Producer: Compass
Retail Price: £2.50
Author: Jon Lemmon

I like the title, the loading screen, and the intro tune, so lets have a look at the story behind this Quilled, Illustrated, Patched, Music Box'd, and Art Studio'd adventure, and, after all that, try and extract what sense we can.

Long ago, in the first age of the Ringmaster, a Falcon Staff fell into the hands of Drakon, the wizard of Valonia. Because he did not destroy it, Drakon was turned to the darkside of the ancient magics of old. With his new found strength, he sent forth an army of shadow demons which conquered the lands and armies of Valonia. It was now that Drakon began to walk among men, and, with the Golden Mask of Ratan would go unrecognized amongst them until it was too late. Their souls would be taken in the dead of night and used to feed the giant skull of evil which stood in the Hall of Rats.

Still with me? - right then, I'll continue.

Ashmeard, the wizard of Drat, fought Drakon and seized the Golden Mask. Drakon, realising what had happened, let out an evil scream, leapt to his horse and rode into the cave of Illindel never to be seen again. A decade has passed since those evil times, but once more shadow demons walk the land and the dark force grows strong. Drakon is returning....

You play the part of Morrack, apprentice to the wizard Ashmeard. While Ashmeard stays in Dral to buy time and to fight against the shadow demons, your task is to find and kill Drakon, and to retrieve the Falcon Staff before the main army of demons cross the lake. Remember - Beware the raven.

So, it looks like your boss Ashmeard is staying right out of it while you, his apprentice, goes into this cave of Illindel to sort this Drakon chappie out. You begin at the entrance of a dark and shadowy cave, which must presumably be this cave of Illindel where you have to take on Drakon.

Just before entering the cave you are allowed one move to the northeast where you find yourself standing at the edge of a giant lake. Far in the distance across the lake you can see the large demon army of the storyline ranged against you. You can also see a red ruby and a dead body. Examining the ruby gives you no useful information, but as a rule the examine command in this adventure is very helpful, and indeed pivotal to your progress as seen here when you examine the body. Well, what do you know, it's old Ashmeard's body with a demon arrow sticking out of his chest. Now correct me if I'm wrong but isn't he your gaffer, the one who's ruminating over the lands predicament, supposedly safe and warm away from all the aggro. Looks like he got his comeuppance in the end anyway.

Demon from the Darkside is a very good Quilled adventure sensibly priced. The look of the screens is most pleasing with good use of colour amongst its redesigned character set, and pictures which are atmospheric and imaginative. The game is available mail-order from Compass at 36 Globe Place, Norwich NR2 2SQ. Furthermore, if you are interested in a set of high quality, based and vamished scale lead miniatures which perfectly capture the characters in this very game a form will be sent with the game.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: quite difficult in places
Graphics: reasonable and attractive
Presentation: good use of colour
Input facilty: v/n
Response: fast, Quill

FAX BOX
Title: Demon from the Darkside
Publisher: Compass Software, 36 Globe Place, Norwich NR2 2SQ
Price: £2.50

How good to see a homegrown product that's a cut above the average. And it's a pretty good advert for Spectrum utilities too, as it makes use of The Quill, The Illustrator, The Patch, The Music Box, and The Art Studio. The author obviously hopes to sell a few copies just to pay for that little lot!

And sell a few he deserves to, though I wasn't won over by the storyline. It begins like five million others: "Long ago, in the first age of the Ring Master, a Falcon staff fell into the hands of Drakon, the wizard of Valonia." Yes, well, never mind all that tosh, what do you want me to do? Get back the staff? Fair enough, squire, and shut up that reader who said 'You can't get the staff these days.'

'Beware the raven,' you're warned before you begin, and as well as the usual Quill commands you're told you can type VOCAB to see the words at your disposal. Within the memory limits set, the author's done his best to produce some reasonably lengthy text. And the graphics aren't too bad either; some of them have moving elements as well. I shall ignore the spelling mistakes and concentrate on the wealth of options in the first few locations. My map's already a maze of lines and a mass of notes and I've only just started. Should I do a running repair on the statue first and cause the cave to collapse, why have the dead body and arrow disappeared at the edge of the giant lake, and do I use the Life Spell to restore the dead rat in the pit or maybe try it on the body?

Spells are a feature of the game; the Life Spell is the first you find, and examination of this shows you that it can bring the dead back to life, except for Dragons. What about Orics, we wonder. The problem of the pit is quite neat. The walls close in on you and you only have a plank of wood that can prop them apart. This'll only work when the walls are close enough together, and even then it won't hold them for long! I didn't care for the Shadow Demon bumping me off unannounced, not without a RAM SAVE feature anyway, though clearly a source of light will sort him out when I find it. I think. What I don't think is that this adventure will keep the experts puzzling for too long, but a lot of thought has gone into it and it's definitely worth the price of admission.

Label: Compass, 36 Globe Place, Norwich, Norfolk
Author: J. Lemon
Price: £2.50
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Gary Rook

Don't be put off by the cassette insert artwork, which is pretty grisly to say the least. Demon from the Darkside is a snappy, no nonsense little adventure which was put together using The Quill and The Illustrator, and a fair amount of attention to detail if the information you get when you call up the vocab list is anything to go by.

You are the good wizard's apprentice, trying to hold off the demon armies of the bad wizard. To delay the shadow demons controlled by the bad guy you have to enter his (ie the villain's) hidey-hole and slay him. Simple really - you only have an army of demons to worry about, plus assorted standard adventure game problems.

One thing which irked me somewhat was the spelling - reminiscent of some of Level 9's early stuff. I mean, using advise instead of advice, and spelling things ence instead of ance... However, such things should not be allowed to detract from the actual game.

The graphics are decent enough, and you have the option of turning them off if you like. I especially liked the way objects also had accompanying graphics, so when you call for an inventory you get pictures of what you've got as well as the list in words.

I haven't got very far yet - the perennial cry of the adventure reviewer not provided with a solution - but I have been able to pat myself on the back a couple of times for solving some of the problems which are quite tricky.

The Sid mentioned on the vocab list, by the way, isn't the mysterious Sid of the British Gas shares advert (unfortunately - I would have loved to have strangled him, I'm so sick of hearing his name), but a white rat who might help you once given the gift of new life.

One very useful feature of the game is a Ramsave option which allows you to dump your present location to memory without having to bother fiddling about with tape recorders. Of course, if you want to turn your Spectrum off but Save the game, you'll need to fall back on the old fashioned cassette again.

Demon is good, though perhaps a little simple. After all. I was surprised to get as far as I have so quickly...

SUPPLIER: Compass Software
MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
PRICE: 2.50

Long ago, in the first age of the Ringmaster, a Falcon staff fell into the hands of Drakon, the wizard of Valonia. Because he did not destroy the staff, Drakon was turned to the dark side of evil and ancient magics of old.

With his new found strength, he set forth to conquer all before him, but was vanquished by Ashmeard, the wizard of Dral.

As time went by, Drakon's strength grew once more, and again threatened to destroy the land. Now the task of defeating Drakon lies with you.

I began my quest in the valley of Dral, and almost immediately found myself trapped in a cave where a force field prevented my escape. Luckily I had managed to learn the ancient art of reading magic symbols, and I soon found my way into a dark and dismal place where, among other things, I came across a dead rat.

I was trapped at the bottom of a pit which turned out to be a rather crushing experience. However, the old adventure saying: 'If you want to get ahead, get a plank', proved invaluable here.

One narrow escape later saw me on my way to even more unpleasant places. Can you imagine having to wear a piece of slime on your face? The choice was simple, no slime - no life.

With the few items I had collected on the way, I moved down into the darker depths. Before much longer I wondered what on earth I was doing carting around a dead rat.

Using one of the spells collected on the way, the small rodent was brought back to life, and sure enough, I was rewarded for my efforts further on in the game, by the creation of a rather unusual bridge.

Many more puzzles and problems besieged me on my quest. A dog with three heads halted my progress for a while, but the best way to keep a dog happy is to...?

Stumbling across a jar of cold cream had me beaten (I'm pretty enough without having to resort o this kind of thing!). The answer was so obvious I almost missed it - sometimes you must take things literally.

My journey took me past demons and dragons, and all manner of other nasty little creatures just waiting to bring about my instant demise.

Using my thinking cap to best advantage, I finally came to the ultimate confrontation with the Dark Lord himself. Once more, a companion found during the adventure proved to be of immense help.

Although Demon from the Darkside is Quilled, it has 70 locations, with graphics thrown in at 28 of these. It is by far the best example of an adventure created this way I have yet come across, and goes to show that with a little thought, a very fine adventure can be turned out.

Available by mail order from Compass Software, 36 Glove Place, Norwich NR2 2SQ.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K - £2.50 (inc P&P) from Compass Software, 111 Mill Road, Cobholm,Great Yarmouth NR31 0BB

Demon From the Darkside is perhaps the best known of Jonathan Lemmon's offerings from Compass Software. It was followed by The Golden Mask, and now The Devil's Hand completes the trilogy.

You play the part of Morrack, tracking down Drakon to destroy his soul before he can destroy the great Wizard Zorron.

By a seal wall, beyond which you can see a small island, a Troll has scented you, and is heading your way. Flight is called for, but very soon the Troll catches up with you, and before you know it you are hurtling through the air! Making the most of the distance that now separates you, you find a convenient bolt hole, and meet up with Gruff, a friendly dwarf and sworn enemy of the dreaded troll. So, accompanied by Gruff, you head to the island in pursuance of your quest.

There are about 30 graphics, each occupying a narrow strip at the top of the screen, allowing plenty of room for the text underneath, without too much use of 'any-key to continue'. The pictures are detailed and colourful, and the look of the screen is enhanced by careful use of colour in the text, together with ornamental icons to show exits and to illustrate objects in the inventory list, A further nice touch is the use of a miniature from the title screen, a hand casting a veiled shadow of a devil, as a preface to descriptions.

The text is immaculately written, and makes the fantasy of interacting with ogres, flowers, orcs and trolls, a magically believable experience. Home grown and Quilled this adventure might be, but it plays a lot better than many tape adventures in a higher price range.

Compass Software, despite offering its adventures by mail order only, has always produced games of a quality equal to the best commercial products. Jonathan Lemmon has come up with another very playable and beautifully presented adventure in The Devil's Hand. There are not many new cassette adventures around these days - so if you own a Spectrum send off for this one, you will not be disappointed! At £2.50 it's a snip!