed the 'aaarggghhhh-why-did-I-do-that?' test with flying colours (uttered once an hour is bad, once a minute is good - with Zythum it was about once every twelve seconds).

The central figure is a wizard who favours the same dresses as the wizard in Avalon, a sort of southern Belle number. Forcing your central wizard to wear a dress means that you have to do less animation, a cheat but I guess he hovers quite well. Quest object this time is a magical drink which generates unknown powers (in this respect it is similar to Pratt's Old Peculiar) - the substance is stashed in a castle. Before you reach the castle you must cross four different lands each one chock-full of bottomless pits, marshes and quicksand.

Guarding each land are the usual hoards of flying creatures (in the first land it looks like a Yorkshire terrier with wings). It should be pretty apparent from this that the game is going to involve a lot of dodging, jumping and zapping as you fight your way through each land.

The game looks pretty good, it features the kind of detailed, two-colour backgrounds associated with games like Tir Na Nog and the central figure is quite neatly animated. The two-colour limit is a surprise, though, I can't see the attribute clashes were so utterly unavoidable that the restriction was necessary and a bit more colour should have been possible.

Spells are available for levitation and temporary immunity from the dogs and subsequent flying things. You can also pick up spare smart bombs here and there and bonus points.

The playing are is large. Each of the four lands is displayed along the bottom of the screen with an arrow indicating what point you have reached. There are certain minimum points you must reach in each section before you don't have to restart at the beginning. I found this, quickly, getting very, very irritating.

What counts as hard or easy in computer games is so astoundingly subjective that I hesitate to put any such value on Zythum, but I reckon it definitely deserves a 'not for beginners' tag.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Mirrorsoft
PRICE: £7.95

Who said shoot 'em ups had to have space ships and aliens? How about wizards and demons for a change? If you reckon you could go for that sort of think then check out Zythum - a mixture of fantasy and zapping.

The packaging leads you to think that this is yet another arcade adventure - but this couldn't be further from the truth. There are arcade adventurish bits - but this is more of a shoot 'em up than anything else. And a pretty good one at that.

You take the part of a wizard on a quest across four hostile lands searching for a magical drink called Zythum which refreshes the wizards other potions cannot reach.

You will come across swamps and springy bits of grass as you move horizontally across the screen. Swamps slow you down while springy turf makes you jump - even if you don't want to.

Demons come at you from all sides, but fortunately you have a staff which fires energy bolts and a limited supply of light bombs which zap everything in your immediate vicinity.

You get just eight minutes to cross each land. If you fall you lose one of your three lives.

The main part of the screen display shows your wizard's immediate surroundings. The graphics aren't bad and have an original look about them.

Other displays show the number of light bombs you have, your score and message windows which flash if you collect an object which enables you to levitate, become invisible and have invulnerability.

These powers only last for a short time. And if you die the object doesn't appear again on that level until you restart the game.

Objects to watch for are spare light bombs, crosses which give you invulnerability, money bags and treasure chests for bonus points, and a chalice which enables you to levitate for a short time.

Zythum is pretty easy to get into and fun to play. Not a mega game by any means but a different twist in the current shoot 'em up trend.