Producer: Level 9
Retail Price: £9.95
Author: M, N & P Austin

Mainstream adventuring has variously been described as going from strength to strength, with many new converts joining the flock every month; or going through a rough patch marked by declining releases at a time when arcade and arcade-adventure titles are selling in much greater numbers. I'll have to lay my cards on the table and line up with those who think the adventure scene has been quiet for some time which makes a Level 9 release all the more interesting.

Each successive Level 9 game receives tremendous accolades, and it would be only reasonable for journalists to look for a new angle and come to each new release with a more critical eye so as not to just rubber stamp the game and let it pass through as yet another sure-fire winner. But the truth is, Level 9 would seem destined to always produce top quality products, and now that much of each month's releases are composed of cheap, highly unoriginal games, a Level 9 game stands out a mile as offering a real challenge, a deeper, more intricate and interesting storyline, and a programming competence which makes the purchaser feel that he or she is actually getting something for the money asked.

It's not just the game itself which is in a different league, the backup to the consumer in the way of the excellent hint sheets puts many a competitor to shame. Anyone who takes adventuring seriously should check out the company who takes adventuring seriously. Level 9 concentrate solely on the activity of adventuring, and if you haven't played a Level 9 game before then The Price of Magik is every bit as good as their previous releases and will show what adventuring as an entertainment medium has to offer.

But the most important aspect of Level 9 is their continuing improvements on their own superb adventuring system, improvements which give adventuring some pride in the race to get the very most out of the Spectrum.

Price of Magik is the follow up to Red Moon and so parts of the background storyline will have a familiar ring to them. Long ago the moon was red and shone magic onto the Earth, but the sun steadily bleached it of all power. While some magic still remained, the surviving Magicians created the red moon crystal of Baskalos as a new source of magical power and appointed the best of their number to watch over it. Under the care of a succession of wise guardians, the red moon crystal gained greatly in power, so that magic worked for miles around. Then Myglar struck.

Myglar was a noble sorcerer when he was appointed guardian of the crystal, and he cared for it faithfully. But, as life passed him by, Myglar began to ponder on his own mortality. Driven by a crazed desperation Myglar channelled the magic of the crystal into keeping himself alive. And so it is that the red moon fades and with it the last magic in the world. This is why you have been summoned to defeat Myglar and take his place as guardian, before all is lost.

As you might guess from the title, this game has you thrown deep into the misty world of magic, an area of interest covered very well in the microgames world, possibly because most people who've had a go at programming consider what software houses achieve with a Spectrum is magic! At the start of the game you know nothing of magic, how to wield it, or even what use it might be to you, but as the game progresses you become aware of increasing competence with your new found craft as new items and situations are encountered. There is a surprisingly high number of spells to become familiar with, eighteen we are told, and to win the game you've got to know them all.

As games players familiar with Level 9 might expect, this adventure really goes to town on helpful advice, prompts and playability. The vocabulary is nearly so expansive in its attempts to be as helpful as possible that it becomes bewildering - sometimes the responses to your attempts are almost too clever as the program does its level best to keep you informed. Things start off simply enough with the commonplace TAKE SHIELD, and WEAR ARMOUR, but you are soon wondering at the ingenuity of the programming with the likes of EXAMINE ALL BUT THE CROSS, MANDRAKE AND CANDLE AND GO EAST, and, WEREWOLF GO EAST, ATTACK ALL, TAKE ALL GO WEST AND DROP ALL - an insight into how the game develops character interaction more than hitherto seen in Level 9 games.

Other very useful commands include GET and EXAMINE EVERYTHING and the ever useful AGAIN which repeats the previous command. If I understand the instructions correctly it is only on the 128 Spectrum where the OOPS command can be used to step beck a long way through the game you've played, perhaps to alter for the better some of your actions.

On all Spectrums there is a graphic version of the game with fairly concise text and on the other side of the tape - an expanded-text account of the adventure. For example, the herb garden, a couple of locations to the west of the start location, has the following description on the text-only version, 'You are in a herb garden on an insect-infested mound which rises through the marsh mist. A few stunted plants survive. An exit leads east to a woodshed. You can see an elder cross, a mandrake and some eyebright flowers.', but coalesces down to objects and exits only on the picture version. Because of this, many people are likely to want to play the text-only version by choice, especially as the pictures are simple and not particularly awe-inspiring.

The Price of Magik is a nigh on perfect game when compared to its competitors and, as new Level 9 releases tend to, represents a further improvement on their own adventure system, featuring the superb type-ahead that allows the player to input constantly and at all times. In both story background and style of play it has many similarities with Red Moon where the player can wander for a long time without having much clue as to where the solution of the game might be. The number of locations which the player can explore without having to solve intractable problems further distances this game from the old adventures where linear solution paths made for dull, string-of-problems style adventuring. The game really begins in earnest when you begin to learn how to use the magic when some aspects of D&D may appear familiar.

The unexciting loading screen made up of text instructions deviates from overall excellence (I think it might be time to offer the player a colourful intro screen, as Level 9 are now the only major company not to offer one), as does a scrolling list of text which, if not exactly untidy, is difficult to read. Simply separating your input from the computer's screen output with a blank line would have helped enormously. The unaltered Spectrum character set is a little disappointing too, although I must immediately qualify any implied criticism by pointing out that yellow on black looks so good that it would be sufficiently removed from the Spectrum black on white to satisfy most people.

The strong points to the game are not hard even for the most casual of adventurers to find. Apart from its astonishing length and intelligent plot, the incredible friendliness of the program's responses is a particular liking of mine, as easy communication with an adventure quickly involves the player and draws the adventurer into the plot. Adventuring once more becomes a pleasure and not a chore.

COMMENTS

Difficulty: involved
Graphics: average
Presentation: good
Input facility: complex sentences
Response: fast
Special features: type-ahead

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FAX BOX
Title: The Price of Magik
Publisher Level 9
Price: £9.95

In the beginning was Red Moon, an adventure that required you to restore the kingdom of Baskalosk to its former magical glories by recovering the Red Moon crystal. Your quest began in, around and beneath a castle, and you were aided by the fact that you had the ability to cast spells, just so long as you were carrying the object that focussed the spell's power. Holding a dulcimer, for instance, allowed you to cast the ESCAPE spell, while spices carried the spell of STRENGTH. The various objects and their accompanying powers were listed in the game's instructions. No such easy way out this time, as you have to discover from experimentation and clues within the adventure what the 18 spells of The Price Of Magik are.

Naturally you recovered the Red Moon crystal all those years ago, but its most recent guardian, the noble sorceror Myglar, has been draining its power in an attempt to attain immortality. You've been summoned to defeat Myglar and takes his place as guardian of the precious magical Red Moon crystal. Now play on...

JUSS' LIKE THAT

Knowing nothing of the magical powers to come, you begin in a winding drive outside a mansion, engulfed in creeping vines. To the west is a woodshed, in the woodshed is a woodpile, and in the woodpile is something nasty! Ugh! There's also a candle but that quickly expires - well, you're sure to need that for later on so let's try to save it for the moment, though you do just have time to burn the woodpile as well, should you want to.

Beyond there is a herb garden, and a mandrake that screams as you try to pull it from the ground. Should you be cruel to the plant and continue to tug? Decisions, decisions. Well, I will advise you to enter the house via the roof, up the clinging vines, as that way you'll pick up objects that'll come in handy in and around the front door. That's assuming you've worked out how to see in the dark - you can try travelling around in blackness, but there are monsters lurking and ready to pounce.

As you move you sometimes enter locations where you're told there's a feeling of magik, and in others you're informed that 'Your sanity is shaken.' Typing SCORE will tell you how you're doing... for both sanity and senility - you slowly age in the game, until you can find and touch the Red Moon crystal to rejuvenate you. But is this a good thing, and how long will the powers of the crystal last? And what about the message in the Grimoire, 'You must be mad to use the magik'?

The earliest evils you'll probably meet are the werewolf, the wight and the skeleton. If you're feeling particularly courageous you can enter into a head-on battle with these creatures, but as you investigate the house you may discover that there are other ways of seeing them off. At first though, I tried the bare hands approach just to get me past the monsters and map out the mansion. Once you've encountered a monster you can only escape by going back the way you came. Try to take any other exit and it's fisticuffs time - I found good fighting tactics were to retreat one location then come back in and ATTACK as you usually get in a pretty good first blow. It gets easier as you discover knives, axes, armour and other items to add to your strength. Unfortunately the monsters have a tendency to reappear later as ghosts, their strength restored. Potions and magik produce longer-lasting results.

You also find lots of various coloured chests, most of which explode once you've opened them. However, one does contain something of use.

Thank goodness, or thank Austin, for the OOPS command. If you examine everything closely enough you'll find the three-letter inscriptions that give you clues to the spells - words like ZEN, MAD and FLY.

Get past the giant slug and you can go down the slime slide (yeuch!) to get to locations beneath the house, such as the dangerous dead end. There's rather a hefty admission price but you're rewarded by a picture of a ghoul feasting on the remains of an earlier adventurer. Tasteful! Level 9's humour obviously hasn't been totally swamped by magik. Once past the dead end you're out in the open again, with a ferryman to take you through a watery tunnel - and dump you face to face with a colossal bloodworm, if indeed colossal bloodworms have faces.

Like Red Moon, this is an adventure of exploration rather than immediate tough problem-solving. Not that some of the tasks aren't tricky, but they're fewer and further between than usual. I rather like this more laid back approach from time to time, and judging by the success of Red Moon (voted Adventure of the Year in several places last year) so do many adventurers. Don't assume that laid back means you'll walk through it, though, as this is another on Level 9's epic scale.

Mind you, The Price Of Magik is not without its faults. Level 9's talk of its parser being an 'Infocom-buster'should be taken with a pinch of salt you'll find somewhere in the adventure. This parser still relies on the first four letters of a word, and so can't distinguish between bird and bird cage. If you type in the command ENTER HOUSE, the first word is processed and then you're told 'You can't use 'house' in that respect.' Well, if you can't use a noun after a verb, in what respect can you use it? And what about this little exchange? 'You are in a limestone cave with torches on the wall.' EXAMINE TORCHES. 'I can't see it.'! infocom-buster? Not yet.

Nor will the graphics bust anyone. They're generally disappointing with colours few and poor. But at least they're quick and can be switched off using the WORDS command.

And as with The Worm in Paradise you don't have to wait for a picture to finish drawing before typing your text. Thanks to the Spectrum 128, both they and 48K owners have further choices. On the smaller machine you can play either the graphics version that i've been reviewing, or a non-graphical version with expanded text, while the larger machine offers graphics with expanded text. Text is pretty descriptive in the normal version, but if you hate pictures and yearn for the wordy Level 9 days of Snowball and Adventure Quest then the expanded version will definitely have you trying to find the price of The Price Of Magik.

The adventure of 1986? One of the best so far, anyway.

Label: Level 9
Price: £9.95
Memory: 48/128K (128 enhanced)
Reviewer: Gary Rook

Price of Magik is further proof of Level 9's position as the leading UK adventure house.

It is an enormous adventure, containing a considerable variety of complex puzzles. I've been playing for days and I've hardly started.

At the beginning of the adventure, you find yourself on a driveway outside a strange house: you have a choice of exits - up, up, and away, to the woodshed, or into the house. If you go in or up, you'll discover that you can't see in the dark.

Once you've found out how to see where you are going, you can begin to explore. All you are told is that you must learn everything you can about magic - and you know nothing more than the bare fact that there are 18 spells you can learn.

As it turns out, learning spells isn't that difficult, although you also have to find out how to cast them. Once you know what the magic work for a particular spell is, and you know the format for casting it, you can give it a try. If nothing more, the program will tell you what focus you need to cast the spell.

The main trick to the game is finding and securing the various items you need to cast the different spells, and then working out how, why and where to actually use them.

So far I've discovered three magic words, and managed to cast one spell. At first it's a little odd that while the program is quite happy to tell me what I need to cast a spell if I don't have it, I haven't the faintest idea what item lets me cast the spell I can do.

I've come across a couple of rather nasty monsters - a skeleton and a werewolf - and a ghost who (or should that be which?) I managed to lay by a little industrious spade work and rolling the bones. By now I'm attired in a natty suit of armour and some plush robes. And as for what I'm carrying, well, I could open a supermarket: a candle and a book (no bell yet), a spade, a cage, a grimoire, a knife, various scrolls and bits of parchments, some herbs and various other bits and pieces.

Unlike other adventure games, though, objects don't count as treasure - you score by working out how to use them in various spells.

If you type in Score during play, you get a rather cryptic message which tells how sane you are, in percentage terms, what level of magic use you have reached, and how old you look. The object, it seems, is to become as mad as possible - I've found a message somewhere that says "you have to be mad to use magik."

The parser which interprets your keyed-in responses is excellent. It can understand a very impressive selection of quite complicated commands: you can also string together commands by the use of commas, so once you known what you think your should be doing in the early part of the game, you can zip around, get everything you need and then get into the house very quickly.

Armour is a necessity as the various creatures you meet will often attack you. So is a good weapon - taking on a werewolf with a titchy little dagger just isn't on, I discovered: it made very literal mincemeat of me before I'd even dented it.

One interesting thing about the cassette is that there are two different versions of the game on it. One is the standard text and graphics version running on the 48K Spectrum. The other acts as a text-only version on the 48K, with more descriptive prose included but, if loaded on to a 128K machine, is a text and graphics version which makes use of the expanded memory. This means that you get extra commands, like RamSave, which lets you save your location to the machine's own memory, and Oops which lets you take back a number of moves, 9's Pete Austin told me.

Graphic versions of the game are protected by Lenslok - but you only have to use the bloody thing every so often, which means that you can play along happily for hours. I was very grateful for this, as I can't seem to work the Lenslok system with any ease.

If you like adventures, and you own a 48K Spectrum then you are going to love the Price of Magik. But if you have a 128K Spectrum then you are going to end up living this game. It's the first title which made me feel I was missing out by not owning a 128 (I borrowed someone else's fore the review).

Everything in The Price of Magik is of the best - plot, parser, graphics, and above all the execution of the game.

Most popular makes
Level 9
Adventure
£9.95

To say I am one of thousands who await every new release by Level 9 would not be an understatement. Level 9 has for the last few years led the field in cassette-based adventures, founded on wonderful text descriptions which fired the imagination. To me it could do no wrong but since it introduced graphics I noticed a distinct lack of rich narratives and many more locations. It seemed that Pete Austin and his brothers were trying to put as much into the cassette as possible but one thing now begins to stand out glaringly. There is a general lack of atmosphere through poor text descriptions. I never thought I would see the day when I would write about a Level 9 game and call it boring but with the release of The Price Of Magik I have.

Magik is the sequel to Red Moon. Once again you must take up the challenge, this time to defeat Myglar, who is using the power of the Red Moon for his personal use. To win you will need to find and learn how to use 18 spells, plus keeping your hit level at a reasonable figure.

There are moments when the imaginative Austin genius shines and those moments are like the sun breaking through on a cloudy day. Unfortunately they are very rare. In fact, the most interesting item to read is the appendix on the cover inlay.

The parser also played some very strange tricks on me. For instance, after finding a Prism I typed-in the command "Look through Prism" and was rewarded with the answer "You can't see the Wraith." Likewise when inputting "Attack Werewolf with Dagger" the game responded with "You can't see the poniard" doing a quick inventory.

Other strange things also seem to happen on examining various objects. To say it is disconcerting is an understatement.

My opinion is that Level 9 should look closely at what it is doing. To release games with more than 200 pictures and 1,000-word parsers is satisfactory but adventurers do not want to see poor, unatmospheric text coupled with mediocre graphics.

ENTER LEVEL 9'S LATEST VENTURE INTO THE MAGIC KINGDOM.

Level 9 Computing
£9.95

Maigc used to be plentiful. That was when the moon shone red and radiated its power over all the earth. Gradually however, the amount of magic present began to wane as the sun bleached the moon's power away. Things became so desperate that the magicians decided to create a red moon crystal of Baskalos whilst some magic still remained. That they were successful is now well known and the story of their achievement was written down in the annals of history. People still clamour for the story of Red Moon. But time passes and prosperity has returned to the land.

When the crystal was created, the best of the remaining magicians were appointed as guardians. Under their care the red moon crystal slowly gained in power and magic spread throughout the land again. Myglar was one of these guardians and he too looked after the crystal carefully. But as the years passed, so Myglar took to thinking and the subject that preyed on his mind most of all was that of his own mortality. The thought of dying terrified him and so he began to divert the power of the crystal away from the land and use it for himself in his search for immortality. The power of the red moon is now quickly diminishing again. The only way to stop it from disappearing altogether is to defeat Myglar and take his place as guardian. And that is why you are standing, somewhat nervously, outside the House of the Red Moon.

The Price of Magik is the latest release from Level 9, Britain's premier adventure producers. Such was the response to Red Moon (it won several awards), that adventurers everywhere have been awaiting this release with considerable anticipation, especially as the Brothers Austin claim that they have improved their data compression techniques even further and crammed even more into the game. There are over 200 locations to be explored, all of them illustrated together with about 150 objects and creatures to be discovered and manipulated. The program boasts a vocabulary of over 1000 words so that you shouldn't have too much trouble in finding the mot juste.

UNDER THE SPELL

Magic does not come easily to you - in fact you start off knowing exactly nothing. Very reassuringly, the instructions inform you that in order to succeed in your quest, you must know everything. This involves you learning some eighteen spells before you can seek a final confrontation with Myglar. In order to cast a spell, you must first of all know its name (no great surprise here) but you must also possess that particular spell's focus. This is an object from which the spell draws its power. In general, the object is connected to the spell so that there is not too much guesswork involved. For example, there is a spell that heals any wounds that you may have incurred in combat and the focus required is a herb. There are hazards involved in using magic though.

Every time you cast a spell, you age magically by a year. This in itself is not too serious, but it does have rather disastrous consequences if you reach the age of one hundred. Don't despair too much though, there is a way of magically reversing this aging process. The acquisition of magical ability is connected with a loss of sanity. You start off perfectly sane but as you progress through the game and learn more about magic, your sanity decreases. This is used as a method of scoring - there are no points to be gained for finding treasures or defeating monsters.

The creatures found in the game are many and varied ranging from bats to werewolves, slugs to ferrymen. Some you will need to fight, some are best left alone and others are needed to help you although they may not do this willingly. Combat is initiated by typing "kill mummy" or whatever. The program assumes that you are using your best weapon from any that you might be carrying. Each party has a certain number of hit points and a successful hit reduces this value. When the total reaches zero the creature (or you if you are unlucky) dies. A word of warning here. You are likely to have to fight a creature several times over as they keep coming back as ghosts to haunt you!

Mapping the game is very straightforward, not least because all the location descriptions tell you where the exits lead to. The only problems that I encountered were negotiating the different floors of the house and finding room to draw in the secret doors. Strange isn't it how the piece of paper that you use for mapping is always the wrong shape and the passages soon take you straight off the edge of the paper with acres of open space in the other directions! A nice feature of the game is that it is very easy to get into. You are not stuck in the same few locations until you solve a specific problem. After a couple of hours playing, I had well over 120 different places mapped on assorted bits of paper. That was about all that I had done at that stage as the game itself is fairly difficult. I kept coming across situations where I knew what I wanted to try but didn't have the appropriate spell. What an excellent way of making sure that you play the game again and again.

FOUR LETTER WORDS

The vocabulary is very large at over 1000 words and the parser is on the whole excellent but there are one or two little problems. Most of the time, the program only looks at the first four letters of a word but there are occasions where you need to type out your word in full. For example, you start off outside the front door of a large house. On the door is a large knocker in the shape of a griffin. If you type "exam knock" (which you need to do), the parser assumes that you are trying to knock on the door (in other words it is using "knock" as a verb rather than a noun which is what you intended). This is rather unfortunate as knocking on the door is not exactly beneficial to you as it summons a monster.

The other problem with the parser comes if you use a word which is not in the game's vocabulary. Sometimes your "wrong" word is sufficiently similar to another one in the game and you get a message to the effect that you can't see a XXXX here which spoils things slightly if you haven't come across the XXXX yet.

Adventurers are split down the middle when it comes to arguments as to whether or not a game should have graphics. Fear not! Whatever your tastes, the Price of Magic caters for them with two versions of the game on opposite sides of the tape. Take your pick from a text only version with expanded descriptions or choose to have every location illustrated. The pictures are fairly simple but are bright and colourful and have the advantage of being drawn very quickly if you are moving rapidly around previous explored areas. This is due to the multi-tasking system used. There are not really any extra clues to be derived from the pictures although some of the objects illustrated do play a part in the game's later stages. Personally though, I much prefer the extra atmosphere created by the text version.

BACK TRACKING

There are several ways to save your position for a later date. Ramsave stores your current details in memory for as long as the computer is switched on. For a more permanent record, there is the usual save to tape facility although you will have to use the dreaded Lenslok system when you want to restore a game. Incidentally, it is the up and down cursor keys that are used to adjust the large letter "H", not the left and right keys as indicated on the screen. One very useful feature that I had not come across before was the "OOPS" command. This, as its name suggests is for when you have typed your instructions and the outcome of the action has shown that your judgment was somewhat lacking (I got my head cleaved in when an axe fell on it!). Using "OOPS" allows you to go back a move and so try something different. For those of you with 128s, this facility can be used some sixty times consecutively but I can't believe that any ZX Computer reader would be stupid enough to type in sixty silly commands!

There is a lot to this game and it is one that will keep you going back to it as you attempt to crack it. As with all Level 9's games, all serious adventurers will want it in their collection. At only £9.95 to become a sorcerer, the Price of Magik has got to be good value for money.

As the Crash annuals are still for sale ZXSR has taken the decision to remove all review text, apart from reviewer names and scores from the database. A backup has been taken of the review text which is stored offsite. The review text will not be included without the express permission of the Annuals editorial team/owners.