Small is beautiful

It is fair to say that Minerva is the most prolific producer of games software for the Archimedes. The latest offering is Ibix the Viking and very interesting it is too.

This is an arcade adventure in the Citadel mould. As Ibix you wander around a very complex and detailed landscape avoiding certain types of terrain and most of the moving objects while collecting treasure. And frankly that's about it.

But the humour and well-balanced gameplay hold the attention as you solve the puzzles available on each screen.

Unlike the huge range of Citadel collectables there are few specific objects needed - four colour-coded keys will open similarly shaded doors, the up-down control box must be picked up before the lifts will work and so on. By collecting every piece of treasure on alevel you complete it and move on to the next.

The puzzles themselves are usually composed of moving objects - other vikings, arrows, druids or strange green beasties - the lifts which - if you're not careful you can park in inaccessible places, and the portcullises which descend rapidly once you've gone under them enforcing a one way trip.

However Ibix is not completely defenceless, as he can throw his sword repeatedly, although I think an axe would have been more appropriate for a Viking. The moving people can take a number of hits before they vanish, opening a way forward. There is a sort of sword thermometer on the left of the screen which shrinks as more are thrown, but the size is restored by picking up sword icons.

Your score is determined by the amount of treasure collected. On each screen you start with zero, and silver coins with 10 marked on them pile up on the right hand side. When you collect 10 they convert into agold one with 100 marked on it.

A running total is maintained between screens, and your final score is displayed when you lose the last of your lives.

You are provided with two files of eight levels each called Easy - the default - and Hard. There is a jump facility to let you start at any Easy level but you do need passwords for the Hard ones.

There is also an editor - de riguer with games of this sort nowadays - which allows you to design your own screens and also alter the characteristics of each of the sprites. In fact there are two groups: The more-or-less immobile scenery, and animated objects. In all there are some 189 basic pieces of scenery, each of which can have various attributes, and 36 moving objects.

Unfortunately the individual sprites, though detailed and colourful, are only about 0.5in high on screen. What happened to the massive Thundermonk designs? All the sounds seem to be sampled - mostly stolen from Adam and the Ants records - plus some undefinable background noises. My only criticism was that each effect seemed too short - maybe because of memory limitations.

However, this is a fun game and I enjoyed playing it. The default screens take you very simply through basic puzzles getting you familiar with the style of problem and how to solve them.

As time goes on, the Archimedes game scene is improving, but they've still along way to go to match even the 16-bit games of the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga. C'mon Minerva, take a look at the competition.

Lazarus