Producer: Atlanti
Retail Price: £1.99
Author: John Shepherd

Our hero is trapped, deep in the darkest recesses of a set of dank caves. The only light comes from glowing patches of phosphorous on the slime covered walls which twinkle in the half-light. As feelings of claustrophobia set in, he realises he must get out as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the character has not been blessed with huge amounts of courage and this makes his task all the more difficult.

To add to his predicament the caverns of Kontonia are filled with various monsters whose staple diet seems to consist mainly of unwary pot-holers. These nasties must be avoided at all costs. Every time the character clashes with them his courage is sapped and eventually it fails him altogether and he dies. The courage-count is represented by an apple at the bottom of the screen. As the far from intrepid explorer gets weaker, the apple is eaten away to the core.

Life in the caverns isn't too hopeless, however, as there are various objects lying around that come in handy. The only way to get out of the underground maze is to collect the sword and the key of ultimate power. Without these, the mission is futile. Other objects that assist escape are shown at the top of the main screen. When an umbrella is picked up, for example, the potholer is protected from the occasional shower of toxic rain. The bag of hole-filler may be used to bridge gaps in the cavern floor which you can't get over.

The best way to stay alive in the Caverns of Kontonia is to avoid the monsters, but our hero can get his own back. If he manages to pick up the hammer, then he can have great fun indulging in a spot of nasty-bashing until the hammer breaks. Some of the caverns in the game are filled with poisonous gases. Gas kills, unless you have had the foresight to pick up and wear the gas-mask.

Our hero moves around the caves on foot, climbing down ropes to get to the lower levels or using teleports to explore new parts of the cave system.

The game contains eight screens, and some levels cannot be completed before the correct objects have been picked up. Do you have the strength to keep the wimpy hero going, or will his courage fall and condemn him to spend the rest of his life entombed within the evil Caverns of Kontonia?

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q up/down, A down/pick-up/activate, O left, P right, H hold
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: fairly responsive
Use of colour quite colourful, though there are some clashes
Graphics: not very good
Sound: poor sound
Skill levels: one
Screens: eight

This has to be the most infuriating game of the week. It's so easy to die before you get anywhere. Like so many other budget games, this has no lasting appeal or outstanding features. The graphics are of an average standard: the many undetailed characters flicker and the backgrounds are boring and uncolourful. The sound is also fairly mediocre, with only a few odd effects here and there. Not a wondrous game.

Ugh! What's happened to ATLANTIS games of late? Some of the ones I've seen have been really dire. A pity, after they started with such playable games, Caverns of Kontonia is pretty bad. The graphics are quite pleasing to start with, but when the colour starts clashing, they get less and less attractive. Playing through the same boring screens time and time again is very irritating, and the whole game begins to get very boring after an all too short while. Not one I'd recommend.

Oh great, at last ATLANTIS have come up with a game that is above their usual standard. The game reminded me very much of the not so old Hocus Focus. The screen display is only a third of the screen big, and it consists of some very large, colourful and podgy graphics. The presentation of the game was very poor - there's only two lines of instructions in the inlay, and very poor sound in the game itself. The control of your character is a bit slack but it was quite easy to get used to after a while. Overall, another typical budget game, but bit better than the usual ATLANTIS efforts.

Atlantis
£1.99

When it comes to quality and quantity this game doesn't offer much of either I'm afraid, but then at this price is it fair to criticise? It's a multi-screen maze arcade aimed at the very young - well, I presume that's the case. (I hope I'm not patronising our under 7 readers.) Your task is to scour the caverns searching for the key and sword of Kontonia - the ultimate symbols of power that'll allow you to escape to freedom.

Despite this nod towards sword and sorcery, the little man on the screen who's job it is to find them, is remarkably unmacho, indeed balding and middle aged, not unlike the Ed. This might explain his rather unathletic way of moving - he strolls to the left and right, jumps in the air and slithers up and down various ropes and lifts.

His enemies are rather more agile and bounce around at alarming angles making avoidance tactics not as easy as the trad 'wait until you see the whites of their pixels and then jump' method.

There are only six items to collect, including the ultimate symbols of power, most of which are of use in countering obstacles along the way. The brolly, for instance, protects you from the rain that has the power to kill. Death is signified by the statutory x-ray effect of revealing all dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones wot hold you together. Otherwise, every time a meanie mangles you, another bite is taken from your courage that's measured by an ever diminishing on-screen apple. When you're down to the core you'll hear the pips of morality.

Not a bad game for a cheapie but it won't knock your socks off.

Atlantis
£1.99

This is a underground caverns maze type game which has some interesting features. By scrutinising the inlay card I discovered that I was searching the caverns beneath the surface of the planet Kotonia in an effort to find the key and the sword and then escape.

The screen is simply designed with an action window in the centre and pictures of objects above it. Once you find and pick up one of these objects the word "held" appears beside it and it is automatically used in situations where it is required.

This means that the 'trial and error' method of playing this kind adventure game is negated and your task is simplified to finding and collecting objects in order to progress.

Some objects wear out and have to be replaced periodically. The animation is reasonable and playing by either keyboard or joystick is comfortable and responsive. Colour is well used and sound is unobtrusive.

Action is rather uninspired, the axing of some cute little alien is done by a disembodied chopper not attached to your character at all! However the animation of the various sprites is acceptable.

There is not a lot to say about this game, against it are the factors that it is uninspired, limited in scope and relatively plain in presentation. On the positive side is that it is cheap relatively easy to play and interesting enough to provide pleasurable hours of entertainment.

I would recommend it to relative newcomers, players who find the "Wally" games incomprehensible or games men and women who still think space invaders is difficult.